Well friends I am finally ready to confess my reason for skipping my beloved Halloween season last year. I was pretty cryptic and I know some of you imagined the worst. But it wasn't surgery nor illness nor death. It was in fact the trip of a lifetime and I was gone for almost 10 weeks. I had to be cryptic because I hate to announce publicly that my home will be empty for that long.
His Lordship and I journeyed to a land down under, where we stayed with some friends, who will be known, hence forth, as the Swell Bees. It was an exciting adventure having split our time between New Zealand and Australia with the primary goal of completing a birding big year. And the birds did not disappoint. Below are just a sampling of what we saw, which was over 370 species. The best snaps were taking by Mr. Swell Bee, who is a fine photographer.
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Rainbow Lorikeet
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Eddie the Kookaburra
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Little Corella on a gum tree
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| A Weka |
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Cryptic Honeyeater
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So in the coming year, I will from time to time share interesting bits of random shit from this trip with you. So I hope you can forgive me for my subterfuge.
Just glad to have you back in the blogosphere. Understandable that you wouldn't want it widely known that your house would be empty for ten weeks.
ReplyDeleteThe rainbow lorikeet is very colorful. Knowing you, though, I'd have expected at least one or two bird skeletons.
I saw a couple of cool skeletons but I did not think I could get them through customs. As it was I got flagged by a fruit sniffing dog for having eaten a peach that morning.
DeleteYou can sometimes deal with stuff that customs would be iffy about by mailing them from the country you're visiting to your address in the US (or someone you know back here who would be willing to receive packages). That can get expensive depending what it is, though.
DeleteA fabulous trip to what is apparently birders' heaven! Those photos -- oh my! All is now clear and your subterfuge was understandable.
ReplyDeleteIt feels good to come clean.
DeleteWhat an exciting trip!! Australia and New Zealand are so beautiful. Looking forward to you sharing bits about your adventures:)
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the parlor. They are indeed beautiful countries!
DeleteYou could have had the skeletons shipped. Do they have a website?
ReplyDeleteNo website - just a pile of feathers on the ground with a lovely skull attached. i would have had to pick it up, boil the flesh off in the camper van and ship it; Quite honestly, I wasn't really set up for bone collection.
DeleteSo happy for you!
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