Total lunar eclipse

Total lunar eclipse
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

Having access to Technoboy's incredible array of camera lenses really helped in getting this shot of last night's total lunar eclipse, although I discovered it was quite hard to strike a balance between getting a long enough exposure to capture the detail without getting too much blurring from the Moon's movement across the sky. Still, at least the colour comes through. I was tempted to let off a blood-curdling howl at the moment when the Moon become fully-eclipsed, but resisted it.

Brown antechinus

Brown antechinus
Originally uploaded by Mistress B

Our friends Robyn and Rolley managed to catch one of the antechinus that inhabit their home and bring it over for us to take a look. These little marsupials have a very unusual life cycle. Their mating season happens once a year, around August in the Blue Mountains, the males race around trying to copulate with every female in sight (when they succeed it takes around six hours), then after a couple of weeks of this all the males drop dead from exhaustion ... literally. All the males die. Talk about going out with a bang.

Gorgeous floors

What a transformation! Yalla and Jonathan from Mountain View Floor Sanding have been hard at work sanding and polishing our downstairs floor with an environmentally-responsible, plant-based floor oil called Livos. It looks and feels amazing!

Me on air

Just in case you haven't heard enough of my dulcet tones, one of my regular radio gigs for New Scientist has started podcasting their broadcasts. The station is Kiwi FM in New Zealand, the host is a very funny guy called Wammo, and here's the latest interview. It isn't my best work (sleepy cold morning) but there you have it.

To love and obey

Phil, my soon-to-be husband, has just reminded me that it's only a month and a half until we are united, from which point on I'll have to do what he tells me ...
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! GASP! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
.... ohhh, I haven't laughed that hard in ages. Thanks honey. Love ya work.

Renovations nearly finished

The day is fast approaching when this room will be completed and our first guests will be able to have a loo all to themselves. What a treat.
After a week of fairly intensive painting, we've managed to get all surfaces looking lovely. This was my first experience of home painting, so I found it all rather exciting. The novelty wore off pretty quickly - in fact I think it was shortly after the THIRD coat of gloss that I had put on the effing door trim. I've managed to get paint on just about everything, including the inside of my mouth (don't ask - it took great skill), but it's ready for the sparkies to put in light fittings, and the floor sanders to get rid of all the plaster marks and burnish the beautiful Aussie timber floors to a high shine.
Can't wait! We'll have to have a room-warming party.