P365 - Day 285 - excursion (12/10/2011)

Juniordwarf's class went on its first excursion today.  A bus trip to a nearby wildlife sanctuary, Bonorong Park.

The school asked for parents to go along and help out, and I decided to volunteer.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a day with 40 or so kids, other than that there would most likely be a fair amount of noise, and a lot of coordination would be required to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be!

It was a lot of fun. The kids were very well behaved, and they had a great time.

I'm glad I went. I enjoyed the chance to talk to some of Juniordwarf's classmates and to share their excitement at seeing all the animals. It was the first time I'd been there, and I'd like to go back another day to show Juniordwarf the areas that we didn't get to see today.

Our tour guide and the wombat

Wombat

Banjo the koala

Koala mum and baby (hidden by leaves, but it is there!)

Koala on the move

Tasmanian Devil

Tasmanian Devil and feeding babies

Juniordwarf feeding a kangaroo

Juniordwarf feeding a kangaroo

'Kanga Country'

'Kanga Country'

Blue tongue lizards

One of the highlights of the trip - the peacock

P365 - Day 149 Deyrah Dexter

Today’s post is an unexpected set of photos for Frogpondsrock’s Sunday Selections project.

This weekend was starting to look like another one of those weekends where I spent most of it moping around the house. I’ve got another cold, which seems to just be a continuation of the last two – or the last one that lasted a month, whichever way you want to look at it – and didn’t do much yesterday as a result.

 

Today was going to be much of the same, but a friend texted me last night and said she was going to look at some cows and asked if we wanted to come along.

Well looking at cows sounded like something Juniordwarf would like to do. It didn’t sound too strenuous, it wasn’t too far away and it would get us out of the house, so I said we’d love to go.

The cows in question were Dexters, which I’ll admit to knowing nothing about until today.

The Dexter is a fairly small Irish breed, about one metre tall, which was brought to Australia in the 1880s. They are bred both for beef and milk, hence their tagline ‘beefy little milkers’. You can find out more about them at the Official Dexter Cattle Australia Inc. website.

The property we went to is Deyrah Dexter, in the Derwent Valley. Daryl and Sue held an open day today, which was part of the 2011 Tasmanian Heritage Festival.

Juniordwarf was very excited about going to a farm, and he was hoping to see sheep and pigs as well, but I think not being able to see those animals was well outweighed by being able to get close to these beautiful, docile cows.

Typically for a little kid though, he ended up being more interested in the cow poo than the cows themselves, and was quite delighted when one of the cows actually did a poo right in front of him.

The cows were great and didn’t mind a bunch of strangers standing round in their paddock watching them and patting them. I got a bit of a surprise when, standing next to a hay bale, a cow’s head suddenly appeared practically under my arm to get some more hay. They certainly weren’t shy.

We also got an opportunity to sample the Dexters’ ‘beefy’ nature, with a sausage sizzle. They make a very nice sausage. Juniordwarf thought so too, as did the farm cat, which was quite determined to take Juniordwarf’s away from him.

We left with my friend and her partner very interested in getting hold of a couple of these lovely cows, once they have the land to do it. I’m very excited for them.

Juniordwarf attempting to pat a cow

P365 - Day 93 autumn festival (Sunday Selections)

On a chilly, windy autumn day, where the rain threatened but never arrived, we went to our town's Autumn Festival.

After a bumpy start, where the ever-present wind blew Juniordwarf's lunch off the table, upsetting him to the point he wanted to go home . . . 'I don't want to be here,' he said . . . we had a lovely day - me, Juniordwarf and my Mum. Slabs spend most of the day on the community radio station marquee, promoting the station and fund-raising.

Here are some photos of what we got up to over the course of the day . . . which have become my photos for frogpondsrock's Sunday Selections project. (Go on over and check it out!)

Juniordwarf rode on a pony. Here's two little feet.

We watched some medieval jousting.

We saw a pit of snakes. Juniordwarf was really into the snakes. I was worried at one point that he wanted to jump in there with them.

We got the best value entertainment for $3 on this climbing maze, which kept Juniordwarf entertained for at least 45 minutes. I'm not sure if he was meant to stay on for that long, but there wasn't a crowd waiting to get on and no one told him to get off, so if he was happy, we were happy.

What that meant was that one of us could stay and keep an eye on him, while the other one could go off for a few minutes and take photographs of things that caught our eye . . .

. . . or have a relaxing glass of wine (2004 Riesling from Kinvarra Estate, if you're interested).

Juniordwarf thought it was a great game to walk as far away from us as he could and then come running back.

And he insisted on getting a lollypop. ( I just realised I don't know how to spell 'lollypop'. Is it 'lollypop'? or 'lollipop'? Or doesn't it matter?)

The last thing we did was watch some amazing acrobats. How I managed to capture this shot I'll never know because this particular stunt was so quick.

All in all, we had a really fun day.