28th April - Pete's birthday - cassowary - black sapote - golden orb spider

Sunday 28^th April

And yet another splendid Mission Beach day.  Even more splendid because it is Pete’s birthday… He says he doesn’t really like being 67 but he very much realises it is far better than the alternative…

So what did I give Pete for his birthday??  A mini iPad!  It is already causing him stress and annoyance; he really doesn’t love his technology… But I hope he will learn to love it…

This photo was taken this morning, at the Mission Beach Monster Market.  He does look faintly anxious; he was in fact very happily chatting to his daughter Nicole, and to Grace, Olivia and Matilda.

Pete is, of course, O Captain My Captain.  He is also father of four, grandfather of eight, friend to more than I could begin to count, brother to two, and My Boy Peter to his mother.

He is also McGyver AND David Attenborough!!!

The proof is below…

Did I get a photo of the cassowary?  No of course not!  I was too busy going ooh and aaah; he in the meantime whipped out his dinky new videocam and – voila!!

Well...it won't download!  Bit it is a wonderful videofilm of our teenage cassowary crossing the road!  I will try it again, in a minute...

This is what I got, on my camera…

Pete Salmon once again performed culinary miracles.  We had a fabulous lunch, with very nice random guests. 

Libby and Noel, ex-Tasmanians, now living outside Cardwell, in the jungle.

Chris and Faye, new friends from Melbourne, sometimes resident in Mission Beach.

So what did we eat??  The most delicious slow-cooked lamb, with veggies, following a wonderful soup made from wilted vegetables ousted from the fridge on 2XS.  And dessert – well why didn’t I take a photo???  The most amazing Invention Test!  Pete plated up bananas in caramel sauce, delicious little ice creams, and a topping made from black sapote, also known as chocolate pudding fruit.  Yummerella!!!

My nature photography is not improving by leaps and bounds but I did manage A reasonable photo of a particularly beautiful spider.  maybe it is a golden orb, small-ish version… they grow very big, and Maddie often has them in her hair when she is gardening.  She flings them aside with gay abandon and says they make a scrunchy sort of sensation.  I am very phobic about spiders but – I thank God, very fervently – not of this sort of spider.  Golden orb spiders are just gorgeous, and they stay decorously in their webs.  They are not hairy; they do not prowl, and jump, like the spiders which turn my blood to ice.  Michael does not find them to be gorgeous.  He says when he is on army exercises in the thick bush around Townsville in the dark, these spiders are JUST at head height and he is always finding them plastered across his face.  NOT so nice!!

I also took a photo of a beautiful big fat green tree frog which lives in our outdoor bathroom. It looks like a blob; instead; here is a photo of the lovely outdoor bathroom…sans frog...