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Poly fungi?

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poly-fungus
Driving home along the track I stopped to inspect this large whitish blob which hadn’t been there three days ago.

Was it a chunk of aged polstyrene, or yet another fungi that I’ve never seen before?

I didn’t touch it, but now realise I should have, for I can’t identify it in my fungi books. It doesn’t seem to fit anything exactly: maybe a sort of Calvatia?

Then the ridged lip made me wonder if it had fallen from a tree, but I hadn’t checked if it was attached to the ground, and it was undamaged.  Even so, I still can’t work out what it might be.

Next trip out I checked, and yes, it was just sitting unattached on the ground.

How amazing that it hadn’t smashed when it fell from the nearby big grey gum where I assumed it had grown.

Lego royalty

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I was visiting a friend’s house in bushland in the lower Hunter. Her small grand-daughter was also visiting, so a child-sized table was set up on the back patio. Large Lego kept her amused.

My friend had fed the King Parrots there for a long time but the white cockatoos had begun to dominate, so she was restricting the sunflower seeds to where she could watch who was eating them.

‘The king is here!’ she called to the child. ‘Shall we feed him on your table?’
king-parrot-1

king-parrot-2

To the delight of us all, the king deigned to leave the guttering and alight on the table. His queen watched from a nearby tree for a little while, until she felt secure enough to join him amongst the Lego people.

My friend, originally from Denmark, vividly recalls her amazement at these parrots when she first saw them. We all agree that their gentle yet blazing beauty continues to astonish us afresh each time.

Kanga & kids

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The kangaroo families now graze around my house fence as regularly as the wallabies do. This helps keep my firebreak cropped short, as well as affording me front row viewing seats.

This mum had two joeys, one almost a teenager and one a toddler, barely able to squeeze back into the pouch if need be, and still drinking from Mum as well as grazing.

For a week or so I’d been watching him lurching and crashing about as he gradually spent more time on his own two very large and bumbling feet.

But all that hopping is awfully tiring, and while the bigger joey fed on, mother and child lay down for an afternoon nap right next to my fence.