End of School Project 24/06/24

A lot of my college work has been about animal behviour and enrichment. I used my beautiful cats to illustrate my final assignment. The teacher remarked that they loved all the pictures, so it looks like they helped me pass the course.  

 

After I handed in my final assignment, I walked around the campus on a cold, clear day and admired the sculpture that has been a backdrop to my learning over the last six months. According to a plaque, Extension by Graham Camp was created "to broadly express the functions of this college - the extension of knowledge. A strong form, it visually ties together the surrounding elements and through it height acts as a central direction point."

I bought a cute plant holder with this succulent inside it - I liked the variegated leaves. However, it turns out that crassula are toxic to cats, so I gave it away to a good home and bought a calathea instead, which is not.

At the weekend Him Outdoors was running a race at Pine Island, so I went for a frosty morning walk and did the supporting thing. 

The dry stone wall was built between 1867 and 1875 to separate the 'Lanyon' and 'Yarralumla' Stations. I do love a dry stone wall, and there aren't so many in this country, so I was sure to admire this one. A sign explains that it was built 'in the typical style brought over by British settlers. However, the rabbit-proof fencing at variouis points along the wall - timber posts straining wire and wire netting - is uniquely Australian.

'For centuries, and throughout the world, dry stone walls - built without mortar or cement - have been used to mark borders and provide shelter. They are very practical, especially in areas where stones are common and must be cleared for grazing, cropping or building.'

'In 1837 this line marked the northern boundary of Wanniassa, a land grant of 2560 acres taken up by Thomas MacQuoid, Sheriff of New South Wales. Twenty years later, that land was sold to Andrew Cunningham, owner of Lanyon to the south. By 1875, the log fence along the boundary had been replaced by this stone wall and a ditch and bank system. 

'After rabbits swarmed into the region in the early 1990s, rabbit-proof fences were added on both sides of the wall as required by an 1891 law.'

'Orignally the wall stretched 1800 metres from the eastern bank of the Murrumbidgee, near its junction with the Tuggeranong Creek, to what is now Drakeford Drive. Now just 790 metres is left to remind us of our past.'

At the news that the great Donald Sutherland had died (R.I.P. 17 July 1935 - 20 June 2024), we raised a glass to him as we watched the film M*A*S*H. Although he is undoubtedly a fantastic and charismatic actor, this film really does not hold up and is appallingly sexist and peurile - 'of its time'.