The Aussie alphabet: P is for possum

Often of a summer evening, well, really any time of year, we would be enjoying dinner or after-dinner on the deck and be visited by a possum. I don't know if it was always the same possum, but it was always interested if there was food on the table. Sometimes it would come quite close to the table (and us around it).

These possums are Oz natives, as you can read here in the Wikipedia entry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_brushtail_possum

Here's an explanation of the difference between Opossums that are native to the Northern hemisphere, and Possums that are native to Oz, from the perspective of a Kiwi. Possums were

introduced from Oz to NZ (bad idea apparently as they are now a big PEST) but their fur does make lovely knitted goods so that's an idea for you knitters.

https://www.outlawyarn.com/possum.html#/

You can see they're sort of cute. But mostly you don't want to get that close to them.

Animals you might see at (or near) our house

This post is for Amity (happy birthday, little Groundhog!) and Zara! Here are some of the animals you may see while you're visiting Oz.

1. Geckos

Geckos are small, very fast, and a bit shy, so you usually only see them very briefly. They are helpful because they eat spiders and mosquitoes. They look like this:

They make a sort of chirping sound which can be pretty loud when you think about how small they are. It sounds like this:

2. Gecko poo

Where there are geckos, there is gecko poo. It's hard to tell from the photo, but a poo is very small, about the size of a grain of long-grain rice. It almost always has a little white dot at one end, which is the gecko's pee. This is what it looks like:

3. Cockroaches

I know this may sound rather unpleasant, but better to be forewarned. The sort of climate we have here is very welcoming for all kinds of creatures, not all of which are ideal neighbours, and cockroaches are in that category. Usually if you see one in the house, it will be dead and look like this:

But sometimes they are alive and look like this:

I haven't seen any lately so I hope they've moved on.

4. Tiny little black ants

They're so small I couldn't even find any photos of them. They aren't much bigger than this apostrophe: '  They tickle a bit when they crawl on you but don't hurt you. Best to leave ants alone though, because there are other kinds that aren't so nice and it can be hard to tell which ones you're looking at.

5. Spiders

Spiders have 8 legs and come in all sizes. They trap flies and mosquitoes in their webs so we usually leave them alone and they leave us alone. I see lots of daddy longlegs around, and  you've probably seen them too, because they're very common just about everywhere:

I sometimes see a spider sort of like this one, in a big web, and leave it alone to let it do its spidery work:

6. Water dragons

These guys are relatives of the geckos, but they're bigger, though also very shy. We sometimes have one visiting the pool.

7. Birds

Lately I mostly hear crows squawking around here. They're big and black:

We also see a lot of magpies around:

But sometimes one of our trees gets a visit from a kookaburra or two. They are native to Australia and have a very distinctive call:

And there are always the brush turkeys - they walk all through the neighbourhood:

8. Possums

Possums come out at night - they're nocturnal - and they sometimes have fights on our rooftop with a lot of hissing. They can be bold, but if you pretend you're going to chase them they run away.

I hope you liked this little introduction to our local animals.

The Aussie alphabet: K is for kookaburra

I've been trying to avoid using animals in this compilation because it's, or they are, such a cliché here. And of course there are some obvious candidates, you know the ones; the macropod and the somnolent eucalyptus eater. But I hardly have any contact with those two, whereas right outside our house somewhere, we have a kookaburra who "sings" for us - screeches, more like - most mornings and afternoons. And this is how it sounds. Loud. Mighty loud at 5 am.

Here's a nice photo of a blue-winged kookaburra.

You know, of course, about the Great Copyright Fight. In case you don't, it started with this song, and the melody sounds like this. Then, in 1981, an Aussie band Men at Work made the charts with a song called "Down Under"; of course you've heard it...it had an instrumental bridge that sounded a lot like the main melody of the original song from 50 years earlier. The copyright owner sued the band for royalties and won, but only back to 2002.

Apparently the original has now been modified to eliminate the use of the word "gay" in its erstwhile meaning of "happy" in order not to cause the children of today to ROFLTAO.

Guarding the pool

I noticed this fellow in his, or perhaps her, very impressive web the other day while sweeping the pool deck. I hope he, or she, is catching a lot of mosquitoes out there.

The Aussie alphabet: G is for Gecko

Geckos are by no means unique to Australia. I'm including them because, this being my first time living in a warm enough climate for them, they hold a certain fascination for me. Their vocalizations -- they sort of chirp -- seem way too loud for their size. Upside is they supposedly eat insects, including mosquitoes. Downside is they produce little turds that you find in places like your bathtub and you have to clean up after them every day.

Google has gazillions of gecko images. Not all of them are images of actual real live geckos, of course. You get gecko jewelry, gecko sculptures, Michael Douglas, and the Geico gecko. When you search "Australian gecko" you also get Ugg boots and the money shot of Sydney opera house with the harbour bridge in the background. This one looks pretty much like the ones I see clinging to my living room ceiling or scurrying across the driveway.

This stops a nation??

Today was The Big Event (yawn)...the immediate world here stopped work or whatever they were doing to don silly hats, drink a lot, and watch a 3 minute horse race. Strange. If you really want to see more, visit http://www.melbournecup.com/Melbourne-Cup-Carnival-2.html.

Performing Scotties

These little gals did some AMAZING stunts, like...walking around the stage; sitting; standing still. Cute outfits though.