Koala encounter

This morning Oliver and Antonia found a koala - it was across the drive very close to the house and up a eucalyptus tree. The koala seemed very comfortable jammed into a fork on his or her tree on what was a quite small branch.

They are (according to the www.savethekoala.com website) arboreal [tree living], herbivorous [plant eating] marsupial who, it is thought, use their noses to test the toxicity of eucalyptus leaves - this fluctuates according to the type of eucalypt and the time of year. He had obviously found that this tree was a good prospect for his breakfast.

 

As we watched, another koala approached and started to climb up the same tree. This started a grunting, bellowing and gesturing territorial 'war' for a few minutes with the lower koala attempting to talk his way up the tree and the top one loudly protesting.

 

We think it was two males jocking for position for the tasty leaves on the tree. We don't think it was a male and a female who look pretty much the same, although it is the mating season. Apparently the mature males have a scent gland on their white fronts and the females have a pouch - as they are usually UP a tree when you spot them it is very difficult to decide if they are male or female.

After a few minutes of the lower trying to get further and being repelled, he climbed down into the bushes but was to be seen up the next door tree after a few minutes. They both went to sleep (they sleep for 18-20 hours a day) for the rest of the day but were gone the next morning.

 

 

 

 

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Happy Christmas from Oz

I thought you would like a couple of photos of some of the birds that visit the garden.

This is a pair of Laughing Kookaburras - they are kingfishers and common residents here, nesting in hollows in trees or tunnels in woodland termite mounds (there's one at the bottom of the drive but I don't think there's a nest there). They eat insects and small lizards. When Prue was in the garden this week a kookie swooped down and took one from under her feet. Ruth, their next door neighbour, said that where there are kookies there are no snakes. They have a very distinctive loud chuckling laugh which, when one starts, others join in in chorus so they are very easy to spot.

In the garden is an ornamental cherry tree in fruit which is attracting the birds. They tend to travel around the available fruit in a timed cycle so the Hills parrots visited today before I got my camera to them but I will hopefully catch them tomorrow.

This is an Rainbow Lorikeet which is a medium to large sized parrot. The lime green collar shows it's an eastern form - there's a red-collared form which is northern with fewer colours. The Lorikeet's tongue is brush-tipped for gathering nectar and pollen from flowers and trees which is its usual food although in this area it does eat fruit. It makes a noisy screech in flight so you know when they are in the area. The plumage is amazing as you often see three colours in one feather. It's my favourite Australian bird and I always rush to see them much to the grand children's amusement.

 

 

Happy Christmas and a wonderful 2014 to all .....

 

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Temperature

We have just spent the day in the Art Gallery taking advantage of their air con as today's temperature was 44 degrees in Adelaide. It's slightly cooler in the hills - only 39 degrees at 5 pm. As long as you stay in the shade and do nothing it's okay!

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Bushfire safety

My family live in the Adelaide Hills, an area that is highly forested, as you can see from the photo below from the veranda of the grannie flat. It's about 17km South East of Adelaide and is a beautiful peaceful area close to the vineyards and some of the earliest settlements in South Australia. Hahndorf, a village with German roots which we all like very much, is close by and celebrates 175 years of its foundation next year.

 

So, unlike the metropolitan regions of the city where Adam and Prue lived before (the Safer Settlement of Adelaide), bush fires are now an everyday concern now we have entered the Fire Danger Season - summer from 1 December to 30 April.

In the UK we are probably more aware of the dangers following the extremely severe bush fires last autumn in New South Wales, so I thought I would outline the very comprehensive plans and systems surrounding fire danger.

The key is, like a lot of things in life, being prepared.

Adam & Prue are currently attending neighbourhood forums around fire safety (Bushfire Blitz) run by the Community Fire Service but basically it is suggested that people assess their own circumstances and either decide to defend their homes or leave the area in a timely fashion for a safe area.

This is what Adam and Prue have decided given the youth of their family, the construction materials (glass and wood) and location of their house (on a wooded ridge). They have already done this once this season, going towards the cleared area around Hahndorf. They got the children to pack their own emergency bags then when they got there discovered that Antonia had packed her guinea pigs, the whole series of the book she is currently reading but no underwear. That fire was quite small so they were able to return home quite quickly.

 

However, there are also actions that all responsible homeowners take such as clearing their lot of unnecessary undergrowth (the booklet I read also helpfully pointed out this reduces the areas where snakes could live), keeping gutters clean etc so Prue is weed whacking down by the road this morning. It is going to be very hot over the next few days so this is an early morning job. I've made sure that I know where to go and what to do if there is a case for evacuation when I'm in charge. Fortunately there are neighbours near whom I've met and routes out in two directions (one of the criteria for buying this property). Fire alerts come through by radio, TV and via phone apps. You have to be impressed with the forward planning.

On a lighter note we spotted these koalas recently:

 

This one was when we were walking back from school last week.

 

And this one was on the neighbour's property (there are no fences) and was just swopping trees - it ended up scritching and scratching itself a bit higher up in the tree fork.

 

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Sydney to Adelaide

I am now in not so sunny Adelaide - it was 16 degrees today so it was lucky that I had left some warm clothes here - you can imagine how delighted I was when my daughter-in-law Prue handed over my sweatshirt this morning. I know it's not so cold compared with the UK but I've gone soft in the past two months.

Connie, Phil and I flew down to Sydney for the weekend, staying with their daughter (my niece) Rachelle in her flat (or as the Aussies say - unit). It is in Maroubra which is the last beach town going south before you get to Botany Bay. Phil and I went for an early morning walk and ... the waves were up, so the sea was full of surfers.

Just beyond the main beach area is quite rocky so a swimming pool has been made on the edge of the sea. I've stayed in this pleasant township before and the big story last time was about a man who had gone to this pool for a very early morning swim and found, as the sun came up, that a shark had been swept into it on the tide and was swimming around alongside him. Perfectly likely as you can see from this photo.

 

We had a great time - went to a very up-market (and expensive) craft fair near Sydney centre, met up with some old friends and had a very pleasant Christmas lunch cum birthday party with C&P family of four children with partners and a selection of grand kids. What do you eat in Oz for such a celebration? BBQ turkey sausages + veggies followed by fruit salad, Christmas pud and birthday cake. Most excellent.

Yesterday, I flew into Adelaide from Sydney (2 hours) landing ten minutes before Adam's plane. He was returning from a meeting in Canberra so I was able to meet HIM at the airport in a reversal of what usually happens. They are now living about 30 min outside the city in a very pleasant area in the Adelaide Hills on a plot amongst the trees. A koala was making an unattractive noise up in the eucalyptus at the back of the granny flat last night but there was no sign of him this morning when I went to remonstrate.

I have been in school today - Stirling East Primary School where both my grandchildren go is about five minutes from the family home. In the morning we went to Ollie's End of Term concert which was very good fun - each of the classes did songs from 50s (like How Much is that Doggie in the Window?) through the decades (Staying Alive) until the 2010s. They were all dressed up in costume and the concert was stage managed by the older children.

In the afternoon Prue and I went into Antonia's class to help with the art lesson. There were three parents there so the teacher briefed the class on what they could do and then sent them into our area to work on their designs for Christmas crafts. I was shown how to stamp and emboss cards, which was something I'd not done before, so I could then help the children. All went well apart from a bit of over-enthusiastic use of the heat gun and some very sparkley jumpers where the embossing powder had landed rather than the paper. And that was just me!

It was a total contrast to my Cambodian school crafts where the most exciting thing I could do was cut out shapes out of printer paper for the children to crayon.

 

 

 

 

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Sunny Queensland

Well, here I am in Australia after a fairly long but uneventful set of flights - Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur to Sydney to Coolangatta which is the airport for the Gold Coast. This is a beach area just south of Brisbane and is where George's sister Connie and her husband Phil live.

 

I am spending a few days with them getting over my culture shock, before having early Christmas back in Sydney with their children and grandchildren. One thing that is quite shocking is that it appears that Christmas has crept up on me ... There's decorations .... And reindeer .... And light on houses .... And Santas!

I actually fly to Adelaide next Monday and it turns out that Adam will be flying in from Canberra to arrive at the same time as me so we have a date to meet at the Chocolate Cafe (such a hardship) at the airport so we can travel home together.

It seems very odd not to see street vendors, motorbikes and tuk tuks everywhere and, of course, this is a very upmarket boat-y area. Here's the contrast this week with last :

 

Floating house and boats on the Tonle Sap lake

One of the houses in Runaway Bay

(where Adam & Prue first lived when they emigrated to Australia)

 

 

Connie and Phil are residential managers of Windsong, an apartment complex by the water where we all spent last Christmas. This is the view through the front balcony doors from one of the units.

 

 

I met a very interesting woman on my journey - Nicoletta Revis with Egyptian and Greek ancestry. She was telling me that she had a very bad RTA a few years back and so had to totally refocus her life as she was unable to continue her career. She decided to start making jewellery using antique and hand made beads she sourced from throughout the world (she was on her way home after a buying trip to Bali when I met her). Each piece is unique and comes with a story of the beads and their once owners.

I found her story and also her website fascinating. It is www.republicofyou.com.au - I am sure that you will find her beautiful jewellery inspirational.

 

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