Breaking Fast

And they are indeed fast. ;-)

Here's another Eastern Spinebill - this time in the middle of its breakfast. I had gone outside to plant a few herbs, but little wings whipped past me with a FFFRRRRRRRR, and looking up I saw three or four little Spinebills flitting about in this tree, supping from the flowers. I ran back inside, switched lenses, and hooned back out. The camera was initially having a very hard time trying to focus - and I had no more success manually. Finally however, it did get a bird in focus, and I went SNAPSNAPSNAPSNAPSNAP.... This is my favourite of the shots I got, as you can still its beady little red eye, but it has its head twisted around and its beak inside the flower eating.

Look at it in large here.

I put a few more in my "Birds" set on Flickr.

Kids' swimming lesson this morning, and something of a lazy day. Miss 7 was showing me her "How to Draw Dinosaurs" book, but she doesn't like making mistakes, so there was a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then she and her brother sat down to watch Ninjago, or Ben 10 or summat.

This afternoon I set about de-DRMing and converting to ePub all the latest books I've bought from Amazon. The buggers don't make it easy. I emphasise: I bought these books. With money. My money. They are now my books, yesno? That's in fact not what you might think: the licensing agreement says you buy a license to use the file, which is clearly different from owning a copy of a book. Anyway, with a bit of jiggery-pokery, I do in fact own copies of these eBooks, as well as all the others I've bought (I mean, rented licenses to use...).

Last night's dinner was fanTASmic - as it always is at Michaelangelo's in Blaxland. Found out something interesting too: the chef there is 75 (which would explain why what they refer to as "busy" is much less so compared to other restaurants), and learnt his trade cooking for the Italian military. Almost a reason to join the army. xP Absolutely outstanding. Their bruschetta is always brilliant, but last night's was incredible! The tomatoes were from his own garden, and tasted like he had picked them five minutes before serving them. Dinner was amazing, and the tiramisu ... OMG. Best ever. Anywhere.

And now: here comes the rain. Lawns mowed just in time. ;-)