Backyard Zoology · 29 December 2019
2019-12-29T18:40:01+11:00
https://www.facebook.com/backyardzoology/videos/1369564149870882/

Not gonna lie, I spent a good whack of Christmas night bawling my eyes out. Even though we have been doing shared care with my son's dad for over 13 years, Christmas doesn't get any easier and as I dropped my boy off I felt a big, fat lump lodge itself in my throat and refuse to move. We've also had a stressful few weeks, I've had a major pain flare up and let's face it, Christmas is such an emotional time for so many people. 

The older I get, the more I realise how much I'm like my own dad and how much he has missed and how damn much I still miss him. He missed all my animal work and would have totally loved Backyard Zoology and I guess everything built up and this girl became very tired and even more emotional and I let it all out in big, heaving sobs. On a positive note though, all those who passed me in their own cars realised that no matter how crappy their Christmas had been, at least it hadn't ended in ugly crying! 😂

Once home, my husband laid on our bed and called his family up in Queensland and everytime I tried to snuggle up to him, the reception dropped out. I'm used to manifesting the good in, not blocking it out! So I did the only thing that could be done and headed out into the street, camera in hand. And the bats flew in. One after the other and it was still light enough for the trees to be filled with chattering rainbow lorikeets and screeching cockatoos who fly into the branches that the bats head for and throw their wings out and their crests up and try to move those flying foxes on. But the pull of the nectar filled gum blossoms was too strong and the bats just kept coming. In the background I could hear the quiet murmurings of people winding down from the day; chairs scraping across balconies as people enjoyed dinner, a TV's white noise hanging in the dusk air. And I started to relax and then smile and I breathed deeply and padded around, blossoms falling around me, dislodged by the heavy-handed flying foxes, reaching out and grasping at branches and pulling them to their hungry mouths. 

Matt finished chatting and joined me outside and we stood together, watching as night fell and the animals changed shifts, the cockatoos flying off in huge flocks to wherever they roost and the lorikeets heading off in pairs and small groups leaving just the bats and the slowly emerging possums. And after everything, I felt content and happy and exactly where I'm supposed to be and that is probably the best Christmas gift of all (although I'm a bit obsessed with my new cookbook too!) 😉

Grey-Headed Flying Foxes
Northern Illawarra