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Book / 15.12.2019

The book has been available on my website for several weeks, but at present paypal will only allow me to sell the book in Australia, so I am herewith uploading a somewhat belated launch post.  My web developer is yet to confirm if and how the restriction can be overcome.

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Book / 15.12.2019

BEFORE 2010

It was apparently during my 2006 visit to the UK, less than a year after the initial publication of the archive in late 2005, when I was staying with Clive, that we came up with the idea of a book and made notes about its scope and presentation. We visited bookshops and wrote down the dimensions of illustrated volumes with a likely-looking format. In 2008, Clive produced a Preliminary Draft Synopsis, which I still have, together with a list of natural history publishers I gleaned from a visit to Waterstone’s in Leeds.

2010

The year was pivotal. Angela McKinstry, a graphic artist who designed the DVD covers and locations map for the 2005 published archive, designed and printed a mock-up of the book in 2010. The title was ‘One small place on earth …’. There was no subtitle. Later that year Jan Watson, the book’s designer, produced a design template which has been followed for the published book. By then there was a subtitle – ‘Celebrating biodiversity where you are’. At some point thereafter, Clive came up with the transformative improvement ‘discovering’ biodiversity.

2017

In 2012 Steve and his wife Paulina, dumbfounded… Read Complete Text

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Other / 10.12.2019

On my walk this morning I was startled by a crashing sound. Looking around I just caught sight of a kookaburra smashing into a hedge, emerging with a small, dark snake, wriggling in its beak. The bird flew onto a tree branch a short distance away, where I was able to observe it for several minutes. The snake tried to wrap itself around the bird’s head while held in the vice-like grip of the very large beak which is a distinguishing feature of the species. I eventually saw that the victim was a juvenile green tree snake. Adults can grow to a length of two metres. The bird suddenly flew to the ground in the garden next door, the better to overpower the snake by bashing it on the hard surface of the car port.

 

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Book / 05.12.2019

Four months to the day after the books were delivered to the storage unit, we shifted another 24 boxes to my hall cupboard this afternoon. It is gratifying when things go according to plan. We each made 8 trips from car to cupboard. Handyman Brian carrying two boxes at a time to my one. I’m just off to replace the book I borrowed from the post office at North Tamborine.

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Book / 03.12.2019

I got an email from a resident who wants a book which she would like me to sign, as a present for her partner, agreeing to meet me in the library tomorrow morning. Normally I would have dropped the book off at her home. Because I have temporarily run out of books, I dashed into the post office at North Tamborine and ‘borrowed’ one of the books I delivered yesterday, vowing to replace it on Friday, all being well.

 

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Other / 03.12.2019

As I set out on my morning walk, a fallen bunya pine cone stood out on the grass of the park opposite my unit. Just an hour before, for the first time in months, the grass had been cut. Otherwise the cone, large as it is, would not have been as visible. I have never known a cone to fall in December. Usually on the mountain, they fall in the second half of January and in February. A group of bunya pines graces the side of the road further along my route. Two of the trees grow on each side of a drive at whose entrance the property owner was adjusting a shade cloth. I told her about the cone in the park and she showed me three which she had found this morning. A very fierce wind blew all yesterday, which may have dislodged the cones. There are several other bunya pine trees in the park, yet I only saw the one cone. Because we are enduring a severe drought, all the vegetation is stressed. The trees are shedding leaves as never before and I suspect that is why the bunya pines have shed cones early in December…. Read Complete Text

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Book / 02.12.2019

When the books arrived on the mountain from China, I was relieved to discover that I could store 24 boxes of 10 books, in my hall cupboard. Today, I delivered the last box, containing six books, to a mountain customer. I am now, unexpectedly, left with no books for sale. The plan is for a handyman I know, who is as strong as an ox, to help bring another 24 boxes from the storage unit, on Friday. He doesn’t get here from Tasmania until Wednesday.

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Book / 16.11.2019

At a housewarming today, I caught up with a delightful Cornish man I have not seen for many years since he left the mountain. He had been shown my book by our hosts and wanted to buy two copies. One copy was for his sister’s two-year old grandson Miles, who lives in Cornwall. This is the second copy I know of, which was bought for a child. A third copy was bought with children in mind. These purchases echo a point I made in the introduction. “The book’s illustrations are ideal for children to explore or be shown, in short, they are for people of all ages to savour”. It is extremely gratifying to have this point borne out.

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Book / 13.11.2019

As expected, local sales, though not necessarily to tourists visiting the mountain, are the mainstay of my book sales. However, sales to libraries are clocking up, helped by the fact that their remit includes supporting Australian authors. I have contacted libraries along the Queensland coast – as a local author in South East Queensland and as a South East Queensland author elsewhere in the state. The library in Mount Isa, which is close to the Northern Territory border, has ordered a copy. Subsequently, I have contacted libraries in New South Wales to whom I describe myself as an Australian author, and today I received my first order from over the border. An advantage in selling my book to libraries is the multiple readership per copy.

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Film Diary / 21.10.2019

Passing the garage on my walk this morning, I noticed a geometrid moth on one of the window panes. On closer inspection it was a species already represented in my album. However, there were numerous, unfamiliar smaller moths. Fortunately I had my camera with me to photograph a splendid foliose lichen on the trunk of a cycad I happened to see yesterday. One of the moths was tiny. I photographed it at 6 or 7 times optical zoom. I have emailed the lot to Peter Hendry and am eager to see what he comes up with. I can’t explain what brought the moths out last night because there was no rain.