getting to know the rats in Brisbane

17.7.19

It is totally miserable weather. Rain overcast grey skies and lots of mud.  We have just got home from our visit to Josh in Brisbane where it is warm and sunny, I can see why so many retired people move to Queensland.  Josh and Bobbie met us at the airport and were perfect hosts. We stayed in a hotel just down the road from their apartment and went out every with them every day.

 I got to know the 7 rats by name and learnt about their different characters. Josh has amazing plant growing systems under led lights.  He has one system that can reproduce the light conditions anywhere on the globe.  He could even mimic a thunder storm (though it drove Bobbie mad.)  The rats tend to get sick, so they keep their living room at 25 degrees. They have a kitchen in one corner and a bed in the other. The apartment has other rooms, but they have no air conditioning so get unbearably hot in summer, so Josh has set up one for plants and they seem to be doing OK.

With all the different life forms space in the apartment was at a premium so most days we went off and did things outside.    We had a ferry ride up the river and went to a great market where we brought hats and cheese and we had a beach walk on Bribie Island where we saw thousands of small crabs appear out of holes in the sand and swarm towards the water.   Edd decided we should celebrate Bastille day, so we went down towards Surfers and had a picnic on a warm beach with French cheese and wine. 

On Sunday evening Bobbie had booked us into a water side, sea food restaurant. We sat on the veranda where the views were spectacular. Edd and I shared a lobster.  I have been wanting to eat lobster for years and this seemed the ideal occasion.  Actually, we ate out every night and worked our way through every style of food we could fit in, which was great fun. 

 Bobbie had to go to work on Monday, but Josh drove us up the mountain and we walked down a gully track and saw massive stag and elkhorn ferns growing on the trees. There were also orchids, but they were not in flower. The forest was surprisingly dry, but the canopy of trees cut down the light, so the ferns looked healthy.  The plants growing around Brisbane are beautiful and I could learn a lot of tips that would be useful in my indoor garden by seeing things in a natural environment. At the far side of the mountain the farming land looked very dry but the cattle we saw were in good condition.  

Bo had been milking the goats and doing the farm work whilst we were away. Unfortunately, the sheep out foxed her and had daily raiding forays into the garden and shed.  They have trimmed plants and eaten the broccoli and rocket, but they also mowed all the grass.  It needed doing and it is far too wet to mow. They have made a bit of a mess on the driveways too. Edd’s first job after driving back from the airport was to find the sheep and put them back into their paddock. I had to leap up at breakfast time and herd them back in through the lowest garden gate that they had worked out how to open.