Beautiful Blogger Awards

Thank you for sending me this Beautiful Blogger Award, Kate. Now, I'm challenged to forward this award to ten more wonderful bloggers. Hmm, I'll have a little think. There are so many to chose from. Okay, here we go, but my computer memory ran out, so could only post seven. Here they are :

Lisa Blandford at A Writers thought.
Alicia J. Frey at Eyes 2 Page An Aspiring Authors Ancedotes.
Crystal at Crystals Bookmark
Alice at The Travelling Crafter
LM Preston at Phenomenalonepress
Noir (L.H). at The Creative Mind
Authorness at Authorness

Velvet Ball And The Broken Fairy

I know this isn't a Molly Gumnut story, but I have to share my inspiration again. I found this strange looking fairy doll in a vintage thrift shop. When I sat her on my desk, she gave me the inspiration to write the fairy story, VELVET BALL AND THE BROKEN FAIRY. Now it's finished. Yay! I'm already sending queries, and I've entered a query competition over at Cornell De Ville's blog. My entry is number eleven. Here is the link:    http://cornelldeville.blogspot.com/2010/04/entry-11.html

Not a Mouse, nor a Rat, but a Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii )

We knew straight away we'd been invaded by critters once more when our blind guinea pig, Boofhead started making his weird gumping sound again.

We suspected more mice in the house, but we couldn't find any. Then, one night, I came home to find what I though was a rat on my kitchen floor. It looked at me, then bolted up the bench and scampered behind the microwave.

Right, I though. I'll set the safe trap and evict it back to the bush. I positioned the two-dollar plastic safe-trap in the kitchen, but I couldn't sleep, so I went to my office to do some editing of my latest manuscript instead. Five minutes later, the furry brown critter joined me. It just sat there in the middle of the room, staring at me. I froze, but stared back at it, then it scurried behind the couch. I jumped up, grabbed the trap from the kitchen, and brought it back to my office. I closed the door and placed the trap in the corner.

I carried on with my writing until I heard a scratching noise behind me. I turned around to see this cheeky little critter, boldly scratching at the door. It was bigger than a mouse, but smaller than a rat. Its head went flat as it tried to squeeze under the door, but it couldn't seem to flatten it enough to get under. I've never seen a mouse or rat with a flat head. (Was it an alien?) Its nose was pointed and it had bulbous brown eyes. Suddenly, it leaped onto the wall and peered over the corner of a bookcase.  Ah, I though. You're a little Antechinus.

If you look closely, you'll see his feet stuck to the brick wall. One way to find out if it was an Antechinus was to to check the big toes on its hind feet. Sure enough, this little creature had five toes on his back feet, but the big toe was shorter with no nail. Also, they have no musty odour like mice. In fact they don't seem to smell at all. Their diet consists of insects, small lizards and berries. They have teeth like a canine, not like a rodent and their ears look kind off frilly. Their poop is long, skinny and black. I think these little critters are Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii.)

So how did he get into our home? We didn't have a clue. We have a full brick house, built by my husband and myself. We thought we'd made it mouse proof. Well, I caught the tiny fellow and took it into the woods, not too far from our house. I wanted to keep it in its own territory. Trouble was, I took my three-year-old grandson too, and when I set the critter free under a bush, it darted out and ran straight up my grandson's leg. He screamed as it bounced of his tummy and leaped onto the trunk of a tree. After calming the toddler, I photographed the animal, and explained to my grandson that it was only a tiny animal and it was scared, just like him. He understood, but then wanted to catch the little fellow, but it ran to the top of the tree.

Since that day, a week ago, I've captured three more antechinus in our house. How they got in, I don't know, but suspect the mother was pregnant. And, from what I've read, the females mate with many males, producing as many as ten babies in one pregnancy. Yipes! And from different fathers too. The babies are carried in an open like pouch, and they cling to their mother's nipples for about eight weeks. Woa!  I caught another one this morning and I'm wondering how long they've been sneaking around our house. Maybe it was an antichinus that cleaned up the spiders from the ceiling, and not my husband after all. Okay, I'm a slack housekeeper, I do write, you know.

It looks like I'll be going on another walk to the big old dam to set the fourth antichinus free in the bush. I hope they don't find their way back to our house. They have flat heads and can squeeze into small gaps.

Please be careful when poisoning mice, you may be accidently poisoning these beautiful, Australian native creatures. They seem so friendly and will come up to your feet and stare at you, as if begging for food. They hated being trapped in a box and seemed so happy when release back to the wild. I feel privileged to have met them. I hope you enjoy the photos on videos.

Looks like I have another Molly Gumnut book to write.

Feel free to leave a comment below.

My inspitations

The inspiration for my Molly Gumnut stories often comes from the wonderful wildlife visiting our garden.

Last year, we planted three jacaranda trees and four crepe myrtles. We love sitting outside and admiring the blue bell blossoms of the jacarandas and the beautiful colours of the crepe myrtles.

One morning, I awoke to a loud barking, coughing sound. When I peered out the bedroom window, I was delighted to see a mob of kangaroos. Two large males were bouncing around the garden, punching and kicking each other, while the other ones stood and watched.

Grinning, I grabbed my digital camera and rushed outside. My smile soon vanished when I found those naughty animals had snapped off a branch of one of the crepe myrtles and, to make matters worse, they had eaten some of the flowers. They had also broken off a large branch of one of our jacaranda trees.

The kangaroos ignored my presence and carried on chasing each other around the lawn, pulling at different bushes.

Oh, well, I thought. I may as well film them and get a few pictures with my camera. There's a Molly story there for sure.

See the video and pictures below:

This is the video of the boxing kangaroos outside our bedroom window. Just click on the link to play the video. If you watch it to the end, you'll see the large kangaroo, standing on his tiptoes in an aggressive manner.:

Here is one of the naughty kangaroos.

Another rascal.

Here is our white-flowering crepe myrtle after the kangaroo attack:

We placed a wire fence around this beautiful crepe myrtle to kepp the rascals away.

Here is the branch that was broken off our white crepe myrtle by the boxing kangaroos:

A Chrismas Surprise

I managed to finish my second Molly Gumnut novel before Christmas and submit it to the big wide world. Yay! (My fingers and toes crossed.)

On Christmas morning I was thrilled to find one of our local wood ducks in our dam with her three ducklings. Her name is Bella and she hangs around our garden with her partner, Bobby. They regularly raid out veggie patch and beg for food. I usually feed them grain, rice or lettuce. They usually have about five ducklings each year, but this year they only have three.

A few weeks ago, I added a scene to my manuscript where Molly sits by her dam and sulks after being grounded by here parents. It was such a thrill to see this scene come alive on Christmas morning. I'll add the scene from my manuscript below with my photos and videos.

Molly gave Kate a sad little smile. "Thanks. I won't get to see Furble anymore. I'm grounded for a whole week and Grandma will probably release him soon." Tears clouded her eyes. Dinner would be ready anytime soon but she didn't feel hungry now. She walked outside and sat on the grass by the dam.

Three fluffy ducklings swam behind their mother in the water. One ventured off by itself. "Watch out!" said Molly. "You'll be grounded for a whole week."

"Come inside, Molly," called her mother from the window.

"Quack!" The mother duck called the stray duckling back, but the fluffy ball ignored her and swam away.

The mother duck flew over to the bank and flapped her wings. "Quack, quack, quack!"

"Molly!" her mother called again.

As Molly scrambled to her feet, the baby duck followed its mother back to the other ducklings.

"That duckling will be grounded for sure," mumbled Molly on her way indoors.