Just the way to spend a cool and rainy afternoon ...

Snoozing away in a warm spot, dreaming about killing skinks (which is why she is not allowed outside unsupervised).


The cool, grey dampness brought the blue-banded bees in early too. These wee chaps sleep hanging by their jaws from plant, on this ocassion a snail vine tendril. You can actually see the little holes in the vine after they have left.

Blue-banded bees are Australian natives & buzz pollinators so they are perfect for pollinating tomato plants (and do at our house - bless 'em).

In their natural state (before European settlement) they made nests by digging little cells in sandstone. Now the little slackers dig out the pointing between bricks in old homes (new houses having a much stronger mix). This means that whenever I think about repointing the house I have to think of the season, if it's winter I can't do it because I'd be walling them in alive. And for some reason I never think about repointing the house in the summertime. Which is why, five years on, the house still has a (genteel) dilapidated air about it. Well, that and the unmown lawn I suppose.

(UPDATE - I counted the bees when I got home last night [19-1-06] and there were 10 in a row!).
(UPDATE 2 - 13 in a row on January 23rd).