Philosophy of the hunting kind

I was working on the current book today (which I suspect will go down like the proverbial lead brick with the publishing establishment. Oh well. Sometimes we just do these things) and working on the scene where the city-reared kid spears his first flounder out in the dark water with his grandmother.
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Josh did, and his grandmother worked the fish over the prongs with her knife. “Yer first fish. You done good, young man,” she said.
She’d always called him ‘boy’ before. “That was just like… amazing!” He meant the way it had stayed still, and that really odd feeling he’d had when the spear struck home. He was still shaking from it.
And for once his grandmother seemed to understand without him trying to explain. She put a hand on his shoulder.“It’s in yer blood, Josh. My people have always done this. Always and always. This is our place. This is what we do, this is what we are. Without it, we’re leaves in the wind. I’m glad yer here to carry it on.” Then she shook herself, and said gruffly. “Well, don’t just stand there. Get on with it. We need another one for our tea.”
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For those of you who don't understand this... we walk in two separate worlds. You are welcome to yours. Leave me in mine, where food is not something from a supermarket.

How not to get a trailer to the water

Don't back it over a sand-cliff, even a 2 foot high one. And if you must do this, for heavens sake don't bring the ute too close to the cliff.
We did not go over the edge, but we did basically collapse to diff height. We then had to get the ute out and it's front wheels were not strong enough to haul us up. Much effort was expended. Then when we'd stopped swearing we actually had to start digging. Getting another vehicle, hauling, putting wood under wheels, letting air out of tires... and eventually the ute was free. had we had a rough sea too, it would have been a right royal circus, instead of just a usual beach launch epic. I can see why people use slips. This, in theory meant we had a 10 minute run to good fishing, instead of 50 minutes to mediocre fishing. As it was good fishing was... non-existent. We traipsed about looking for flathead, and finding bluehead or nothing. And to celebrate Australia day, a Sergeant Baker - possibly one of the first fish caught by Sergeant William Baker - Governor Phillips Orderly.

We did eventually go to the mediocre - and catch 6 flathead, but a great day at sea it wasn't. And then we had to extract the trailer and boat...

We had dry lightning strikes last night which apparently started two fires that the local fireys saw to. We had about 6 mm of rain, which for the fury of the storm was rather little.

I had a very tame little dive today, trying to use an underwater camera, so I hope there will be some pictures. Unfortunately I had it switched off when I was harassing the leatherjacket (well, paparazzi harassment, having a camera thrust at the peaceful snoozer in a tuft of weed. And at the little weedy whiting trying to eat Helen's bait.) And at the stingray I did not harass in any way. My cold is receding rather than gone, so I was being very tame on water front. Barbs is coughing spluttering and not well.

Today was the maiden voyage of the good ship 'Did not bounce Helen about too much' - which is an odd name for a boat, but at least unique.

cats

Well, this morning started as quite a nice day, but it rapidly degenerated into wind and rain flurries. The ground is very dry at the moment, but it is supposed to be Australia Day celebrations at Trousers point tomorrow. Australia day on the island is very special and all the kids and families come and have a lot of fun.

The cats have been letting us know we've been away. A day and we're bad staff to be treated with lofty disdain. 17 days and we're to be guarded like errant mice lurking under a dresser. We've cats on top of us all the time, despite them having had cat-sitting attention. Duchess decided to do the acrobatic leap last night from the sideboard to the dining room table. During our tea... A long jump with the potential of landing in a pot... so she put her crampons out into the table cloth... Which went ski-ing with her. Nothing landed on the floor, no full glasses were spilled, and the plates survived. So did the cat, bu only by keeping moving :-).

Aussie Salmon on the move

Photo courtesy of my friend Mark. A huge school of Aussie salmon basically at wading depth, vacuuming littler fish. I gather they were once a very common sight in these parts, before being fished very hard for canning. They're not the most delightful eating (being quite strongly 'fish' flavored, and not having great keeping quality) but they are fun to catch - jumping all over the place and very aggressive takers of small fish imitations.

The proliferation of boats

It appears that the famous cowboy character two gun Charlie has now been eclipsed by two boat Peter (My friend Peter just bought a second boat) and Norman has just been given 'custody' of a nice Zodiac and a dive compressor while its owner is away. And Mark is over here with his boat. And the weather is lousy and my body is still somewhat battered from the cold/flu, but it seems that temptation is out and doing its best to lead me astray, even if I still need to find an outboard and some bits for the trailer for the Zoo (my elderly Zodiac). The dive compressor has a lot of potential for extending our underwater time too. We're coming into the season for prawns, and there are huge shoals of salmon about.

And I need to fit some writing in. Good thing I have been sick and the wind has blown.

Harvest starts

Well I am somewhat better, and Barbs is far sicker than I ever was. Thanks to Kelly we still have a garden on our return, and various things are now being harvested.

tomatoes, capsicums, chillies, strawberries sugar snap peas, beans a few - carrots are just two of those in the ground. The patty-pans are steady in supply. Unlike the Zucchini - which... got out of hand while we were away. The small fruit is the right size. There is an even bigger one outside.

The stupice tomatoes are about golf-ball size, and have tough skins. On the other hand, we're getting some and they taste good.

unlike the sweetcorn which has been attacked by I think rats or possums