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?