You know it's hot when . . .

You know it's hot when:

You're old horse literally volunteers for a wash . . .28 years young and absolutely loving the bath. Seriously, I was using the hose to clean out their water trough and up he came, let me spray him with water. I only had to tie him up to wash his face! The violet shampoo brings out the white. He looks a bit embarrassed about being seen in purple though don't you think? Of course the other one wasn't coming anywhere near the hose and it was too hot to bother chasing him. He can stay filthy.

Dragonflies adhere to your cool kitchen walls for respite . . . .Normally found hovering over the pool in the heat, my kitchen had about five of them yesterday, remaining perfectly still, just hanging, keeping cool. As soon as the sun went down, they were off on their merry way, except for one who got stuck my Japanese lamp and was released at 3am this morning due to flapping and buzzing.


The skinks have a field day with dead flies . . . I didn't crop this so that you can see the size of these little guys compared to the castors on our typing chair. I have three regulars inside the house. Yes INSIDE during the summer months. This one is number 2 and fighting for supremacy with fat bat number 1 who proved a little camera shy today. Number 3 doesn't get a look in and is still not prepared to have his photo taken. They eat the dead flies and Christmas beetles, spiders, mosquitoes and pretty much any bug that drops around the skirting boards and window tracks. I 'euthanased' a rather large spider the other night but left it on the carpet and no trace of its carcass in the morning. No wonder they're getting bigger and fatter! They're Eastern Skinks and drop their tails as an escape mechanism when cornered but these fellows rule the roost with absolute confidence. Only once has Lily got close enough to scare one into dropping a wiggly tail but it grew back by the following summer. I know which one it is because there's a slight 'join' where the new tail has grown. Hot tip . .don't vacuum their poo until it's completely dry! Hmm really must clean under that filing cabinet.

Blue Tongue lizards crave the shade . . .These are my absolute favourites. Normally in the sunshine but this one had been cornered by birds in my front border. We rescued a baby from Clare's bedroom just before Christmas. This is still a youngster, very shiny, clean with no battle scars and brave enough to come close to the house. Very docile. Easy to catch and quite happy to be handled as long as you support its belly. They do hiss and stick out their blue tongues but can I get one to do it when I have a camera in my hand? They're often mistaken for snakes, especially if you just sight their tail. They're pretty big. 18-24 inches long, and chunky dudes, slow moving and an easy target for predators which is why I don't own a cat. They're also an asset to the garden, they eat aphids, snails and slugs . . .


Bearded dragons don't freeze but scarper for the trees . . . Now this little treasure is a bearded dragon that I just happened to spy from my computer desk. He had his head raised among the leaf litter on the lawn and I went to investigate. Normally they freeze in the face of a predator until truly frightened then take off like a rocket. This guy let me take three photos and that was it . . up a tree in lightening speed . . .

There are probably hundreds of them but how would you know. Just look at that camouflage!

And finally . . clean bony boy, no more dreadlocks:


I should look so good at his age!
Now, to get that purple shampoo out of my fingernails before work tomorrow and vaccum up the skink poo. An hour later and the dragon is still in the tree yelling "You can't see me, I iz invizible"