Sunrise over Blackmans Bay

We are getting prepared for our forthcoming holiday walking sections of the Great Ocean Walk, which is a 91 km walk along the coast of south Victoria. If you want to see more about the walk just google it. We have been to that area before, a few years ago when we had the camper trailer, but this time we hope to walk sections for the eight days we will be there.
We were going with friends Joan and Las, but they had to pull out the other day, so now we are on our own, blast, Las is a good cook and I was looking forward to being Bottlewasher!!

We have two really nice bases, one at Apollo Bay, at the beginning of the walk, and one at Cape Otway, a little way along. The Cape Otway cottage you can see if you go to www.shearwatercottages.com and go to Cottages, we will be in Sunrise, which is why this Post is called Sunrise!!

It will be hard to car shuffle with only one car, we had intended to have two cars, and you do know what a car shuffle is, don't you? It is when you drive both cars to the end of the section you intend to walk, leave one car there and all drive back to the beginning in the other car. Then you do the walk, then you all drive back to where you started, and pick up the first car! Clear!! Phew (I am now on medication for blood pressure!!)

So I will be away for ten days, then you should hopefully see some speccy photos, it is a pretty awesome coastline and you will see why soon!

While we are away Tim and George are coming over to re-sand and polish our wooden floors, so this means moving literally everything out of the main living area and the kitchen (big job) so things are already beginning to look a bit bare, with the removal of the books from the shelves, the china from the dresser and the bottles from the drinks cabinet. Next it will be the quilts and pictures from the walls, oh what a lot of clutter we collect, I am determined that it is not all going back, I am going to have a severe talk to myself and get rid of things, after all, you can't take it all with you when you go, might as well do it now!!

So, see you soon!!

Watch it Granddad!

Like grandad, like grandaughter!! or should it be Like granddad, like granddaughter (yes the spellchecker agrees with the latter, although I still think the former looks better!

Here they are, each trying to get their patience out first! Kiya comes over twice a week to cook dinner for her family so after she has finished her cooking there is sometimes time for some R&R

She has just had her first driving lesson, only round their property mind, she can't go out on the road for another eight months yet, and she has to drive the ute, which is not easy, I don't envy her, but Mandie's little automatic is strictly off limits to learner drivers!!!

Things to do on a Sunday afternoon

Here I am, at the Crossroads, which way shall I go?
This was taken up on Tarn Shelf (I blogged about it recently)

All I wanted was some Sticky Notes (Post It Notes)
And what did I find, a whole new world of Post It Notes
to choose from, big ones, small ones, fluorescent ones, striped
ones. Its all very well, this business of giving us more choice
but it takes so long to decide anything these days.

Now this really is a blast from the past.
Do you recognise anyone here? I happened to mention to Colleen that when I was young (ouch) I used to like Rita Hayworth so she immediately said she would lend me her DVD of 'Gilda' so last night we sat down to watch and I must say, it was so nice to have a good oldfashioned movie to watch, no sex (only the odd kiss) no violence (well hardly any) and lots of glamour and pouty lips. Now I can't stop singing "Put the blame on Mame boys"

Birthday Boys!

Ted has a birthday soon, so they celebrated together, between them they added up to 165 years!! wow.

Dolphins and other things.

Arn't I the lucky one, this morning on my walk along the beach the Dolphins were there - again. This is the third time I have been lucky enough to see them, there is no telling when they will be there, and as I do not usually carry my mobile phone I was unable to call friend Colleen and get her out of bed. She will be livid when I tell her I have seen them again. She will have to make do with the two Kookaburras I often encounter on my four minute walk down to the beach. (showing off again) They are such noisy birds, no wonder we used to sing about them when we were at school, do you remember ?

"Kookaburra sits in the old Gum Tree,
Merry merry king of the Bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra laugh
Kookaburra gay your life must be!

Apparently to get a photo of the dolphins I woyuld have to put my camera on 'sequential' which means one after the other, and then pick one where they are all on view, I tried to photograph them when I was in New Zealand, it is hopeless, with the delay on the shutter speed!!

What have we been up to lately, oh yes, last week it was Ken's birthday!! Heidi made him a cake (which even I did not know about, it was all arranged behind my back by Elaine, who is with us in the photo)

And what did he most want for his birthday? The man who has almost everything (including a beautiful, loving, attentive wife) He wanted a Shredder. So if you want anything shredded, just send it over.

Will have to submit this photo separately, it won't go where I want it to so if I finish now and then add the photo it should be in the right order!!! (I did say 'should be')

On Top of a Mountain!

Shee made it look so easy

Believe it or not, the pile of stones marks
the way (it is called a cairn)

Tarn Shelf (where the fagus should have been)

Third time lucky (or unlucky - you make up your mind)

Here I am again, you would have heard from me earlier, but I had a few problems (I think it is called 'old age') Blogging is not just like getting in by opening the door, well it is really, but opening the door is not as easy as you think!!!

Anyway - all that aside - I woke up this morning to the delightful aroma of burnt porridge and no Ken in bed beside me, so I connected the two and remembered that this is the day he is getting up at the crack of dawn to go fishing (must be mad). He spent a good part of last night undoing laces and buckles on the life jacket he had lent from Tim (I won't say why!!) but in the end it was not a bad fit, just hope it does the trick, if need be.

At least I approve of the bait they are using, no nasty worms or maggots in the fridge this time, but a tasty bit of steak. It was big enough!! I said if they don't catch any fish, bring the steak home for tea, but he said Ron's sausage dog will get that if there is any left over, lucky dog!!

Must say, don't envy them, I am looking out at the sea as I type, and it looks pretty rough to me.

Enough of them, now for me!!

Last Thursday Colleen and I tramped, traipsed, clambered, slogged up a mountain for two hours in a vain attempt to see the Fagus (Nothafagus Gunnii to you,) or deciduous beech which only grows up mountains, unfortunately. We were a couple of weeks too early, wonder if she will ever speak to me again, it was a hard walk and I fully expected to ache for a week, but maybe, just maybe, I am fitter than I give myself credit for as apart from a godawful cramp when I reached the car, I had no ill effects.

All this flurry of activity is in preparation for the forthcoming walk which we are embarking on in May, Ken, Joan, Las and I. It is about 95 km along the Great Ocean Road in southern Victoria and should take us about eight days. So watch this space.

At the moment I am undertaking a 'virtual' walk from Cocklebiddy Creek to Eucla, which is across the great Nullabor, from east to west Australia!! Are you impressed? I did say it was 'virtual' so in conjunction with my trusty pedometer (which is permanently glued to my hip) I undertake to do at least 10500 steps a day and I am halfway across already. Its a piece of cake really, next month I will take on a harder challenge, we are off to bonny Scotland so see you there!!

Its enough to give you hypertension!!

My life is suddenly divided up into thirty minute sections! How strange is that? Today is the day I have a BP Monitor on so every half hour my left arm starts to blow up and I am sure it will go off pop but after a short while, a very short while, all returns to normal.

I have lumps and bumps, even more than usual, feel a bit like a Suicide Bomber (heaven forbid) and feel I could do with a bit more room between my boobs and my waist. Glad I have no outside commitments, just imagine if I had had it on this time last week when we had our first 'public engagement' (I refuse to call it a Gig) with the Gospel Choir I have recently joined. More about that later.

Wonder how my night will go, apparently after ten o'clock it will 'go off' hourly so I will have to divide my sweet dreams up into short ones.

Phew! I'm a Blogger!

Where do I go from here, it is all new to me but it is never too late to take up a new challenge.