Wildlife! ... Australia is a wild wild place to live.

Wolf spider

There were a number of things in my mind I planned  blogging about today...spiders weren't included in the original list.  But, as I was going to the laundry, Mr G arrived on the back porch to ask me to come inside and look at something.  Dutifully putting down the laundry basket I followed him into the house & into the front bathroom where he pointed to the wall.  There, happily sitting above the shower, was a wolf spider the size of a horse!

 

I don't like to kill things - especially spiders that like to eat mosquitoes (my nemesis) - so I looked at Mr G and asked him how he planned to get him out of the house.  "I'm not touching him" came the reply...so the door to the bathroom is shut for the near future.  Luckily we have another one.

 

It made me think of all the wildlife we have around here that are, quite frankly, taking advantage of our hospitality lately. 

 

We have a lot of little and medium size lizards around the yard.  One in particular, a garden skink, has been hanging around the back porch for a while.  He's pretty big...maybe 10 cm long.

 

Garden Skink

Lately he's decided he wants to come in the house...which I'm not happy about.  Last Thursday night I went to the kitchen, when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught something long, brown and shiny under the counter.  "Shit!", I yelled.  Mr G and Molly both reacted with yells and barks (respectively).  I thought it was a snake but it was our back porch garden skink...come to check out what's cooking.  I scared him as much as he did me and he escaped under the stove.  Then this morning there he was again in the living room.  When we caught sight of each other he just turned around and went out the back door .. under the screen .. completely nonchalant.  I'm starting to get jumpy and I'm not alone...Molly doesn't like them much either.

 

Mr Blue Tongue

Molly was barking like crazy at something in the yard a day or so ago.  It was a very large blue tongue lizard.  They are lovely and I respect them for their place in our ecosystem ... but I think I prefer the mammals to the reptiles and spiders.

 

Now, along with the parrots and the possums, we have the spiders and the lizards to enrich our back yard.  Maybe we're too welcoming?

 

On a final note - Australia is a WILD place and not just because of the animals.  In December we had record heat and massive fires burning across the continent, in January we had cyclones and floods and now in February we have storms, waterspouts, tornadoes and more floods.  The wind has been up to 45 and 50 knots all weekend with wild seas.  I told Mr G I never want to be ON the water in our little boat in conditions that wild.  What an interesting place we have the honour to live in.  I do love it!

 

Wild seas along the NSW coast