It has been school holidays here in Oz.   We are supposedly all awaiting the mythical visit of Oprah.  Well it’s not mythical in the sense it isn’t happening, just mythical in that it will be seen as mythical because of her global stature, and everyone wants a piece of the tourist attraction that will follow her visit.  Oprah sets world trends with a wave of her magic touch wand.  Don’t get me wrong though I love Oprah, particularly her discussions on debt reduction which my family are applying to rid ourselves of credit cards in 2011.

Now the beginning of my blog is prefaced by a picture of mangroves from the botanical gardens in Cairns.  These are a crucial image of any wetland tropics area.  They are trees that love to live in the mud and at first sight not at all beautiful, but if you look closer they have some kind of artistry to them.  Mud, clay, moulding, delicate shape!

When we went to the Botanical gardens it was hot and sticky and I am sure we felt like melting sticky marshmellows inside, but the shady trees helped us out.  However, it was difficult to find the facilities other than a swing, which is not good when you need them.

I really missed the Botanical gardens of Hobart where the plants seem more colourful and interesting.  Not that leaves and mangroves, not to mention sunbirds and scrub turkeys can’t be interesting.  Life is after all what you make it.  It must’ve been nostalgia making me think of home.

My youngest was very bothered by the heat, and the fact we weren’t doing what he wanted, but he soon found an old throw away seed pod to play footy with, followed by a set of swings in the shade.  At this point he began to enjoy the trip!  As for me I went looking for birds, and found scrub turkeys, sunbirds and a spoonbill.  The sunbirds seemed so unaware of me, unlike the sunbirds at home.  So I was able to be quite close.

Now I would really love to go on more bird trips, but perhaps must organise the kids to have more activities whilst I hunt down some pictures.  The older two love to read, and would probably enjoy it with their own cameras.  The youngest I will have to be a bit more creative with.  Maybe a digitial camera of his own, a small, cheap one to begin with and I could share my passion for photography with him.

Worth a try?  Parents to survive and thrive must be resourceful and creative beings.  We are able to give of ourselves whilst having just a bit of space to be what we were before parents, creative intelligent beings without dependants.

Yet, parenting teaches us so much!

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