Another Ten Days

April 6 near Gatton

Awoke to a dew soaked morning.  Two wallabies, one of them heavy with a joey in her pouch grazed along the verge of the track.

April 7: Paddington

The crows at the top of the silky oak are in full chorus this morning, gurgling and warbling, screeching and chattering and for one surprising moment giving a poor imitation of a magpie being strangled.

April 8: Tenthill

The doublebars still inhabit the apple gums that line one of the fences. 

April 9: Paddington

Lorikeets seem to be all over Queensland in the aftermath to the big wet, screeching through the trees along the fencelines.

April 10: Mackay

This is my first arrival into a fine and sunny Mackay.  We fly over country that seems to have been artificially coloured so brilliant are the greens spread below us. 

April 11 Bucasia

The usual paths to the beach are underwater with a wide reflecting pool running the length of the depression at the foot of the frontal dune.  I have to detour to the park with its graded, concreted path to the beach.  Near the children’s playground families of lorikeets have taken over the hollows in the trees.  It is like walking below overcrowded bird tenements there are so many nesting birds.    

April 12 Bucasia

Bucasia Beach at low tide is like a long calligraphic scroll, revealing stories of small dogs and large crabs, of people running in shoes or walking slowly barefoot, of children dragging sticks and shell creatures ploughing below its surface. 

April 13: Bucasia

The kookaburra that haunts the back yard early in the mornings laughed all afternoon, but, contrary to old beliefs, the weather did not change.  It remained fine and sunny albeit a little more cloudy early evening.

April 14

A pair of Burdekin ducks were sitting quietly beside the fast evaporating stream that runs through the reserve beside the beach. 

April 15

 A sulphur crested cockatoo screeches in the treetops at sunset, silencing the other birds, even the corellas. 

Claire Wood

email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/

Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

Butterfly

A single swallowtail butterfly circled the covered area of Platform 2 at Milton Station. It flew in a seeming haphazard pattern above the ticket and drink machines, above the waiting passengers on metal seats, beneath the metal roof.

The arrival of the Ipswich bound train from Platform 1 was announced.  The butterfly began an erratic flight towards that platform.  The rails rattled as the train approached.  The butterfly fluttered above the tracks beside platform 1.  As the rattling grew louder the butterfly zipped at a forty five degree angle up and over the sound barrier beside the platform.  It settled on an overhanging tree twig.  The train careened to a stop seconds later.

Claire Wood
Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com
Tuesday April 5, 2011

Twelve Days

Friday 25 March – Early afternoon

A lone surfer floats on the swell at Burleigh early on Friday afternoon.  By mid-afternoon the waves rolling on off the point were small but perfect and the number of surfers increased with the increasing height of the waves. 

Tall thin women in varying shades of beige silk and taffeta accompanied by men in dark suits attended a formal wedding in the park.  A gaggle of seagulls and boardshort and bikini clad locals lazed under the trees, enthusiastic witnesses.

Saturday 26 March - Morning

Burleigh beach is crowded, the ocean molten as glass under a hot clear sky.

Sunday 27 March -Sunset

The sea at Burleigh rises and falls in a lazy rhythm carrying sun sodden body surfers shoreward.  Children run naked on the sand in the late afternoon breeze.

Monday 28 March - Dawn

Six months ago I did the dawn walk through the Paddington streets and each morning marvelled at the abundance of flowering trees on my route.  These March mornings are cloaked in a multitude of shades of green.  Only red berries light the tunnel of ficus that covers part of the footpath.  Green umbrellas of jacaranda show not even a memory of the riot of mauve that covered bare branches six months ago. 

Tuesday 29 March - evening

In Paddington a possum leaps from the now dead pomegranate tree.  She rattles her way across the gate into the loquat tree.  She hesitates before dropping onto the verandah railing from where she climbs onto the tin roof to join her companions for a thumping good night.

Wednesday 30 March - morning

A butcher bird fills the Paddington morning with her song

Thursday 31 March - afternoon

Mackay is awash.  We fly over the swollen Pioneer river, the Gooseponds spreading across the flood plain.  Every declivity is full of water.  The light soft, silvered in the rain.

Friday 1^st April - morning

The peewee is still in the Bucasia backyard, pacing in the rain.

Saturday 2^nd April – sunset

Lorikeets screech along the bank of the Pioneer river seeking night roosts above the mangroves.

Sunday 3 April – Midday

The biggest wet in Mackay since 1948 continues.  The roads are collapsing into the water table which is flowing fast beneath the shell of bitumen, washing the gravel road base seawards.

Monday 4 April – Lunchtime

Ibis nest in trees beside Lake Apex in Gatton - white blobs against the green of the trees.  Ducks, waterhens, egrets and herons line the shore or float on the water.

Claire Wood

email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

Daily blog: http://www.JustClaireWood.blogspot.com

Longlines blog: http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

5 April 2011