Caravanning

Hello lovely people.  After an absence of some time I thought I'd try blogging again.  So I'll leap right in and share a recent holiday hubby and I took in our little caravan to the south of New South Wales for two weeks.  We are relatively new to caravanning with just a couple of years under our belt so we are still learning but it is so much fun.

Our first stop overnight was in Marlo still within the state of Victoria.  I've never been to Marlo before and I was enchanted by this sleepy little coastal town.  We took a stroll down to the jetty and were entertained by a local seal looking for fish scraps.

The view as we walked down to the jetty.

Marlo jetty.

From the jetty I was able to take some photos of bird life with the zoom lens.

A pelican preening in between looking for breakfast.

Australian pied cormorants sunning themselves.

On the far left is a White faced heron, Ibis and Pelicans.  A few ducks too, of course.

 

 

The local seal was initially hard to photograph but I managed a few photos and was delighted when he/she came right up under the jetty.

We only had one night and morning in this lovely area and we will go back for a longer stay at some point.  On the drive out of Marlo we drove past the Snowy River and a lovely estuary which was stunningly beautiful and full of bird life.  I believe there is a board walk along side the estuary and that will certainly be on the agenda next time we visit.

Overlooking the estuary with the ocean beyond.

A seagull hopefully waiting for the ibis to bring a tasty morsel to the surface.

Ibis

White faced heron.

Chestnut teals.

There is something quite beautiful about an Australian country road and this one was opposite the estuary.

My next post will be about the next stage of our holiday.  Thanks for reading after my long absence.

Anne xx

Sophie and Lady

Most of you know that we have a gorgeous Labrador named Sophie.  She is 13 years old now and has slowed down immensely.   Poor Sophie has a problem with her spine and struggles with walking very far and has other difficulties too.  Despite this she is still a very happy dog, enjoys her short walks and still has the appetite of a Labrador but we know she is in her twilight years.  We had been thinking of adopting a rescue dog for some time and I particularly wanted another Labrador but it seems Labradors get rehomed very quickly. 

Sophie

 So the lovely dog we've ended up adopting is a Labradoodle named Lady.  Lady is 9 years old and has been a breeder.  Her owners had no more use for her and were going to have her put down and then a lovely person came to her rescue.  Lady's rescuer had many dogs of her own and couldn't really keep another one so that's where we came into the picture, answering an advertisement for her online.

 

Lady

 Lady has the sweetest nature and is very gentle.  She gets on well with Sophie although is a bit pushy when it comes to getting attention.  She isn't the slightest bit interested in our cats and they are slowly getting use to her.  Lady has only been with us for a week and has settled in beautifully.

 

Besides adopting a dog I have been very busy in the garden, mowing the grass, whipper snippering the weeds and doing the edges, weeding, pruning and tidying up.  In among all the hard work it's so nice to have some spring roses in the garden, enough so I can bring some inside to enjoy.

 It is nice to have some crafting on the go as well and I'm slowly working on my Sanda Paul of Cherry Heart  Spice of Life blanket.  The colours I'm using are more vibrant than shown in this photo and the yarn I'm using is from the Stylecraft Special DK range.  I love this yarn, it's so soft and very economical.

 It was a nice project to work on while we were driving to get Lady which was a 3.5 hour drive.  On the way home Lady was sitting on my lap so no chance to do any more.

 I'm currently working on a sneaky crochet Christmas project which I'll share in another post.

Anne xx

Another sojourn to Western Australia has been and gone with another one happening in a month or so to bring Mum back to Melbourne for Christmas.  The farm never disappoints when looking for photo opportunities, I just love those wide open skies and amazing sunsets.  Here are a few photos from my last trip.

A bobtail lizard looking for mulberries.

A large family of feeding maned ducks (geese).

On the bank of the dam.

Mum's cat Cara.

One of farming brother Eric's wheat crops.

Old silos on the farm.

Sampling some jam Eric made from quandongs.


Anne xx

Catching up

Hello.  Once again it has been a long time since I posted on here so I thought I'd do a catch up post.

The usual things have been going on in life as they do and my days have been filled with crafting either knitting socks or crocheting blankets.  The garden is there waiting for me to get into when the weather warms up but for Melbourne this takes quite a while.  

We bought a second hand caravan from good friends several months ago so have been enjoying planning our first weekend away which is happening soon.  I'll hopefully have photos to share.  In the meantime here are a few of the things I've been getting up to.

Hubby and I enjoyed a day out visiting the Yarra Valley Dairy, one of our favourite places.

 

We saw the Wedge tailed eagle in the distance while there.

I made these bed socks for Mum.  Not quite a perfect fit.

Enjoying the colours of some sock yarn I ordered.

A skein of sock wool I hand dyed using camellia petals, melaleuca bark beetroot tops.

Knitting of socks in progress.

 

 

More socks.  This pair went to Genevieve.

  

Enjoying some colour in the garden.

Hubby and I cutting down branches from the old pear tree in the back yard.  Sadly the tree was diseased and all the wet weather didn't help so down she came.

Working on a stripey throw. Pattern found here.  Using colours from Lucy of Attic 24 cosy pack.

Five jars of yummy home made corn relish.  Delicious with a cheese melted toastie.

Rainbow lorikeets visiting this weekend.  The might be colourful but they are noisy and agressive, not my favourite parrot.

See you soon,

Anne  xx