Tuesday, July 26, 2011

When city kids go bush

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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)

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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.

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Tassie trip July 2011
Tassie trip July 2011 1336 (Small)

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)

Tassie trip July 2011

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.

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

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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.

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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)

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Tassie trip July 2011 1536 (Small)

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.

Tassie trip July 2011

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.

Tassie trip July 2011
Tassie trip July 2011

2 comments:

Tania said...

Love that last pic. And as a city slicker who has never ever come across a wombat in the wild, that little critter would have won over the snowballing. At least for whole minutes (do love a snowballing fight)...

Tanya said...

more great photos. I love those cows, they gave me a chuckle! And, we have a family of kangas that we meet on the way to the bus stop sometimes- travelling up our street (umm, that would be dirt road!)