Turtle tales

During the recent rain, David was driving back from Yass when he came across a snake-necked turtle crossing the road. David must have a turtle as his totem as he seems to see them when no-one else would even notice them. He stopped to help it across the road and found it had been damaged, presumably by a car, and had a back leg bleeding and a cracked shell. He picked it up carefully (turtles have a nasty habit of excreting the most foul-smelling fluid from their musk glands when they are disturbed) and brought it home for some TLC. Frequent bathings with antiseptic cleaned up the wound and disinfected the shell and a few days later turtle was walking quite briskly on the grass and looking very bright eyed (if not exactly bushy-tailed). David and Phil took him down to the dam and released him in the bushes nearby and he promptly headed for the water. We know there are other turtles in the dam so hopefully he will adjust fairly readily to his new environment.
The turtle experience had me wondering what kind of things snake-necked turtles like to eat, so I trawled the internet and came across some interesting information. Chelodina longicolli, to give them their proper name, are mostly carnivores, and will eat worms, mosquito larvae, fish, snails and red meat. The difference between a turtle and a tortoise is that a tortoise lives on land, and eats vegetation. A snake necked turtle, on the other hand, is mostly a carnivore and will only eat when submerged in the water. You can apparently tell the difference between a male and a female turtle by the length of their tail and the shape of the back of their shell. Males have a longer tail while females are generally bigger. If you are lucky enough to see a few turtles together, it’s handy to know that the collective noun for a group of these aquatic creatures is ‘a bale of turtles’. An even more interesting piece of trivia is the little known fact that some turtles can breathe underwater through their bottoms, especially during hibernation. Fascinating trick. Must remember to mention that at the next dinner party when there's a lull in the conversation!

Frog heaven

After the Herb Sale we had several days of solid rain. Frogs moved into the pond out the front, the bath on the deck (see photo of water lilies in the bath) and in any other puddle they could possibly find. Above the noise of steady rain we could hear the deafening chorus of frogs – at least three distinct frog calls at any time. At night, the noise of frogs was so loud that it was hard to even hear the television above the sounds of frogs in a mating frenzy. The pond was soon covered with frothy film (see photo of frog spawn) so it looks like we’ll be seeing more tadpoles soon. At least the brown snake that lives out the front near the pond should be happy with the new arrivals. One summer we had a red-bellied black snake chase a frog up onto the deck (climbing four steps to get there). The frog took refuge in a gum boot and the snake was lying in wait outside the kitchen door when David went outside. Obviously frogs have a considerable appeal to snakes so we may be seeing more of both species this summer.

Post Plant Sale Comments

The Herb and Plant Sale was a great success, despite the fact that Sunday rained steadily all day. People still arrived in raincoats and umbrellas: some were even repeat customers from the day before!

With the help of family and friends, we sold a lot of plants but there are still more to go. We may have another sale on another weekend but November is looking pretty busy with other commitments at the moment so it may have to wait. I am using this blog site to direct people to a list of plants still available (see Post headed Plant Sale Sat 28th/Sun 29th October 2005) . If you are interested in any purchases, just email us at highlandwayherbfarm@gmail.com.