A Bit of Basalt

We've been living in Basalt, just outside of the spa town of Daylesford, in central Victoria, for just over a month now. It feels like longer. We're pretty much all settled in, only a couple of boxes shipped from Belfast still to unpack and find homes for their contents.

I thought for this post I'd explore the iphone ap Instagram and take a few photos of my surroundings. It's summer here at the moment, the first month of the season coming to the end. It hasn't been too hot at all, we seem to be kept cool under the gum trees which is a relief as I really don't cope well in the heat. The city in summer months can be quite unbearable but up here in the central highlands it's keeping a bit more mild. 

The birds are frustrating me, I keep hearing their loud wonderful calls but can never see them to figure out what they are. There is one in particular which I keep hearing, but just can't spy it! I have discovered a little flock of tiny striated thornbills which chirp at our kitchen window and sometimes they hang out with a couple of fairy wrens. I think I even saw a kingfisher yesterday at the dam, but I could be wrong.

The dam just below our house is a great natural air conditioner. The breeze blows the air over the water cooling it before it reaches our verandah. Our land lady's grandchildren swim in it, but I haven't braved the muddy bottom of it yet.

Jeremy and I sometimes go for walks just before dusk. This is the best time to see kangaroos and wallabies. The woods around our house seem to be full of them. Jeremy even saw an echidna the other day. An echidna is sort of Australia's equivalent of a hedgehog or porcupine. It is about the size of a rugby ball, has spines, eats ants, rolls in a ball when scared and .. here's the mad part... lays eggs! You've got to love Australian wildlife for it's weirdness!

 We get a fair bit of wildlife in the house too, wildlife of the smaller, more legs kind. I'm coping quite wel with it. I'm lucky not to be too scared of spiders, my friend told me the best way to live with them is to give them names. So, we have Janet the baby huntsman spider in our bedroom, she keeps the fly population down. We seem to have a small colony of slugs that love the area under our bed. Hard black beetles like to crawl under the front door at night and hurl themselves at the windows. And we've even had two tiny scorpions wander into the house acting all fierce until you prod them and then they play dead.

In short, I'm just loving our new place. It feels great to be so close to the outdoors. It'll be interesting to see how we cope with winter. We only have a wood burning fire and a couple of electric heaters. We'll have to block the holes under the doors to keep the drafts out and make some thick curtains. We may even get snow. But I'm up for it!