I am, you are, we are Australian

This weekend was a big weekend for us, it was the Queen's birthday weekend and Brisbane was putting on a massive citizenship ceremony for 500 people, of which we were two!  I hadn't thought a great deal about it really, I was just really pleased to be able to vote at last and to feel a sense of belonging here.  However, I was contacted a fortnight before the ceremony by the State Government, initially asking if I would mind if the media contacted me (they mentioned that they had seen my blog, this blog, and liked it!).  I was really chuffed, so I said of course.  This resulted in an interview with a journalist from the ABC, and this article, with a photo of me outside my office in the lovely native garden that was planted at the Ecosciences Precinct (more about the garden can be found here, from an ABC Gardening Australia feature).

But the excitement didn't end there!  I was then contacted again later in the week, and was asked if I would like to give a speech on behalf of the new citizens.  Would I?!  What an honour!! Of course, I said yes, and then realised just how big the audience would be and panicked a little... I decided to focus on our love of the environment and the importance of Science, both of which I feel are somewhat threatened in the current political climate so I admit there was little political motivation there, but really these things are the two most important things that brought us to Australia and what keep me and my other half Edd here.  

White Wallabies!

We had a wonderful Easter break in Tasmania, one of our favourite places in Australia. The cool, clear air was so refreshing after the very hot summer we have had in Queensland. We headed for Bruny Island, one of the eight ultimate Aussie weekend escapes in Lonely Planet! We were lucky to be joined by friends who grew up in Tasmania, and one spent his childhood summers surfing on Bruny so he really knows it like the back of his hand (and should start a tour company!).

Bruny is simply fantastic for immersing in the wilderness, taking long walks on cliff-tops or windswept beaches, lying in the warm sunshine in a sheltered cove or taking a thrilling boat ride around the rocks to see seals, albatross and eagles.  Then after all that return to a cosy cottage and sample some great cheese, wine, whisky, oysters and fudge. yum. Yet there are no hoards of tourists, quite the opposite. We stayed at the wonderfully named Adventure Bay, pictured below, which is probably the best spot to base yourself on the island.

There is plenty of wildlife to be found, and we only had to wander as far as the back garden of our cottage to see a rare white wallaby, which our friend hadn't even seen before - able to survive on Bruny due to the absence of predators.  It was very special to see such an unusual creature, it almost felt like I was seeing a unicorn! It had quite a magical quality as the white fur glows in the sunlight. 

Then it was even more amazing to see she had a joey!

There was a lot of smoke in the air from forestry fires, which made for some stunning sunsets... Bruny is a truly magical place.

A Titan in the garden!

Edd was taking in the washing this evening when a helper appeared.  This Titan stick insect Acrophylla titan is the largest stick insect in Australia (I'm pretty sure its this and not an equally well named but not so large Goliath stick insect, as the Goliath is much greener in colour).  It was sitting on the chair watching over the wash basket.  After we disturbed him he wandered off to my (rather dead) herb pot and tried very hard to convince us he really is a stick, turning his head to look at us each in turn in quite a human sort of way, with those big black eyes.

A Blue Tiger and a Crow

It was a great day for butterflies!  Taking a walk on Mount Gravatt a month ago we saw plenty of lovely butterfiles, including these two: the first is known as a Blue Tiger Tirumala hamata and is really very attractive indeed.  Its not always a common sight in Brisbane according to local insect experts the Chew family, who run the nice local insect website linked above.  It is thought the Blue Tigers are visitors from North Queensland, they are known to have a propensity to migrate long distances - perhaps what gives them their other common name, Blue Wanderer.

The other butterfly I took a picture of is a Brisbane local, known as the Common Australian Crow - Euploea core. It is in the same family as the Blue Tiger, Nymphalidae.  Whilst the Blue Tiger feeds on vines, the Crow feeds on plants, such as Oleander, that are poisonous to birds and mammals as a form of self-defence!  

The local Mount Gravatt Environment Group has a campaign to promote pollinators in gardens via a 'Pollinator link', lots of info about how to attract butterfiles and other pollinators to your garden can be found on their website and in their information leaflet available for download.  Its a lovely idea - 'wildlife corridors for urban spaces', connecting habitat islands like Mount Gravatt with other nature reserves in the city and encouraging insect pollinators into people's gardens.  

Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers

Australia's country towns are truly wonderful places, and I have a great affection for them.  I often feel a sense of not quite stepping back in time, but perhaps just finding that a good old fashioned way of life is still alive and kicking; the kind you imagine from children's books with endless summers and lashings and lashings of ginger beer. Such a delight we found in Toowoomba, QLD, earlier today at the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.  Although delayed by the never-ending road works between Brisbane and Toowoomba (since the devastating floods in 2011), we arrived just before lunch to sample some gourmet delights at the food and wine part of the festival.  As Toowoomba is surrounded by rich agricultural lands on all sides and is not far from Queensland's only wine region of note (the Granite belt), we were not disappointed.

After eating some delicious salads from 'Claude's', washed down with some local craft beer by Ian Watson of The Spotted Cow, followed by probably the best doughnut in the world, a cinnamon sugar Byron Bay Organic Doughnut (we actually had to share it, it was that huge!), we were ready to burn off a few calories by looking at flowers.  

We started by looking at the flower arrangements: spectacular seven-foot high masterpieces and a room-size 'installation', truly works of art... 

Then it was time to explore the gardens, so we headed over to the Botanic garden where there was an astounding display of blooms planted specially for the Carnival.  We spent a while just marvelling and taking photos (pretty much what everyone was doing) - for us it equalled Canberra's Floriade, and I fell in love with the dancing Poppies.   

As if that wasn't enough, we then went to watch the main event of the day, the Grand Central Floral Parade through the city (though we actually just watched it at the end point - Godsall Street Oval).  It was nice to watch the floats arrive at the oval and we ducked under the barriers to take a closer look once the floats were parked up.  What a tremendous community spirit.  

The festival has only just begun and is on until the 29th September, although the Flower, Food and Wine arena and fairground is only there this weekend.  There are so many other things to see besides in several parks across the town, so I'm sure it will be more than worth it - visit Toowoomba!

A lunchtime serenade from a Currawong

Last weekend we went to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in NSW for a short break - one of our favourite places in Australia.  The spring weather was glorious, and the nights were still just cool enough to justify lighting the little wood burning stove in the cottage we stayed at near Blackheath and curling up with a glass of wine, bliss.

The spectacular 'world heritage' view at Govett's Leap (note Bridal Falls on the right), also my first attempt at a panoramic stitch with my camera!  Please click the picture and it will enlarge.

We decided to spend Saturday walking the trails around Govett's Leap, a spectacular look-out where we could see for miles across the Grose Valley wilderness and world heritage national park, with a 180 metre drop below us to the base of the sheer cliffs.  We did the cliff-top walk over to the Pulpit rock, which had the most wonderful views, as you can see above.  There was just the sound of the breeze in the trees and birdsong, and the occasional drips from the rare hanging swamps and waterfalls, with the wafts of perfume from the spring flowers filling up our senses!  We stopped for lunch, and a very friendly Pied Currawong Strepera graculina came and sat with us, first quietly watching then breaking into some beautiful calls - I captured the calls on video below, and the spectacular peaceful scene looking down the Grose Valley behind.

The friendly Currawong

Mount Coot-tha

We have just passed our two year anniversary of living in Brisbane, my how time flies! Looking back over this blog I realised a couple of things: I've not posted for nearly six months (oops!) and that I've never posted about the wonderful Brisbane Botanic Garden at Mount Coot-tha, what an omission. Given that this blog started life as a blog about the Australian National Botanic Garden in Canberra, I really should have written about the Brisbane equivalent by now.

Strelitzia in the Mount Coot-tha botanic garden, also known as 'Bird of Paradise flower', a beautiful plant often seen in Gardens around Brisbane although it is actually native to South Africa.

One reason it has taken so long to write about the garden at Mount Coot-tha is because it took us a long time to go there again after moving here - on our first visit to Brisbane we had visited the garden and were very disappointed, but it turns out we didn't see hardly any of it as it extends so much further than we realised!  So if you go there and you think its just a small lake with a few flower beds around, you really haven't explored far enough.  For a start, there is also a wonderful Japanese Garden, pictured below, and a meandering rainforest river with plenty of water dragons.

If you are interested in Japanese culture, there is an event on tomorrow Sunday 18th August, in the Japanese Garden at Mount Coot-tha celebrating Japanese Cultural day!  This will include music, a tea ceremony and origami amongst other things, from 11am-3pm, and its free (as is entry to the garden).  

Just be sure to watch out for the many Golden Orb weaver Nephila plumipes spiders webs with huge female spiders as you walk around the gardens...  pictured below is an immature (top) and mature (below) female - the males are really tiny in comparison as this species has extreme sexual dimorphism; the female body length of these spiders is around 20mm, whereas the males are just 5mm.