Sunday, November 15, 2009

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens at the bottom of Mt. Coot-tha. There was so much to see and it was a gorgeous day. Needless to say, I took a lot of pictures. Below is a small selection of them. I apologize for not knowing the names of most of the plants.


Patrick with some gigantic flowers.


An ibis by the water.


There were so many ducks bobbing for underwater treats! I caught one in the act.


There was a little fenced off section where the ducks could rest in the shade.


A pomegranate tree! They all sorts of fruit trees, including quince, carob beans and olives.


Pat had a close call, but managed to escape from the man-eating plant. Phew!


Some sort of gigantic aloe or cactus. Apparently no one has ever figured why the giant tree/flower grows in the middle, especially since the plant dies from the exhaustion of growing it.


A view from a little bridge in the rainforest section.




More strange and beautiful plants!


The view of Brisbane from the top of Mt. Coot-tha. It was a nice hike up and we got there just before sunset, which was unfortunately blocked by trees. Still a great view!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Interesting Places

I thought it was time for a little update, since it's been a few weeks! I've got some nice pictures from places I've been, so here we go.



This is in Morayfield, which is about an hour North of Brisbane by train. Patrick and I went to visit my Auntie Rose's Australian family. The property is about 40 acres, complete with chickens ("chooks"), sheep, 5 dogs and a mini-lake. Apparently wallabies lived in a small forested area on the land, but we didn't see any. It was a gorgeous day and they were all super-nice people, lots of them couples our age, so we had a great time.



This is Jazz, the oldest of the dogs, the "queen bee", enjoying a rest/dry off in the sunlight after a tiring swim.



This is a lovely little area I walk past when I come home from Greenslopes (which is right by Annerley, where we live). There was a water dragon, but he'd already jumped in by the time I got my camera out.



This is on one of the lakes at University of Queensland, where the water is covered in algae. There are so many birds there I'm going to have to devote an entire post to them. Also, I need to remember to bring bread so we can experience the feeding frenzy. All in good time.



A sailboarder enjoying the insanely windy day at Surfer's Paradise beach. There was sand in everything, pretty much from the get-go. It was a great day, though. Wave-jumping was ridiculous fun. It took a few hours to get there by public transport, but I really would like to go back, perhaps spend a weekend. It reminded me quite a bit of Honolulu.

It's been raining a lot, here, though I'm sure not as much as Vancouver. We've had some pretty epic thunder/lightning-storms which are fun to just sit on the porch and snuggle up with some tea and watch. The hot days are hot and humid, but it's what I expected.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

P.S. You can make the pictures bigger just by clicking on them! :)