It’s moments like these you need…. not to be a cow.

This post started when we were watching Spicks and Specks last night and the musical finale was a song called Cows Come Home sung by Rich Hall. It was so funny it caused the Man to choke on his dinner and I had to share it with you.

Townsville Daily Bulletin 15 Jan 1932 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61348469

Anyway, I had to find an appropriate cow article to accompany it and came across this one that shows why you should always know what it is you put in your mouth.

In 1932 a farmer was milking a cow when the peace of the event was shattered by an explosion. Apparently the cow had picked up a blasting cap and, chewing it, managed to blow its own head off, and knock out the milkman. Yipes!

Why on earth was there a blasting cap in a cow paddock? I wonder if blasting caps smell particularly yummy? That might explain that post I did about the bovine gentleman who was stuck in an old powder magazine. Was he enticed in there by the aroma of Boom?

The second last line of this article also gives me a chance to mention an Australian icon as well. Delicious Minties.

Minties are a white cube of minty goodness and, if you believe the slogan, bad things get better with Minties. Not going to help this particular cow though is it?

Minties make it better.

I was surprised to find that Minties have been around since the 1920’s and that the “It’s moments like these you need Minties” advertising phrase has been around since the start.

“It’s moments like these….” has become part of the Australian language and the wrapper of each lolly has a cartoon depicting some sort of situation which will be improved with the addition of a Mintie.

Dentists probably love them too, they are so chewy they are known for pulling out fillings and I guess their irresistibility has been the cause of many a cavity.

Somehow this post has gone from a funny song to an exploding cow to iconic lollies. Hmmm, I love the internet 🙂

Anyway, here is the promised song, I’m sure no cows were harmed in the making of it.

Unwelcome mail.

The subject of this post is going to be familiar to you Aussies, and Meeks, look away now.

Some weeks ago I did a post about spiders (ok, I’ve done a few but this one in particular) that ended in a conversation with Bluey about Huntsmen spiders and their love of letter boxes. Yesterday I was unlucky enough to find a small one on my mail and I grabbed my camera to fulfil the promise of sharing the horror with her.

Yes, this is a small Huntsman, only about as big as the palm of my hand, there is no way I am getting this close with a camera to a big one. The photo in that case would be less pleasant, taken after I flipped the mail out of the box with a long stick and stomped on everything. Yeah, never post me anything breakable, ok….

Huntsmen are very long-legged spiders and that makes them look scarily big, but as you can see they are also very flat. I expect that this is some sort of special evolutionary trait to assist their unnoticed entry into houses via the collected mail.

C’mon, take me inside….

I admit that I did the girly “eeeek!” because he ran at me as soon as I lifted the mail so I immediately dropped the flyer straight back into the letterbox and slammed the lid.

I suddenly realized I had a blog post just sitting there if I pulled him back out so I went in, got my camera, took a breath and reached in.

Those awful beady eyes….. ick….

He politely stood still while I took a few shots then the Man drove up the driveway, temporarily distracting me. When I turned back the spider was gone.

Bugger. That just means he is still out there looking for a nice warm, dry house. I’m sure he will be back in residence in a few days but this time I have the photo so next time he may well just get the boot…

Sundew flower.

A while ago I did a photo post about the wild carnivorous plants in our garden so I thought I would share a photo of the tiny flower that the Sundews produce near the end of their season.

Although each plant produces a spray of these flowers at the top of their stem they usually only show one or two at a time. They start off pink and fade rapidly to white.

I am also using this post to try to make you arachnophobes feel better about the other post I am doing today, sorry to all of you 😀

Sundew flower.

Banana Alley Vaults, Melbourne

One of the place names I love the most in Melbourne is the Banana Alley Vaults.

Those three words don’t really belong together do they? The Banana Alley Vaults are at the end of the beautiful Flinders Street Station. They are situated under the rail line and they were originally called the Flinders Street Viaduct.

The Brisbane Courier 28 Sep 1917 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20184769

A post from My Town Melbourne about a tiny cafe under the viaduct (complete with banana yellow banana lounges out the front) prompted this post. I love the look of the whole row of frontages, they look like they are tiny cubbyhouses set into the wall. Clearly they are not all tiny as it is mainly a 24 hour gym under there now.

The vaults themselves have had a chequered history. After they were built they were used for storing fruit and veg for the markets which led to the name Banana Alley.

Businesses were housed under there over the years but they eventually fell into disrepair. In the 1970’s and 80’s the vaults were used by the homeless and the area developed a dangerous reputation before being refurbished by the State Government in the late 1980’s.

I was extremely pleased to find this 1879 drawing of the proposed viaduct in the archives. What an amazing thought that Flinders Street once looked like this!*

Illustrated Australian News 24 Dec 1879 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60094126

The Man and I had recently spent a weekend in the city staying in a hotel which had originally been the Commercial Travellers building and was right across from the Banana Alley vaults. Looking back through the photos I took that weekend I found one taken from the car on the very intersection that this drawing is representing (but not one of the vaults themselves… grrrrr!).

cnr Flinders and Williams Streets 2012.

In this photo a small part of the viaduct is visible on the left and the Yarra Family Hotel is the building on the corner of the drawing but has now been replaced with a big shiny….. thing …. I don’t know what is inside, it is just big and shiny and a disappointing replacement as far as I’m concerned.

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*I found a webpage called Melbourne’s Lost Hotels, the second photo down is a great photo of the Yarra Family Hotel with horse and carts etc and the viaduct on the side, remarkably similar to this drawing!

Ghengis returns, hungry and tired.

In what will obviously be the last installment of my escaped Tasmanian Devils series I am happy to report that Ghengis has been recaptured. (Herald-Sun)

For those of you who have not been keeping up with this news, on the 16th of October three Tassie Devils escaped from their enclosure in Perth when a fallen tree flattened the fence.

Scratchy was recaptured by two men and managed to do serious damage to a bathroom wall before the zoo owner arrived to take him home. Itchy was the next one found and he also did his best to get away again but was safely returned.

Ghengis was obviously not as eager to continue his adventure as the others and was picked up without incident. Either that or the people who found him had also read the other news articles and realized that they would have to be more careful of their walls and pet cages than the previous rescuers.

Poor Ghengis is now going home for a good feed and a rest before being reunited with his friends. I wonder if this adventure will make them shyer of making a break for it next time or now they have had a taste of freedom will they be making a rush at every open gate? 🙂

This spider should have a scarier name.

When the kids and I got home from school yesterday the weather was just taking a turn for the worst and I had washing on the line. As we made our way inside we noticed that the change had bought out a multitude of tiny critters and we spotted an interesting spider in the garden that I wanted a photo of.

A dilemma. Do I run out the back and tear the washing off the line before the rain or do I grab my camera and forsake the washing? I’m sure you can guess. I didn’t even bother worrying about the washing, and telling the kids to keep the spider busy, raced inside for my camera.

Red and Black Spider.

Pretty cool eh? These tiny Red and Black Spiders (yep, although it’s unimaginative, that’s their name) are fascinating looking creatures. The ridges on its body make it look so primitive don’t they?

When I came back out, brandishing my camera, it was to find the kids had kept it from running away by scooping it up with a leaf. They thought he was hilarious as he ran up number 1’s arm and was nearly lost in the multitude of colourful armbands that number 1 wears at all times.

Although I only intended to post a photo of the spider wandering around in its native environment I had to add this picture of the beast being restrained just because I admired number 1’s bravery. I like taking photos of spiders, but if one walks on me there is probably going to be very little left that is worth looking at.

“Mum, are these things poisonous?”