September 20

Thursday September 20, 2007 4:50 am Lennox Head, NSW Australia

I do not have Internet access at the moment.

A. Morning Musings

4:50 am

It is still too dark to muse about the sunrise.

My activities can be classified as little ones, medium ones, and very large ones. The little ones take 1 - 3 days, the medium ones take 4 - 6 days, and the very large ones take more than a week. The Proust novel is clearly a very large ones. So is the calculus.

At the moment we are still settling into our unit, which we like very much. The view from the front window is wonderful. We still have two major tasks in front of us: getting the barbeque set up and getting an internet capability. We still have a problem with some kind of electrical short in the living area that is affecting both some lights as well as the television set.

We also are looking forward to setting up a Sunday pattern of breakfast and country markets. This Sunday is the Bangalow market. We will be looking for fresh fruit and veggies.

I am focusing on the Proust novel as my primary daily activity. We are very close to establishing a daily routine. Tonight I hope to make a chicken with peppercorns stir fry. Now to find a jar of peppercorns.

Here is a photo taken from our balcony at 5:10 this morning.

sunrise

This was taken at 6:45 am as we began our morning beach walk. That is Lennox Head jutting out from the coast.

Lennox

Immediate	Description	Time
Literature	Continue reading "The Captive & The Fugitive", Vol. 5 of "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust	1 hr
Literature	Make notes for "The Captive"	1 hr

C. Actual Learning Activities

1:00 PM

We took both camera and one pair of binoculars on our beach walk this morning. We left the beach at an entrance for horses and soon found ourselves in a scrub brush area with numerous Rainbow Bee-eaters. They are a beautiful bird.

Bee-eater

Here is a photo a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike. There were a number of them in the same area.

cuckoo-shrike

We then spotted a Brush Bronzewing on the ground. This was a new lifer for us.

bronzewing

Here is a photo of a Figbird, with its distinctive red eye patch.

figbird

Here is a Variegated Fairy-wren, a new lifer for us.

fairy-wren

Here is a White-cheeked Honeyeater.

honeyeater

This was a great way to begin our 2007 birding in Australia! Two new lifers, plus the many Rainbow Bee-eaters.

9:00 PM

I am making slow progress on both internet capability and the barbeque. A friendly chat with a Telstra representative revealed that I would not be able to use WiFi as the minimum contract is for 12 months. But they said that I could buy a CD for $10. that would give me 10 hours of dial-up connect time. I bought the disc but now realize that my newer model laptop does not have a modem for dial-up. Fortunately a friend said that I could borrow hers.

I now have the propane tank for the barbeque. I still need to drive up to Lismore and pick up the barbeque, but then I will be set.