Wildlife Wednesday - more bugs

I've been on a holiday - a driving holiday - and I loved it because I got to tick things off my bucket list and I saw some awesome places!

We drove around the coast of Victoria, the state in south-eastern Australia. We didn't do every town and peninsula, but we did something like 3500 km in 9 days. Mr E loves driving - me, I prefer to be sedentary, but I do love to check out new places...and sometimes that means driving lots and lots and lots!

Anyway, along my travels, we stayed in a farm house near Timboon (which is just off the coast, north of Port Campbell where the 12 Apostles are on the Great Ocean Road). I was pretty shattered because me and winding roads are not good friends and we'd done a lot of winding roads that day, so a farm house was perfect (even though it was an extra 20 km of winding road - but there was no room in town!). The farm house was old, and huge, and all for us. They were doing up the gardens and in need of fresh air and space, I went exploring. I'm pretty fond of farms, and gardens, so this was a joy.

There were heaps of these bugs on roses but they hid beneath the leaves and made photos tough. I tried and took a lot, but none were much good. So in disgust, I walked away. A few garden beds later, here they were on gorgeous open blooms, in sunshine, looking spectacular.

I thought they looked like a variation of the Harlequin Bug (Dindymus versicolor) but I wasn't sure. Now I just did a google and it looks like they might be a juvenile instar of the Harlequin Bug (one of the growth stages before it makes an adult). You can check it out here.

So, I had a lovely trip and got a great story idea...might talk about that on Friday/Sunday...and I loved catching bugs with my camera! It made a good contrast to the scenery. Here are the 12 Apostles (named this even if there aren't 12 of them, and never were!), and me being blown away there (with random tourists)!

Phallic Friday - sex and numbers

How often do you think about sex?
How many times a day/week/month/year do you have sex?
How many partners have you had?
How many orgasms?
How many...
How often...
How big...
How small...
How...

We're a bit of a society obsessed by numbers and answers and being 'normal'. We compete to be 'the best' by doing the most, or going the furthest, or lasting the longest. We have to fit a mould or risk being different.

Is it just me noticing that this is getting worse?

I've always been a thinker on that Meyers-Briggs personality thing...but with sex, I'm a feeler. I think if there was a personality sex test, I'd be not a thinker at all. Numbers don't bother me. I don't try to compete. I'm more into how it feels.

I don't have a set number of times I think about sex - some days it might be heaps, some days it might be not at all (okay, maybe just a few times then).

I don't have a set amount of sex that I require daily/weekly/monthly/annually.

I don't keep count of sexual partners. I'm not even sure what is the definition of a sexual partner - do you have to have penetrative sex to be a partner? And only once, or does it need to be more often?

I'm not sure I know how big, or how often, or how small, or how many.

Am I just weird?

Wildlife Wednesday - goats

Back to the zoo this week, to talk about goats.

I have a soft spot for goats (and it has nothing to do with me being a goat in the Chinese Year thing!). I think they're intelligent and funny. They always have wild characters.

At the local zoo, there's a herd of goats. There are always a bunch of kids, a big bossy bloke (or a few), and a lot of milder mannered nannies. This one (pictured) was one of the bossy blokes, but he was a polite alpha, not an obnoxious one :) I like their structural hierarchies, where kids are brought into line even though they're allowed to show character and pushiness to a degree. They're cool.

I have farming friends who caught wild goats to supplement their income in a drought when the farm wasn't producing. I think in drought times, goats have kept many a farmer out west in a bit of money.

There are quite a lot of wild goats in western NSW. Some years back (2013) we were driving to Tibooburra in NW NSW and there were heaps of wild goats.

I'd been there before in the early 1990s and again in 2004. Both my early visits the town was in drought - oh, we broke it in the 1990s and got stuck there, but that's another story. There were nowhere near as many goats in those visits but in 2013 the number of wild goats on the roadside (and some playing chicken with the vehicles) was astounding.

When we got to town and were talking to the National Parks Ranger, I asked if it was a good year but she told me it was dry. Which didn't make sense to me, because the roadside vegetation looked plentiful and the goats were dense. Then I asked if the previous years had been good. And yes, they had been.

In the good years, the wild goat population exploded because feed was plentiful and farmers weren't actively killing/capturing them. But as the feed dried off and goats were hunted out of paddocks by farmers or their livestock, they became abundant along the roads. I imagine as it got drier, enterprising farmers would round them up and take them to the saleyards. The population would stabilise to a low level that could manage to survive the dry years ahead.

Enterprising beasts, goats (and farmers) :)

Phallic Friday - those three words

I read a book last night that left me confused and it was all about the "I love you" declaration.

A girl and guy worked together and she resented him coming in to 'over rule' her, not only this but she hated the fact that he didn't listen to her. Ever. But, you know, he was hot...and sparks flew when they were together, so they ended up shagging.

Sex was off-the-charts (of course). They're both hot and can't keep their hands off each other even though he still won't listen (even in the bedroom, or wherever they manage to do it) and she still harbours resentment about his role at work.

During one sexual encounter, he is so far into not listening, he doesn't hear her talk about birth control and how she needs to go do something before they continue - he just fucks her. So this not listening is a serious issue and she's really distressed by it and storms off.

Time passes where they're mostly not talking due to the issues. Then they have this awe-inspiring sex again. And within the blink of an eye, she declares, "I love you," and he says, "I love you too."

And I was lost.

She still has issues with him in the work place, she still can't get him to listen to her, yet she loves him? Really? Love? Not Lust?

The rest of the story has her teaching him how to listen by tying him up and doing what she wanted to him, causing him sexual frustration (but this is love, right, not lust). Then ignoring him while he tried to talk to her in the morning.

Then the workplace issues are sorted because her friend reams him out and he listens to the friend.

And then they all live happily ever after.

But I'm still at the disbelieving stage way up there where I'm still not on the love path.

When does lust become love?

I know it's a story and I shouldn't get hung up on it, but what I saw in this story wasn't what I call love. But what is love? What makes you say "I love you"? Can you love someone even with these character flaws that are detrimental to your work and your relationship (and your self-esteem)?

I was left confused.

But maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just more into lust than love.

Do you have any thoughts for me, please? :)