CHRISTMAS....and A NEW ADDITION

Well, that's Christmas for another year.

I hope where ever you are you had a lovely day with those you love around you.

Our day started with a visit to Tony's 95 year old mother in the Nursing home.

With the rest of the family away we ( Sally, Tony and I ) took some goodies and champagne and spent a couple of hours with her there.

Nana loves  the sweet stuff so she had a ball.

She also loves animals so Scout came along too.

and so did Sally's new addition....

"Jem "

( there's a little "To Kill a Mockingbird " theme going on here )

More about him another time - 8 weeks old and very cute!

Note to self : Drinking champagne in the middle of the day can be dangerous !

We arrived back home round 1:00pm and all three of us were soon dozing in chairs around the house.

So were the dogs !

Our Christmas Dinner was eaten at night this year and with only the three of us for a change it was very relaxed.

No dressing up in good clothes for us.

Comfortable shorts and t-shirts were the order of the day.

However we did not skimp on the good stuff for dinner.

The ham was the standout.....absolutely delicious.

  and the rest was pretty good too.

( Sorry forgot to take a photo till it was half gone !)

For dessert there was a choice of

Pavlova

or

Christmas Pud

( this year we had Heston Blumenthal's pudding with a whole candied orange in the centre - O my !

Of course we all had a bit of both !!!

As we say every year - tomorrow the diet begins

( after we've eaten all the leftovers !)

Cheers.

BUNYIPS

Occasionally, on blogs I visit, I read about fairies and the like.
Folk tales from countries where these beings are woven into the psyche of the people.

Like Leprechauns and Ireland for example, they spring immediately to mind.

In Australia we have the bunyip.

A bunyip is a large mythical creature from Australian Aboriginal mythology said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, riverbeds and waterholes.

These bunyips were not cuddly benign creatures. They haunted the swamps and billabongs of South-Eastern Australia especially, devouring anyone straying too close to their precious waterhole at night.

It seems these creatures only were ever seen at night and descriptions of them varied greatly.
From giant toad-like creatures to feathered crocodiles !!

Some have suggested that the mythology may have originated from the early Aboriginal people's encounters with the giant marsupials that occupied the continent thousands of years ago.

Although stories of bunyips were passed into the culture of the early settlers with reported sightings and even newspaper reports I don't think there would be a child today who has ever heard of a bunyip unless they encountered this book in their school library.

Thankfully this bunyip is portrayed in a much gentler way.

He's kind of ugly-cute !!



This bunyip is searching to find out what he is asking different animals along the way ( as is the way of children's books ).

Another mythological creature is the yowie - Australia's equivalent of the bigfoot or yeti.
This one seems to keep to the mountains  and is huge, hairy and walks upright.

It's easy to dismiss bunyips and yowies as the product of a fertile imagination, but Australia's a big country and stranger things have been found lurking in the unexplored depths of the rugged bush that covers great tracts of this huge land.

Cheers.

BUTTERFLY INVASION

Currently Brisbane is being invaded by butterflies.

When I look out on my back yard there are clouds of them flitting above the grevillias....

but when I try to take photos of them  !!!!

Finally I just zoomed, pointed and clicked and managed to capture a few.

Apparently this is an event which happens every six to 10 years.

Millions of Caper White Butterflies migrate from west of the Great Dividing Range to breed.

The increased number of butterflies across Brisbane could be attributed to good rainfall out west.

Here is a closer view from the local newspaper.

We can expect them to be around for the next month or so.

Cheers.

BLOOMING BEAUTIFUL

Spring has been a pretty dull affair here in our suburb of Brisbane.

No decent rain for ages means lawns everywhere are brown unless devoted watering has taken place.

But as we move into November pops of purple appear all over Brisbane as the lovely Jacarandas burst into flower.

On Sunday the weather was great for an outing along the river to see some of these lovely trees around the city.

As usual we used the City Cat ferries to view the trees along the river.

There were plenty to see lining the river all the way into the city.

I'm so glad parks planners had the foresight to plant these lovely trees in all the parks.

The really good specimens have dropped all their leaves in the preceding weeks and are completely covered with flowers.

We moved from the ferry to walk along the riverside walkway under the trees?

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the day.

What a delightful place. When I win the lottery I might buy one of these units !

We found a lovely spot along our walk for lunch.

Breezes from the river kept the temperature pleasant and we could have sat there for quite a while but there were more trees to see on the other side of the river so we moved on...... 

And there were plenty there too.

People were out everywhere enjoying the weather.

Some doing some very odd activities !

Then it was time for a final coffee before setting out for home.

Another lovely day in our lovely city.

Cheers !

ANIMAL PHYSIOTHERAPY

Making the decision to study Animal Physiotherapy has been a huge one for Sally. 

She has worked hard to reach the high level of expertise she now possesses in human physiotherapy (her forte is cardio-thoracic and Intensive care physiotherapy ) and has willingly passed on her knowledge to many students and junior physios she has mentored.

Changing to Animal Physiotherapy involves enrolling in a Masters course at Liverpool University in England as Australia does not have a degree in Animal Physiotherapy at this time. Nor does New Zealand. This means that most of the course is done online with some compulsory time live-in in Liverpool too. A very expensive exercise !

Of course she needs to work to support herself and finance all of this too.

Luckily she has a friend who has an Animal Physiotherapy Practice who mentors her and provides her with practical training.

Recently Sally organised a workshop where a number of students were instructed in hands-on physio techniques. A large number of docile "patients"  were recruited from friends in the doggy world. 

Above and below you can see Scout taking a starring role with a rather aristocratic friend waiting her turn !

It seems that these days people tend to treat their animals with surgery and physio where one they would have been put to sleep or left to carry injuries dosed up on pain killers.

Massage and guided exercise seems to be very similar to the way humans are treated

And the animals don't seem to mind it a bit.

Acupuncture is also a valuable tool in dealing with pain issues and the animals often dose off when being treated.( look closely and you'll see the needles below )

Sally is now treating a few patients of her own ( under guidance of course ) and enjoying it all immensely.

The dog below had a stroke and was completely paralysed only a few weeks ago. His owners are delighted with his progress.

Finally it is all settling into place. 

Sally and Scout have moved from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast to be close to the Animal Physiotherapy Practice where she now works part time. She also works at a hospital nearby and her life is very busy with work and study. Her aim is to divide her working time between dogs and humans.

Scout is happy. She has a new beach to explore.

As long as she has waves to catch,

cool water to swim

And Sally nearby she's happy !

Cheers.