Echidna Day adventures part 2

More Echidna Day adventures. If you recall, I said I don't like reptiles. The snake above... perfect example of why I don't like them. It is a Red Bellied Black Snake. Actually, nothing against the snake above, I actually just don't like any snakes.

This lovely, sleepy lump of an animal is wombat. These things were huge and sleepy. I think it must have been afternoon siesta time when we went to see all the animals :-)

Our emu friend.

Kangaroos in mid bounce.

Eastern Grey and Red kangaroos. I don't think I have ever seen Red kangaroos before. We have lots of the Grey ones around here. The Red ones are so much bigger than the Greys. I don't think I would like to get too close to them. They are pure muscle.

The cockatoos were fun. Two of them took a liking to Tim. One was chewing on his jumper and the other quite liked his shoe laces.

Esther loved the cockies. She was so excited she could pat them. When we left their enclosure, one cocky said to us, "Hello, Cocky". So of course we stood there for a bit longer to see what else he had learnt to say.

These parrots were really enjoying the seed they had to eat.

This is a Bearded dragon. We counted 6 of them in the enclosure and they were just sun baking on the branches.

The kids were particularly excited to see this animal. It is called the Spotted Quoll. They have been watching a wildlife show on TV and it has been featuring about Spotted Quolls. They are an endangered species. Very exciting to see live ones - even if they were sleeping.

This is a Tasmanian Devil. Also, sleepy. I think the thing that struck us about this enclosure was that there was a chicken carcass up on top of the fence guard. They are supposed to be ferocious little things so we assume it got thrown there in a feeding frenzy.

This is a Brush Turkey.

We got to the last few displays and the kids were tired from all the walking. One of the last displays had Flying Fox bats and Blue-tongue Lizards in it. Ellamay was completely freaked out by the bats and Esther saw a lizard that was shedding its skin. This completely freaked Esther out. She has seen skins off snakes on the TV before but the fact that the lizard was walking around with some skin sticking out was too creepy for Esther.

We left the main park for their playground/picnic area and had some afternoon tea. We ate some "sticky" kind of food in keeping with our Echidna Day idea. Raspberry chocolate bullets and chocolate malt sticks. That seemed like good food to celebrate a "pointy" kind of animal.

Another year gone by and another year celebrated that we have abundant blessings. We thank God for the life we have and even though it has its ups and its downs, we are blessed beyond measure. I hope you have given some thought to what you have in your life to be thankful for.

Echidna Day adventure

On Sunday 16th October, we celebrated Echidna Day again. This year I really wanted to go somewhere so we could see and actual echidna. I made a phone call and found that they had one at the Kyabram Fauna Park. I remember going to the Fauna Park when I was a kid but the main attraction then was we use to go to the kiosk to buy mixed lollies. :-) I had only been in once that I remember on a school trip. That was probably when I was about the same age as Esther and Ellamay.

My very vague memories of the place when I was a kid was looking at displays and not being able to see anything. It was exciting to see things so close up this time. I guess a lot of things can change in 25 years. :-) Perhaps I am a bit taller too. This koala barely moved in the 5 minutes or more we stood there looking at him.

The animals there are very use to people being around. The emu above, for example believed it owned the path and we had to move out of its way because it wasn't stopping or changing its path for us. The 3 girls were in love with it as soon as it walked past and without a word they turned and started to follow it bobbing up and down just as it did. So cute and so funny.

This kangaroo was quite happy to ignore us as we stood nearby in awe of how close we could get.

And here is the creature of the day... an echidna... bottom. It was asleep with its head in the hollow log and did not care that we came all that way to see him. We asked him to wake up and pose for a photo, but he didn't hear us.

I got a little emotional having my family all there to see this echidna. It was a perfect way to celebrate Echidna Day. Having our family together, enjoying (reasonable) health and having fun.

These guys are called Tawny Frogmouths. They look like they own the place with their chests all puffed out like that.

I can't remember what this one was called but he (or she for that matter) was an owl.

Pretty sure this one was a Barn Owl. Really know my fauna don't I? :-)

We went into the reptile house... I don't like reptiles. I was glad they were behind glass.

This was the crocodile. It hardly moved the whole time we stood there looking at it. I wondered if it was real. Then it slowly came up and opened it's eyes above the water level. That was creepy.

Amelia was happy to have Daddy holding onto her while she looked at the crocodile.

I have another post to come of our trip to the fauna park. I hope to share that in the next couple of days.

Button obsession

I have a thing about buttons. They are useful for all the usual buttony type uses but also for things like entertaining kids and for making pretty things. I had a small stash of buttons. We have looked through them a lot. We use them for pump time entertainment. Buttons are quite a happy thought to me. If I have trouble sleeping or I have had a bad day, I like to think of a quilt shop I went to a couple of years ago that had a huge tub of buttons there. You could buy buttons by the scoopful.

I put the suggestion out months ago to my in laws that I would be perfectly happy with a bagful of buttons for my birthday. Didn't matter if they were new or old. I just wanted more buttons. On my birthday, they certainly delivered. Look at the great supply I received. That terrific buttony bag above which is a perfect project size.

New buttons in all different colours, shapes and sizes.

I was handed this old biscuit tin which felt kind of heavy. I was a little bit excited because old buttons often live in old biscuit tins. It was from Auntie Jill. And it was the family button collection! I let out a shriek. Because isn't that what you do when you discover old buttons in an old biscuit tin?

These are some of my favourites. That dog one is so cute. I wonder what it use to live on?

And those green buttons with the flowers painted on are so pretty.

There were some still on their cards and other interesting treasures in there that often end up in button collections.

I love this sparkly blingy button. What could this have been for? Something super glamorous perhaps? Or maybe it was bought and never used? Now I am hunting out all the things I can make with these buttons. Can't wait to start. :-)

Do you have a crafty happy thought?

Penguin foot cozy

This is what a foot cozy might look like if the world was ruled by me. Actually, it's a cheap black beanie that I got with visions of turning it into something ridiculous to cheer up my sister-in-law. She had broken her toes in a quilting accident (it happened at the time of quilting and was quite unrelated, but it makes a good tale). She had to sit with her foot up and couldn't do too much. So I made her a foot cozy to keep her foot warm and to give her a giggle.

I used some felt and buttons and the penguin foot cozy was created. Hopefully, that foot is well and truly on the mend. How's it feeling, Rachel? Now the foot cozy will just be another silly thing I made because it's fun to be silly and bring smiles.

Photo booth fun

For Esther and Ellamay's birthday, they had some friends over for a little (un)party. See, it wasn't really going to be a proper party. There was no cute invitations. No party games planned. No big lead up. I just planned with my friend (who happens to be the mother of the kids friends - convenient, yes?) to have 3 of her kids over, if every one was healthy and we weren't busy.

My (un)party idea got out of hand of course because how can I look at all the cute stuff on the internet and not get inspired to just make a little bit of stuff? Okay, so I might have went a little overboard. Especially for an (un)party. It's what I do. I planned some making things for the kids to do.

I thought a photo booth would be fun too. I saw these photo booth props linked on facebook. I spent the tedious task of sticking them onto mat board and cutting them out. In hindsight, cereal boxes probably would have done the job... but they were pretty sturdy which is what you need with bouncy kids playing with them.

They went over well, although I think more fun was had with them after the kids left and the grown ups had a turn. :-)

Turns out chocolate malt sticks work as moustache's too.

I will get around to posting the crafts at some point too.

Silent listener

Tim took this photo at the little cottage at Campaspe Run when we were there recently. "God is the head of this house. The unseen guest at every meal. The silent listener to every conversation." What an important thing to remember. God is always there. Mum and Dad have this on their wall too. I saw it every day when I was growing up. I think I get it more now though. God is there not only keeping us in check but taking care of us too.

Campaspe Run, Elmore

Wow, do I have the slows lately on posting! The truth is I have to fight to get time on our big beautiful computer because our children all want turns on it. And if it's not them, it is my darling husband. I am stuck with the unreliable dinosaur of a laptop. I think I will put in a suggestion for a nice shiny new one for my birthday or a "just because" kind of thing *grin*.

Anyway, here are some photos of part 2 of our adventure at Elmore from my last post. This place is called Campaspe Run and has a history of the area and the Sunshine harvesters that were invented on a farm in the district.

It was an interesting wander. The kids really liked seeing all the "olden days stuff". Especially the old cottage they had set up with old wares, table and bed.

I have so much to catch up with. (Ahhh!!!) I will get another post up later today hopefully. Have a great day!

Riding on the trains

Over Easter, we had a 5 day long weekend because Easter Monday and Anzac Day fell on the 25th April, which meant we had Tuesday off as well. Does that make sense? We had hoped to go to the Fair in Bendigo but we ended up not making it. My sister-in-law took the 3 kids out on Easter Saturday for a shopping adventure and Tim and I went out (alone!) for lunch and to look at furniture shops. Totally off topic at hand. Sorry. So anyway, because we completely missed the Fair this year, we took the girls to the Elmore Miniature Railway to make it up to them. If you are into trains or even if you aren't this is a great time out. The railway is open on school holidays and weekends. We use to take Esther and Ellamay there when they were little. We haven't been since before Amelia was born.

I believe the tracks are 1 kilometre long and the ride goes for about 8 minutes. It cost us $10 for the family. Bargain!

The kids loved it. We went 'round three times. On two different trains.

And back to the station, ready to begin some more fun.

I found a video of the railway on YouTube if you would like to see what it's like there. This was taken a few years ago and I have to say it is much more fun in person :-)