Sunday, September 13, 2015

This is the kind of nature I can handle, Australia

I'm not gonna lie, my fear of all the things in Australia that can kill us is real. I grew up with a father that loved to watch the National Geographic specials about exotic animals and many of those shows featured the "World's deadliest [fill in the blank]" and ALL OF THEM WERE FROM AUSTRALIA!

Ok, maybe not all of them, but the majority of all those lists has Australia's wildlife front and center. I can't handle spiders, and this photo has been shared with me way too many times since we've made the decision to move Down Under:

This is a snake crawling out of someone's bathroom vent in Queensland. NOPE. 

I AM NOT BUILT TO BATTLE SNAKES IN THE SHOWER, Y'ALL!

I am happy to report, though, that since moving to Melbourne the worst invasion of our apartment by nature that we have experienced is the random gnat every now and then.

The other night, however, we DID see a couple pieces of Australian nature that got me very excited.





This is what they look like in better light. I didn't take this photo. I got it here


There are parrots in this city! And they aren't someone's pet that has gotten out of its cage! On our second day here, Tyler and I saw COCKATOOS! Just flying around! Because they are FROM HERE! They're not exotic, they're like really big, cool looking Australian pigeons!

Ok, not that common, but Australians are not phased by them like we were. And I continue to be thrilled by parrots whenever I see these cute green Australian king parrots flying around and singing in the evenings.

THEN we saw an Australian possum!

Australians are probably rolling their eyes at how this crazy American is getting all worked up over an annoying possum, but THEY ARE SO MUCH CUTER THAN THE ONES WE HAVE IN AMERICA!

Also not a photo I took. It was too dark to get a shot of the one we saw, so I stole this photo from here
Apparently they are just as annoying as the ones we have in America (even without the O at the beginning of their name), but they are WAY less rabid because there has never been a case of rabies in Australia ever. So they're just going to look at you all timidly like the one we saw the other night and NOT try to eat your face off or attack you!

I love Australian nature that doesn't want to eat me!

Vicariously yours,




1 comment:

  1. Ok because I loathe birds (especially ones that have the potential to conversate) I am not into the city parrots...but I am in love with that cute little possum. Initially I thought it was a bush baby and got really excited.

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