One flowery day

Hello all,

Would you like to hear about my day?

Yes?  - Then you’re in luck. :)

 

I woke up late this morning after staying up waaaay too late - again, and lay in bed reading for an hour or so, before hopping out of bed, going to ... What, too much detail?... ok then, I’ll do some editing...

 

What I really wanted to tell you is that I discovered I have a blue tongue lizard living in my back yard. Yes, a native Australian living in my very own back yard. I went out into my sunroom this morning and opened the back door, and there it was, scurrying across my patio away from me. I ran inside to grab my camera and when I got back it had crawled under one of my chairs, so I had to get down on my belly to take its photo, but it was very obliging and didn’t run away from me while I took a bunch of photos of it. It was not so obliging as to poke its tongue out when I asked though, (maybe it thought it would be rude to poke its tongue out at me) so I set my camera to multi shot, and clicked away 83 times and still only got two with partial tongue.

This is starting to sound a bit blue in another way... anyway, I digress. So I wanted to show you my new pet blue tongue, I haven’t come up with a name yet; I have already had one blue tongue named 'Bluey' - I know, I’m original. My other blue tongue had been run over by a car out the front of our house when I was a teenager and my father rescued it. We kept it until it died - on my birthday I might add - it was never quite right after having its head squashed by a car; I don’t suppose I would be either.

 

A little lesson on Blue Tongue Lizards (pilfered from the internet)

Blue-tongued lizards are reptiles. There are 6 different kinds of blue-tongued lizards in Australia. Here are 4 of them.

Eastern Blue-tongue - (Like the one in my backyard) It can grow as long as your ruler.

Pygmy Blue-tongue - It's only about 10cm long.

Blotched Blue-tongue - Like most Blue-tongues it has a pointy tail.

Bob-tailed Blue tongue - It has a short stumpy tail. It's also called the Shingleback, the Sleepy Lizard, the Boggi, and the Stumpy-tailed lizard (someone else is just as original as I am).

They are called Blue-tongued Lizards because they have fat blue tongues. Like most lizards, blue-tongues can smell through their nostrils and their tongue.

They eat snails, slugs, flowers and fruit. They don't chew their food. They hold and crush it.

They have dry scaly skin.

Blue-tongues are slow and gentle.

They won't bite unless they are attacked or when they are frightened if picked up.

The bite might hurt but it is not poisonous. It's best to leave them alone.

They won't hurt you.

Baby blue-tongues come out from a hole under the mother's tail.

From the moment they are born, they have to find their own food.

If they are really lucky they can live for 30 years.

Dangers to Blue-tongued lizards include:

Cars - Blue-tongues often lie on the warm road surface and don't move out of the way of cars.

Snail baits - If blue-tongues eat snails and slugs poisoned by snail baits they will die.

Lawn mowers - Blue-tongues often hide in long grass and don't run away when lawn mowers come near them.

Cats and dogs - can kill or injure young blue tongues and big dogs can kill adult lizards.

Eagles, poisonous snakes and large goannas sometimes eat blue-tongues.

So now you know all you ever wanted to know about Blue Tongue Lizards, and possibly a bit more.

 

After my blue tongue encounter, I went into my garden to hang some washing on the line, I still had my camera handy, so I took a few more photos. A little while ago, those of you who follow my blogs will know I took a stroll around the botanical gardens and shot some photos in the Fuchsia House there, well they were lovely Fuchsias, but flowers are never quite as lovely as they are when they are growing in your own garden. Therefore, here are more photos of flowers for you all to enjoy (and you will enjoy them).

 

Today has had a bit of a flower theme; I have viewed some wonderful flower photos taken by some of you (one especially for me - thank you Bev). When I walked to the super market, I passed the garden centre where they have bulbs for sale and when I was leaving the super market, I bought myself a lovely bunch of yellow Tulips.  

 

I took some photos of flowers, trees and other things on my walk to the shops and back home again.  

 

This morning, I also threw on my blue jeans with orange flower detail, so it has been one flowery day for me.

 

I hope you enjoy looking through the photos of my day just as much as I enjoyed living it. :)