Tuesday, May 15, 2007

marriage and other animals

Tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of the day Fatty took a wild gamble and married yours truly. Ours is not exactly a lengthy marriage, yet, but we're nonetheless proud to still be together, and proud to still be on speaking terms (he he!). So, to celebrate, we dumped our kids with my mother last weekend (thanks again Mum!!), and headed off to a little B&B in a rainforest area not far from Mum's farm.

All the local animals seemed to know it was a special weekend, and came out to greet us. On the way there, Fatty spotted a koala in a tree just beside the road. Then, the first night at the B&B, I decided to ring our kidlets (who, may I just mention, were so not missing their parents that Ben, after about 1 minute of phone conversation, told us blithely, "You can hang up the phone now."). I stepped out onto the dimly-lit balcony only to find this snake lying in wait for me on the railing. Eeek!

The next day, we went walking in the rainforest, which was deserted - probably because it was overcast and raining, ever so lightly. Fatty and I joked and walked and saw all kinds of wildlife. If you look closely at this next picture, you can see the Wobbly-Headed Jellymonster. She is rarely seen out in the open like this, and the photo is a little blurry (funny that), but you can probably still tell that she is grinning and having a really good time.



This wild turkey was perched on a vine above the path, and fixed us with a beady eye, seeming completely unfazed by our presence. I found him rather creepy, actually, and ducked quickly past!

The canopy was so beautiful, I had to show you a photo.



This cute furry girl is a female pademelon - a hopping marsupial animal rather like a small kangaroo, except furrier and with a shorter and differently proportioned face. After we saw this female, we saw another one with a baby (everyone say awwww!) hopping its itty bitty baby hops along behind its mother.



Finally, we arrived back at Mum's farm, where we were able to watch this bettong (another native hopping creature - smaller again than a pademelon) drink its milk, and we even got to hold and pat the little guy. 'Boomer' was given to Mum via a wildlife rescue centre, where Boomer was rehabilitated, and soon Mum will begin the process of releasing him back into the wild. Mum has wild bettongs who visit her each night under the jacaranda tree, where Mum leaves special seeds out for them.




That was my weekend ....... furry friends and fun with fabulous Fatty.
What more could a Wobbly-Headed Jellymonster wish for?





20 comments:

John Cowart said...

What a lovely way to spend your 9th; Fatty and you are lucky people.'

Now that you're back from the wilds, please consider doing a meme which I tagged you for this morning (5/15/07) in my blog post. I don't do these things often but this one seemed innocuous. Please take a look and think about doing it.
john cowart

thisisme said...

Happy anniversary to you both - it sounds like you had a great childfree weekend with each other. Thanks for sharing some of your photos with us. I love those canopy shots - I love looking at them and taking them myself.

fifi said...

Oh, I am sccrrreaming with delight at this collection of things!!

how good is this?
snakes, paddies, bettongs!

the bettong drinking from his bowl caused me to make a noise out loud. sweeeet.

A lovely time in the rainforest you have had.
And congratulations

Susan Tidwell said...

WOW a look at the Wobbly-Headed Jellymonster!

Happy Anniversary!

rel said...

Jelly,
What a lucky fellow that Fatty is to have captured a wiley wobbly-Headed Jellymonster and "tamed?" rer ;-0
My knickname for D. has and still is koala bear.
Happy anniversary you two and many more to follow!
We're doing #40 in July.
rel

meggie said...

Happy Anniversary! Sounds like it was perfect.
Beautiful pics.

Mackey said...

A Wobbly-Headed Jellymonster!!!!!
My favorite kind of Monster:)
It is so neat to finally see a pic of you...albeit a blurry one, but at least we can put a blurry face to the name!

Puss-in-Boots said...

Happy ninth anniversary to you and Fatty, Jellyhead. It sounds as if you had a wonderful weekend. I couldn't think of anything nicer than to wander through a rainforest and catch glimpses of the wildlife.

Val said...

Boardwalks meandering through rainforests = my kind of heaven!

I laughed at your son's dismissal of you - seems somehow familiar.

Congrats on your 9 years and may there be many more!

freefalling said...

You know I've lived in Australia all my life and never seen a paemelon or a bettong - to be honest, I didn't really know what a bettong was!

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

Happy 9th Anniversary to both of you Jelly. What a wonderful surprise to see a picture of you. Even though it's a bit blurry, I can still see your pretty little happy face and it was just as I imagined.

Even though Ben told you that you could hang up the phone now, it was good to know that he was enjoying being with your mum...Just think how you would have felt if he would have been crying for you. It would surely have put a damper on your fun outting with Fatty.

The rain forest pictures are lovely and I certainly would find it more appealing to walk through it without all the crowds of people. Just to walk there in peace and enjoy all the animals to yourself would be wonderful. And you did see quite an assortment of wildlife.

I don't like to be frightened by a snake although I am not afraid of one if I see it first. Your turkey looked like one of our mean buzzards. hehehe
I loved that little Boomer...he's so cute and jellyma deserves a pat on the back for taking such good care of him until his release.

Thanks for all the pictures. It's nice to take a walk with you thru the rain forest and then back to your mum's.

Heather said...

I almost boycotted this post because you posted a picture of a snake and I have a dread fear of snakes.

But I decided I could break the boycott to tell you Happy Anniversary and to tell you the the wobbly-headed Jellymonster is an exceptionally good-looking creature. ;-)

freefalling said...

Wow - thanks for your comments on my blog, you were very kind - I'm getting a big head! I didn't see an email address on your site, so I hope you don't mind if I reply here.
I see you like some of the same authors as me - if you liked The God of Small Things, you should like A House for Mr Biswas (V.S. Naipaul). Strangely enough, it is my anniversary too this month - 11 years married on the 19th (that's coincidental, isn't it?). I've actually been lurking around your site for a few weeks - I can't actually remember how I came across it - I like the stuff you talk about. Which state are you in? Qld?

Michelle said...

Happy Anniverasy Jelly and Fatty. Your wild getaway - looked fabulous!!

Alice said...

Congratulations on nine wonderful years. Sounds like a fantastic weekend - and now I can picture the wobbly-headed Jelly Monster coz I enlarged the photo.

May the next nine years be even better.

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of hopping critters there aren't there?

He's cute!


Now that wild turkey looks like our turkey vulture.

LZ Blogger said...

Just the thought of sankes makes me want to move to New Zealand! ~ jb///

Mimi said...

OMG, your life is so exotic or perhaps it's just the animals. Sounds like a great time and I'm jealous. :-)

Mimi

Kerri said...

Happy happy belated 9th anniversary to you and Fatty!!!
Sounds like a perfect getaway. There's certainly some unusual wildlife in that rainforest...a wobbly-headed Jellymonster! You don't see too many of those these days :) (Lovely to see you Jelly!!)
Thanks for sharing all those lovely pics, even the snake!
Your Jellyma is so sweet, looking after the animals like that.....As well as the kids! How could they not have a good time? I'm sure she did too :)
xoxox

Kerri said...

P.S. Amazing alliteration, I might add! :)