Baby lizard on the patio

The wildlife theme continues... the animals just seem to make the catchiest blog post titles. This little lizard (who may or may not be a baby - might just be a small species of lizard) caught my eye as it ran across the patio outside our bedroom this afternoon.

We have had a busy week since I last posted. Last Saturday it was sunny and warm, so we went to the beach again and this time Chris and I ventured into the water even though we haven't got wetsuits like the boys. I have to say that with the breeze off the water, I didn't find it that warm, so I splashed about a bit and then stretched out on the beach and watched the boys jumping the waves. Rio was keeping up a steady stream of conversation with the ocean, while Sol was working on his boogie boarding. Sunday we had the usual soccer in the morning, and then we went out to Bayswater where we saw the finish line of a big kayaking race down the Swan River. The finish line was pretty calm waters, so not as exciting as watching them come over the rapids. Since many of them looked quite beaten up (blood even!), it seemed the race was challenging.

This weekend we got down to Fremantle on Saturday. The kids played each other at the squash courts and I played someone I had been matched up with for a fun hit. We went to the Fremantle Harbour front and had fish and chips, for which the area is famous. It was rainy so the kids didn't go on the big enclosed ferris wheel/London Eye type thing or the massive trampoline; they are vowing to get back there when it's sunny. We explored the Fremantle Market, which was full of funky little stalls selling everything from local artwork to boomerangs to vegan Thai food. The boys were offered a job wearing morph suits and walking around the market, but we didn't have time so we've promised to come back another time to try out the wacky suits they had on offer. We spent the rest of the day with Georgina and Fedele and their 3 boys, who had come from Perth to Victoria last year on the same secondment program. They have an amazing backyard, with 5 olive trees laden with olives, a mandarin tree, two orange trees and some lemons, as well as a beautiful swimming pool and a garage full of lobster pots (Fedele is a lobster fisherman). The kids played cricket and their gorgeous dog Patch joined in, until it was too dark to see the ball. We looked at their photos from their time in Victoria and it made me realize that our part of the world looks just as exotic to them as their country seems to us. They felt that a year wasn't enough time to really experience everything they wanted to, and wished they had been able to stay on. It also reminded me that we don't do enough exploring of our own 'backyard' - they may have seen more of B.C. than we have!

Today after soccer we finally took the kids into see more of Perth city. We went to King's Park, which is an amazingly large and lovely park that has a panoramic view over the river, the downtown core, and all the way round to the south and Fremantle as well.

We walked through some of the botanical garden, which contained the vegetation of all of the regions of Western Australia. So impressive to think that someone carefully analyzed, named and catalogued each of the thousands of species, checked and cross-checked it all. Chris played with the camera's macro setting and got a few nice shots. The boys were most impressed with the bottle brush, which was so strong they could brush their hair with it.

There was a really cool glass bridge through the tree canopy. To Rio's disappointment, I managed to convince my brain that I wasn't going to fall through the tiny cracks, so that I could walk across with only slight vertigo.

By the time we had gone several kilometres around the botanical garden and looped back, we had only covered a very small portion of the park. I foresee many more visits in the future, perhaps with a picnic next time.

I don't think we'll get to Uluru on this visit, but at least they've had a chance to hug a big red rock.