Zoo Day

My goodness, it's been a long and tiring day ... but also very enjoyable!!

Another quick post tonight because we are hoping to wake nice and early to catch the sunrise tomorrow morning, which means we need to get a good night's sleep.

Just a little taste of what I did at the zoo ...

The albino kangaroo with a joey in her pouch

Spring is in the air and the peacocks were all show

"Ouch Mum!  You're squishing me!"

We are in a resort apartment tonight, with noisy neighbours, so it could be tricky trying to get to sleep.

Anyway, we had a great day.  Met some new people, including some friends from flickr who we'd not met face to face before, which was nice.

It was great to catch up with Andrew again and he imparted some of his knowledge on us again, which was very helpful.

I will try to post more about zoo day in the near future, but I have a bit of editing to do on my photos first.

Adoring Husband has fallen asleep on the couch, so I'd best wake him up and get him into bed.

Nite all.

A Quickie

We are off to a photography workshop at Alma Park Zoo tomorrow.

Then we are staying on Bribie Island Saturday night, so that we can explore some more of the Maleny, Montville, Glasshouse Mountains area on Sunday.

I'm a bit excited about the weekend, so I have to get a good night's sleep to be ready for a pretty big day tomorrow.

I got two good shots today, both of birds.

This little fella is just about ready to 'fly and be free!'

Brahminy Kite - beautiful creatures

When we arrive home on Sunday, my little family will be already moved into their new home in the Bay.  So we will meet them there on Sunday evening for dinner.

A big weekend for us all!

Anyway, as I said, this is just a quickie.  Sleep time now.

Nite all.

Another Chicklet Update

Sadly, my little family are moving into their own place this weekend.

Luckily, instead of being in another country or another state, they will only be 30 minutes away.

So it's Chicklet update day today ...

Big blue eyes and two fabulous teeth!

Got the giggles :o)

I can be coy too.

I can hypnotise you with my big blue eyes.

Or I can be pink and cute and chubbeeeeee!

There are grandmothers all over the world who aren't as lucky as I have been for the last four months.  

I've been able to watch her change and grow and develop.  I've listened to her baby chatter every day and her happy little giggles.  I've had long cuddles, walks in the garden, outings in the stroller and I've watched Vegan Chickie and The Bare-chested Chef enjoying their roles as parents.

Not every grandparent gets to share such precious time and memories at such a vital time in their grandchildren's lives and I feel very privileged and very grateful for this wonderful experience.

So now I have to be content with weekly visits and I have to remind myself that it could be so much worse ... as I stated earlier ... they could be going to another country or another state ... THAT would be too difficult!  Ugh!

I'm going to 'man up' and I'm going to deal with it ... but don't try to discuss it with me just yet, because I'm not ready!

That's the Chicklet update for the month.  Isn't she lovely?

Nite all.

Ego Boost

I had set today aside as housework day, but instead, I had my ego boosted.

Adoring Husband caught up with me in the bakery where I was buying my morning coffee before I pedalled to the 'Seat of Knowledge', and he told me that he was going beach walking with his camera.

Well, do you know where that put housework day?  On the back burner!

I went to the 'Seat of Knowledge' for an hour and then triked to where I knew Adoring Husband had parked the car, followed the pathway to the beach and turned right, where I knew he was headed.

I hadn't gone very far when I saw him in the distance heading back in my direction.

Along the way, I found this old tree stump embedded in the sand and I found a good angle to take a shot.

One of those shadows in the distance is Adoring Husband :o)

Earlier in the morning, on the way to the bakery, I heard what I thought was a baby bird peeping like crazy and when I followed the sound, my eyes landed on this little nest with the baby bird sitting in it.

Baby bird looks like he has a branch growing out of his head, but I couldn't get a good angle.

I was surprised at how unprotected the nest was and I wonder if the baby will survive, considering the number of other carnivorous birds around, like the kookaburras, hawks and osprey.

Later in the morning, after I arrived home and took Chicklet outside for some vitamin D and a chook visit, we found this cute little guy in the mulberry tree.

Isn't he lovely?

It's difficult to take photos with a macro lens in the wind because the subject keeps blowing in and out of focus, so it took a lot of shots to get two good ones!  This, obviously, was one of them.

2nd Prize goes to .....

Remember last week when I submitted the candle/sparkler photo in the group challenge?  I'm happy to announce that I came 2nd :o)  I'm pretty chuffed with that result!

A special thank you goes to Vegan Chickie who gave me the sparkler idea :o)

There was no prize, just a big ego boost!

Nite all.

Movie Day

Today, Adoring Husband and I saw the movie 'Larry Crowne' starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

It was a nice, 'feel good' movie and I enjoyed it very much.

As I write this post, there are storms all around us and I can hear the thunder rolling in the distance.

We have lived here for three years and there have been many, many storms that have threatened to land on us, but we have been very lucky and they always seem to skirt around us or we'll just catch the edge of one every so often.

Fraser Island, off the coast from here, seems to afford us some protection from most wild weather, including cyclones.

The advantage is that we get to listen to loud rolling thunder and watch fabulous lightning shows on the near horizon without having to deal with dangerous winds, damaging hail or devastating flooding rains.

I almost set up my camera with the tripod to attempt photographing lightning, but I'm a bit of a scaredy cat with lightning and it seemed to be getting really close really fast.

I'm not sure which I was more afraid of ... ME being hit by lightning or my CAMERA being hit by lightning!

I have no photos to share with you this time.

I attempted to photograph an Osprey this morning, but he was too high in the tree to capture with my lens.  I waited for him to take off so that I could capture him in flight, but I reckon he was watching me and he waited me out.  He won and I left.

Just because I didn't take any photos, doesn't mean that I didn't THINK about taking photos!

I guess my biggest achievement for the day, was making GGma's trifle for dessert :o)  I have had the ingredients sitting in the fridge for six days, and finally, with the Bare-chested Chef's assistance, I slapped it together tonight and Vegan Chickie and I enjoyed large bowls full of it!

It has been MANY years since I made GGma's trifle and it was just as I remember it.  Yummo.

Since Vegan Chickie and I are the only ones in the house who will eat it, our future is looking very sweet indeed!!  Well ... maybe just tomorrow ... I think we can clean it up in no time flat!!

On that note, as I listen to the sound of the soft gentle rain on our roof at the end of movie day, I am heading off to bed so that I can fall asleep to that soothing sound.

Nite all.

Obsessively Obsessive

I find myself constantly thinking about taking photographs!

To the detriment of everything else in my life ... I am obsessing.

It's like a drug that I can't get enough of, and I feel high while I'm taking the photos, then I feel high editing them and once that's done, I'm imagining where and what I'll be photographing next.

I'm wondering if there is a twelve step program out there somewhere to help me recover from this obsession or at the very least help me get it under control!

I have spent all day in front of my laptop editing the photos that I took yesterday and this morning.  I have posted them on 'flickr' and 'facebook' and '500px' and anywhere else I can think of ... and now here ...

Bleeding Heart Pigeon - one of nature's cruel tricks!

I'm too sexy for my skirt :o)

Oops, I disturbed his nap.

Lovely Green Parrot

Jekyl, the blue parrot in 'courting'

Share!!

Sunbeams over Burrum

Luring us away from her nest.  

So with that, I am off to discover some more treasures somewhere in my world to photograph.

... and the obsession continues :o)

Nite all.  

Sunday Drive

The weather improved enough today, that Adoring Husband and I decided to go for a drive.

We left home around 9am and headed north.  We had no idea where we were going, but thought we would play it by ear.

Firstly we took a quick turn right to find a little place called Buxton, right on the river.  We had driven past the turn off many times in the past and had often thought about dropping in there on the way home from other activities, but it was always too late or we were too tired and just wanted to get home.

So today we did it.  Nice place to visit, briefly, but I wouldn't want to live there.  Adoring Husband firmly stated that he couldn't think of a reason to ever return to Buxton.

We drove on to Childers, where we considered stopping for breakfast, but the cafe was very busy, and I didn't want to sit in a busy, noisy place, so we kept driving.

The next town was Apple Tree Creek.  It has a bird sanctuary, so we decided to stop in there and practise our photography - in preparation for our zoo workshop next weekend.

I haven't worked on the photos yet, but here is a sneak preview ...

Love Birds - or - Birds in Love

The sanctuary was pretty busy with birds preparing for spring.  Building nests seemed to be the order of the day.

We spent a couple of hours there taking hundreds of photos and the only reason we left when we did, was because we were starving!

We had skipped breakfast and it was now 1pm, so we left the sanctuary and drove about 50 metres up the road to 'Sticky Beaks' wood fire pizza restaurant and shared a pizza.  Delicious!!

From there, we returned to Childers and decided to explore the back roads, until we were stopped by a flooded causeway.

We got out of the car and walked around taking photos of the running water which fed into a lovely stream surrounded by rainforest.  We got some good shots there.

We continued to drive towards home and then took the turn off to the other end of our town.  We took some more happy snaps of the foot bridge and surrounding waterways and then onto the beach for about fifteen minutes.

By now it was 4.30pm so we drove to our local shops and sat outside eating hamburgers for dinner (not a very healthy day at all today!).

The sun was beginning to set behind the clouds, so we drove to the park and set up our tripods in a good position to catch the sunset behind the moored yachts and the water.

In theory, this was a good idea.  We forgot about the sandflies.  We usually have bug spray to protect us but today, we didn't, and within ten minutes, Adoring Husband was being bitten all over, so he packed up and sat in the car waiting for me.

Unfortunately, after he left, the sandflies decided that I was the next best thing, so I only lasted another ten minutes myself.

No sunset shots today.

We arrived home at about 5.30pm.

A long and enjoyable Sunday drive, doing what we love best.

Nite all.