Beautiful doco on ABC Radio National last night, about the descendants of Afghan cameleers and Aborigines. When there was no water to wash themselves before their prayers, Afghan hawkers out in the desert washed their hands in the sand. Afterwards, I spent too long on the internet looking up Cameleers and Astrolabe. And found a site which explained how much clouds weigh & explored whether anyone had ever had sex in space (no-one has ever admitted it). Would an ordinary Afghan hawker have had an astrolabe packed somewhere in his camel-pack? Probably not.

Local flora observations: Just planted pansies in the front garden, watched by Bertie through the bedroom window.

Local fauna observations: Steve going round with the wheelie bin picking up the bits of mattress in the back yard. Steve said, “Bertie’s mattress is like the loaves & fishes, it just keeps expanding.” I said, “I must make him a mattress cover.” There’s a sign on a telegraph pole in Brilliant Street: “I have lost a pure black cat with green eyes, answers to the name Salem.”