Saturday Soiree - all welcome!!

Well I guess it's all relative @TAB - much drier here than in the Top End. Officially a temperate zone here, so I guess arid wasn't correct. No matter 🙂

Yes @Shaz51 stats show it's reaching higher maximums across Australia every year. Climate change is a thing.

I need to do something offline for a while. I'll be back later for sure.

Yep, we live on the most Arid Continent on the planet (officially).

Most of Australia is either Desert, or semi-Arid.

Only the coastal fringe of the continent is (semi) fertile land.

We have the 2nd largest Desert in the world.

African Sahara Desert is slightly bigger than the Simpson Desert - but Africa has much more tropical Rainforest (& fertile land) than Australia does.

Adge

@Adge you are a mine of information, a fountain of knowledge!

Wondering if anyone's around now?

I went and had soup for lunch then a wash and watched Vera (english mystery) on tv and also had a lovely hot cross bun made by my sil. Then a wee nap.

Discovered my first ever thread I started on here from September 2014 and read back through it. It was really good to realise how much more stable I am now in terms of the bipolar 1. And that I've learned a lot more about self-management and self-care since then. It's called bipolar mania onset if anyone is interested in that topic.

Amazing to think I've been on the forums (except for a few short breaks when I travelled and when I relocated here and had no computer for a couple of months) for 5 1/2 years!! And it still benefits me as much as it always has. Thanks to all who have been part of the journey. There's a few of you I know have been here all that time too. @Teej @Mazarita @Appleblossom @Bunniekins @Faith-and-Hope and @Shaz51 I think. If I've missed anyone you know who you are - give me a shout out sometime.

Thanks @eth I researched it all carefully, over several decades - mostly from books (not internet), then personal experience.

The same with plants - I learned from being asked tough questions by customers, in the retail nursery.

I used to be able to identify virtually any plant that I saw (Genus & species).

My plant ID skills are slipping terribly - from not working in Horticulture (past 8 years), & lack of on-going practice.

Adge

Hear you there re slipping knowledge @Adge I trained as a herbalist in botanical medicine and also had an ethnobotanical market business for a few years and learned to identify a lot of native plants used for indigenous medicine but these days ..... have to look things up and double check what I do remember and frequently what I don't.

Yes it's rather disconcerting, isn't it @eth?

To know that you used to know that (& were confident), yet don't know it anymore (or are not sure).

Adge

These birds are lovely @Shaz51

It's the Orange-Breasted Waxbill (another Waxbill).

They're the smallest seed-eating bird in the world (from Africa).

I used to keep them, they really tiny....