I sent out another 16 emails to literary agents, mostly in London, but some in New York. Six of the initial batch (all from London) replied. I emailed 3 submissions and posted 2.

My son Simon and his fiancée, Nicole, were married on the 5th anniversary of their first date at a winery at the foot of the mountain, so I did not have far to travel. It was a perfect day, sunny, indeed hot for a while. Bride and groom were radiant, the venue’s lawns and the surrounding countryside were verdant, the food was plentiful and tasty and the mountain provided a spectacular back drop.The speeches were heartfelt,  informative and much enjoyed. It was refreshing for me to be socialising with so many young people.

Today I received an email from Nigel Fechner, a mycologist at the Queensland Herbarium in Brisbane. Based on my description in the email I sent him, the fungi I filmed  on 30 March (see Film Diary below) are Phallus multicolor a close relative of the Crinoline Stinkhorn, Phallus indusiatus. The skirt of P. multicolor is shorter than that of P. indusiatus and is less likely to fully develop and may even appear to be non-existent.

The larva (caterpillar) of the Cyana Meyricki moth builds a stunning cage-like cocoon, a tapered oval in plan, out of its setae or hairs, which are numerous and appropriately long. The larva suspends itself in the cage and emerges as a moth through a gap in the taper. We have seen plenty of cages in a variety of locations, including 11 on the door of the neighbouring garage to the one where I film my moths. I have also filmed a cage in the rainforest at night. A few months ago I was checking some footage of a Wood Duck nestling 10 ducklings when the next sequence grabbed my attention. It was of a caterpillar climbing the wall of the garage where I film my moths. It was covered in long dark hairs and, based on the abandoned exoskeleton of larva in the cage, it was about the right size. So I asked Steve to capture some frames and sent them to  Dr David Britton at the Australian Museum in Sydney who is an expert on the moth. Today I received an email from him agreeing that “it is highly likely that this is the larva of the… Read Complete Text

Today I emailed a dozen literary agents, 10 of them in London, one in Brisbane and one in Melbourne, asking if they would consider my book “One small place on earth…   Celebrating Biodiversity Where You Are”.

Vanessa forwarded an email she received today stating that we had not been shortlisted for the Queensland Museum public art project. It’s a pity, but hardly unexpected.

In addition to my ongoing email exchange with Anna about the Light/Sound Workshop, I have had a brief exchange with Ian Helliwell, who is interested in the history of electronic music in Britain and wanted to know about the musical component of LSW. Based on an essay about LSW I wrote for my degree, I told Ian that we made contact with the BBC’s radiophonic workshop and that the sound component was only addressed when we devised a demonstration or performance.

For reasons I do not wish to go into, John’s visit was not a success. Unfortunately we did not really hit it off. I was able to show John a fair variety of local fauna and flora on the mountain and in some of the adjacent World Heritage Areas. We also did a rainforest night walk.  One regularly hears of internet ‘friendships’ which fail the test of meeting in the flesh. I did not think this would happen to me.

Received 2 emails from Vanessa confirming that our EOI for the public art project at the Queensland Museum had been submitted and receipt acknowledged. It was a lot of fun working on the submission which reflected a genuine pooling of ideas by Vanessa, Kat and me. The EOI had to be about our intentions and approach, rather than about our idea, which I think has a lot going for it. Only Vanessa has what one might call a profile in public art but it is not really established. I’m ever hopeful, but I am not holding my breath, as they say here.

This evening Steve filmed my introduction to the DVDs at the same location we used before, the last house Jaap lived in on the mountain, which adjoins a rainforest creek. He was pleased with the result. A week ago he was on the mountain and recorded 2 hours of soundtrack of the rainforest at night. He had to put up with a truck or two, climbing the steep road which is on the boundary of one national park and with a passenger jet bound for Brisbane flying over another, but declared the sound quality good and clear.