People call them bats, megabats, fruit bats and flying foxes but they are not related to foxes, rarely eat fruit, and are totally different to other members of the bat family. They are similar to monkeys and humans than they are to the insect eating bats that live in caves or will enter homes here in the Atherton tablelands of Queensland, or blood sucking bats from central America.

They do not use sound, or, echolocation to “see” but have excellent eyesight like ours in daylight and they see better, than we do at night.  They roost in trees.

There are Black Flying foxes and these are increasing, in numbers and there are little red flying foxes and a Spectacled Flying fox, mostly seen in the North Queensland ranges.

Because the flying fox population can carry a disease, never handle a Flying Fox. Any native animal can carry disease or cause injury if not treated properly. Flying-foxes are known to carry Australian Bat Lyssavirus, but the best available evidence suggests that this virus can only be transmitted to humans in saliva from an infected Flying-fox via a penetrating bite or scratch.

If people do not handle bats, there is little to no risk of infection. Simply touching or coming into contact, with Flying-fox urine or faeces will not transmit Lyssavirus to humans.

Flying-foxes may also carry antibodies to feared, Hendra virus. There is no evidence that Hendra virus can spread directly from bats to humans. Sick horses appear to have been the source of infection to humans. Spillover infection to horses and then humans is a very rare event.

 
 
 
Our friend Nikki and family toured the Queensland coast during the recent school holidays ad stayed here at Flying Fish Point for two nights and went fishing with Reg.

Her three boys were charming and great anglers.  J.

I found this article on the web, about Children Fishing and I can certainly recommend Flying Fish Point as a fantastic place to try your luck, both Reg and I caught fish here at our very first attempt.

 
 
 
Picnic and meet up with face book friendsJ, Tina and Penny and some of their family, near the Kiama Blowhole.

Tina'a website:-http://tinagray.me/
Penny's website, :- Website: http://www.michiemoments.com/

 
Bananas. 07/16/2010
 
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 Did you know you can treat depression, sleeplessness, high blood pressure, and cholesterol, PMS,  and lots of other medical conditions, by eating bananas? 
 22 Fantastic things to know or love about  Bananas 

A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers.

As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the banana the sweeter it will taste.

Banana plants are the largest plants on earth without a woody stem. They are actually giant herbs of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms.

Bananas are a good source of vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber.

Bananas, instead of, sleeping pills? Like turkey, bananas contain tryptophan, a protein that converts to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is instrumental in facilitating relaxation. Low levels of serotonin are believed to cause mood disorders including depression.

Bananas are high in the B-complex vitamins, which are known to have a calming effect on the nervous system.

Bananas are great for athletic and fitness activity because they replenish necessary carbohydrates, glycogen and body fluids burned during exercise.

Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant. If left on the plant, the fruit splits open and the pulp has a "cottony" texture and flavor. Even in tropical growing areas, bananas for domestic consumption are cut green and stored in moist shady places to ripen slowly.

Bananas are perennial crops that are grown and harvested year-round. The banana plant does not grow from a seed but rather from a rhizome or bulb. Each fleshy bulb will sprout new shoots year after year.

Bananas have no fat, cholesterol or sodium.

Each banana plant bears only one stem of fruit. To produce a new stem, only two shoots - known as the daughter and the granddaughter - are allowed to grow and be cultivated from the main plant.

In some lands bananas were considered the principal food. Early travelers and settlers would carry the roots of the plant as they migrated to the Middle East and Africa. From there Portuguese traders carried banana roots to the Canary Islands, where bananas are still grown commercially.

In South East Asia, the banana leaf is used to wrap food (in the place of plastic bags and cling wraps), providing a unique flavor and aroma to nasi lemak and the Indian banana leaf rice.

India is by far the largest world producer of bananas, growing 16.5 million tonnes in 2002, followed by Brazil which produced 6.5 million tonnes of bananas in 2002. To the Indians, the flower from the banana tree is sacred. During religious and important ceremonies such as weddings, banana flowers are tied around the head, for they believe this will bring good luck.

Some horticulturists suspect that the banana was the earth's first fruit. Banana plants have been in cultivation since the time of recorded history. One of the first records of bananas dates back to Alexander the Great's conquest of India where he first discovered bananas in 327 B.C.

The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year. The trunk of a banana plant is made of sheaths of overlapping leaves, tightly wrapped around each other like celery stalks.

The origin of bananas is traced back to the Malaysian jungles of Southeast Asia, where so many varieties and names for the banana are in that area.

The phrase 'going bananas' was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, and is linked to the fruit's 'comic' connections with monkeys.

The word 'banan' is Arabic for finger.

There is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on plants.

Today's commercial bananas are scientifically classified into the genus Musa of the Musaceae family.

Because my friend Gem, grew this hand of Bananas in this photo and cut me this bunch, giving it to me as a gift J. Thank you Gem.
 
 
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An Aboriginal Dreamtime Story of forbidden love tells of a beautiful girl named Oolana, from the Yidinji people, who married Waroonoo, a respected elder from her tribe.

"Shortly after their union another tribe moved into the area and a handsome young man came into her life. His name was Dyga and the pair soon fell in love," the legend says.

"Realising the adulterous crime they were committing, the young lovers escaped their tribes and fled into the valleys.

"The elders captured them, but Oolana broke free from her captors and threw herself into the still waters of what is now known as Babinda Boulders, calling for Dyga to follow her.

" As Dyga hit the waters, her anguished cries for her lost lover turned the still waters into a rushing torrent, the water sparkling like, loose diamonds and the land shook with sorrow

. Huge boulders were scattered around the creek and the crying Oolana disappeared among them.

"Aboriginal legend says her spirit still guards the boulders and that her calls for her lost lover can still be heard."

15 men to have lost their lives in the past 50 years are said to have been victims of careless behaviour in the rocks and deceptively-strong currents. Tourists are warned to obey signage and remain in designated swimming pools.

 
 
 
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Wood/ Getty, Photo
Reg and I love bushwalking; it would have to be one of our favourite safe fat burners. Part of the joy is watching for some of the beautiful Australian, bush birds, none more beautiful than the rainbow lorikeet.
Having once owned a poodle that got drunk, eating fermented fruit that had fallen under a tree, I could relate to this story.  

Alcoholism is a problem faced by millions of humans, but could it be spreading to parrots?

The bizarre behaviour exhibited by some of the colourful birds in Australia would suggest it's possible.

Hundreds of lorikeets, a type of small parrot, in the small town of Palmerston have been exhibiting signs of being "drunk,"

Read more click -> 'Drunk' parrots plague Australian town; veterinarians baffled by behaviour By Michael Sheridan.
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
 
 
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Reg and I have always had 'itchy feet', and loved to travel, sometimes into places where our car could not reach.  This is a story, of a time, in our young mid life, when we connected up, with others for the safety reasons, of travelling through the outback in a group with a well equipped vehicle, and radio contact, while we followed the Burke and Wills, explorers trail, up into Cameron Corner, the intersection, of three states of Australia, Back of Burke, Innaminka, Birdsville, Boulia and , through the, Gemtree country of the Harts Range. 

We travelled with a group of 32 other mid life, inland travel enthusiasts in a Rolls Royce engine bus, with an experienced (we thought), tour guide/driver and a camp cook.   It was a 16 day appallingly run excursion, which left Reg and I with our love of each other and the landscape intact but very wary of hitching ourselves into any organized by others, tour.  I am aware, that most tours are brilliantly, run, no reflection on the generally high standard of the tour industry.

In telling this story of the desert pee, I should start by saying that yes to bus did have a toilet.  

The bus driver did have a temper.

It was the driver’s job, to maintain, the bus that included emptying the toilet.   I wish that in my thirties I had the courage of my 60's and could have told the bus driver then that if the brochure said the bus had a toilet, then we, the passengers, were allowed to use the toilet. Not being allowed to use the toilet on the bus, in the outback worked better than appetite suppressants.  Intimidation, was used, by the driver, to minimize, his toilet, cassette, emptying, work.  

The driver would pull up in the bush and say. 'ladies on the left, men on the right'.  

Now that system, worked fine for a few days, but by ten days into the trip, couples got rather tired of being segregated in their brief wanderings, when granted a leg, stretch and so they went in whatever direction they wanted to, and the bus driver sat in the bus, guarding the toilet door, making sure no one used it, so he would not have to dig a hole in a sand dune and empty it.

Parts of the trip were, despite some conditions I'll not go into here, sheer magic.  The Coopers Creek near Innaminka and the Birdsville track was pure heaven and I loved and painted the old royal Hotel at Birdsville.

One particulate day, we were travelling through Sturts Stony desert and there was nothing to squat behind, and never a moment when there were not men around and in my 30's I was too shy to tell the men to get around to the other side of the bus and give us ladies a fair go, we had to 'go', and too modest to 'just go' LOL, :-), and too scared of the intimidating driver to barge my way past him into the toilet in the bus.   My plan was that I would, 'hold on', till it was dark, then 'go'.   

LOL  Now that (holding on), is something that in my mid 60's, LOL, I can hardly imagine, :-).

So after dinner, after dark, I took a torch and walked out into the desert alone.  Turned the torch off and relieved myself. Sigh :-)~~ ~~~~ more comfortable and with my clothes readjusted I reached out, picked up the torch and turned it on, and there, on the ground, between me and where the torch had been, was a desert taipan, the deadliest snake in the world.

Common sense is not always all that common and I've been guilty of a lot of very foolish blunders in my learning to live close to this beautiful country. 

One thing I have learned is the nighttime is when this country abounds in wild life with most of our wild creatures being nocturnal.

This true story is Copyright to Kathy Shell.

I first published this story in November 2009, and in light of our recent experience of walking our dog, Indigo over the top of a red bellied, black snake,
thus making her the famous, snake-dancing dog that lived to tell the tail, it seems I still need to learn how to respect Australia's nocturnal creatures.
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My youngest daughter and family are enjoying the Victoria, winter, school holidays, caravanning in Tasmania. With teenagers in the family, holidays revolve around the high school year.
Yesterday I unpacked all my novel writing materials I brought away with me for this current Australian tour and I put them near my writing desk (lol, the bed), in the caravan.  Then this morning I opened up my  NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month ), post and it is talking about road trips, being a great way to travel - they're also perfect novel fodder! Have you written a road trip? Where? If you've never been on a noveling road trip, try it - the ensuing shenanigans are great for character insights!

This seemed ‘timely’ advice for me and I thought of my granddaughter, already a budding novelist, travelling with her parents in a caravan around Tasmania, during Victoria's, winter, school holidays.

It is wonderful having the younger members of our family keen on caravan holidays, just as Reg and I are. However with both our grandchildren in that family, now teenagers, the entire touring  lifestyle for my youngest daughter and her family, revolves around the school year, school holidays, extra couching as needed, the Australian equivalent of lsat prep and of course those exams.

It must be hard for the teenagers to block out school and take a holiday, at this stage of their lives. My youngest daughter and her family, hope to see and enjoy some snow while they are in Tasmania, on these holidays. The oldest grandson did not feel he could take time away at this stage of his studies; he is staying with a schoolmate’s family so his routine will not be broken.

I love that my granddaughter aspires to be a writer. J, It will be wonderful to welcome another writer into the family and I wish my grandson well, in this, one of his most important school years. 

 
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Winter in Tasmania.
 
 
Wordless Wednesday
 
 
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One of the best pieces of advice I ever got
 was from my mother, when she said
“throw that damn book away,
your child hasn’t read it yet”,
quote, Carol Willis.

A friend of mine, Carol Willis, a talented writer has begun blogging about raising a child who never  followed the perfect family formula as given in Dr. Benjamin Spock's, book Baby and Child Care, published the year of my birth, in 1946.  You can read Carol’s stories, in her “Modern Woman’s Guide”, blog.

While many mums only ever have problems once the children reach the teen stage and start stressing over the opposite sex, and best acne face wash, Carol contends with a child who has been a handful from the start, she even gets her tongue stuck on a trip to the supermarket.  lol, this reminds me of one of my own children who was hyperactive, 'an accident looking for a place to happen'. 
In a recent blog,
‘About washing powder and tongues’, Carol Willis, writes,

“Another really vivid memory comes to mind when I think of my journey as a mother.  With my eldest child, we have dealt with several problems, both behavioural and physiological, and it certainly hasn’t been the blissful experience I was promised.  One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from my mother, when she said “throw that damn book away, your child hasn’t read it yet”, and never a truer word was uttered.  I listened to her and I just adapted my style of parenting as I went along.  I didn’t know that if any child would test a mother and force an adaptive approach, it was Megan.” read more 

 
 I am happy that I have raised my children, did the best I could, been judged by one as wanting as a parent  because I disciplined her more than she thought right and considered a good mum by the other.  I know I loved my children and only ever wanted, the best for them, and did all I felt was right at the time.   That is all any mum can do.  That is what my own children are doing.  Each has their own style, and I see them both as good parents in their own way. 

Our children come with their own individual natures, they did not come programmed according to the book and we can only be guided by our own best judgment at the time we are called on to make quick decisions.

Have the courage to discipline, tempered with wisdom and love, when needed, as true parenting is not trying to win a popularity contest with our children it is showing them we love them enough to care how they behave and to strive to guide them so they will be able to live happily within society.  This role does not always make us popular with them at the time and it is not always easy.  When a parent claims to have never had any difficulties, in parenting, they are the parents with the problem, as they do not know what their kids are getting up to.    

Above all else, however our children behave, let them know we love them, even when they try us in extreme ways.   

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