Au Revoir - Auf Wiedersehen, komm gut nach Hause.

Took Ken to the airport this morning. He is in Victoria for the next seven days, playing Golf Croquet for Tasmania!!! How about that, to add to the things he has done since we emigrated, like being a coffin bearer at a friend's funeral, being Best Man at another friends wedding, doing the Eulogy when a dear friend, Gilbert, died, and now playing croquet for his State. Is there no end to his talents? Anyway it will be a bit quiet round here, last night the family came round for dinner, to celebrate Fathers Day a week early, as he won't be around next week. It was Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding and I think I can safely say it was enjoyed by one and all (and I was too busy organising it all that I didn't even have time to take a photo for you.

Wally - the walking wounded!

Wally is in the wars

The other day I noticed that Wally had a sore patch on the front of his right leg, he had almost licked it bald, it looked terrible and was obviously causing him some discomfort. It was also causing me some discomfort, as his owner is due back on Thursday and she is very protective of her little pooch. I phoned the after hours number for the vet and was told to prevent him from licking it any more I should bandage it. This I did, see first photo, doesn't he look cute? This morning we took him to the vet, who was very thorough in his examination and after shaving the spot and taking a sample for further examination the diagnosis was that he had either been bitten by something like a Jack Jumper (a very large ant) or he had scratched it on something. Anyway he is now on anti biotics and has to wear this very fashionable headgear to prevent him licking it any more. Poor Wally!!!

Do you know what this is?

This is a Tamarillo - otherwise known as a tree tomato - these came from the Botanical Gardens, where there is a tree which is absolutely laden at the moment. I was there recently doing a 'Master Class' (doesn't that sound grand) on organic gardening and pruning fruit trees etc. Back to the tamarillo, when we cut it in half, see second photo, we tried it, nothing to write home about, won't bother buying one for my garden, but it does look pretty, doesn't it?

Wow, its an Aurora!!

Ypu know what an Aurora is, don't you, a display of lights in the sky, from the south in my case, for you Northern Hermispherians they would come from the north.

As Kiya and I drove home from our last night of choir for two months (boo hoo - two whole months with no weekly choir sessions) we became aware of the intermittent flashes of light, always in the south, the way we were heading. When I dropped her off home I drove to the beach and found the darkest spot I could find and just sat there for a while, watching. Even if I had had my camera with me (and I usually do have it) I could not have captured the lights on camera, they are too infrequent and would not have taken kindly to the camera shutter speed delay. So you will just have to make do with my telling you how beautiful the lights were. This does not happen often, usually somebody phones in, if you happen to be listening to talkback radio, but Blackmans Bay is not a good place, too much light polution, the darker the better.

So, lucky me, I can go to bed happy!!

Thumbs up - we won the Ashes back

As you can see, I am not the only one thrilled to bits that we won, Ken had to amend his 2005 mug, to add on our latest victory!!

A Bird in hand is worth two on the side of the road!!

I keep telling Ken this, but still he has eyes for other women, especially the big ones!
These were two from our recent holiday along the Great Ocean Road where there are lots of spectacular rock formations in the Ocean which are gradually being eroded away, for instance there are only ten Apostles, instead of twelve and London Bridge recently collapsed into the sea so is no more.

Australian Natives (of the botanical sort!)

Last night we went up to Tim and Mandie for dinner and I admired her vase of Banksias, otherwise known as Bottle Brushes, surprise surprise, so on the way out she cut me some, and now they grace my kitchen, they will last forever, they look lovely.

The other photo is of Colleen's Fairy Floss Grevillia bush, how I covet this one for my own garden. I just hope with all the Australian natives I have recently planted I will have made such delightful choices, you don't really know until they grow and flower, which could take a while.

The longest 25 minutes of my life!!

I woke about 4.30 am, got up and put on the radio, to get the Cricket,not just any old Cricket, but The Ashes!! Nothing, they were nattering on about old cars, it was a phone in and as I waited patiently I made a cup of tea (how English can you get)and then, finally it came - we had won, what a joy. By 'we' of course I mean the Poms, I still consider myself a Pom, after all I have lived longer in England than I have Australia. They are funny these Aussies, they don't like losing, especially to the Poms so I will revel in my five minutes of glory, and they will do it all over again in a couple of years.

Guess what?

Today I went out and bought me a Microwave Oven!!! Me - who has always said I would never have one!!! I would say, I bought the smallest one I could find, as I don't intend using it THAT much, just for custard, Kens Porridge, white sauces etc, anything to save washing up a messy saucepan!

What bought this about, I hear you thinking? Yesterday we had a visit from the Sustainable Living Man, who went all over the house with a small toothcomb and made suggestions about how we could reduce our carbon footprint!! We will be getting a full report in due course, meanwhile maybe we will have to think about replacing our vertical blinds with curtains, at least for the winter, as most of our heat must go out of our big windows. But I don't really fancy those formaldahyde backed curtains they recommend here so maybe the time I will save washing up messy pans will be spent making my own hemp curtains!! Who knows.

Houseguest

This is Wally, he is with us for four weeks, he is a bit fed up with me today as it has been so cold and rainy that he has not been out for a walk!! Hope he won't report me to the RSPCA. He is a sweet little dog, sleeps in our bedroom, on my side I would add, and is always ready for bed about 9 pm.

A few relevant photos!

In no particular order (cos I never know which order they will appear in!!) A Birthday Bouquet of Australian Natives, a birthday cake baked by mother-in-law,(that makes a change, for someone to make HER a cake) outside Gustaf Weindorfer's chalet at Waldheim and Two Knitty Noras!!

and when we woke up all was white!

Heidi and I went to Cradle Mountain to celebrate her recent "nought-ie" birthday. We stayed there for a couple of days, in a really comfortable cabin at the Wilderness Village. We watched a couple of DVDs and had a knitting session and had plenty of time for uninterrupted chat! Heidi has never been to Cradle before and unfortunately the mountain hid itself from us so we have to go again in the summer maybe.

It was a real surprise to wake up to the snow, everything looked fairytale and it is a long time since I have had to get all the snow off the car before I could go anywhere. The road down to Dove Lake was closed to two wheel drive vehicles in the morning so we had to wait awhile before we could actually drive down to the lake.