Is that A Frog Upstairs?

A while ago, a carpet snake turned up in my living room. A few weeks before that, I had two koalas in the trees outside my door.

I thought I had had my share of ‘Crocodile Dundee’ type adventures. Then the other night I came home to find a frog in my house. I wonder what will be next. A kangaroo? A pelican?

It is all seeming a little unlikely. I knew there was lots of local wildlife, I just had no idea that it would all want to come into my home.
I had just arrived home and it was a little dark. I walked upstairs, turned on the light, and the bouncy little grey thing hopped across the carpet looking for somewhere to hide. Luckily we still have no furniture in most of the upstairs rooms and he was easily cornered and taken outside by my intrepid Aussie boyfriend who is now my husband and wildlife wrestler.

I spent the next three minutes checking the house for frog sized cracks, as my husband vainly tried to reassure me that the frog came in through the door. Since the snake incident, I have always made sure the door was closed firmly. Perhaps my husband left the door open, or maybe it came in behind us as we arrived. I worry that if the frog got in then the snake might return. Perhaps he will hear about the frog and come back inside looking for a little grey snack.

Only a few days ago, after finding the third spider in a week, I waged war on all the bugs and spread a three month insect killer all along the skirting boards and ceiling beams. Obviously no one told the frog and he assumed we still had froggy treats on tap.

It reminds me of the children’s story about an old lady that swallowed a fly, and then swallowed a bird to eat the spider, a cat to eat the bird, a dog to chase the cat, a cow to scare the dog, and so on.

Perhaps one day we will be visited by a four foot goanna. They are not common here, but Phil assures me they exist. If there are any within a fifty mile radius, then I am sure one will turn up here eventually.

Perhaps I should invite it in. A goanna in the house would be too big to sneak up on me and might keep the house snake free. It’s worth a thought.

Of big things like ... Yetis?

 One of the things I love about this part of Australia is that everything is so big. Wonderful things, like large colourful birds, fish that fishermen can write home about, and kangaroos and wallabies that look to me like a kind of large rodent.

There are also annoying things like the bulbous, fat, and persistent flies. The third time I whack my arm and miss them, I remember they won’t be put off by a loud noise or a simple wave of the hand, no matter how “karate kid” fast.

Other insects are also large and sometimes come with teeth and fangs. I have come up close and personal with giant cockroaches, and furry black spiders of joke shop proportions. I have even had a snake enter my house and curl up to sleep in my living room.

So many things have been a surprise, and some are just plain mysterious.

Today I attempted to remove some of the garden weeds. I have been wrestling with an infestation of “Mother-in-Laws tongue. A blade shaped leaf that grows up to four feet high and has spread to plague proportions along our fence.

It fights back.

As I grab one end and pull it out, the other swings around and slaps me on the face, or tangles in my legs and tries to trip me up. Sometimes it succeeds.

Next to the aggressive weeds, there is also a gorgeous large flower that has grown up all on its own. It sprouted from a forgotten and sadly neglected pot in the overgrowth of the sadly neglected garden borders.

That is a big pot and those flowers are almost six inches across.

In Far North Queensland I watched an enormous cassowary cross the road.

Other large things are not as easy to identify. A while ago, I looked out my window and saw what looked like a large hare. It was three times the size of anything I had seen in my whole life. Of course the photo is blurry like the pictures of the loch ness monster or the yeti.

 

As a voracious reader of one too many Readers Digest ‘survival under wildlife attack’ stories, I am understandably nervous about a four foot high rabbit or a haystack of a bird with barbed wire feet.

Are these just bad photos, or the beginning of a new legend? You decide.

A Snake in my Living Room

The other day I was relaxing in my new comfortable easy chair and watching a little daytime TV when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. When I looked down, I found I had been joined by a six foot long python.

The only reason I didn’t jump out of my chair in fright was because I had met him a few days before.

I was hosing my garden when he appeared from the corner of the house. I tried to chase him away with a stream of water, but instead he took up residence in my garden shed. Stupidly, I left the door open so he could leave again.

I had only just come to terms with a snake in my garden. He seemed friendly enough and quite good natured when a neighbour and I spent twenty fruitless minutes trying to encourage him out of the shed with a broom and a long handled rake. I figured he could stay there if he wanted. I knew of others who had pet snakes and I knew it would not hurt me unless I hurt it first.

I was also told on good authority that they usually slide away when they see someone.

This one was apparently much friendlier. He climbed the outside stairs to the open back door, came inside through a slightly open door, crossed the living areas, came down the internal stairs, and then deliberately chose to come into the room where the TV was blazing away and there was bright fluorescent light.

It cruised lazily past my feet as if it owned the place, ignoring my polite but insistent requests to leave, and then went to sleep in a coil in the corner behind some tools that belong to my husband.

 

I know I am attractive to Aussie wildlife. The mossies always go for me first, and I am loved by leeches and ticks, but this was ridiculous.

Luckily I had friends I could call because this was beyond my ability to solve. I feel more comfortable with snakes than most of my friends, but this only means that I can look at them from six feet away without screaming.

The friend picked him up using a broom handle in the centre of his coil and dropped him into a spare recycling bin I had. We then wheeled him outside and let him out in the forest across the road.

It was exciting, but not something I want to repeat.

I spent my first fifty years growing up where there were no snakes. Now I have been up close and personal with several. Even people who have lived in Australia all their lives have usually not known one to come into the living areas.

I am just lucky I guess.

A Koala in my Garden (Part 2)

Last week I had a snake in my garden. This week I had another visitor. A much more cute and cuddly looking visitor. I finally saw the koala that has been visiting my back yard.

My husband, Phil, saw him first, just a shadow moving along the ground in the early light. When I arrived he had already started up the tree just outside our window, his furry body out of sight on the other side of the tree trunk. All we could see were his little claws clamped on either side of the trunk.

He climbed to a high branch and that sat there watching all around as we went outside and stared back at him. He was so cute. Koalas have round furry ears, and a surprisingly large flat black nose. Looking back at us he was teddy bear cute.

All day I kept checking on him. Apart from heading higher, he stayed in the same location and seemed to be dozing.

The next morning, I heard him growling, so I rushed out in my pyjamas. It took me ten minutes to find him just a few trees away, and then there was another surprise. A second lump on the tree, turned out to be another koala. This one was balanced on a slim branch out over the neighbour’s driveway.

As we watched, the first koala climbed cautiously down and then loped from tree to tree, down the garden, looking for the perfect spot.

Koalas are only active for a few minutes each day. They spend most of their day eating and snoozing. I feel particularly lucky to have seen this one moving.

The same day I also saw two kangaroos bouncing off into the bush and two amazing red spotted ladybugs. I often see tiny green tree frogs, and bumpy grey frogs. We have regular visits from birds of all kinds including the uniquely Australian kookaburras, cockatoos, galahs, and parrots of many hues.

Having a snake in the garden, is a small price to pay for the privilege of seeing all the other wildlife almost as close. I love it here

A Koala in my Garden

Last week there was a terrible racket in the garden. Something in the trees around our house was making itself heard and it sounded like a cross between a large growly dog and King Kong.

Luckily I was not alone at the time and it was easily explained by my Aussie husband.

It was a koala. A cute cuddly-looking, fluffy bear toy of a koala.

They are the sloths of the Australian bush and hardly move all day, but they sure can make a noise.

Woof, growl, grunt, growl, woof.

Tasmanian Koala

They are also masters of disguise. In three years in Australia, I have yet to see one in the wild. I have spoken to friends who have spotted one. I have been in a bush with a friend who saw one. I have missed one by minutes. But they have remained elusive so far.

Even though I know there is one in our trees, I have not been able to see that either.

Luckily, there are wildlife parks of all kinds here; including places where you can go to see koalas in trees close up.

I took the koala photo at a Tasmanian Wildlife Centre. They help koalas who can get hit on roads, stuck in swimming pools, and occasionally trapped in trees. And unhappily, that happens all too often.

Like many animals, the koala is in danger from modern civilisation. Australia has done a lot to try to protect the koala, but for an animal that is the epitome of Australian wildlife, it is sad to see it become so hard to find.

So, … I keep on looking up when I go outside.

Then yesterday, I got another surprise. I should have looked down.

As I was watering the garden snake appeared at the edge around the side of the house. Before I could deter him, he had slithered into the garden shed and made himself at home amongst the tools, the barbecue, and half a bag of mulch.

Phil is away so the neighbour was pressed into service to try and recover him.

He did his best, encouraging him onto a garden rake and then onto a sheet, but the snake was too fast and slipped away before we could contain him and move him back to the forest.

I did the only thing I could so, and that was to shut the snake in the shed until the morning when I could call someone.

The Snake in my Shed

Later I spoke to Phil, my source of all things Aussie. He is three thousand miles away at work this week and can only be moral support.

“He does his hunting at night. You need to let him out” he said

After a rather extended discussion, I put my tramping boots back on, went back downstairs with a torch, and nervously propped open the shed door.

So now, I may or may not have a snake in my garden as well as a koala. I kind of hope he slithered off back to the forest over the road. But there is a part of me that would love a tame snake in the garden; just as long as I know where he is. And unfortunately I don’t. He could be anywhere.

I scare myself by imagining him sliding in through the gap in the balcony ceiling. I soothe myself with the knowledge that he was probably in the garden all along and we have lived together peacefully so far.

I check the garden frequently for movement. I throw open the downstairs door when I go out in case he is hiding behind it. I have taken to wearing shoes just to go downstairs.

I am not really scared ... it's just that ... what is that noise in the ceiling?

Free Events for the Financially Challenged

Just before Phil and I got married, we bought a home of our own. I have stopped house sitting and started house renovating.

Since Phil and I have both been nomads for the last two years, we have not much in the way of furnishings. The living room is bare except for the working trestle we are using as a couch and the bedroom has only a bed. Our clothes, tools, and other possessions sit in little piles around the edges of the spare room. We have a microwave, a kettle, two plates, two cups, and some cutlery. It is like camping in our own house.

Everything here needs fixing, so I spend up to two hours a day painting, scouring, and buying for my new house while Phil is at work. It is going to use up all our money for a while, but it hasn’t stopped us travelling and having adventures. We are just going to have them a little closer to home for a while.

There are so many local events. This month I want to go to an Indonesian Royal Wedding Festival, a Chinese Lantern Festival, the Brisbane Laser Light show, and the Brisbane Riverfire event. I would love to attend the Zombie walk, the superhero festival, and the Toowoomba Flower Festival, but it might be all too much.

Closer to home, I want to go to other free events like a movie night at the local library, a musical show at my church, an introduction to snakes and lizards, and a to spend a morning watching kids set up mini worm farms.

For my creative side I plan to attend a silk dyeing workshop and a clay animal making workshop. For my health and wellbeing I have applied to attend an abseiling day, an informative cruise of the local protected marine region, a cycling tour of a nearby island, and a day ocean jet skiing.

All of this and much, much more is available in my local region; most of it free, and the rest at a subsidised rate. Only the flower festival is more than 30 minutes away and some are just minutes from home.

It took me all morning to collate the activities and put them into my calendar and I haven’t even started to decide which of the nearby exercise and sport classes will suit me.

It is astounding how much there is to do here, and thanks to the mild climate, so much of it is outdoors. Even if there is nothing planned I can still walk a few laps of my local forest, wildlife reserve, or beach, or just stay home and walk around my garden.

I suspect it is going to take a little longer to get the house all set up as I want, but I don’t care. I am not old enough to settle down yet, and I suspect I never will be.

Perhaps you have some local events you love. Please share them with us in the comments.

An Unconventional Middle Aged Wedding

People have been wondering where I have been, so now it is time to confess.


I was in New Zealand getting married to the man who is surpassing all my dreams. I couldn’t be happier.

Us with our two Best Men

Phil and I pop over to NZ several times a year to see our 16 tonne baby, and on the last visit he proposed. (While I was under the yacht painting … long story) So we decided to marry at the Marina.

Since then it has been a whirlwind of invites, and preparations, and planning that resulted in what I modestly claim is the best wedding I have ever been to.

Why? Well for one thing we played pass the parcel.

When Phil suggested it I was surprised and not particularly convinced but I decided to give it a go since he has just said yes to my plans to have several quizzes and a PowerPoint presentation.

We had just six tables of close family and local friends and it was the ideal size to have some fun.

After the short ceremony we took photos and then led a group down to see our yacht. It is the perfect yacht for making people feel okay about not having a yacht. She is sound but needs so much work. Some of our guests even took photos by a different and more photogenic yacht.

When we returned we had a quiz about our courtship. Not even close family got more than half the questions right. We asked things like what we did on our second date. The options were

A. Crashed our rental car into a taxi

B. Set fire to a boat or

C. Took a midwinter swim in frosty Wellington

Of course it was B  (you knew that right?) and we have photos to prove it.

Then we had our second quiz asking people to match our close family members with a fact about each of them. This way we achieved our objective of having my family get to know his a little better.

The only speeches were short and funny and definitely not formal. My dad told jokes and sang I am a Little Teapot (another long story). My brother interjected with funny comments and Phil and I both had a Best Man (we have only sons)

All in all it was just what I wanted.

And the pass the parcel? It was a big hit.

It ended up with Phil’s sister who won a book of humour to read in the toilet. (It was more tasteful than it sounds.)

We ended the night with dancing and the visual presentation of wedding jokes and quotes such as Rita Rudners gem “I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewellery.”

If you want to steal any of my ideas, please do. It was an unconventional wedding and lots of fun. I thoroughly recommend it.

And as for my travels.

Phil has been a big part of my Australian adventures and so there will still be plenty of them. Stay posted.