Just catching up with the family is beyond awesome and capturing the emotion and the togetherness that just instantly spills out between us all is just too much to describe.

The interactions between Quinn and Grandma and Granddad and the family are just gorgeous to witness and the idiosyncrasies between them a dream to be a part of.

Quinn is at that magical age where he is picking up more words every day, chatty and grappling with pronunciations which, in Australia, is a hoot. “Gidday Maaate” he has down. Love it.

But where we are, Coominya, is also a slice of Australia you cannot buy in any package tour. The landscape is parched from a long lack of decent rain which seems to only keep the termites happy. Dotted throughout the gum tree tainted scrub are great mounds of glued dirt, as firm as a concrete slab and as big as (and often mistaken for) kangaroos.

My parents, Sarah and Sharon live in a sweet house on 10 acres of bushland. Compartmentalized into about eight or so fenced off areas with varying degrees of sheds and aviaries and kennels and ponds with (draws a deep breath) 9 puppies, something like 7 fully grown German shepherds, I can’t count the amount of beautifully colored birds of varying species, a couple of lizards, frogs, and, oh yeah, the poultry.

The poultry. A never-ending clucking and cooing brood of 20chickens, 4 ducks (actually 5 but the fifth is convinced it is one of the 20 chickens and lives almost permanently in a roost with the chickens laying eggs, oblivious to the other little cluckers), and 4 (I think, they move fast) guinea fowl.

I nearly forgot the 2 guinea pigs (not related to the guinea fowl). And yesterday, inconspicuously and allegedly based on a threat of rain, 7,000 ants in the kitchen. Though they did not last long. ;-) As I type this, Ella is oozing out of the stereo as mum and dad punch their iPads and chat about the day and a very cool, fresh breeze flows in.

Despite the menagerie of animal life, the place is as peaceful as rural Australia can get. I laughed at the first car that past our property at 8am (I was on the porch since 5.30am with poor, tired Q boy, still adjusting to having his idea of night and day turned utterly upside down whilst being flown halfway around the world a few days previous).

Since we arrived, Quinn has been face to face with kangaroos, wallabies, tree frogs, horses, all the afore mentioned creatures that live with us (yes, even the ants) and the unfathomably rare koala with attached joey that literally walked right past us, stared and nonchalantly dissed our humanity and casually climbed a tree at an empty, silent park overlooking Wivenhoe Dam. The damn is a body of water the size of Sydney Harbor about 10 minutes from the property. Dotted with Pelicans, Cormorants and soon-to-be-caught fish that hopefully include Bass, Yellowbelly, Perch, Murray Cod and “shit-loads” of other fine fresh water scaly things. Not to mention the Redclaw Crayfish which we intend to harvest in the coming few days on a small convoy of boats and kayaks.

As we drive down to the damn we pass an abattoir where Sharon works. Fields of cows awaiting shrink wrapping in much smaller pieces sit in fields that my father affectionately calls out to when we pass… “five days left,” “three days left” etc.

Tomorrow the extended, immediate family all congregate for a weekend of animal adoring, boating, fishing, Motorbike riding, barbecuing goodness as we all catch up and just live life to the fullest together as only we know how to do.

written by  Groovespook on October 23, 2014 from Coominya, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia Family Madness 2014
Send a Compliment

---

Love.....love.....love....your blog Porly!! You are such a wonderful, entertaining writer. I'm hooked!! Keep the updates coming. :-)

And on another note. ....I wish I was THERE!! It sounds so awesome....with both your family and location.

written by  Liz D on October 23, 2014

comment on this...