How seashells get their colour — I gathered shells upon the sand, Each shell a little perfect thing, So frail, yet potent to withstand The mountain-waves’ wild buffeting. Edith Nesbit, Sea-Shells No 18th century cabinet of curiosity was complete without a collection of shells. The finest came from tropical oceans: cones patterned with flags and dashes…

An encounter with a grumpy mantis — This leaf-green lovely is a Giant Rainforest Mantis (Hierodula majuscula). Just a young ‘un — a nymph* — only 75 mm (3 in) long. When fully grown, this species is up to 110 mm (4.3 in). …

The hues of the lorikeet — With those vivid colouring-book hues, Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus) should stand out like beacons. But when a bird lands in a tree, the green disappears among the leaves, the purple among the shadows, and the red and yellow are neutralised by reflected light. …

A lesson in four scenes — FADE IN EXT. DAY. A garden — mostly lawn — slopes down to a paddock with eight black-faced sheep. The sky is grey. A light rain falls. BRONWEN bends down over a patch of lawn and scrutinises the vegetation with a hand lens. Stands up. Brandishes the hand lens. B…

…now you don’t — There is a small patch of Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica, Fabaceae) in the garden. Native to Central and South America, this species has been introduced elsewhere and is now widespread in Africa, Asia and Australia. It is sometimes grown as a pot plant — but not for its delicate fern-like…

Why wait until Sunday? — My 2023 diary starts on 26 December 2022. The last week of the year always feels like a temporal No Man’s Land between two big events. It is not quite the end and not quite the beginning. So, following my diary’s lead, I have transferred 26 to 31 of December…

Shore plants hold their own — One of the plants in my collection is the Blue or Dallachy’s Banksia (Banksia plagiocarpa). This species is restricted to munamudanamy/Hinchinbrook Island and a small area of the adjacent mainland where it grows in heathland above 200 metres. The flowers are blue-grey, an unusual colour in banksias. My plant is…

Sunshine in feathered form — I planned to photograph a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis) as a reference for a drawing. The male was far too flighty, so I concentrated on the female while she perched on an emerging palm frond. This saved me from having to reproduce the iridescence of the male’s fancy…

Did I stick to my plans? — Did I stick to my resolutions? Short answer: No. Long answer: lol no, of course not. I’m not even linking to them, so big is the gap between plan and achievement. But I did co-write a guide book to birds of Bruny Island (Tasmania), had six articles published in the…