The Ibis and the Egret

The ibis doesn't do much flying anymore, but the egret flew in over the fence while we were having lunch. If it was aware of us watching in fascination as it moved, one careful foot at a time through the grevillea* on our hill, stretching out its neck and suddenly striking, it was unphased. And it was quite successful, catching a lizard, holding it wriggling in its beak and eventually swallowing it whole. Certain neck and body gymnastics seemed to be required to get it down before it moved on to catch another one. Eventually it ran out of grevillea and presumably lizards, as it moved more purposefully along the wall, down to the patio and around the corner of the house. 

I stalked it to the little patio outside our bedroom door where I took a shot of it in front of the newly transplanted lemon tree* before it took off and flew gracefully over the gate.

It was very cold this morning as we sat with Gail and Bob and Maggie in the garden at Cafe Frida. They lit the outdoor heater, but only Spike, enjoying his puppaccino under the table seemed unaware of the cold. The heaters are effective if you are right underneath them...a bit like standing in front of a fire...your front is too warm while your back is still freezing. Everybody had things to do so we adjourned pursue to our various tasks.

For John and me it was picking up our new glasses. My titanium frames are so light that I am reminded I have them on only when I look down and glimpse their purple color. John's are a great improvement on  his 20 year old wire frames. We drove home marveling at the crisp outlines of the leaves on the trees.

Our washing machine is behaving badly and sending us messages that its internal filter is clogged. I'm not surprised  since I washed Spike's blankets which have an astounding amount of dog hair on them which seems to be hooked like velcro for it cannot be shaken off. However, nowhere on the machine itself or in the manual is there any clue as to where the internal filter is.  A YouTube video suggests that some machines require removing the entire front in order to get to the filter. Why would anyone buy one of these machines if a) they knew this to be the case and b) they have a dog.?

We no longer believe these things until they actually happen, but we are led to believe by the weather forecasters that there is an actual storm due to arrive over the weekend. In our rain deprived state we are both spoiled by many most days being dry and sunny and longing for a good downpour.

*the only, admittedly  small and unspectacular flower in this entry is in the first extra.