Winter Solstice (well almost)

According to the learned astronomical gentleman on ABC Radio yesterday was the winter solstice, which seems to have confused our neighbours here in downtown Ironbank, who had our Solstice party down for today. The erudite chappie on the radio maintained that the solstice was in fact at 9:31am on the 21st, which seems to largely invalidate my red wine drinking exploits this evening.

But never mind. The weekend did turn out rather well. We had another 4mm of rain, which isn't much for this time of year, but any bit at the moment is welcome.

Some of the passionate conversations we had this evening with a few of the neighbours about the gradual urbanisation of our little slice of paradise (and related issues in the wider world) need a bit of reflection in the coming days. Always nice though to spend time with like minded people.

We also traveled down to Second Valley for a rogaine which I competed in with the Princess Irulan. Both of us were delighted that we finished first in the highly competitive family category, after a hard day of walking in the muddy forest, dodging showers and eating chocolate. A short stay in the very relaxing Boathaven Beachhouse in Second Valley with our Good Friends From Dulwich also recharged the batteries a little, and reminded us that we need to get out more.

In between all this, I did manage to dash out and relocate the orchids that I stumbled across on the 20th. With the Princess Irulan I managed to make a GPS reading of the site, and take the following photos, which make the case pretty strongly for these being Mosquito Orchids (not that these are particularly rare or anything, just exciting to a novice like me who is finding them for the first time)





























These two photos (which turn out to be pretty nice in the end) are the best of about thirty. Taking close ups with a "point an click" camera is hit and miss, and I'm thinking that a nice new digital SLR with monster-macro lens would be An Ideal Birthday Gift.