I'll start on a personal note, because after all, it makes sense to start with who I am and why I plan to communicate with my friends, family, and maybe the occasional blow-in :-)
I am a great fan of native plants, as native as possible in fact. For the lazy gardener (like me), a hardy, drought adapted plant which thrives when it rains is a life saver. More often than not I do remember to use some grey water from the washing machine or rinsing out recycling bottles on the plants that are sheltered from the rain. That happens maybe once or twice a week, so even they're not that pampered ;-) Still, some times I travel for work (in quality assurance for an Australian health care industry business - where I work with a wonderful team of people, but won't mention much in my blog because who wants to fall afoul of a confidentiality problem these days?) When I travel, my plants get neglected, so only the fittest survive :-)
Luckily our household pet is also a hardy native, a Morelia spilotta mcdowelli named Snakey. At this stage, Snakey's sex remains unknown, though I'll be sure to post about any discoveries on that front. Zie was hatched in February 2005, and came to live with us in April. To date Snakey has shed 4 times, and is currently eating 2 to 3 weaner, or 21 day old mice per week. Except on the fortnight or so before shedding. Then Snakey is one timid, well camouflaged pet, and is rarely tempted by any mice or rats. Eventually I'd like to offer Snakey some whole (feathered, beaked & clawed) quails that are sold frozen in a local pet supply place.
So, I've started this blog with some photos of my current success stories. These two local orchids were purchased very cheaply at Gardens R Us. Dendrobium speciosum v Tarberrii is a Sydney Rock Orchid, and and Sarochilus ceciliae is a Fairy Bell Orchid. After picking them up for a song along with a bag of spent mushroom compost, I took them to my office. The poor things suffered there, in the dehydrating airconditioning (though reasonably good light) for a few weeks. A month ago I took them home, and they're showing their delight at the sheltered spring in our fernery. The Fairy Bell is flowering, and the Rock Orchid has sprouted a new leaf. I'm considering some garden mesh to shield the entire lot in summer ...
Usually I'll be more cutting edge science and technology, but for a first foray into blog-land, I thought I'd relax and say hello world.
