This time, the Treasury focus is on our red hot Western Australian Christmas, and some of the many West Australians on Etsy. My Solid Rock in Springtime fabric art piece is featured:

There’s just something about summer. Stone fruit, cherries, mangoes, sweet juicy tomatoes — and avocados. One of my favourite breakfasts is wholewheat toast, topped with a layer of feta cheese (Danish style), sliced tomatoes and avocado, and a good few turns of freshly ground black pepper. Yum.

Regular followers of this blog will know that I’ve been in reasonably regular contact with an entomologist (Martyn) at the Australian Museum in Sydney — I’ve been sending him specimens of a native cockroach that lives around here (see the links below the photo for why).

Well, he sent me a Christmas greeting today, accompanied by this picture (attributable to Ali Edwards, Senior Rights Adviser, Right Management from the ABC). I’ve heard of ‘Six white boomers’ pulling Santa’s sleigh, but not seven cockroaches!

BTW, in his Christmas greeting, Martyn said:

Your cockroach is currently getting very large eating raw mushroom. No sign of eggs yet but fingers crossed.

See also:

• What does the Australian Museum want with a cockroach? http://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/what-does-the-australian-museum-want-with-a-cockroach/
• Here’s the deal with the cockroach: http://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/heres-the-deal-with-the-cockroach/
• I found another cockroach: http://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/i-found-another-cockroach/

[Links last checked December 2009]

This big guy was hanging on to the flywire outside our dining room window yesterday:

Just got this emailed from a friend in the US who says he got it from another friend: