Saturday April 15, 2006 5:50 am Bagotville NSW 2477

A. Morning Musings

5:50 am Yesterday was perfect. We spent the entire day simply relaxing with friends. Hot cross buns, coffee, cappuccino, wine, cheese were all part of the day. We also added one new bird to our list - a White-throated Honeyeater. Once again, the camera image made the difference. We mistook it for a Golden Whistler at the time, but when viewing the photo later, immediately realized it wasn't that and soon found the proper identification. We have now seen 141 different birds across our last two visits to this area. It would be nice to make 150 but we shall see... Right now I am looking at a Laughing Kookaburra who is on a tree limb about 10 meters from my window. He appears to be curious about what he is seeing in the window. A good start for both our days.

This morning is the first in our new setting where I feel totally relaxed and at one with the environment. In part I think that this is due to the fact that I have shipped most of my books home and only have a couple to access while here. This is also the first time when I have genuinely felt that I have time to decide what I want to do next. Camping is what pops to mind. Both with the 5th wheel and some genuine back country hiking - ideally to Mt. Assiniboine. I am not in shape for that at the moment, but I feel energetic and healthy and the conditioning can be fixed when we are back in Lethbridge and can do some serious coulee hiking. For the 5th wheel, I would like to try a campground that I noticed when we were last in the David Thompson area near Saskatchewan Crossing. There is no power at the campground but the propane stove would still work and so would the fridge. We would use a Coleman lantern for light in the evening. I am ready to go...

Now back to the present. I truly love the view from the window that is right in front of me as I work on the computer. It is so relaxing - the forest is only 10 meters away and is so green, dark and impenetrable.

Now to have a look at my web pages for "projects" and "to dos". Projects first. The Literature list is badly out of date. I have read 4 books since I last updated this. I have a number (perhaps too many) projects on the go. The ones that are active are:

• Technology - digital photography
• Mathematics - calculus, prime numbers, gamma, omega
• History - Ideas, In Search of the Dark Ages
• Philosophy - Peter Singer
• Literature - ?
• Birds - we have now identified 141 Australian birds.

The ones that are dormant are:

• Psychology
• Education
• Research
• Art
• Science
• Food
• Drawing
• Go
• Model Trains.

Of the dormant ones, I hope to move Model Trains up the list when I return to Lethbridge. I want to get involved in both DCC and scenery making. I want to complete my layout and get the trains running. The first step is to get the mainline operational with those switches working under DCC. I think I will leave all of the siding switches to a manual operation. I also want to get my Food site working with one new recipe each week. And Drawing!

Chores: none

C. Actual

3:20 PM We are back from a trip to Evans Head to look for birds. We saw a Royal Spoonbill, 6 Pied Oystercatchers (again), a beautiful Whistling Kite, 2 large White-bellied Sea-Eagles, 2 Australasian Grebes, 2 Pacific Black Ducks and a Jacana. Back at Alison's we have seen the Striated Thornbill, the Red-browed Finch, Eastern Yellow Robin, Lewin's Honeyeater and a Rose Robin.

Pied Oystercatcher		Whistling Kite

 

D. Reflection