VanDijkTrack

We surely entered spring now. The temperature and sun are adorable and animals become more active.

Two Cockatoos in the garden

Australian King Parrot

Every day we are fascinated by a Brush Turkey that’s building his mould in our garden. It’s already around 1.5 meters high and 4 meters in diameter. Around his neck he has a yellow temperature measurement device (see earlier photo). He tries to keep the temperature inside around 33 degrees Celcius. If he is successfull he might attract a woman to lay her eggs in this mould. It’s incredible how quickly he can transport al kind of twiggs, leaves and parts of our garden watering system to build his house (pictures next time). The result is a clean garden.

Pale Headed Rosella (nesting in garden)

In our garden also other animals show up. Cockatoos get us shivering with their terrible noise when flying over our heads. They look nice, but their sound is horrible and they seem to damage timbre in your garden. Two Australian King Parrots show up frequently and are building their home in one of our bird houses. The Pale Headed Rosella is just a nice bird and a good visitor with a friendly sound.

Koala visiting our barbecue

Lace Monitor passing by

Several times we were surprised by a Koala in our garden. In de morning and evening when these cute animals are awake they make a sound like a pig.
That’s how you can notice them, because it’s very hard to notice them just by sight.
Once we saw a large Lace Monitor of around 1.5 meters crossing our garden. Impressive.

Boondall Wetlands, salt water specific fauna

Tawny Frogmouth in Boondall Wetlands

Together with some nice local people, related to a former colleague of Jan, we took a walking track in Boondall Wetlands. Just behind the border with the ocean a wet area with specifice Flora and Fauna is made accessible by tracks. A Bush Ranger was guiding us. The area is very beautifull and we were lucky to see a Tawny Frogmouth. The differences in Flora between the lower and higher parts were fascinating.

Boondall Wetlands

Brisbane River Fire

Nicole and Jorick making a painting on the veranda

Nicole is nearly talking fluent English, maybe we should say Australian. The Australian/Brisbane accent is also fluent. Sometimes she is correcting our way of pronouncing words. Yes, she just turned six years old and we are already behind.
She had three time “Show and Tell” on school. She told about chickens coming out of an egg, Carnivorous Plants and about Rabbits. In the class room the children could experience ducklings coming out of their egg and how they live in the first two weeks. It was exciting (and smelly).

Jorick did his “Show and Tell” about his piano book. He has been baking some cookies at school and feels more at home there every day. Although he likes pre-school we reduced the number of days from 5 to 4 days because he used to become very tired at the end of the week. Wednesday is his free day.

4WD in bush on Bribie Island

Jan enjoyed (Australian) “Fathers day” on 7 September. Jorick has made drawings and cookies at school and Jan was invited for a party at school with Jorick. There Jan got a certificate from Jorick for being the best father (as the other fathers did).
Nicole bought some presents at the Fathersday Fair and had baked some cookies as well. And of course some beautifull drawings. It was fun.

Last week Anita started to work for 50% so this gives her more time to relax with the family and to enjoy the environment. Finally we have received our 2 and 3 seater so that’s making daily life a little bit more comfortable as well.

Driving on the beach of Bribie Island

The weather is improving rapidly. The temperature is rising and the evenings are getting longer. We are often having lunch or dinner outside. This also has led to the first invitations for BBQ-parties as you can imagine.

With a group of eigth 4WD cars we made a beautifull 4WD trip on Bribie

A drink on the beach

Island. We crossed beautifull bush and beach tracks. We saw some animals there as well. Photos of Lace Monoitor in a tree and a crab on the beach are shown below. On the beach we had a picknic and the children enjoyed playing at the beach. The weather was fine (as it usually is) and it was a great day.

Although we would love to visit the Netherlands with family and friends, we enjoy living here and feel lucky having the chance to experience all this.

Wish you all the best.

Kind regards,

Lace Monitor in bush of Bribie Island

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick                                       

Time to relax

A crab on the beach

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under 4WD & tracks, Australian animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.