For the first time in ages, I selected frames from new time-coded footage which I collected from Steve last week.  The two-and-a-bit hours I had accumulated between September last year and February this year will only yield a paltry forty six frames and four new videos. Namely, of giant and shiny-leaved stinging trees, an Australian bag moth larva – an additional species, ditto a potter wasp and her peculiar antics. Regrettably, the footage of a tawny frogmouth adult and two chicks in a nest, of a Lewin’s honey eater nest, and of a paper wasp nest, did not improve on existing material.

This morning I parked in Main Street to pay a bill at my bank. On returning I noticed, of all things, an exquisite magpie moth resting just below the tread on the driver’s side rear tyre. Its name indicates the moth’s colour. It has black fore wings with a band of white patches two thirds of the way down and a single patch on the hind wings. Its wingspan is 4 cm. Alas, I didn’t have my camera with me.

Yesterday a very helpful technician from Telstra installed my new NBN (National Broadband Network) modem and an NBN compatible handset in my living room and bedroom.  Today, the NBN technician hooked me up to the network at the node, which is on a street corner 100 odd metres from my home. The broadband service for much of Australia is fibre to the node, thence copper wire to the premises. I had to send a couple of emails with photos attached this afternoon and the upload speed was much quicker than before.

An email arrived from a lady at the Western Australia New Museum, requesting the use of four of my species videos for the museum’s platform. In my reply I granted permission on the understanding that the videos would be shown complete with opening and closing titles, in which I and my website are credited. PS On 28.11.20  I was told that the videos would be downloaded in full with my name in the attribution line.

I have just completed the settings for the five most recent videos which Steve and I uploaded last night. They include a new-for-the-project species of rodent and spider. Until I resume filming, there won’t be any footage from which to select fresh videos.

Six weeks after dropping off the memory card with the latest footage, Steve and I got down to work at his place for the first time in months. We assembled five videos and captured stills from the footage plus additional stills from footage of a golden orb spider aggregation, filmed in 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately the power connection to the hard drive containing the editing programme needs replacing, which prevented Steve from rendering the videos. Finding a replacement is not going to be as straightforward as we would like.

Today I picked up my new glasses, after only having had my eyes tested on the Monday. Presumably the lens maker isn’t as busy as usual because of the pandemic. Talking of which, I was fortunate to have the cataract operations before elective surgery was halted, so that hospitals could focus on the pandemic. My eyes were tested exactly  four weeks after the second operation. The first was performed two weeks before the second. By the time of the test, my vision had recovered to how it had been before the operations. I had not felt colour-deprived with the cataracts, but after they were removed, the world was brighter and more vibrant. The main benefit post op, was that reading and writing without glasses were restored to how they had been before the cataracts took hold. However, my new distance lenses had the greatest impact of all because of the clarity of detail, which I had not known for years. It was revelatory.

During the weekend I completed a questionnaire about, inter alia, my project, why I came to Australia and a day in the life of Peter Kuttner, for a local filmmaker who contacted me via mutual friends. She graduated from film school a few years ago and is putting in a submission to a funding body charged with commissioning a short documentary about inspirational older Australians (not that I consider myself to be one). Is my age catching up with me? We will see what happens.

Ever since the removal of a large tree and adjoining vegetation from one side of the drive, I have bemoaned the absence of abundant moths at the garage, though other factors, such as the prolonged drought, have played a far greater part than the missing vegetation. Since Christmas, we have enjoyed frequent rain, which has revived gardens and trees and filled water courses and rainwater tanks. The drought was such that the grass didn’t grow and the stressed trees covered the ground, including the forest floor, with their shed leaves. But  moth numbers at the garage were slow to reflect the rainfall. Today, there were more than I recall ever having seen. Overwhelmingly, they were small, pale brown geometrids. Numbers flew off as I approached to take photos. The night had been warm and humid, as had previous nights with a good showing of moths, but nothing remotely like this.

I am on the last day of a six day course of antibiotics to combat a mystery infection I picked up god knows when, god knows where.  Last Monday week I woke with a slight temperature which returned to normal the next day. The following morning, I felt a sharp pain on the shin bone of my left leg, but didn’t see anything untoward. Fortunately, I had a doctor’s appointment the day after. My GP confirmed that the leg was infected. There were small blood bursts below the skin and the leg was swollen. Last week’s pain had gone. I took the antibiotics but couldn’t see any change for 5 days. Because I am shortly due to have a cataract operation, I urgently wanted to see a doctor. My new appointment was for today at 11.30 am. The doctor confirmed that the infection had gone, but the swelling worried her so she sent me to have a scan for a blood clot in my lower left leg. For a few hours the implications were scary to contemplate, until the scan result proved to be clear. But some critter or vegetation had it in for me. The leg remains swollen…. Read Complete Text