Spring, ducklings, fishing, and the return of an enemy!

Driving around the neighbourhood I can spot blossoms on the many fruit trees. That can mean only one thing... my trees are duds! Well that is actually not true - when my parents stayed they bought me a few fruit trees. These trees were planted in a paddock and my goal was to only allow the sheep into that paddock. Sheep don't eat trees... do they? Well yes they do and I am left with sticks in a grass paddock. Hopefully the new warmer weather will allow the trees to sprout some leaves so I can transplant them to a safer spot. But as in an earlier post - I found some fruit trees hidden amongst some long grass in a forgotten paddock. So I trimmed and fertilised them a few months ago, and behold I have some blossoms on my mulberry tree. I also noticed some on my Lemonade tree. So perhaps I will have some fruit - not a lot though.

The Dam while I was burning off

Finally we went fishing in our biggest dam. The neighbour came down with a few fishing rods, worms, and handlines. "There has to be something in here" everyone agreed. A few beers later, we were still waiting for even a nibble. Someone then said "There has to be at least eels here" FAIL! Nothing the whole fishing trip but we decided some fish could be bought and released into the dam so we fish anytime we like. We might not have caught anything but we did see some ducklings and a Long Necked Turtle.

Long Necked Turtle - not one of ours

Towards the end of the fishing trip Myles went to a more deserted part of the dam with a handline. After 20minutes he suddenly stood up, looked slightly white, and swore. The neighbour and I yelled across the dam asking him what the matter was. Myles didn't answer but had the 'frightened' look on his face. Finally he came back down to plant Earth and let us know a Red Belly Black snake had moved close to him. We thanked him for finally letting us know the situation and commented that he wouldn't be very good at communicating in a disaster situation <note sarcasm>. We packed up the fishing gear and left for the afternoon with nothing.

Red Belly Black - again not that one we saw

While putting some tools away we noticed a fresh snake skin next to our car - oh joy!

Myles and I lit a bonfire and the neighbour came back down to help clean-up the piles of branches for the fire. Many many many beers later our neighbour struggled to get up the hill to his house to eat dinner ready for his wife.

So Spring is here and so are the snakes. The only good thing is my garden is now ready to plant tomatoes, basil, and zucchini.