Animal spotting at Cradle Mountain

You know it's cold when the temperature drops so much that fresh wombat poo results in the wombat's bottom emitting steam. He didn't seem phased in the slightest. As for me, seeing a wombat in the wild was so amazing I didn't care what it was doing! Judging by the deposits of wombat poo everywhere Cradle Mountain is wombat heaven. I now know how to distinguish between wombat poo, wallaby and pademelon poo. Quite an achievement for a city girl. This wombat was in fact our second wombat sighting. The first being the day before as we walked from our accommodation, via a path to the restaurant for dinner. The wombat was just out of reach, munching happily on some grass. You could hear his teeth tearing chunks of it off. Very loud given there is no ambient noise in the wilderness. The wombat continued doing his thing, quite happy for us to watch him at such close quarters. What I would have given to have my camera with me! With no Optus signal I wasn't even carrying my iPhone. Bummer! For the record, Telstra 's signal was great! We had our own little pademelon family living beside us. Every time we set foot outside our door, we saw various members of the family. Mum had a joey she was still feeding, even though it was too big to climb into her pouch. The best it could do was sit beside her with its head snuggled into her pouch. Quite beautiful so see nature working so close to hand. These little guys do not seem to mind us humans at all. The closest animal encounter we had however was the brush tail possum who came to visit. On arrival our room had a wooden bowl containing four red apples within it. On departure the bowl was empty and the only evidence of the apples was one core and two pips - somehow missed in the feeding frenzy. What happened was this....after dinner, with light rain falling, we decided to test out the hot tub on our veranda. So, with a beautiful view of the stars, no neighbours and the quiet of the bush, we sat for a while, appreciating the night. Some time later, we headed inside, locked up, showered and settled down for the night. At approximately 2.00 am we both woke to hear weird sounds coming from across the room. We got up, put the lights on and there sat the biggest possum I have ever seen. They breed them big in Tassie, much bigger than Brisbane brushies! She was happily sitting on the coffee table, munching on an apple, with apple debri littering the table beside her. So, other than the challenge of encouraging her to go outside, all I could wonder was what had she been doing for the four hours we had been sleeping, and how had we not noticed her sitting there as we came through from the hot tub? Yikes. We got the door open, and with gentle encouragement from a pillow, and with apple chunks thrown outside the door for incentive she finally moved on and went back outside. She was promptly joined by a juvenile possum who judging by the food stealing techniques on display must have belonged to her. Who else but a mother would let someone take food from their mouth. So, fruit bowl 0, possum 4! 3.4.2013

Possum snug

Forgot to mention the thing inspiring me at the moment....possum snugs. The Courier Mail ran a story in the Saturday paper a couple of weeks back and mentioned that this is the time of year that possum rescue picks up. As a result there is increased need for possum pouches. Each rescued possum is allocated a pouch, which goes with them as they go into foster care. A pattern was provided for those that can knit or crochet - given I can't knit to save my life, I decided to give the crochet a go. Problem is that I soon regected the pattern supplied and decided to design my own version - hence the possum snug. This provides a more secure base for little possum bottoms and toes, and gives more support and snuggle capacity as the snug is made in the round, as opposed to a rectangle. While it seemed logical to me I still felt the need to test the product so as soon as I had a prototype I needed a test possum to give it the seal of approval. One phone call later and I had made arrangements to visit a local possum carer. If you don't know the work these band of supporters engage in, here's the short version. As abandoned and rescued possums (brush tails and ringtails) are brought in, they are cared for by these wonderful people. Little pink " jellybeans" need care 24/7. Babies with fur need different care. Feeding, watering, cleaning and foliage collection are just some of what is required. Our visit, yes two friends begged to come along, saw us meeting 6 possums currently in care. Including "Pocahontas" a young male brushy - still new to being handled he jumped straight into the snug with minimal encouragement, turned himself around and latched onto my finger. Ouch. Some time later, after many cuddles, a piece of banana and much lip smacking later, he decided the snug (and the people attached to it) were ok after all. After some minor design modifications and discussions about the benefits of varied sizes - including a double bunk option for a pair of ringtails we left with big smiles and happy hearts. Minus one possum snug. As far as I am aware Pocahontas is still snuggled up in it.

Since then I have put out the call for wool (not acrylic) and I have more than I can cope with, so am now recruiting friends to start making pouches and snugs. Amazing what can be achieved from one idea and support from like minded people. I am now working on snug number 4 and am writing a pattern for my snug design. I will try to share this with you soon.