Night Sky

The view from our front lawn at dusk looking west towards Fremantle.

A (somewhat) rare planetary alignment seen from our front yard with dawn approaching. The 4 visible stars are actually Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.

Nighttime Spider Hunting

So for those of you that may not know, spiders here are large enough that they create an eye-shine at night when you shine a flashlight on them. This gives you a pretty good idea of how many spiders are out there if you go looking for them.

The main species you see at night is the wolf spider, which i a ground dwelling, free roaming hunter with a mildly venomous bite, it won't send you to the hospital but if you look at the fangs in the next picture you will agree with me that avoiding being bitten is probably a pretty good idea.

This spider is thinking: "If I were big enough, I would eat you."

This is a Garden Orbweaver

Close up!

Geoff's Arrival

I know that the blog has been neglected as of late, but I recently purchased a new computer, and will now be able to update the blog with out borrowing Caitlin's laptop, so hopefully that will mean more regular updates on the picture front.

Geoff's plane ready to disembark passengers.

A happy but tired Geoff arrives in Australia.

Autumn has arrived!

So autumn in Perth has finally arrived.  We had our first rain Friday morning and temperatures have dropped to a devastatingly cold 25-30 degrees (Celsius).

Wildlife Part 3

A small house guest that came with Caitlin's new house plant.  Our best guess is that this is a Crab Spider, but we are not really sure.

This cunning spider tried to eat me by setting up a web across our front entrance. Notice it only has 6 legs.

Same spider different angle, different camera lens.  Still cunning, still evil, still no idea what type of spider it is.

A Two-Toed Earless Skink. When we first found this little lizard we thought it was a small snake as it had a very serpentine way of moving, however upon closer inspection we saw that it did indeed have legs. If you look closely you can see the two toes for which it is named.

Our weekend! Outdoor movies and marriage equality.

The movie screen, as the sky begins to darken, and the moon rises.

A scene from the film My Neighbour Totoro, by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

The start of the marriage equality rally at Forrest Place in the Perth Central Business District (CBD)

Marching through the CBD, with Perth's tallest buildings looming overhead.

People re-congregating as the march comes to an end.

Fremantle Part 1

Me on the beach at sunset

A tall ship in Fremantle Harbour.  The large domed structure to left is the Maritime Museum.

One of the large livestock ships that transports live australian sheep to Muslim countries in the middle east for Halal slaughter. These ships are the centre of a lively debate about the welfare implications of the live transport of animals.