Not only did Annette keep the garden alive in our absence, she left me with a nice sketch subject.
recovery day
Month: September 2022
home again
Ah, so good to be picking dinner from the garden again. Travelling is nice, but so is coming home.
Phascolarctos cinereus
Exploring with the grandkids, we spotted a koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) and her joey high in the branches of an ironbark tree near their home. A lovely sighting for our last day in Australia. Today we fly home.
springbrook
Springbrook National Park is astoundingly beautiful. I can’t believe I lived in south-east Queensland for ten years and never went there; so happy that situation was rectified today.
The Park is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, one of Queensland’s five World Heritage properties.
Spectacular waterfalls, lush rainforest, ancient trees, impressive views, exceptional ecological importance and natural beauty makes Springbrook an outstanding place to visit. My sketch in no way does the scenery justice. You need to go there for yourself.
morning coffee at the surf club
I popped over to the local surf lifesaving club for coffee, as one does here.
Gold Coast
Gold Coast was the last place I lived in Australia. Man, it’s changed a lot in 25 years. But the beach is still nice 😊
iconic wildlife
Enjoying the rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus) in the palm trees at dawn.
This guy was on the kitchen floor this morning, barely alive. I thought it was a leaf and picked it up, then noticed a leg waving weakly. I put it outside and it must have recovered somewhat because when I came back with my sketchbook, it was gone.
Only a few more days in Aus, so it may be my last honking big spider for a while.
lemon tree very pretty
I sketched a kookaburra in the guest book at our lodgings, but forgot to photograph it before we checked out this morning. But here’s a lemon tree instead.
We’re done with north and central Queensland; our last few days in Australia will be spent in southern Queensland.
at my doorstep
While sketching these orchids at the foot of the front patio this morning, a butcher bird and kookaburra came down to feed on grubs and lizards.
halconia immanis
This big beauty is high on the bathroom wall in our current lodgings, quietly minding her own business.
Lisa Vankula-Donovan (on Instagram as @wannabe_entomologist) is my hunstman-whispering hero. I don’t know how she gets them to walk calmly over her; they usually scoot rapidly away when approached.
hashiworks 