Social Distancing and Isolation IV.....Mouse Spider and Burrow...

 We are all living at a much more relaxed pace now, are we not? yet somehow my days seem busier than ever and in the evening I am happy to flop into bed with a book...mind you I only read for ten minutes at the most and sink into blessed sleep till four am....the "Wolf hour" I believe it is called somewhere.
We are still longing for rain yet meanwhile I am planting out truncated  agapanthus divisions throughout the garden and at last I have them all in. Whether they will survive is another matter.

 Last week Kym dug over some of the vegetable patch and found this very interesting structure,
it is solidly constructed and very smooth inside.
In South Australia we have a burrowing spider called Missulina Reflexa and it is a red headed spider. I looked up the information on Australian spiders on the net where there are lots of photos.
They are not the prettiest of creatures I find and as I was an arachnophobe it is amazing I can stand to look at the photos at all....
They are called Mouse spiders because they make these tunnels which look like mouse holes.

 On the left you can see how wide the hole is , so I am not absolutely sure it is a mouse spider burrow. Nevertheless whatever constructed it is an absolute architect. It is beautifully smooth inside and quite deep and solidly constructed.
While I was digging the holes for the agapanthus this afternoon, Lo and behold, I dug up a Mouse spider and there it sat among the gum leaves...
I rushed back to the house to get the camera, thinking all the while, when I get back it will have gone... I picked up a plastic food container as well, just in case it was still there, and sure enough it was still there next to the hole I dug.

So I managed to get it into the container, shoving it with a piece of bark to encourage it.
Took it back to the patio and set up a few books to act as tripod to hold the camera steady on the small focus setting. Then I encouraged it into an ice cream container as that had higher sides than the one it was in and I thought it might climb out. But, no, it is a Zen spider and not at all frisky, a bit like our dear Zen Frogmouths....
So, there it is...if you want more information about spiders there is an amazing amount of information on the net....what would we do without the net......

Social Distancing and Isolation III

 I know I was going to walk you through my house and show you how we live, but suddenly I felt very reluctant to do so in the face of so many people out of work and even loosing the place they have lived in. So many people overseas who have absolutely nothing, it made me feel and also wonder, why we are in such a privileged place here in Willunga....
We live in such beautiful area and today we decided to take our sandwiches to Sellicks Beach look out and practice our social distancing in a slightly different way....

 The sea was dead calm and the sky overcast giving the whole scene a feeling of remoteness and almost unreality. We really don't need to go overseas to enjoy such glorious scenery.
The White faced Heron on the right has found the new logs around the frog pond a perfect place to contemplate the hidden frog population. With the buttercup plant and water celery so dense now, it would be lucky if it found a frog at all. The yellow fringe lilies are interesting in that they have escaped the pot and float around freely flowering enthusiastically each day...

 On the left are my new vegetable beds put in place by our gardening friend Kym.
He is very particular that everything is straight and in line and consequently my leek seedling are crooked as a dog's hind leg...they were planted before he constructed these fine beds.
I have since planted beetroot seedlings, sugarsnap peas, snow peas, turnips, more beetroot this time seeds and garlic.
English silverbeet will go in tomorrow as well as parsnip seeds I saved years ago and may well not germinate as it is better fresh off the plant. Sadly I planted the sugarsnap peas in last years' garlic

patch and peas and garlic don't get on...
The Tawney Frogmouths have been sleeping on
the patio each day for the last fortnight.
At times there is only the one and you wonder if they have had a domestic and decided to separate for a while...It is lovely to have these Zen birds sitting there so quietly in this amazingly chaotic and very uncertain times, they inspire a calmness we all need.
Well, I seem to be having trouble moving the cursor to where I want it, so the photos will be all over the place by the look of it.
I have no idea what button I may have pressed
for it to dictate to me where the cursor must go,
it is very annoying...
The last photo is of the old Galah which keeps on
returning on its own, looking scruffy and slow as
though it may be on its last legs and about to kick
the bucket.....
Are we in an evolutionary tidal wave at present
with this pandemic throwing everything as we
know it into chaos and confusion?
If we are I would like to jump on and surf it
and see where it eventually lands us.....
I have never surfed but love seeing the people
who do surf, do it so elegantly and the feeling
of freedom must be exhilarating .......