Tulips! Spring!

I felt very nostalgic yesterday. Every time I visit a park, garden or farm overflowing with flowers of countless colors I remember the Descanso Gardens in the spring with the Camellia Forest an explosion of all shades from light pink to dark red. Yesterday I missed posting because we spend half a day at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival at the same name tulip farm in the Dandenong Ranges, just 30 km East of Melbourne. The Tesselaar Farm breeds, grows and sells flowers, shrubs and trees throughout the year, but the highlight of their activity to any Melbournian is this tulip festival. It was a typical Melbourne spring day yesterday, with bright sunny moments, clouds, rain and hail. For who didn’t know this was again the best exemplification of “four seasons in one day.” But such unpredictable weather did not prevent us and many other people from walking among thousands of elegant flowers growing in straight lanes or well-groomed mini-gardens. I was happy it was not sunny all morning because the colors seemed more vivid on the grey of the sky. Dutch treats, wine tasting and coffee make the day at the festival even better. We had a really good time, although we missed the Grand Final of the Australian Football League. Chloe and my friend Debra rooted for the Sydney Swans (see the post from last week) and they won! Hurray!

Curlew

I wrote about this Australian bird a few days ago, but I am dedicating an entire post to it today because it is a unique bird and I have a good picture of it to share. The first time we met the curlew was in Port Douglas, Queensland, in the North of Australia. We were in a nice hotel by the beach with sprawling gardens. The first night in the hotel, a screeching call woke us up and only when it kept repeating we realized it was a night creature and not a nightmarish dream. We asked the hotel personnel the next morning what was the loud sound that woke us up and laughing, they told us that we had just been introduced to the stone-curlew, a bird that lives in the hotel garden and the nearby golf course. The curlews are active (screamingly so!) at night. When the hotel person described the bird to us we realized we had seen it the night before in the hotel parking. It had a striking look, which we absolutely loved. Tall legs and big eyes (to see better at night), walking like a stork… Hmmm, so curlews are indeed adorable looking (please look at the picture and agree with me!) but terrible sounding. Since this bird woke us up pretty much every night we stayed in Port Douglas and it is endangered in Victoria, but quite common in the Northern states, we always joke that before reserving any hotel we should call and ask about their curlew population…

Canola

One surprising crop that adds to the yellow wattle landscape of Australia is the canola (rapeseed). Although the third most common crop here, and by any means, of unequaled culture beauty, canola has been cultivated only in the past 30-35 years in parts of South Australia (where I took the picture) and Western Australia. The canola (Canadian Oil, Low Acid) oil is one of the healthiest ones, even if the benefits may be cancelled by the rest of the Aussie diet, predominantly consisting in meat products. Of course, canola belongs to the controversial category of gene-modified plants, so it is not very welcome in Australia. This third most common crop serves more to improve the quality of the soil by rotating cultures rather than to fill up the oil jugs.

Antique or Obsolete?

Obsolete. And now I will explain. There are so many things that look old in Australia, that I constantly wonder whether they are antiques or just obsolete. After counting so many of such things, from house windows to TV sets, cars, conference room seats and café furniture, I am convinced they are obsolete. I think that unlike the US where old is replaced by new at a fast pace, in Oz this doesn’t happen. I still see the very old computer monitors being used in my institute, bathrooms with hot and cold water coming from two different faucets, heat and cool air coming from two separate units, hot water bottles being used for warming beds, etc, etc, etc. One shocking thing was this phone, which has a dialing wheel. Even if I grew up with it, I cannot believe it still exists in old elevators (called lifts here). It’s only for emergencies, but I am always tempted to pick up the heavy banana-shaped receiver, put my finger in the tight round hole and dial a number, just for the sake of re-living that strong feeling of making a phone call that left me when this type of phones were taken out of use. Twenty years ago in the US I had my first phone with buttons and I thought it was so modern, the first time I went to visit my parents in Romania, I brought them one, too! Nowadays dialing a number feels so light! It takes a light touch on a smooth screen…

Overwhelmed by Wildlife

We saw this green tree frog in the park of the hotel where we stayed in Port Douglas two years ago. Port Douglas is on the North East coast of Australia, in Queensland. Most Aussies dream about living in that beautiful tropical area, but what we enjoyed the most, again, was the wildlife. Both on land and in the sea, as just North there is the Daintree National Park and 10-20 km East from Port Douglas is the Great Barrier Reef. We posted many pictures from the reef on our website www.tirophotos.smugmug.com, as well as pictures from the tropical forest and the beaches. What I want to tell you today is how even the hotel grounds, park and buildings, were a wildlife treasure. Countless numbers of moths sat at night on the walls surrounding light bulbs, and it was hard to find two alike. These moths were the smart ones that already avoided being eaten by the geckos. They showed their jelly bodies and large round eyes from every corner outside the building, in the vicinity of the lights. I am sure they also feasted on the tiny but nasty mosquitoes and lots of kinds of spiders! Some cane toads hid in the leaves and grass, curlews screamed from the golf courts and … frogs put up subtle concerts. The green tree frog in the picture came for a date with us two nights in a row. We took her in our hands and her wet skin felt like luxurious silk. I could not believe we were in a hotel, in a city, and not in the middle of the forest! It is possible that the lights around the hotel and the grounds attracted all the activity, I don't know. But I expected to see something flying, hanging or jumping wherever I turned my head, day and night. And I was never disappointed!

Eastern Rosella

I missed posting yesterday because we went to a tennis tournament. Wonderful tennis, but seeing 10 or 12 year old girls dragging tennis bags half their size even if they never use more than a racket and a bottle of water in an entire day, is quite disturbing. The bags extend from the neck to mid calf and cover the entire back; I sometimes expect their weight to flip the girls backwards. I'm guessing this is their parents’ choice, and if nothing else measures up the parents' commitment to push the girls into a long tennis career, the torturing sophistication of the bags does. Anyway, yesterday was a gorgeous spring day, warm and sunny, but no wind. When we came home from the tournament (they call it "tournie" here), I sat on the sofa in the living room to reflect about the day. Suddenly, an Eastern rosella flew into the garden and sat on a branch looking for the birdseed I normally hang in the tree. Unfortunately, there was no food, but at least I got the chance to see this bird that looks as if it bathed itself on a painter's color palette first! These birds are shy, so at the first attempted movement they sense coming from inside the house, they fly away. I was lucky yesterday to get a picture, although you can tell it’s not so great, as it was taken through the window. I am a bit like this bird, definitely not with respect to color, but in shyness and lack of aggression. If rainbow lorikeets or galahs are eating the seeds, the Eastern rosella flies away immediately. They are also very intelligent and if kept as pet, they can learn songs and even words. However, they prefer to fly in large spaces and do not like being “petted.”

Aussie Footy and Sydney Swans

This is a short blog. I confess I do not know much about the Aussie rules football (footy) and just seeing these men tackle each other on TV, just like the American football players do, except without any body protection, I just cover my eyes and run away. It seems to me that it is a hybrid of soccer and rugby, and if it wasn't for Footy Day today in schools, I doubt I would have written much... The last day of the third term in Aussie Schools is frequently Footy Day, and kids are allowed to wear the colors of the team they support, they have a BBQ, and you get the idea, it's not much schooling going on. During the following two weeks of school holidays, the most significant events are the footy semifinals and Grand Final. My daughter roots for the Sydney Swans team, like my friend Debra. The team used to be in Melbourne, but many years ago financial problems led to its relocation. Club colors? Red and white, as you see in my picture. I will let you know if they win the AFL final!