On the Seventh Day….

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me…seven possums playing…six sharks a swimming, five kan-ga-roos, four cuddling koalas, three little penguins, two pink galahs and a kookaburra up a gum tree. The instant image that possums bring to mind for me,  is a pair of big bright eyes in the dark in the backyard of my parents house.  My Dad is a prolific market gardener and chook keeper and he often finds that his little ‘friends’ have been busy in the night eating his prize rockmelon or pumpkin flowers.  He has tried ‘Poss Off’, a spray which supposedly deters them but in fact I think it encourages them to come party. The whole seeing in the dark thing reminds me of night vision and carrots.  Carrots are a rich source of beta-carotene which is a form of Vitamin A.  Vitamin A is known as the ‘vision vitamin’ because it helps prevent night blindness and aids the conversion of light into messages for the brain.  Vitamin A is found in other foods such as butter, margarine, liver, eggs and full cream dairy products.  Green leafy and yellow vegetables and fruit also contain Vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene. You never know when you need your night vision goggles on whilst out socialising over summer, so get crunching on a carrot.  I wonder if possums can actually pull the carrots out of the ground….