SLOW DAY AT THE COAL FACE.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I’m working a new seam.Hoping for the motherlode, but hitting deadlines!

To keep the faith, I give you a small amusement and something else….your challenge, should you accept it, is to decide which is which!

 

Computer Generated.    

My brain, like my computer’s hard drive,                                                                                 Is full of fragments of wit.                                                                                                              And stuff I’ve writ                                                                                                                                          (Or not,as I only jot                                                                                                                                    it down when there’s a pen.)

The difficulty, quite plain                                                                                                                          in either case,                                                                                                                                          Is finding the key                                                                                                                                      that brings it back again.

  In a friend’s pool, Cairns.                   

Probably a collared whip snake. More information here http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/wildlife-ecosystems/wildlife/living_with_wildlife/snakes/what_snakes_live_near_you/snakes_of_the_townsville_region.html

A BIT OF A MIXED PLATTER

Yes, this blog suffers from abandonment. If I viewed blogging as a “job” I might write more regularly. But then it would not be the fun that it (mostly!) is.

That doesn’t mean that I would not consider  paid work again…

Who’s up for another little guessing game? Nobody? Too bad, you’re going to get one!

Not a spider this time. Mind you, if you’ve been  into  the funny stuff  you might see spiders this colourful! Leave your guesses in the comments and I’ll post the answer on Friday.

We’re doing a little revamping Chez Dinahmow. No major building work, but a concerted effort to tidy some of the muddle. And, believe me, it is a veritable “bugger’s muddle.” Too many things with no proper home. I mean, c’mon, who would collect beautiful art and keep it packed away in boxes! Yes, guilty, as charged.

Until yesterday…

But now my artists books have  their very own home.

Display cabinet

Our floor has one or two uneven spots (we know this from the highly technical method of ball-rolling) and the cabinet is at present chocked with some of Sporran’s ripped-up cardboard.

But until we do something a little more permanent…

some of my collection  on display

four books from the current round of the BookArtObject  exchange  

and some from last year’s exchange.

I’ll have to rotate  things as this cabinet is nowhere near big enough for everything. And I’ll need to devise  slightly more professional mini-plinths than the current plastic kitchenware! But it is lovely to see my treasures.

In case anyone is wondering what has happened to the  print that used to hang in this spot… it is in the queue of  paintings, prints, photographs waiting to be re-hung. The framing tape on some needs to be replaced and there are new works to be hung.

I was saddened and extremely annoyed the other day when The Man and I  pulled up beside a python on the road, just metres from our house. Some bastard had run over it. To judge by the tyre marks it was a deliberate act. But I picked it up and carried across the road, down to the treeline above the mangroves. At least the carrion scavengers could pick at it there without themselves suffering fatal “Dunlops Disease.” *

dead python   Morelia spilota

Now, because Dinah doesn’t like to go out on a sad note and because we all need a laugh and, most importantly, Dinah needs a drink…here’s that  great comic duo getting up  some pretentious noses. Enjoy!

* A term coined by a former Parks Ranger for anything run over on our roads. 

TAS’ES LIKE CHICKEN!

Who has not heard that one? Go to any “different” country, or even try a strange-looking item on the menu in a familiar restaurant  (OK, maybe not McDonalds!) and chances are the wait staff will tell you: “Ees good. Tas’es like cheecken. You try!”

But wait! Maybe you don’t have to book a trip to a remote Guatemalan jungle or the Kalahari. Perhaps you have the ingredients right in your own back yard. Grilled goanna, dear? “Tas’es like cheecken!”

We had some spare time (I know-unheard of!) the other day so we wandered around the local Botanic Garden and I snapped a couple of pictures. Especially for my more sheltered readers. 😉 I have some photos of goannas, but not on this computer. What’s a goanna? A big lizard. Not as big or nasty as a Komodo Dragon or a Gila Monster, but they can get to a pretty big size. Here’s a link

But I got the recipe for you!

And, while I was at it, I figured you’d probably want to know how to prepare a python for dinner…

What does a python look like? Well, some of them look like this…

…or this

What else tas’es like cheecken? Well, rattlesnake, according to various sources. Years ago, a friend of mine was travelling across America (Route 66, if you must know!) and he spent some time staying with a relative somewhere in the South West. The cousin came into the house one day with a rattler dangling over his gun barrel. “Dinner!” he said. And, damn! if it didn’t taste like chicken.

Cat also, apparently, tastes the same. Back in the 50s, when Davy Crockett was all the rage, the owner of a Chinese restaurant was prosecuted for having cat meat (masquerading as chicken!) on the menu. He was caught when police tracked a gang who’d been stealing cats for the Davy Crockett caps trade. Apparently, they had a nice little earner on the side!

Rabbit (not wild ones) is another chicken taste-alike. And when I was a kid I told people that huhu grubs (larvae of Prionopus reticularis) or pepe tunga in Maori were like chicken. Mind you, if someone had told me they tasted like peanut butter I’d never have eaten them! I hate peanut butter.

Just enter huhu grubs in Google Images and see what’s there!

Excuse me  for a minute…I have to prepare dinner…

Back again! Had you worried, did I? You thought I was going to forage in the mangroves for  a dinner-sized crocodile (another that “tas’es like cheecken”)? At this time of year there wont be any small crocs around. But that’s OK as we’re having pasta tonight!

And now for something completely different….a book!

This is mine, as in: I bought it, not made it. The maker is Nanette Balchin, an artist from Yeppoon. Sorry, she does not have a website, but I’ll show you some more photos next week. The book is still in an exhibition, red-spotted until I can pick it up. But here’s another piece of Nanette’s. A painting inspired by Vincent van Gogh. No, I didn’t buy this, but someone did.

Back to the kitchen.

OH! Australian readers might notice  the name Les Hiddens below those recipe pages. For those who may not know, he was (maybe still is?) an army Major who had a terrific hit television series called “Bush Tucker” a few years ago. Yes, he popularised the eating of native foods, but is probably best known for his iconic hat. Hang on! I’ll find a photo…