It started the moment I entered the bush reserve near our house.
I saw a lady I recognised walking slowly down the hill towards me holding her German Shepherd close to her. She usually would say no more than 'hi' and keep walking, but today she looked like she wanted to chat.
We talked about easy nothings, the kind of surface level stuff that strangers talk about when they want to say hi to someone they don't know anything about. It was nice.
Usually standoffish with her very big dog, she relaxed her stance as soon as she saw me include her ("Rubes") in the conversation. She cautiously allowed the German Shephard approach me while still keeping her on the lead.
I didn't get a photo of Rubes. But she looked a lot like this.
She warned me that she likes to jump up and lick faces, and that's the reason she keeps her on such a tight lead most of the time. We kept chatting as I gave the grateful Rubes lots of rubs along her spine and before long, I got my face close to hers and she took that as a sign to jump up and lick me.
Surprised but not afraid, I wiped my face as my new human friend apologised. I reinforced that it was not a problem, that I was fine.
When Rubes started to grab her lead and drag her Mum onward it was clear it was time for me to keep moving too.
Sticking to the wide paths due to a large storm last night, I opted to go down a big, steep hill I rarely walk down just to make my short walk as productive as possible.
Before I'd even made it halfway down the hill, I had another surprise. With its bright red breast and long body perched very high in a big old gum tree, my best guess is that it was a King Parrot.
While I used to see them regularly as a child (because they'd come and steal any fruit from our trees that we hadn't covered sufficiently well), I rarely see them up here in Brisbane.
As I walked underneath it, I said hello. It let out a squawk like it was a little surprised or frightened by me, but I reminded it that I was a long way down from the branch where it was safely standing.
With a smile on my face, on I walked. Happy with a dog to pat and a bird to admire, I was expecting no other surprises and yet 200 metres down the track I heard the unmistakable heavy bounce of a wallaby.
I peered into the bush to see where it had hidden in its attempt to get away from this big, scary human. I spotted it through the bush, clearly in sight but well placed with plenty of scrub between me and it.
It was pretty small, I want to say a 'teenager'. And for the record, teenage wallabies are teeny tiny. Not like kangaroos that can get very large indeed, our common local species of wallaby are small. And this teenager? It would have been lucky to reach my hips even if it was standing up straight with its nose in the air =)
It was hiding too well in the dark to photograph, but when I turned around I realised there was an adult on the other side of the track, happily munching on grass, well lit by the sunlight breaking through the trees.
Ahhhh, my day feeling complete already when it had in fact barely begun, I started to made my way back up the very steep hill, and before the steep section began I saw another bird I rarely see. I don't know its name, but I want to call it a Yellow-Breasted Robin.
I might be totally making this up but that's what I would call it if naming it was up to me. Because it was fast and flitty like a robin and had a yellow chest! (Do you know what it's called? Tell me in the comments if you do!)
It was so fun to see it flit from one tiny branch to another. And you know when birds land on a tree trunk but they land sideways? Well, it did that, only moments before landing on this fallen tree. Amazing.
After I took the photo, I looked up and it had gone. Just like that. Quick as a... bird. Lol.
With a happy heart, I huffed and puffed up the steep hill and cruised down the other side... only to find another surprise!
This one was a native pigeon, which I quite like, but it was being harrassed by a noisy minor (another bird which I really don't like, mostly because it's a bully!).
The native pigeons are quite harmless and peaceful creatures, and I managed to capture its photo here before I got too close and it flew off.
Feeling like I'd had my fill of wildlife for the day, I strolled the rest of the way home, happy as Larry, thinking about the countless ways I could share these lovely surprises with you.
It seems, this is how it came out ;)
{All photos taken by me on my phone, except the very first one which I linked to the photographer as my way of giving credit where credit is due.}