This is that funny time, between Christmas and New Year, the weather has been particularly kind to us this Christmas, the sun has shone brightly every day, and phew! tomorrow they are threatening 34 degrees so after my 7 am walk I will probably hibernate for the day, OR maybe we will go down to the beach and find a nice shady tree to sit under and just veg out with a good book, how does that sound?

The Sydney to Hobart yachts are still coming in, it has been an exceptionally slow crossing this time, no wind!! So we still get the occasional one on the horizon and we will still see tailenders tomorrow.

Had quite a few Christmas cards arrive today, mostly from overseas, still good to have them, must now make an effort to write a few letters.

Today, as you see from the photos, we went with friends Debbie and Mark (from the U.S) down to Huonville where we, or rather, they put Marks kayak in the water and Mark and Ken pedalled their way down to the pretty little town of Franklin where Debbie and I were waiting for them (after a visit to the local Antiques Shop) and although we both had their wallets (just in case they fell in!!!) we managed not to spend a penny (not that we couldn't find a toilet!) I thought that pretty remarkable of Debbie, she has an eye for a bargain.

You might have to double click on the photos, to make them a bit bigger. New camera still going well, took some good movies of departure and arrival, quite humerous in places.

Better go and get ready for this heatwave tomorrow, Goodnight!!

On the Twelth Day of Christmas

 

I couldn't find a partridge anywhere (do they indeed have them in Australia?) so you will have to make do with a DUCK. Whats more, we have a peach tree, two apricot trees and an apple tree, NO pear tree, so its a duck in an apple tree or nothing!!

I have come to the end of my Christmas card to you, I hope you have enjoyed it and I hope you had a very merry Christmas and that you will have a good New Year.

Now I can get back to normal and not have to go around counting everything to see if it was what I needed.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

 

 

 

I nearly went nuts trying to get these photos, all taken today, in order and if they don't turn out right that is just too bad, I am going to bed!!
We had a good day, an early start with buttermilk pancakes al fresco at the Reserve with Heidi and Karlo, then Kiya and I went singing with our Choir 'Sing for your Life' at a Dinner put on by Colony 47 for people on their own.
Then back to Tim and Mandie for Christmas lunch. Then back home to instal the new flat screen 23" Monitor for the computer, only to be thwarted in the attempt cos our moden and the new monitor are incompatible and there was no sound, everything else worked OK. Boo Hoo how frustrating. Then I went back at dusk to the Reserve to see if I could see the Platypus I saw the other day, but he was not there. Never mind, tomorrow is another day. Hope you had a good day too.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas

 

my truelove gave to me
Ten smiling neighbours enjoying the 'Cul de Sac" (sounds posher than 'Street') Party we had last evening. Got to know a few more people who pass our backdoor every day. It was quite successful and we all decided we should do it again and not necessarily wait another year!

Getting close now, Christmas Eve, only one more sleep till Santa comes!!

On the Ninth Day of Christmas

 

my truelove sent to me
Nine Geese aswimming, didn't they all line up nicely for me? This one was a bit easier than last night, which is a good job because I have just come back from our Street Party and I don't think I could have done anything too technical. First time we have had a get-together in our little cul de sac and it was quite a success, they threaten to do it again soon!! If you are good you will meet some of them tomorrow night!!!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I can't believe it is almost here and still there are things to be done but I don't stress out about it like I would have done earlier. What will be will be.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

 

my truelove gave to me

Eight Choirleaders leaping all over the place to the tune of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

We had our choir practice tonight for Christmas Day, when we will be singing (only for a short time) to homeless people who come to the Masonic Hall for lunch put on by an Organisation called Colony 47. We don't want to put them off their food, do we?

By the way yesterday I blogged about some of the dogs I have from time to time here at the Doggie Hylton! It was very remiss of me, but I forgot to introduce them, so here goes:

From memory there was Wally, Millie, Molly, Bella, Amber, Star and last but not least Mo, my granddog (Heidi's dog)

On the seventh day of Christmas

 

my truelove gave to me
seven dogs abarking!!!

This one was hard, I'll be glad when Christmas is here!
Today I did my last stint at the Snug Village Hostel where for the past two and threequarter years I have been running the Kiosk. Now we can just concentrate on volunteering every Wednesday at another OPH in Hobart, I found doing the two was just that bit too much, they have three little wallhangings to remember me by, that should be enough!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

 

my truelove sent to me:

What now? I've run out of the feathered kind of bird so will my six friends have Christmas lunch do?

But let me tell you, yesterday on my quest for photos I SAW a PLATYPUS. I was so surprised (and so was he) that I did not have time to turn my camera on, and he was gone. We went to the Reserve and were just contemplating how we could cross Coffee Creek (which is usually just a trickle but this time it was a raging torrent) when suddenly what I thought was a rock was a Platypus, what a surprise, Ken did not even see him, he was so quick. But now I know he is there I will go back at dusk, that is a good time, and I'll creep up on him with camera at the ready.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

 

 

my truelove sent to me:
Five Galahs, all feeding their faces, or should I say beaks?

Galahs get a bad press, I feel sorry for them as they are really quite a pretty bird, and very sociable, you never see one on his own (except the one I got here so that you can see him up close and personal.) When someone acts stupidly or does something really silly he is likened to a Galah (Australian logic?)

The weather has cheered up, I have started walking in earnest again, having lapsed over the past few weeks, so I usually try to get up early and am off by 7 a.m. If I go alone with my Ipod tucked in my bra (little ipod - big bra!)I can be there and back in 45 minutes, but if I go minus ipod and plus camera it takes much longer.

Starting to feel guilty about my lack of enthusiasm over the forthcoming Christmas season. We went to Kiya's end of year dancing show last night, what a spectacular, talk about "dancing the night away" they never stopped, it was so energetic it wore me out just watching it. The costumes were fantastic, the tiny tots were sweet, the few boys in it were looking either very enthusiastic or very embarrassed and the music was very loud. But we enjoyed it and were both glad we had made the effort to go.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

 

my truelove sent to me Four Pied Oystercatchers wading on the waterline at Dru Point the other day. Note their straight red beak and colour co-ordinated red legs, I often see them here.

Well the days are passing, the supermarket is getting more frenetic, you would think they were shopping for a seige or that the shops were closing for at least a month! I must be getting old and cranky but I can't help thinking about the third world countries and how little they have!!

On the third day of Christmas

 

my true love sent to me Three Black Swans and guess what? I an beginning to get in the mood!!
This morning saw me knocking on the door at Pathology, waiting to give some blood (not for a good cause - too old - for me!)at 7 am and it is absolutely p...ing down, so no walk today. This photo was taken on Tuesday at Dru Point, with Heidi and Ken. Now I have actually written four christmas cards, they take a time with me as I just cannot bring myself to just sign them, must have my moneysworth from Australia Post so they all get a screed, which all takes time. And now (I know you shouldn't start a sentence with 'and' but at my age you can get away with things!) we are getting ready for Ken's PROBUS Christmas Lunch at the Lindisfarne Yacht Club, a lovely venue but with this weather the camera will stay home, sorry.

On the second day of Christmas

 

my truelove sent to me two Green Rosellas! Arn't they just so special? I almost gave up on my walk this morning, although I did see two small unidentified birds which I managed to photograph and could not name them till I loaded my card onto the computer and could zoom in even more. They turned out to be finches, European Goldfinches at that, quite a find for me. Back to the Rosellas, the only unfortunate thing about these birds is that there is also a bottle of tomato sauce bearing the same name, minus the Green. I'll show you the finches some other time, must get round to some Christmas cards tonight.

On the first day of Christmas

 

my true love sent to me one silver gull making ripples in his own little pool.

It is getting a bit scary, only ten days to go and I have not sent (or even written) one single card. What is new, I always leave it till the last minute, I am better working to a deadline!!

Photo taken on Sunday morning, my half hour walk now takes me at least an hour, maybe more, as there are all these interesting things to photograph and I must get to grips with my new camera. It is great, I am enjoying the challenge.

Beware, I am going to blog every day from now to Christmas (and beyond)

Thank God for the 'Restore' Button!!

 

What about this one then? My new camera, first good photo of a NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER which I accidentally deleted, along with 144 others I took today and over the past few days. Never mind, I thought, plenty of time to do more, then I remembered the 'restore' button, all was not lost, and my beautiful bird came back!!

Sunflowers, raspberries and rhubarb!!

 

 

 

We are enjoying our rhubarb (a sure sign that we are of Pommie origin!) in crumbles, fools and as rhubarb sour cream cake (recipe supplied if requested) and this is the very first raspberry on our brand new raspberry canes, will have to net it before the birds discover it!!
And as for the sunflower - it is just peeping over the garden fence, it has done better than Debbies (she gave them to me) and Heidis, as beaten them all, now all I am waiting for is a nice big yellow smiley sunflower! (what would I do without exclamation marks?)

What a Tosser!!!

 

Punch, then toss, that was the instructions from sensei Karlo in his Dojo!! No problem with the punch, but the tossing was not so easy!

 
 
 
 
Karlo had a couple of new students in his Dojo recently!!! Ken and Norman got all dressed up and really looked the part (good job it wasn't a movie!) We all had a bit of fun, and Karlo showed us all in turn how to 'throw' him, I really enjoyed the punching bit which came first, you punch then toss. He is very flexible, can't imagine ever being able to do some of the things he does.

These are more pictures taken with my new camera, I am very pleased with it BUT there is so much to learn, I go to bed every night with the Instruction Book (and Ken) as there is so much I want to learn about how to take better photos. So far my use of the Zoom has not been very good, there must be something I am missing!!

What a bargain!!

 

Here comes our first cup of tea made from water boiled in our 'visit to the local Tip' $2 copper kettle, complete with dent!!

The tea tasted wonderful, better than from a Thermos when you are miles from the nearest Cafe!

Norman's Blue Wren

 

I can't claim any praise for this photo, Brother-in-law Norman took it on Thursday when we were over on Bruny.

Great photo - eh?

 

This is a very important photo, cos its one of the first with my NEW camera!!! I am now the proud owner of a Lumix ZR50 - just got to learn how to use it now!!! Got it on Ebay, recommended by the Camera Club I go to once a month and guaranteed to take better pictures of birds!! (not so far though)

The second thing about this picture is, of course, that it is with brother-in-law Norman who has been with us for two weeks and departed today. It has been a very interesting time!

Now to get back to normal. Will be posting some more photos from the past two weeks soon.

The Royal Botanical Gardens.

We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens which was delightful in the rain, I am sure the colours come out better when the sun is not around. First came the Japanese Gardens and the Bridge and then we shivered in the Subantarctic House so we didn't hang around too long in there. The roses round the arches along the walls made an excellent backdrop for two handsome old boys and then they were joined by another old boy made out of King Billy Pine! The wide variety of trees in the gardens makes one realise how lucky we are to have had people in the past with such forethought and vision.