Sir Hans - I don't know what that breeder was feeling when he first saw his babies open, but I do know that every time a bloom opens for me, I am awed by it... Mother Nature performs such wonderful miracles, and when I think about the miracle of a bloom opening and its abject beauty, it makes me feel kind of small and insignificant... Soultan - it's kind of strange to think that opposite seasons are happening... Aussie flowers are blooming outdoors, and ours are resting... mine are just roots and bulbs and corms under a layer of frosted earth...

Gee thanks everyone for your efforts in identifying my tree snake. And yep! - that's him alright - so he's the Green Tree Snake. Was a bit worried about the rear-fanged warning Bambi John, as I'd always thought him harmless - but I did suspect he was after the frogs in my broms, the greedy thing. Leave my frogs alone! However, sorry frogs, I'd rather he bite the frogs than me, so I'll be wary with my close-up photography in future John. Tomas, I'd swap your pidgeons for our crows (and lethal brown snakes and funnelweb spiders) any day! Geckos are dear creatures. Sander - you win the bet, we don't have 150 buses going past each day LOL Hope you do really like them! Actually we do have 1 school bus go by each week day (with about 5 kids on it), and about once a week we get a small busload of tourists, mostly Japanese, or European hippies, go by on their way to a nearby waterfall and rainforest national park. Our joke on them is a life-like-but-concrete kangaroo, complete with joey in pouch, positioned on a grassy hill in our front paddock. The tourist bus driver enjoys and shares the joke, so when a passenger calls out "There's a kangaroo!!!", he squeals on the brakes, they all pile out, and snap away with their cameras, then excitedly pile back into the bus, and off they go again. We watch this from our front verandah with great amusement. To this day, our concrete kangaroo probably features in many photo albums, believed to be the real thing! LOL Bambi John, that's certainly an interesting passion and job you have with all those birds, animals, and reptiles. Thanks for sharing that with us. I really enjoyed reading about it. And lovely to hear of such a happy long-term union with your understanding wife. Most people remember the length of their marriage by the age of their kids, not their Amazonian parrots! The platypus is not as timid as generally believed, and I'm sure they are of no threat to humans. But sadly the occasional fox is a threat to the platypus. And no blue-ringed octopus here either as you'd realise. We are inland, and our creek is fresh water. I hope your dream comes true one day of coming to our huge and diverse land - there is always a bed here for any gardenwebbers. And Gonzer, yes our land (and sea) is full of deadly creatures, so gardening is certainly an adventure - especially here in "the bush". But I reckon there are heaps more deaths and injuries from traffic accidents in the urban-jungle, don't you? Cheers, Kerry

Slugs are attracted to yeasty odors so putting a new yeast mix, or fresh beer, out will not attract as many slugs as yeast mixtures, or beer, several days old that has a strong yeasty odor.

I'm not really sure why they cut the tails either. Here's my Pip, he was 11 months old the other day, this picture is older. When they docked his tail they did leave about a 4 inches which according to the "rules" is the maximum length allowed. In the UK it is now illegal I believe to alter any dogs tails, ears etc even for kennel clubs so all the breed standards have to be rewritten. Pips a tri-color Aussie, one brother was a black and white, and the rest were merles like the picture above