When I in Awesome Wonder

Standley Chasm will speak for itself in the following post. I will but introduce it/her.

Ida Standley was the first school teacher in Alice Springs. That was in1914. She was hired to teach the children of European descent, but took it on herself to also teach the mixed-race Aboriginal children who happened to be taken from their parents by the government and housed in "The Bungalo" -a corrugated iron shed.
She would teach the white children in the mornings and the half-caste children in the afternoons. She was also made matron of The Bungalo where she supervised up to 63 children from infants to age sixteen, all night.
She was about my age when she got here and, understandably, about dead when she left.
Her last year here was spent in a tent at Jay Creek (about 30K from Alice) overseeing an Aboriginal school being built. She was about 60 then.
She was the first whitefella to see Standley Chasm and I bet she said, "WOW."

Standley Chasm is like a standing ovation for God. They say it is its most spectacular an hour either side of noon. We were there about 3-4 p.m. Had it been any more spectacular, we would all be unconscious.

It is unusually moist and drippy with ferns and cool, shady hollows all along a small stream.
There are cycads. Those are the plants that look like someone lopped the top off a palm tree and stuck it in the ground; only they're much stiffer than palms and are so ancient, dinosaurs ate them.

I'll be quiet now and let you look at the pictures. I needed to upload them tonight as we leave for 8 days in Canberra (CAN-bruh) and Sydney tomorrow morning. I'm sure we'll have lots more to share after that. It's our first trip away since we got here last August. This will be good.

At the Alice Airport...

Thomas knows he has to carry his microscope with two hands because it cost fifty dollars.

NASA (et al) trust a balloon made of plastic wrap and a hired crane to carry a bajillion dollars of telescope equipment.

Wait till their mothers find out!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG8YLHiG_ZI&feature=related

P.S. That's a guy Tom works with running for his life.

Nothing says, "Christ has Risen!" like a bandicoot

Hmmm, almost May. Let's see what the camera has in it... Oh, Easter!Like Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc. the Aussies don't decorate nor make near as much of a hoo-haw of holidays as we Yanks tend to. So the Yanks cluster in our own groups and hoo and haw privately. There was a fun party with egg dying and egg hunting organized by Tom's boss. I brought red beet eggs. All the usual Easter foods were there as well, except Kowalaneck's keilbassi. It was a nice, family-style day.
Thomas will forever remember it as the day he got his ShamWow; a gift from friends there. He spent the rest of the party making and sopping up spills (outside). You following me Camera Guy?

The greater version of Tom's work organized a super-duper Easter fest

with egg gathering (I can't call them "hunts" since no eggs are ever hidden but rather tossed on the ground to be grabbed up as fast as possible by the participants), cake walk, games, bunnies to pet, thousands of flies, the ubiquitous sausage sizzle, a guy losing pounds of sweat in a bunny costume, face painting, crafts and American CANDY! I didn't realize I missed Reese's peanut butter cups till then.

Easter morning, we found our basket full of toys and treats including, "the biggest bowl of jelly beans ever!"We're not sure if the Easter Bilby (see above) or the Easter Bunny left them.
Bilbies are a small bandicoot which once roamed the sands of Alice but kinda got eaten by feral house cats. Since introduced rabbits are also a huge problem in Australia, the bilby has a force of people behind it to make it the symbol of Easter in Oz.
There was a partially chewed carrot on the table. We all know bunnies enjoy a nice carrot, but bilbies also are known to eat bulbs and roots, so it remains speculation. The bilby gains a bit of an edge being native and possessing a handy pouch.
I also got a chocolate wombat, but that's another story.

We had planned to go to Glen Helen Resort / waterhole for Easter dinner after church, but decided to come home, play with our toys and have steaks on the grill.

I did not expect the steaks to be so appropriately shaped. Pretty cool, huh?

Re: the baked beans - it was one of the prizes in our home egg hunt. Thomas LOVES baked beans. He couldn't believe he won a whole can.
Easter Monday is a holiday here as is Good Friday. In fact, more places (Kmart, Target, grocery stores) were closed Good Friday than Easter Sunday.
School was on fall break for three weeks following Easter. I'll try to remember what we did.

I Love a Rainy Night

In truth, last month's frog hunt is a distant memory. Through the magic of down-loadable digital images... you'll never know it!
Thomas and I went on a frog hunt to Simpson's Gap organized by the Alice Springs Field Naturalists Club- the "Field Nats." The evening's entertainment was to include a barbecue, as most events do here, but it was a rare rainy day, so we hoped for a clear-up and drove out (c. 10K) for the walk only.
Tom had to go to a boring old party at a restaurant, so couldn't be out dripping, slogging through puddles and wiping the rain out of his eyes with us. Poor Tom.
With the weather hitting 115 a couple times that week and my skin starting to crack at the edges, I stepped out into welcome, cool rain.
Thomas, not having the B.M.I. of a 46 year-old woman, was freezing. My over-sized swimming shirt was all I could scrounge from the trunk.



There were about four other eco-hags, a couple guests thereof and the lovely 8 year-old Ainsley for Thomas to pal around with and impress with his "red flashlight that the frogs can't see."

Straight from the parking lot, there were masses of frogs. All along the sandy trail to the waterhole, tiny dots and dashes leapt from the pathway. It was hard to see them before they escaped and we were getting frustrated. No worries! Nearer the waterhole was frog central. We saw the burrowing frog un-burrowing up through the sand by the hundreds. Some were pettable. It stopped raining.



The rock walls of the gap were home to the (cute, green, sticky) Gillen Tree Frog - a species only found right around Alice Springs. Really, how could they be expected to travel? - open desert not being ideal for frog dispersal.



Unlike the tadpoles I'm used to in the US, some of these guys (and gals) go from egg to adult form in as little as 3 weeks. You have to work fast to be an amphibian in Alice Springs.


Thomas's bug container with built-in magnifying glasses was a hit with the Field Nats, if not with the frogs. Thanks again Feliecia!


The puddles around the larger waterhole were alive with other creatures, too. This centipede was about 9 inches long. I wanted to stick my foot in the picture for a reference, but I didn't really want my toes that close to his pinchers!

The water scorpions were neat too, but not photogenic. They breathe through a snorkel tube that comes from their butt, can pinch hard and occasionally fly.

Someone else found a leech.

You know, lots of tourists swim in these waterholes. If they only knew...


We returned to our car about an hour later, soggy and satisfied. I'm told one species of frog's call sounds just like a sheep bleating and you can hear hundreds at a time. We're going to have to go back.

"Caught between a naturalist and a hard place."

We Have Lift-off!

Concentration. Determination.
Knee-pads, elbow-pads, Spiderman shorts, helmet AND a really cool horn;
but no, Nb. NO TRAINING WHEELS!!

just... black

I love iced coffee. The Australians love iced coffee and it is everywhere - vending machines, gas stations; even in 2-litre jugs in the grocery store fridge case. Ironically, it is milky, thin, sweet, dull, flat lousy!
From a cafe, iced coffee automatically comes with cream and sugar and a dollop of ice cream on top. Well, sometimes a girl wants/needs a straight-up, bitter, shot in the arm,(non-alcoholic) icy cold beverage!
This morning, I asked at said cafe:
"Can you make black iced coffee?"
Slightly stunned girl to older woman making coffee:"Can we make black iced coffee?"
Woman:"Sure."
Girl to me:"Ok, it'll just be a few minutes. You still want the cream, sugar and ice cream in it, right? Cuz it's all mixed up in jugs."
Me, patronizingly but friendly: "Then it wouldn't be black, would it?"
Girl and older woman have muffled conversation.
Woman:"You want what?"
Me:"Just a black iced coffee."
Woman:"You want it made with water?"
Me (knowing this is looking less than hopeful) "Just like a long black, but over ice."
Woman: "I can make a long black, but it won't be cold. We don't have ice."
Me, still smiling and nodding, thanking and walking away.

Now when she said, "Sure." What would I have gotten?


Next up - Frog Hunt Night

Any Given Sunday

We haven't been anywhere lately to tell you about, so here is a recount of...(brrrrrrrrrrrr-cha!)
"The AMAZING Cicada Project!!"

I knew Sunday would be a great day because there was a fish on the driveway. Thomas added the dorsal fin; otherwise, it was a natural occurrence. Huh.

Later, whilst hanging out clothes (I know... Sunday... Don't tell any of my baptists buddies), I saw a cicada molting right there on the side of the house. Called Tom and Thomas. Of course, Thomas wanted to keep it. He's always had a thing for cicadas, but then, who doesn't?!? Right? ....right?

The research team assembled their collection tools:
1. old butterfly house packed for just such occasions (thanks Feliecia),
2. soft washcloth to prevent sliding about.
The research assistant wisely pointed out that our house was recently sprayed by the exterminator (potentially deadly and very painful spiders have temporarily changed my view on pesticides, OK?) and pyrethrin works through insects' feet. We had to make sure our specimen didn't crawl on the wall OF DEATH!
The research staff tread a fine line - wait until the subject's exoskeleton had hardened so as not to smush it, but not so long as to allow it to walk off its shell and toxify its entire system! The litter of dead grasshopper bodies on the sidewalk rattled forebodingly.
The delicate transfer from brick to washcloth was successful. Phew!
The newly-molted adult cicada was gently dropped inside and spirited away to the research facility for observation.
Over a period of about an hour, it slowly tuned from pinkish-white to beautiful black and yellow with a prominent McDonald's logo on its head. The research assistant lay on the spare bed and watched the whole time. Meanwhile, the head scientist Googled captive cicada requirements.
1. You can't feed them. They need flowing sap.
2. They live 6 or so years underground but only about a week above ground, so let them go mate.
3. There are about 220 species in Australia and none are listed as sporting a McDonald's logo; obviously a new species.

While observing "her" (males buzz and she didn't) in the facility's semi-sterile flight cage (bathroom), I noticed she had kind eyes. All five of them. In fact, she was quite cooperative and patient through our entire study.
The team decided potential benefits to the educational community outweighed the risk of one hungry (thirsty?) McCicada and shared her with the class on Monday. The research assistant noticed her eyes had turned from black to red by that time.

Two fellow scientist visited the research facility later Monday to eat chicken nuggets, play race cars, and release the specimen who, with a quick good-bye, flew off to her new life (music up, lights up, applause amid hurriedly brushing away tears).

Since cicadas neither bite nor sting and do very limited damage to their host trees, thumbs up for the kind, cooperative, patient cicada. What's not to love?