VanDijkTrack

Digging to lay eggs

Wallum Sedgefrogs in the Frog Pont.

The Brush Turkey is still very busy and sometimes he is digging a hole into his mound. We guess that’s for a women Turkey to put in her eggs whereafter the mound gets closed. Several times a women Turkey came by so we are full of expectations. Especially Nicole is looking forward to see some small young Turkeys, but we don’t know if this will really happen.

It was hot.

In the evening we saw the Wallum Sedgefrogs sitting on the leaves in the frog pont. They are very green and make a pleasant sound.

 

We already experienced our first real hot days with a temperature far above 30 degrees. Since we don’t have a pool in the garden, we had to try something else.
 

Swinging in Pine RiversPark

Turning until you fall.

Lunch at Pine Rivers Park.

 

When we visited the Pine Rivers Park the children could play wit a range of attributes while we could enjoy the weather, lunch and read a book. The weather was hot.

 

 

Nicole started with her first tennis lessons. At school there are sport fields including a tennis ground where you can subscribe for lessons. She loved her first lesson and did a good job. Jorick was helpfull to collect all the balls as you can see

1st tennis lesson.

Jorick gathering balls.

Volley.

 

 

 

 

 
 

1st Swimming Lesson.

Follow the leader.

 

Both Jorick and Nicole also started with their first Swimming Lessons. Nicole had already some lessons in NL, but for Jorick this was the first time. Since they like playing on the beach and in the water it would be good if they could swim. The pools in the garden are making this even more relevant.  

 

 

Homework

 

Every day Nicole has to do her homework. She has to read one or more booklets, to make and write some sentences and often some mathematics. She is doing well. On the picture you can see her reading a book. Sometimes Jorick is sitting with her to listen to the stories and to look at the pictures.

 

 

 After having an engagement party in the New Farm Park, we visited the playground there and enjoyed. Especially the mysterious tree was fascinating.   We also could test our new camera there.

NewFarm Park.

A mysterious tree.

Too fast.

Ultra Zoom.

 

Purple trees in Spring.

Again another species. (Striped Rocketfrog)

In Spring the city is decorated with purple trees.
When we got home Nicole saw (again) another frog species (Striped Rocketfrog). We have the frogs here in many models, colours and sizes.

 

 

Kind regards,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick

Today we made a trip to Dayboro and to the Abbey Museum in Caboolture.
Dayboro is a small village around 45 km north-west of Brisbane. It’s a nice small village known for the Dayboro Rodeo and other events as Dayboro Day Festival, Dayboro Show and Dayboro Markets.

View on Bushland and a few Farms

View on Glass House Mountains

The trip to Dayboro goes through bush land and so now and then some farms show up.  Especially from the higher areas you can have nice views on the Glasshouse Mountains National Park with several mountains, old vulcanos arising out of a flat landscape.  We’ve been there before and this Park gives excellent opportunities for walking over the many  tracks available.

Sign Crash Zone

Next to the road we saw a sign that wasn’t very encouraging: “TAKE CARE Crash Zone next 2 km”, but driving fast shortens the time period of high risk 🙂

Dayboro camp oven of first settlers

This says it all

When approaching Dayboro we saw a sign for a historical location and being a tourist, we went to have a look. To follow the signs we had to take some small roads and finally we found some old black burned stones with a sign “This is the site of the camp oven used by the Anderson family – first settlers in the area before 1907.)
 
This again showed the reality. This country has a long history with the Aboriginals but the (European and other) settlers have only a history of a few hundreds of years and that’s already leading to some confusion.

Suddenly a Lollypop Man showed up

Leaving the Camp Oven with the Historical Park, we took a very quiet sandy road. At those times we are happy that we have a 4WD car. Then suddenly out of nothing a “Lolly Pop Man” (that’s how a traffic controller with a slow/stop sign is called sometimes) showed up.  We didn’t expect them here in the middle of the bush without nearly any traffic, but it seems that they are everywhere. They asked us if we had seen the big snake, as long as the road width, crossing the road, but we didn’t. Then we could continue our journey.

Abbey Museum Caboolture

From Dayboro we went to Caboolture to visit the Abbey Museum. This museum is really unique for Australia with a lot of historical items from Europa, and Egypt. We really can recommend this place if you pass by.

Abbey Museum Caboolture

Fascinating how such a high standard museum can be located in such a small village. It was a great opportunity to walk through the periods of European history with Nicole and Jorick. We also had a look at a church nearby with many old “glass in lead” windows and other religious ceremonial items.

This is also the location for the yearly Abbey Medieval Festival. Unfortunately next time is not earlier then July 2009.  

Italian restaurant Caboolture

In Caboolture we had a conversation with an older man about the characteristics of Caboolture and living there.  he was born there and we signed up his words: “you have to hang your hat somewhere”.
We closed the day with a diner at an Italian restaurant (Jorick’s favorite).

Some things from daily life:

Watching the frogs

Mound of Brush Turkey getting larger

Daily life just goes on but with many new experiences that are typical for Australia/Brisbane. Everyday we watch the Brush Turkey mainting his mould. Incredible how busy he can be the whole day. We are now removing many brushes, plants and paths with small stones from our top level garden. So often the Turkey and we are working together side by side. And when it comes down to the essence live the differences between him and us are small.

One of many

Iguana

Jorick and Nicole love the Frogpont(s) and like to watch (and catch) the little tiny frogs. Also many other animals and insects show up.  Recently Nicole found an Iguana as shown in the picture at the right (puzzle). Many different reptiles become  active now the temperature is rising. Jorick enjoyed a visit to one of his friends from his 1st pre-school here. And again together we have visited the “Dutch Playground Group” which was fun. Periodically one of the many Parks in Brisbane is selected where tens of Dutch families with children meet. The children have a play together in the playgrounds that are nearly everywhere and the parents can have a chat in Dutch which sometimes is a relief.

Having a barbie in the evening

Nicole and Jan a la Renoir

And of course at least once a week we’re having a barbie (BBQ). Everytime that’s a nice experiences with the many sounds from the Rainforest.

That’s it for now.

We are happy that we can stay in touch with many of you in different ways. Thanks. 

Cheers,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick