Family

We've just had a lovely visit from hubby's sister and brother-in-law who live in Adelaide.  We don't get to see them too often so it was lovely to catch up and take some time to go exploring and relax together.

Monday we visited Warburton and had a wander around this lovely town including a walk along Yarra river which runs adjacent to the town.  We found a lovely place to have lunch, it was so good we went back for afternoon drinks before we set off home.  Here are some photos from our day.

The RiverView Cafe & Bar where we had lunch.

Lovely mosaic steps near the town information centre.

Warburton water wheel.  More information about the wheel can be found at this link. http://www.warburtoninfo.com/warburton-waterwheel-Information.html

 

 Walking around the river we came across this dead tree.  Some adventurous person has yarn bombed it and looking at the state of the yarn, it must have been some time ago.

The Yarra River.

 

A lovely avenue of Agapanthus leading to the bridge and a crazy Genevieve underneath.

On the swing bridge.

Ducks enjoying the sun.

 

One of the magnificent trees lining the river.

It is the last week of the school holidays and many families were making the most of the fine weather, enjoying picnics and kids were paddling in the river.  We enjoyed our day very much and I reminisced about the time I went tubing down the river about 5 years ago on a girls weekend away.  Tuesdays day out will be the subject of my next post.

Anne xx

Late afternoon

This afternoon I went to visit family friends who live several miles from Mum.  On the way home I stopped to take these photos of the beautiful colours the late afternoon sun casts on the surrounding trees and landscape.  Such a beautiful time of the day.

This one needs to be done in oils.

Loving the contrast between the salmon and white gum tree trunks.

It's so good to be here enjoying where I grew up.  Just can't take the country girl out of me.

Therapeutic walk

Today was the most glorious autumn day with blue skies and warm sunshine.  This afternoon I found myself in need of a therapeutic walk to take my mind of things that were troubling me and decided to go to Birdsland reserve with my Labrador Sophie.  I've shared photos of this beautiful and peaceful reserve before but it's worth sharing again.  Today there was a pelican on the water, something I'd not seen before.  A pelican doesn't usually hang around a place without food and sure enough after a few minutes observation, four meals of some kind of fish were had.  Here are some photos of my walk.

Farmland adjacent to the reserve.

The first lake.

The pelican.

Fishing

Eating

The small island in the middle the second lake.

You can see the pelican zooming of in the distance.  They can sure move fast when they choose.

Regeneration programme showing young trees growing after the bushfires of 2009.

More regeneration.

Heading along the path back to the car.

While I was driving to the reserve Sophie was making the most excited noises.  When she realised where we were, those noises increased in volume, she was so excited.  I don't often bring her here for a walk but she has been here a number of times with the family who baby sit her when we are away.  Obviously her memories of those walks are happy ones.

Travelling The Great Ocean Road

Today hubby, cousin Jane and I came home from a very enjoyable two day trip along the Great Ocean Road, Victoria.  It surely has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, the second time I've visited but even more impressive second time round.  We stayed in Port Campbell last night and went back to view the 12 Apostles again this morning to enjoy them in the different light from yesterday afternoon.  Loch Ard Gorge was so beautiful, The Bay of Islands spectacular.  On our first day along the way we stopped off to take a walk through Mait's Rest rainforest walk which was magical and I discovered a tree that grows in Victoria and Tasmania I had never seen or heard of before, the Myrtle Beech.  As we were walking, oohing and ahhing, I couldn't stop thinking about how much Louise and Dave would have enjoyed this walk.  Here are some photos of our time away.

Jane and I dunking our feet in the very balmy water of a rock pool.

 

Mait's Rest rainforest walk.

The trunk of a Myrtle Beech

Late afternoon at the 12 Apostles beach area.

Morning photos of the 12 Apostles.

Loch Ard Gorge

This beach was lovely and we did a little foot dunking.

I absolutely adore this photo from the stunning rocky pillar to the colours.

After we finished viewing the spectacular Great Ocean Road scenery, we headed to Warrnambool for lunch and spent some time in the cemetery after to look for the graves of my great, great grandfather,  great grandfather and families which we found.  It was a lovely moment.  My great, great grandfather arrived in Victoria from England in 1852 with his wife and four children at the time (more were born in Australia), settling in Warrnambool.  He was 32 years old and died 10 years later from an unfortunate accident where he suffered a compound wrist fracture.  He contracted tetanus 7 days later and died 3 days after that.  A tragic story.  My great grandfather and his younger brother left school (they were in their mid-teens) and went out to work.

Our journey from Warranambool back to Melbourne took us through lovely farming country and we stopped so Jane could take some photos of the vast open spaces of our country.

Anne  xx