Alex and I enjoyed a very special evening a few days ago. There was a very special connection made that tends to only happen in quiet moments where you both enjoy an experience in a personal way but with another present.
To explain - every night the flying foxes leave their homes and fly over our house towards fruit trees in the south for their nightly feed. it is a spectacular sight to see with a colony of 1000's flying over... kinda reminiscent of the wizard of oz.
In was a cold night and Alex sat wrapped in a blanket, waiting anxiously for the first tell-tale leathery flapping to indicate the start of the colony's evening migration. I sat opposite Alex on our balcony with bourbon in hand enjoying the quiet of the twilight.
Alex broke the comfortable silence by asking, "Dad, are these bats, fruit bats?". To which I replied, "yes mate, they are fruit bats or flying foxes, they both eat fruit". He sat quietly and reflected on this and I could see him forming another question so I waited. "Dad?"
"Yes, Alex"
"Do gum trees have fruit?"
"no mate, that have gum nuts"
"oh"
"why do you ask Alex?"
"well i saw a fruit bat land in a gum tree once"
"OK, well it might have needed a rest"
"yeah, probably"
I was really enjoying this little exchange - it felt like one of those dad to son exchanges you see in the movies whilst they are fishing.
We scoured the sky with our eyes for a few minutes, looking for our entertaining friends and then talked about how some of the stars we could see might be satellites.
Then Alex faced me and looked suddenly serious like there was something important he needed to get off his chest. He took a breath and said, "DAD?"
"Yes, Alex"
"We see fruit bats all the time"
"yes"
"So there are Meat bats too, right?"
Well I sprayed bourbon off the balcony and nearly fell off my chair! That was the funniest thing I had heard in ages! Once I had calmed down I explained that vampire bats (or meat-bats as Alex had called them) have been known to drink the blood of cows and that they are very small. The moment had been lost and Alex began to glare at me for disturbing his serenity.
I sent him inside to have a shower whilst still chuckling about meat bats.
beware the meat bats!!!!!!!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
BATS and BONDING
Alex and I enjoyed a very special evening a few days ago. There was a very special connection made that tends to only happen in quiet moments where you both enjoy an experience in a personal way but with another present.
To explain - every night the flying foxes leave their homes and fly over our house towards fruit trees in the south for their nightly feed. it is a spectacular sight to see with a colony of 1000's flying over... kinda reminiscent of the wizard of oz.
In was a cold night and Alex sat wrapped in a blanket, waiting anxiously for the first tell-tale leathery flapping to indicate the start of the colony's evening migration. I sat opposite Alex on our balcony with bourbon in hand enjoying the quiet of the twilight.
Alex broke the comfortable silence by asking, "Dad, are these bats, fruit bats?". To which I replied, "yes mate, they are fruit bats or flying foxes, they both eat fruit". He sat quietly and reflected on this and I could see him forming another question so I waited. "Dad?"
"Yes, Alex"
"Do gum trees have fruit?"
"no mate, that have gum nuts"
"oh"
"why do you ask Alex?"
"well i saw a fruit bat land in a gum tree once"
"OK, well it might have needed a rest"
"yeah, probably"
I was really enjoying this little exchange - it felt like one of those dad to son exchanges you see in the movies whilst they are fishing.
We scoured the sky with our eyes for a few minutes, looking for our entertaining friends and then talked about how some of the stars we could see might be satellites.
Then Alex faced me and looked suddenly serious like there was something important he needed to get off his chest. He took a breath and said, "DAD?"
"Yes, Alex"
"We see fruit bats all the time"
"yes"
"So there are Meat bats too, right?"
Well I sprayed bourbon off the balcony and nearly fell off my chair! That was the funniest thing I had heard in ages! Once I had calmed down I explained that vampire bats (or meat-bats as Alex had called them) have been known to drink the blood of cows and that they are very small. The moment had been lost and Alex began to glare at me for disturbing his serenity.
I sent him inside to have a shower whilst still chuckling about meat bats.
beware the meat bats!!!!!!!
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