Today I emailed a dozen literary agents, 10 of them in London, one in Brisbane and one in Melbourne, asking if they would consider my book “One small place on earth… Celebrating Biodiversity Where You Are”.
In seeking to submit my latest article for the Brisbane Line, I contacted Martin Leet only for him to tell me that he is no longer the editor. He referred me to Karyn Brinkley, the CEO of the Brisbane Institute, who has taken over from him. I phoned Karyn and we had a cordial conversation, of which the upshot is that I today submitted the article.
Have been regularly filming moths on the garage, but today was surprised to see 3 Emperor moths, Syntherata Janetta close together. They are a large, impressive moth. The previous example of the species I filmed, was in December. She was laying eggs in what seemed a most unsuitable place – on the garage’s side wall.
Received an email from Jeremy Deller, whom I contacted after reading a Guardian Weekly article about him, asking if we might meet during my stay in London. He requested me to email him when I’m in town.
Every other year I like to undertake a UK/Europe trip. After mulling over possible dates, I opted to get the whole thing over and done with between the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. This meant travelling earlier in the year than I prefer which unfortunately also meant no return visit to stay with Herbert and Gil Distel near Vienna. Today, my trip took more solid shape with confirmation that my deposit for my London accommodation had been received.
Night filming 65, with Dan and Jaap and his partner Louise. This was Jaap’s last night shoot for the foreseeable future, because he and Louise have embarked on their journey of discovery around Australia aboard their converted bus. In honour of Jaap giving me his spotlight when he left the mountain last September I ordered a new reflector which Mark expertly fitted the other day. I filmed a beetle, an ants nest in a hollow log, a Net-casting spider with its net beautifully spread to engulf unsuspecting prey crawling beneath it and an Earth Star fungus. Normally I don’t film fungi at night, but Earth Stars are short-lived.
In addition to my ongoing email exchange with Anna about the Light/Sound Workshop, I have had a brief exchange with Ian Helliwell, who is interested in the history of electronic music in Britain and wanted to know about the musical component of LSW. Based on an essay about LSW I wrote for my degree, I told Ian that we made contact with the BBC’s radiophonic workshop and that the sound component was only addressed when we devised a demonstration or performance.
For reasons I do not wish to go into, John’s visit was not a success. Unfortunately we did not really hit it off. I was able to show John a fair variety of local fauna and flora on the mountain and in some of the adjacent World Heritage Areas. We also did a rainforest night walk. One regularly hears of internet ‘friendships’ which fail the test of meeting in the flesh. I did not think this would happen to me.
The second and concluding day of filming a nest of Black-faced Monarchs from the deck of a high-set house which resulted in the camera being just slightly below nest level. Two adults kept busy feeding 3 chicks. Yesterday I briefly filmed a Grey Goshawk on a nearby tree, possibly one of the fledglings from the nest I filmed last November.