February 5th to 29th At Essex still

    Well!  a leap year - No different to any other year really, just a day longer.
     Not much to impart to you.
    The weather has been very hot, 40+ at times, very dry and all the good work of the rain earlier in the year has almost been undone already, the paddocks are looking brown again and plants and grasses are dying once more, I hold my hat out to all outback farmers for enduring conditions as these.
   

Cherry tomato @Essex

      But, despite the dry, I have managed to keep a vegetable garden going, not a flash one, but producing a few things for us to eat fresh. I have to skite and include a couple of pictures. I have had to make sure I water 3 times a day and some have not made it, but I have 2 nice pumpkins that hopefully will be ripe soon, and cherry tomatoes that are doing well. Sweet corn is gone but managed 3 sweet cobs from them. So - its possible to eat fresh out here, if you put the effort in!!

A nice butternut almost ready

Vegetable garden @ Essex

Dot+Yip in the paddock

Other than gardening and walking the puppies, not much happening. We are doing some maintenance on the bus and readying for departure at the end of March.

     Catch you further down the track, where-ever we may be!!

5th January to 4th February Essex Downs

     We are still bumming our way around Essex Downs. All is great but not a lot of news to impart.
   
     We have had some friends visit from the coast, I think they enjoyed the hot and dry weather compared to the coast which is hot and humid.

Gail&Me in the paddock@Essex

My good friend Gail spent a few days with us mid month, thanks for coming mate, and early February Gill and Steve spent a night on their way to Victoria.
    Not a lot has happened over the month, A few photo's of the local wildlife and strange things I see while out walking the puppies.

Patterns in the sand after
rain @ Essex

This is what I found after the rain had ceased, where the water had traversed its way making little rivers in the paddocks, it left behind this pretty pattern in the soil, making an artwork on the land.

1 of millions of caterpillars
after the rains

Then we had outbreaks of all sorts of insects and moths and bugs. Here's one of the variety, these caterpillars came in a couple of different colours and grew to about 3 inches long, littering the ground everywhere, millions of them, just walking along you couldn't help but squash them under foot.

Bearded Dragon

     We came across this bearded dragon
while out wandering around the place with the dogs. He(?she?) was a spirited little creature and was going to bite the noses right off the dogs faces, but I wouldn't let them hurt it and managed to get this picture.

A kamikaze Locust

A couple of weird acts of nature.
     The locust had been fairly thick for a while, eased off now though. Must have been a bit too quick on the take off this one, it has stabbed itself on the barbed wire, right through the top of its head. (OUCH)

Prickly acacia tree sap
shining in the morning sun

This little gem glinting in the morning sun is sap, dripping off the prickle bush - prickly acacia - (which abounds all around the station) which has turned into a golden glob of beautiful hard gum.


     Nature always continues to amaze me, like the (dead) tree outside the window at the cottage, well it really looked dead, but when it received a little moisture, it went from dead branches to full leaf in only 8 days, astounding!

     February here already, time is flying as usual. we'll be here 'til end March most likely. Catch all then.