Suburban Cairns

Being at home in the 'burbs of the international tropical holiday destination, Cairns, is just like being at home anywhere.
You get up, have a shower, breakfast, do a few chores, perhaps mooch around the shops, read the paper and so on. It's all very pleasant.  Breathtaking tourist delights are not really on the agenda.  It's like living in Canberra and not ever visiting the War Memorial or Parliament House.

I've started feeling like a bit of a local, so it was puzzling to be bailed up at dusk by a grumpy old man on the Cairns Esplanade the other day. Tourist, are ya? he asked, his voice coming out of nowhere. I had been gazing up at the enormous swathe of bats flying overhead.  They were streaming in over the foreshore, thousands of them, all in a huge ribbon of black silently flapping shapes. I looked at him, not knowing quite what to say. Think they're lovely, do ya? he continued. You do think they're lovely don't ya. He informed me.  I replied, umm...Actually I thought they were neither lovely nor otherwise, just interesting, but didn't have the presence of mind to form those words. He went on, Well, they're not lovely, they're rats of the sky they are. Rats. Then he gave me the benefit at some length, up close and rather loudly, of his opinion that these bats were a curse on the farmers, and it was tourists like me who thought they were lovely, that were to blame.  Having got all that off his chest, he stomped off, leaving me somewhat shell-shocked. Welcome to Cairns, tourists. The friendly locals are sure to make you feel at home.

But on the other hand, there are some lovely aspects to Cairns. This plant is growing down the back of Marjory's garden, behind the shed. It is a pendant form of Heliconia.

Remember the photo of the sunbird nesting in Marjory's carport?  Well, we think two babies hatched, we saw them being fed and now they seem to have fledged because the nest is empty. We are looking for them in the garden, but the only baby bird I have spotted is an enormous, gangly, half fluffy, half pin feathered young kookaburra.

Here's another something you would never see in the 'burbs of Canberra.  Dragon fruit, from Rusty's market. We've been having tropical fruit every day for breakfast. Marjory has a favorite stall for her red pawpaws, and another for the sugar bananas. We've been buying the sweetest, juiciest pineapples I've ever had. There's a sapodilla ripening in the kitchen as I write.

Below is a photo of Marjory enjoying the book I bought her from the National Gallery of Victoria. It seemed to me that it could have been written just for her. Famous artworks featuring cats, accompanied by famous poems featuring cats. She liked it. Whew. She also really loved the postcard Kirstin sent her from Paris, of a Sonia Delaunay work. Well done, Kirstin. The Robert Delaunay book came out and we all discussed their work for quite a while.  It's good to see Marjory feeling much better today.  When I arrived back from Melbourne she was not herself and the cause turned out to a grass tick in her back (which I spotted, I'm proud to say). Her GP removed it and put her on antihistamines and antibiotics, but she became quite unwell for a few days.

Today we went to Cairns Central and Marjory bought David a birthday hat. He looks really good in it, we know.