Mud wasps are wild looking creatures. Big and slow with dangling legs which make them appear as miniature and brightly coloured, flying, dockside cranes. I haven’t felt threatened by them when at the farm. This year - perhaps due to the recent rains - there are paper wasps everywhere. They bite with an immediate strong pain response which fades after a few minutes. My first bite, on the knee, took three days to stop itching. That’s when I got bitten on the ear. Not such a strong pain response but my ear swells up the following day and stays that way for days. Last bite was two days ago - hardly hurt but my arm has a lump the following day. As paper wasps nest together I suppose luck was with me on three separate occasions.
The snake which we thought was a brown snake due to the shed skin found in both the room I slept in and the outside roof beams, turned out to be a six foot long python. Much friendlier than a brown snake by all accounts. Brown snakes are territorial, aggressive and venomous. Due to a large litter of puppies we phoned the local rescue service to remove the snake. The guy was so familiar in his approach about reaching under the house and pulling out the python, that it was in the sack within two minutes of his arrival.
After forty years of living in Australia, following a childhood and teenage years spent in both Wales and England and where there are no deadly creatures to speak of - apart from the human kind - I still find this both an alien and a comfortable landscape. It welcomes me with both ancient arms and present danger. Even the ants move with a speed and efficiency that my childhood insects would marvel at.
A major clean up around the outside of the house with whipper-snippers and lawnmowers gave us a croquet ‘lawn’ to play on. Great game for young and old. We avoided mowing a bull ant nest along the way. They are fierce and aggressive creatures when disturbed .
My friend is recovering well from an operation followed by complications, followed by another operation. It’s to her farm I often go. They’re a musical family and although I haven’t played much music in the last few weeks, the last song written is still being refined.
Now I’m back in the Blue Mountains and back to work. The next group of songs need to be remembered and played until I record later this year.