Christmas in Robertson.

I spent Christmas Day with my friends Steve and Celeste, and Jasper, as well as their nephew Tegyn. We had a very pleasant lunch, and afternoon, followed by dinner, and a couple of movies well into the evening. A very relaxing day indeed. My thanks to Steve and Celeste.

Lunch included these Green-lipped Mussels which were so striking that they just demanded being photographed.While up on their hill, I took a few photos of some of the flowers, including this image of a Dandelion seed head. I love the near-perfect architecture of this seed head (even though it is a weed). It is a beautiful thing. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
During the afternoon, Steve suddenly found a huge black "Ground Beetle" crawling over his neck. We have no idea where it came from. It was flicked off his neck, in a reflex move, and I then tried to capture it in a food container, in order to take it safely outside. The crumbs from the food container have resulted in the Beetle looking "sandy". In truth it was shiny black, with deeply furrowed elytra (wing covers) which you can see more clearly in this second image. I have not been successful in tracking down exctly what species of Beetle this is, but my blogging colleague Mosura, from Tasmania has a photo of an almost identical Ground Beetle in his photo albums - Nature of Tasmania. Mosura's photo is clearer, and his specimen clearly is not walking around in a food container.
My Beetle was safely released outside, as soon as these images were taken.