Christmas Beetles

Christmas in Australia means many things. It's warm and sunny for a start. Well except for this year, which was wet and coolish on the East Coast. Still, great weather for bubbles. No white christmases for us.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas beetles though. They're a familiar sight, attracted by the lights on the verandahs of our nation. There's lots around this year. Although it seems that they may be on the decline. That would be very sad.

In a wonderful moment of serendipity Peter Goldsworthy talked of Christmas Beetles in his memoir His Stupid Boyhood (review to come tomorrow) that I read recently. And naturally he writes about them more beautifully than I ever could.

Luckily, Christmas came early in the Year of the Beetle, bringing swarms of green and gold iridescent scarabs that crowded the windows and streetlights after the first summer thunderstorms. Dozens went into the oubliette of my killing jar, whence they were taken to be pinned out on plywood mounting boards, each in the gilt sarcophagus of itself. 

Everything is more cool if you google it. Even Christmas Beetles. There are 36 species of Christmas Beetles! And I thought there was only one. Now I have no idea which species we have here. Maybe Anoplognathus pallidicollis?

Real Aussies are never afraid to pick up stuff like beetles

They're beautiful when you look at them up close

Over the last few years I've been noticing where they really come from. And what they really do.

Take a walk in pretty much any park.

Watch out for crunchy dirt on the path
I suspect it's beetle poo, but don't know

And look up
You'll see them flying about

And then notice them in the tree

They literally shred the leaves, especially the newer growth

But be sure to keep an eye out for some other native friends at the same time. Birds are still more exciting than beetles, despite my deep and abiding passion for Christmas Beetles. 

Blue faced honeyeater
(Entomyzon cyanotis)

I've yet to see any birds feeding on Christmas Beetles, but something must eat them. Ah, it seems at least Crimson Rosellas do!

Merry Christmas.

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme now hosted by WestMetroMommy

Billionaire Boy

I'm so glad that I picked up Billionaire Boy one day recently on a whim. Sometimes you need a little morsel to read between other books. Something light, cheery and funny. I picked up Billionaire Boy hoping it would be all those things. It certainly was. And more, much more.

I read David Walliams' first book, The Boy in the Dress, a few months ago, and quite liked it.  Even though each of Walliams' six books are a separate story, I'm OCD enough that I was planning on reading them in sequence, to see his progression as a writer. But I didn't have access to his second book, Mr Stink, today. Billionaire Boy is his third book. And I absolutely loved it, despite reading it out of sequence.

There are many similar elements to The Boy in the Dress actually. More toilet paper, more mean teachers with silly names, more loneliness, more bullies and schoolyard trials. Joe Spud is a 12 year old boy whose father has made his fortune in double sided toilet paper, which of course leads the way to much toilet paper and bum humour. Some of it is actually pretty funny.

But Joe is a lonely boy. He's quite fat and rather miserable at St Cuthbert's School for Boys, the most expensive school in England. He is teased and taunted because of his father's new money.

Most of the boys at Joe's school were Princes, or at least Dukes or Earls. Their families had made their fortunes from owning lots of land. That made them 'old money'. Joe had come to learn that money was only worth having if it was old. New money from selling loo rolls didn't count. 

There are marvellous lists scattered throughout Billionaire Boy. Joe's school timetable at St Cuthbert's, which runs over several pages, has some marvellous jokes for the adults.

Competition to see who is best friends with Prince Harry
History of wearing corduroy
A lecture on how to talk loudly in restaurants
Punting

There are some very Dahl-esque swear words (Walliams has been proclaimed as the successor to Dahl). Perhaps some of  the most comical moments come from Mrs Trafe, the school lunch lady, and her rather abominable menu. Badger and onion pie, dandruff risotto, or deep fried Blu-tack for the vegetarians. Wonderful gross humour for the prepubescent set. Perhaps David Walliams supports Jamie Oliver's work on school lunches? Perhaps it's just a great source of humour and grossness?

Billionaire Boy is a marvellous book. Funny. Gross. But with an important heart. David Walliams is teaching us that money can't buy us love, or indeed happiness. I think that Walliams doesn't quite have some of the malevolence of Dahl, but he certainly is a worthy successor. Quentin Blake illustrated David Walliams first two books, Tony Ross takes up the job with Billionaire Boy. The illustrations are marvellous, and the graphs of purple bottoms are outstanding. I'll be reading more David Walliams, soon.

April 2019 update: I've just listened to the audiobook of Billionaire Boy as preparation for seeing the stage show shortly. I was a bit anxious about revisiting this, still my favourite Walliams book. Would I still love it? Yep. I sure did. David Walliams does the narration and makes use of all his wonderful voices and characters. 

I had forgotten a lot of the later plot action, but remembered the first third of the book quite well. I laughed out loud many times. 

The Tomorrow Book

I read The Tomorrow Book to celebrate last months big, big news that Jackie French will be Australia's next Children's Laureate. Actually I'd already borrowed it from the library before I news came through, as it's always tempting when I see a new Jackie French book on the shelf. Her output is truly vast, and I'd not seen this one before, but even I can manage to sneak in reading another new picture book.

The Tomorrow Book is fantastic! A wonderful book full of hope, passion and zest for life- just like Jackie French.

A little prince loves books. Being a prince he has lots of books, and is a big reader.

But our little prince is an optimist.

He helps out the other kids with their problems, in cool, imaginative, environmentally friendly ways.

There is a strong environmental theme to The Tomorrow Book, but it manages to be fun without being preachy. Jackie French wrote a fabulous Author's Note at the end of the book. It's inspiring.

Our streets, schools and parks could be filled with fruit for anyone to pick, and also be used for markets where neighbours could swap produce and things they no longer need. Our tall buildings could have wildlife sanctuaries on their rooftops, and birds nesting in the vines growing on their walls. Every house could 'condense' moisture from the air to be used to cool or warm the house, as well as for chooks and veggies in the backyard. 

Sue Degennaro's Illustrators Note is fascinating too. I wish picture books always included a note about how the illustrations were made, or their inspiration.

The illustrations in this book were all created from recycled materials. I limited myself to paper found only within the confines of my house. Each image is made up of a collection of packaging found in my kitchen cupboards, such as tea bags, flour packets and match-boxes. I've also used traces of envelopes from mail delivered to my house. Other pieces of paper I collected years ago and have held onto, along with stray cards from a playing deck. 

AWWC 2013

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish. I've been a rather infrequent Top Tenner for some time. Most of the time I don't have time to participate, but occasionally I manage to check out the schedule before hand and get myself organised. This makes two weeks in a row!

I'm trying to tone down the book acquisitions, mainly due to the overflowing bookshelves filled with books that I haven't read yet. Still there are so many new books all the time that I want to read. I often give away books now once I've read to help this process- to the local library, local schools, or Lifeline for their fund-raising book fairs. 

Still I would be very happy to unwrap any of these gems.

I haven't read John Green yet.
I must fix that.

I've heard so much about this one.

I can never get through really thick doorstoppers
read from the library in time.
I'm too slow a reader, but I know it would sit
on the shelf a long time before I can get to it.

Another doorstopper.
I loved The Secret History so much.
I'm intrigued by this one. 

Although I haven't read The Casual Vacancy yet

Walliams is a genius, I want to read them all.
I will read them all. 

Rainbow Rowell was everywhere on
last weeks Top Ten New Authors lists

I've heard so many good things about this one
It sounds intriguing.

My Paris shelf definitely needs this one

There's always more to know about Paris

I do have to get better at reading books that were presents. I don't always get them read, and so Mr Wicker is reluctant to buy me books. I have to fix that. 

Merry Christmas to you. I hope it is filled with great books. And great bubbles.

26/12/13 Santa Update: Santa came through and brought The Fault in Our Stars and Burial Rites. And some mighty fine bubbles!

Satine

Souvenirs of a visit to Paris are their own special delight. My favourite souvenirs, are generally unexpected, and sometimes very ordinary objects. Like a trivet or a pair of nail scissors. This time a bottle of perfume took me unawares, and I had to buy it. This is not to say that a bottle of perfume was the only souvenir of my last trip, there were more of course, this is merely the first I've mentioned here, besides the multitudes of memories and photos.

In June this year I was attracted by all the pretty glass fish in the windows of the Lalique store in the Caroussel du Louvre (the shopping mall under the Louvre).

Naturally I was drawn into the store like a moth to the flame. Only to find that Lalique make perfume too. And I fell rapidly and fully in love with Satine. It was the day before my birthday, it just had to be done.

Satine is classified as an Oriental Woody perfume. Top notes of jasmine petals, heliotrope and gardenia.  Heart notes of pink pepper, vanilla bean and tonka bean. Dry down notes (I've got no idea what that means) patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood. Such a shame that we can't scratch and sniff with our screens.

My sister liked it so much that she bought a bottle too.

Satine is more than a perfume though, it is a philosophy.

Every time I see the bottle in my bathroom I think of all of this, and more, even before I spray it on. I don't wear perfume every day, or even every week, but Satine is my favourite at the moment, and makes me very happy. 

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog

The Birds of Adelaide

As always I was keen to see some birds on my recent trip to Adelaide. Some were easy to find, others remained elusive.

Swans (Cygnus atratus) were easy,
they're everywhere down near the river. 

Dusky Moorhens (Gallinula tenebrosa) were easy too.
They had their chicks with them this day. 

There was a bit of aggro between the swans and the moorhens.
I wasn't quite sure why. 

It took me a while to realise that these two were something different.
A new species for me!

Black-tailed Native-hens.
(Tribonyx ventralis)

Australasian Darter
(Anhinga novaehollandiae)

Little Black Cormorant
(Phalacrocorax sulcirostris)

I was very keen to find a musk lorikeet as it would have been another new species for me. While I found a lot of lorikeets, they were all rainbow lorikeets. Funny thing is a few days after I got home I saw musk lorikeets here- when I never had before!

Rainbow Lorikeet
(Trichoglossus haematodus)

Similarly, I was keen to find Adelaide Rosellas. And of course I only found the already familiar Eastern Rosellas.

Eastern Rosellas
(Platycercus eximius)

There were lots of ducklings everywhere

Hardhead duck
(Aythya australis)

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme now hosted by WestMetroMommy

Top Ten New to Me Authors in 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish. I've been a rather infrequent Top Tenner for some time. Most of the time I don't have time to participate, but occasionally I manage to check out the schedule before hand and get myself organised.

I've read lots of great new to me authors this year, and so this topic was perfect for me. Plus I really love an excuse to look back at the best books of the year, of course not all of those are new to me authors, but this year a great many are. I've linked to my reviews.

First off the fiction. Kids and adult.

My very first book of the year was a new to me author- and it was a corker! Lois Lowry's The Giver.

May brought two great new authors. Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls.

Deb Kandelaars' Memoirs of a Suburban Girl. 

In June I read one of the Australian books of 2013. Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project.

In August I finally read an Australian classic I should have read long ago. Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock. 

In October I finally got to read David Walliams' first book The Boy in the Dress.

On the nonfiction side I was wowed by two books about books.

In March I read Susan Hill's Howards End is on the Landing.

And more recently Rick Gekoski's Tolkiens' Gown. I haven't blogged about it yet, but there will be some gushing to come.

I read two books about sugar and our modern diets that were very influential for me. Although I'm a long, long way from omitting sugar (really they mean fructose) from my diet.

I read the book that started the whole sugar ball rolling David Gillespie's Sweet Poison in March.

And I read Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar in September.

It's really been a great year for new to me authors.