Yay... Spring is here!

The sun is shining here again today and yesterday was a beautiful Spring shiny day too. One of those days that was just too nice to spend indoors. A day where you can hear the sun singing to you to come outside and bask in its warm glory.
Our animal friends were enjoying the rays lazing peacefully away in the sunshine. Willow loves the warmth of the top of the car. Its one of her favourite sleeping spots.


This wombat looks quite comfy..........


Now here's a roo who knows how to kick back!! (he didn't even bat an eyelid as I snuck up close trying not to disturb him so I could get a good pic)



And this guy was smiling at me when I asked him if I could take a photo of his handsomeness to show my blog friends. He knew Spring was in the air too and quite contented to kick back on his log!

Now I wish I could say these animals live me but alas we had to go out to the Ballarat Wildlife Park to get these pics...except for Willow of course.

Kevin's boss had asked him to work Saturday morning as a personal favour to him and Kev asked him 'What do I get out of it for working my Saturday morning?'
His boss said 'I'll pay you' and Kev says 'but you have to do that anyway...I want something better than that. I heard the social club have a family pass for the Wildlife Park. If you can get that for me I'll work Saturday morning for you...but only till 11am'
As you can see from the pics he got the pass and surprisingly still has a job to go to Monday morning ;)

So we packed up a picnic lunch and met Kev in town at the park to mingle with the animals and enjoy the sun.
This roo was making sure Ebony didn't move that hand back and take the yummy goodness away. I kind of went overboard with the kangaroo snaps so I wont share ALL of them. I kind of LOVE kangaroos.

And these ones at the park are so used to people being around they eat right out of your hand...even with their babies in their pouches. There was a lot of new born babies this year. Just about every female had a joey in her pouch or one that was sticking close by mum.

Can you see the little head in her pouch?


Little Miss D was cuddling and kissing and awwwing over the baby kangaroos and their mummies.....


But it was these guys that her spellbound.


She stared in wide eyed wonder as the echidnas took it in turns to hang laps of their enclosure and she did not take her eyes off them for a second.
I had an awe inspiring sacred moment watching my little girl captivated by her very first glimpse of an echidna and seeing them through her eyes made me stop and think about just how amazingly unique some of our Australian wildlife is and made me love our homeland even more. People travel from all over the world to see these amazing creatures that we only have to step into our backyard to glimpse. I've seen wombats and echidnas in the wild as well as koalas. We don't need to go to a zoo or park to see them...just go bush walking and quietly take a look. The kangaroos around our home are often just taken for granted and something you have to be careful of not hitting when out in the car as well as wallabies.

We have some of the worlds most deadliest snakes in our backyards and teach our children where not to play in the yard so as to avoid being bitten. Long grass and under rocks, logs or tin is a favourite hiding spot and being Spring it's time to start reminding of them of snake danger when playing outside.

These 3 headed varieties are deadly (or is that 3 snakes having a cuddle)
I always love to visit the reptile house at the wildlife park or zoo. I love reptiles although some people look at me strange when I say that. I don't want to be bitten by a venemous snake but I can appreciate their beauty and I used to have pet carpet pythons until my ex took them when we parted ways. I was heartbroken to lose my female python Adriene and just never had the heart to get another one.




We were lucky enough to be able to pat this friendly python that the handlers took out. Cade excitedly told daddy he got to pat a SNAKE and one little girl gave him a big kiss (the snake not Cade)
The kids were all crowded around not scared off at all which was nice to see. Danae certainly didn't take after her mummy in the reptile loving department and was happy to look but did not want to touch. There were a lot of women following Danae's reactions and looking but not touching too.....woosies lol

The parks biggest attraction "Croczilla" is an awesome beast! Missed out on feeding time this time round but I managed to get a good pic of him. The lights on the other side of his enclosure were too bright to get a pic of his friend.

I love this pic I got of him smiling. I'm sure he was happy to know its Spring too...or maybe he was just imagining how good I'd taste if only that glass wasn't separating us?


We used to have one of these as a pet too up until a few years ago. Gronan our bearded dragon was only with us a couple of years before he passed away. We took him from a friend who couldn't keep him anymore and he was such a cool little guy. He had a long and happy life though and seeing this guy bought back memories of our trippy friend.


I could have easily taken these little guys home. I WANT ONE!! They are so tiny they'd fit in your hand. We watched them happily eating their lunch.....





and those dwarf star tortoises don't grow anywhere near as big as their giant land cousins.


You can't visit an Aussie wildlife park without visiting the koalas. Cade was telling us quite knowledge-ably that "I can see one bit of fluffy, two bits of fluffy, three bits of fluffy so that means there are 3 koalas there" Great skills of deduction there Sherlock....so is that another fluffy on the back of the female koala there or is it a mutant marsupial with an extra appendage? ;)





An awesome looking eagle pearched up high...looked pretty unimpressed by all the people wandering through his park.


Our giant mops on legs are pretty awesome looking birds too........

although Cade wasn't too keen on getting too close to them. Can't say I blame him....I don't like getting too close to the emu's either since I was pecked by one as a kid. It sure didn't tickle!


We had a great day out soaking up the sun and playing with some Aussie friends.
I'll leave you with some more kanga photos cause I did tell you I went overboard with them ;)
The large red variety of kangaroo are not seen as often as their smaller relatives and can get huge! These ones are fairly small compared to some!




...stand tall...head up...chest out...yeah I have it all happenin'





Ahhhhhhh I LOVE our country and it's wildlife.