Can you keep that noise down, someone is trying to sleep

Not a good start to the day.  Two huntsman spiders in the bedroom.  Count them.  TWO.  I detest these things at the best of times but to sneak in the open window during the night through the tiny space between the fly screen and the window, well that's just un-Australian.  Particularly when you've paid a small fortune for fumigation.  Max (pictured) is no deterrent for these unruly stick invaders. The best he can do is remove one of their legs and wonder why they don't want to play any more.  Max's hunting skills are somewhat lacking.  He loses interest in most crawling things pretty quick and prefers to spend his time embedded in a Laura Ashley blanket.  The chooks are the masters when it comes to tracking down insects.  They can spot a creepy crawly from a great distance.  Could have done with them in the room last night but the crowing thing at the end of the bed would be a problem.  Animals never fail to entertain around here.  Every morning a well loved Ute drives past with two kelpie dogs tied up in the back.  Every morning they both bark and bark with tails wagging as they go past.  And then in the evening I hear them on return still barking, tails still wagging.  I always imagine they are saying "We're off now, we're off to work..." and then "We're back now, we're back..".  Hilarious. I don't suppose they are calling out to Max.  He's busy anyhow.

The curse of the lilac tree and the loungeroom Starling

I read somewhere, that there is an old wives' tale which says if you put lilac inside the house, it brings death.  Our tree this year has blossomed better than previous years, it's a ripper.  The perfume smacks you in the face when you walk down the driveway.  They keep their fragrance for a little while so I've got bunches and bunches of them in vases and jugs all around the house.  I'm expecting a major massacre any moment now!!  I love to come home to a house filled with fresh flowers.  Particularly now that the garden is offering up new rose buds.  That is, if you can get to them before Possum does.  I've tried putting a net over my favourite rose bush, which unfortunately is also his favourite, but this hasn't been successful.  I can't get the roses out of the netting when I want them and so both me and Possum are denied access.  I just get frustrated with the net and end up pulling their heads off which is not very good at all.  The rose heads that is, not the possums.  Although if he keeps this up, it really will get personal.  People I speak to tell me that at night their gardens are a hub of activity with Quolls, Pademelons (I thought that was some little yellow character from an on line game), Wallabies and Possums, and that eventually they have to fence in and cover everything.  We're lucky not to live that close to bushland or forest because I'd be employing some sort of armed night watch guard if that were the case.  Although we're not prone to any sort of violence here and I was alarmed to come home this week to a dead Starling on the lounge room floor.  With no windows or doors open it's come down from one of our sealed up chimneys where they insist on moving in with their new families.  I couldn't help noticing that it was completely untouched, all feathers intact.  This seemed a bit odd given we had a cat inside at the time.  Then Max appears and without so much of a blink of an eye walks over the dead bird to say hi, nice you're home and feed me now.  He barely even noticed it. We know he's not the predatory kind, but golly, at least pretend you caught it.  Damn those lilacs.