When city kids go bush

This morning we discovered that one of the small bushes in our backyard

has become home to an oh-so-small-and-delicate bird's nest.

That is right up there excitement-wise with our resident tart...er, spider

and the occasional blue tongue who visits

(albeit it at his or own own risk given our resident Staffy)

(As a side note, our spider disappeared one night just before we left on holiday.

I think she "did a Charlotte",

leaving behind an egg sac that is valiently trying to hatch before the brown and shrunken leaves that are protecting it give in to the demands of the winter fall.

I was glad to leave for holidays as our resident 6 year old humanitarian
was grieving)

I grew up being able to wander a few blocks away from my house,

seeing sheep, cows and horses on those grassy paddocks dotted through the country town.
It was a couple of minutes walk to the best tadpoling place,

especially after the winter rains.

Now that we are a nuclear family of city dwellers,

owners of 2.4 pets,

I am somewhat saddened by the huge novelty that sheep and cows are to our kids

when we venture beyond the boundaries of the city.

Heck, we get excited when we see a caterpillar or a snail on the way to school.

Our holiday this time round offered a plethora of opportunities to see wildlife and more unusual critters.
(More than happy to see those blue rings through glass and not from under my foot)

We even saw Highland Cows (I guess that the Tassie climate suits those Scottish cow genes.

I have loved these guys since visiting Scotland but didn't realise there were some on this side of the world)

It may be an urban myth that kangaroos hop down Australian streets

but I can say that wallabies or pademelons may well walk along the top of the beach with you.

A wombat was happy to eat its way through a photo shoot
while cars drove past and kids stood a metre away oggling.

Well, actually to be honest, it was the first stop since reaching the snow

so after 30 seconds oggling, the kids' interest turned to making snowballs.

In general, the winter wildlife were very friendly

(OK I am sure that they were scavenging for food...or "finger food"...

but let me be an idealist)

Our kids are not yet old enough to really appreciate the natural beauty on display

but give something feathers and fur or gills and that is a different case.

Even the local fibreglass cows were friendly towards tourists,
though I sense that they were gritting their teeth as yet another dag had to pretend to milk them.