Colorful Australia

I flew out of San Francisco last Tuesday night and landed in Sydney at 6:30 Thursday morning. It’s always strange to lose a whole day when traveling, I’m usually confused about what day it is for almost a week.

Cecile Whatman, of Unique Stitching, picked me up at the airport and we scooted off to several locations in Sydney to pick up supplies for the Creative Textiles show the first weekend in May, then we drove 3 hours southwest to Canberra, the capital of Australia where Cecile lives and the textiles show will be held.

One of the remarkable things about Australia is how gorgeous the pastry shelves can be. This would be a dangerous place for someone with a sweet tooth.

On Friday, Cecile and her husband Glen took me to a beautiful nature reserve in Tidbinbilla. What a gorgeous part of the country with rolling hills, vibrant green from recent rains, dotted with giant granite boulders.

This was all very exciting for me because I saw my first wombat in the grass by the road side on the way and I got to see many kangaroo up close grazing in the fields. I’ve seen kangaroo before in Australia, but often just as we zipped by in the car or sadly as very large road kill.

This is a mother and her joey, that were comfortable enough with me standing about 20 feet away to stop and feed.

The grounds were lovely with a large pond, bubbling streams and a walking path that meandered around it through the eucalyptus. I love all the rusty browns of the bark.

There was a wonderful variety of birdlife, including a couple of large yellow eyed Australian pelicans.

It was also the first time I saw koalas up in the trees and not in a zoo type enclosure and I saw a couple large black wallabies, that look like smaller, slightly cuter faced kangaroos.

They adventure was complete after having the rare opportunity to see 2 platypus cavorting in the water. The little bump in the water is one of them.