Home... sigh

Well... I am home again... in the city where the sky is never completely dark and the only ocean I hear is the traffic on the Don Valley Parkway, even at 2 o'clock in the morning (but the cars do drive on the right side of the road).

At least the puppies seem happy to see me. Even the cockatiels let me pet them which is unusual.

I never noticed before how tiny my apartment is.

Sigh.

On the plus side my tomato plants on the balcony have lots of ripe ones. At least I think they are. Kinda dark out there at the moment. Hopefully the beastie-sitter and plant waterer, Maddie (who has left me muffins for breakfast, how wonderful) got as many as she can eat.

My trip home was relatively uneventful, except I lost my cell phone in Atlanta. Guess I should cancel that. Can't text Peter to tell him I'm home safely.

How many hours have I been awake? Hard to tell when I got to Los Angeles before I left Australia. Haha... that's funny.

Now what will I write about? Maybe I'll keep taking photos. Haven't done that in a long time and I love it. Couple people asked in emails I haven't responded to yet... yep, all the pics are mine.

I feel weird being home.

Thank you Peter for a wonderful vacation. xoxo

Peter's birds

Wednesday I slept most of the day... I didn't feel great again. Wasn't a great loss the weather was dark and raining anyway. Peter spent a lot of time working on putting down a floor in his library. It looks great. When I wasn't sleeping we watched some movies. Was good for a laugh. He made me chicken soup from scratch.

Peter has an aviary on the front veranda. He has about 20 budgies and a grass parrot. Spring seems to be in the air, though... I wonder if he'll let them breed? Hard to get pictures of each of the birds. They don't sit in one place very long.

The sun is peeking out... I guess I should stop playing with photos and enjoy my second to last day. Sigh.

Another "terrible" day at the beach

Peter tells me that at this beach you can watch surfers swimming with dolphins. Tuesday was chilly but beautiful.

Forest walk

Monday we overdid it... we went for a forest walk that seemed to go on forever. I dunno if it's because it's winter, but the forest was oddly quiet. No birds, no animals... nothing. But it was a beautiful walk.

Blossoms in winter.

Yesterday was a bit of a quiet day. I think I have a cold. Blah.

First we went to a little town called Tilba Tilba. Apparently the population is 30. Little town indeed. It is a charming little town with wonderful collectables shops, bed & breakfasts, confectioner, candle maker, craftsmen and cafes. We went to a little market where locals were selling their crafts and fruit.

After a delicious coffee and breakfast, we went to see Foxglove Spires, an open garden in the area. Even in winter it is wonderful.
The over 100 year old farmhouse has been renovated over the years and the garden has grown to 3-1/2 acres.
There is a nursery there now, as well as a lovely cafe and a couple of little antique and collectable stores.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Another beautiful day. Seems I've been lucky with the weather.

Today we went to the Mogo Zoo. This is a relatively small but beautiful zoo in South Coast NSW, Australia. Their focus is working to protect threatened species. I suppose due to the climate, they are able to have open air enclosures for a lot of the animals, birds and reptiles that were really quite extraordinary.

My favourite exhibit (not animal) was an area of small islands that housed lemurs and gibbons. Apparently these guys can't swim! The little moats were quite close to the viewing areas, and there were no fences. So the animals just roamed free with no bars. We saw an animal trainer in a small aluminium boat putter around to the separate islands to feed them.

Australian Dingo

Brazilian Tapir

Wild Cockatoos eating the giraffe's food... pair of characters to be sure.
They were bopping up and down like a whack-a-mole game

Cotton-Top Tamarin
(About the size of your hand)

Cotton-Top Tamarin

Emperor Tamarin

Giraffe

 

Golden-Lion Tamarin (these are gorgeous!)

Green Iguana

Lemur enjoying the sun

Meerkat

Oriental Small-Clawed Otter
(I wanted to take these two sisters home. Adorable and hilarious)

 

Pygmy Marmoset
(Okay... these were the sweetest animals we saw today... this one was obsessed with Peter's sunglasses)

Napalese Red Panda

Napalese Red Panda

Napalese Red Panda

African Serval
(This cat was hand raised and we saw it having cuddles with one of the trainers)

Silvery Gibbon
(The rarest primate on the planet. This zoo has a baby and are hoping for another!)

Sumatran Tiger

White Lion
(These lions are "white" not albino... beautiful)

Peter risking his life to feed man-eating deer.
He survived.