Pictures!

Are available here. But first, two things. 1, don't use the slide show option, because then you'll miss the captions! And 2, I couldn't figure out how to get them out of reverse chronological order, so for best results start at the bottom and work your way up each page. The link will take you to the last page. :)

not for the faint of heart

Something everyone should know: there are leeches that live on land in Australia. And I feel quite fortunate to have found one myself. :) When my brother told me about them, I thought how it sounds like something that might be found in that scary forest in the Princess Bride, alongside the rodents of unusual size. Don't you think? In all other respects they are exactly like regular leeches. You don't know they're there until you see it or brush up against something or notice the blood on your sock, they come off with salt, and it bleeds like crazy after. The end.

My brother has lived here for four years and never gotten a land leech, and I found one on my fifth day. Pretty good, no?

We told a neighbor about it that afternoon, and he was like "yeah, we try to keep quiet about those..."

Also, nobody here has ever heard of catnip.