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

After 5 months in Australia it’s now mid winter. This week is very cold. Maximum temperature during the day is sometimes below 20 degrees and at night incidentally below 5 degrees. Maybe it doesn’t sound that bad and of course it’s relative, but we don’t have a central heating system in the house which isn’t isolated as it is usual; in the Netherlands. So in the evening we have to use the wood burner and/or the reversed air-conditioning. The differences in temperature are sometimes amazing. Last week, early in the morning, we noticed some ice on the windscreen of the car and the next day the temperature was 27 degrees. It seems that the oranges and lemons in our garden don’t really care. They just keep growing initiating battles between the Possums and us to conquer the full grown fruits.

This is the time of the year for garden changes. That’s why we are removing many plants, stone tracks and large stones to extend the lawn. This will give the children more space to play on lawn. Buffalo grass is the type of grass we have and is doing well in the local weather circumstances.

Although we didn’t discover any dangerous animals (spiders, snakes) around the house, removing the plants,
brushes and stones will reduce the chance of meeting them close the house significantly and will make it a safer place to play. We created a sandpit and got sand delivered to fill it up. The children use it frequently now. In the bush Jan made/improved some tracks with the brush mower. This makes it easier to walk around and spend some time jogging.

Our first feedback on the snake skin found on the lawn was that it would be of a brown snake. We didn’t like the idea, so we brought the skin to the Queensland Museum for examination. Based on the shape of the skin segments the experts said it was a harmless non-venomous “Green Tree Snake”. That’s good news. With the cold weather the animals are not very active. This keeps the spiders and many reptiles away. Nevertheless, we still see several Lizards, and the Bush Turkeys are still ruining our garden. When we are working in the garden and sweating, the laughing Kookaburras are watching and laughing at us. When we remove plants small animals show up and Kookaburra know how to catch them rapidly. They eat lizards, frogs, (small)snakes, worms and insects and their sound is looks like laughing. (player at bottom of page)

During the winter holiday we all took a week to relax after a busy period. We were invited for a BBQ at the Alma Zoo which also gave us the opportunity to see some special animals. Alma Zoo is only around 15 km from our home, giving us the opportunity to visit the animals there so now and then.

In Redcliff we enjoyed the beach. It’s a long beach with many seats, BBQ’s, playgrounds and other facilities. It’s a great opportunity to relax for people of all ages. We were not very lucky with the weather since it became clouded as soon as we arrived, but still it was nice to stay In the Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art we went to the exhibition “Picasso and his collection” showing his personal collection and sources of inspiration. Brisbane was the first time that this collection was shown outside Europe, so we took the opportunity. To see some of the paintings click. here.

  In the Queensland Museum we looked around (and got our snake skin examined by local experts). The children enjoyed themselves in the State Library where they can do a lot of creative activities with local teachers helping them. They love it.

During the holidays Nicole went for a week to Vacation Care where she could play with other children.

Since we left our 2 and 3 seater in NL, we also went looking to buy new ones which we did. It will be delivered in September.

After the holiday Jorick started at his new pre-school “Little Genesis Early Learning Center”. It took some time before he got used there, but now he is enjoying it. Last Saturday he went playing with a friend from his previous pre-school and both of them really loved to see each other again. Jorick recently started with private English lessons form the same teacher that has helped Nicole. It shows that Jorick still finds it difficult to express himself in English, so that’s why we expect that these lessons will help him further. At least he loves to follow those lessons.

Nicole has catched up so well that we reduced her number of lessons and are considering to stop it. She is doing very well and surprises everybody with her language skills.

On the 31th of July it was Nicole’s birthday. She got a Barbie doll house, a cat that can move and several other toys. In the morning we had breakfast with cake (what a bad parents we are) and at school she pointed out some sweets. On Saturday the 2nd of August was her party. She invited all the girls and a few boys from her class and some
other children she has met here. In total around 20 children and some parents, so it was fun. In effect she got a lot of presents as well which kept her busy (unpacking and) playing for days. Anita had prepared a creative session where everybody could make his own flower. The flower could be completed by doing several activities during the treasure hunt and finally they found the treasure with bags of sweets. It was fun.

Last Sunday we have visited the Doulos in the Brisbane harbor. It’s the oldest passenger ship that’s still operational. It was launched in 1914, making it 2 years younger than the Titanic, and will be decommissioned in 2010. It was bought in 1977 by OM with the mission “Bringing knowledge, help and hope“. The ship is run by volunteers and on the ship is a large bookstore with relatively cheap books, so we couldn’t resist buying some books and we had an on-board tour. We still enjoy living here and are looking forward to spring.

Wish you all the best.

Kind regards,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick