BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Mar 26 - 10:56 PM

Helen, no doubt karma will rear its head one day.

We have seen snow in autumn while on our Canadian visits. Before that, we saw snow in New Zealand in September 2000 while driving on the Dessert Road - a high dessert renowned for variable weather, it seems - a bit hair-raising while driving our hire motorhome; we weren't even used to driving in snow in a car, let alone a taller vehicle.

Snow in the Australian Alps back in early January 1991 while travelling with our teenage sons, in fact the younger was not yet a teenager. Somewhere we have photographic proof of our boys in shorts and t-shirts throwing snowballs at each other.

And snow at Hanging Rock, about an hour south-east of our home here in the Small Smoke, more than once. Hanging Rock sees snowfall more winters than not.

I would love to see a wombat in snow!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 26 - 11:15 PM

just google - wombat in snow - lots of great pics!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 02 Mar 26 - 11:36 PM

I am fairly sure my memory of seeing and photographing the wombat in snow was IRL - but then again, until I find the actual photo I won't be 100% sure. My old non-digital photos are not as easy to search through as the photos on my computer.

I had some scary moments driving through southern mountains on the border of NSW & Victoria when there was ice on the road. I had absolutely no knowledge or experience of that. I didn't even know there was ice until I skidded on a country road. Give me coastal Newcastle weather any day! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Mar 26 - 03:08 PM

No wombats over here, but fresh snow and still falling.

Helen, I'm so sorry about the family drama.
The only sane thing to do is to disengage from that drama as much as is practical,
because you can't control what others do.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Mar 26 - 03:51 PM

Years ago I was the administrator on a family estate (there was no will) and it was hell over a couple of years total. All it takes is one sibling who wants everything to make the process one that needs a robust paper trail. It is almost a relief that the kids don't seem to want most of our stuff for when that time comes.

This morning I pulled up some announcements about upcoming estate sales, and the amount of stuff in those houses is mind-boggling. (I'd watched a program about how to use scarves and was looking to see if any of the sales had clothes, specifically scarves). There's so much stuff in the world already fabricated it makes one wonder why we keep making stuff. But of course the answer is that we are a capitalist society based upon selling instead of reselling.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 03 Mar 26 - 03:58 PM

Thanks keberoxu,

Luckily the side of the family which seems to have been up to no good are down south and I doubt I will ever meet them again. In fact, I first met the two nieces and some of their family at the memorial service, and only met their mother once when I was a kid. So, now it is all water under the bridge.

Aussie animals are cool! Wombats, Tasmanian devils, koalas, blue-tongue lizards, kangaroos, wallabies, possums - the list goes on and on. A possum family is now living in the tree at the front of our house, and although I haven't seen one for a while I am fairly sure the blue-tongue lizard is still living in our yard. Then we have rainbow lorikeets, kookaburras, magpies with their amazing songs, bellbirds, butcherbirds etc. The rainbow lorikeets and the noisy miners have territorial arguments over the grevillea bush which has a lot of flowers with nectar.

Aussie bird song collection

There is a list below the video. There are a lot more bird songs worth listening to as well as those in the video.

Common aka Indian mynahs are an introduced pest, but the noisy miners are funny. If I hear kookaburras laughing I know it will rain in a couple of days. If I see black or gang-gang cockatoos which is rare around here, it will be a big rain event. We hear and see a LOT of white corellas - loud, huge flocks flying over or eating the fruit in our olive tree before we can get to it. Someone told me they come when the grain shipments are in the nearby harbour.

Then there is the iconic Aussie bird, the galah, i.e. one of our favourite smarty-pants names for people who are acting silly.

Native animals, birds, and plants are good for the soul.