The fruit and vegetable series

I ventured back up to Chaelundi on Saturday to spend the night, before bringing Lachlan home from his camp (well actually, I hitched a lift with Kelley).

Rosemary's property up there is absolutely magnificent - surrounded by beautiful natural bushland - and wildlife in abundance. Rosemary's vegetable garden is extraordinary..... with enough fruit and vegetables available at any one time to feed a tribe! Kelley and I spent a wonderful afternoon pottering around in the garden, munching on the crispy beans, sweet and juicy plums, aromatic tomatoes and delicious strawberries. And of course, I had my camera with me.... so what follows is the "fruit and vegetable series". I know they are probably not considered the most exciting subject matter - but I just love the colour and form (not to mention the memories of taste they evoke.)

This little toy bulldozer in the sandpit also caught my eye - I think Eli would love to have one of these!

And finally, we found this fellow on the Dorrigo Mountain - he was feeding on some scraps at one of the waterfall stops.

Bundilla and Chaelundi

I have been busy doing home visits for my class. One of my new families lives out on the stunning Bundilla community. After my visit I took the opportunity to photograph some of the beautiful stone sculptures in the river out there.

This morning I drove Lachlan up to Chaelundi, where he is participating in an environment camp. I didn't have to rush back so I stopped to photograph some of the wildlife. I stopped at a creek to photograph a cow skull, and found some lovely blackberries (yes I know they are pests - but they taste good!) and a busy bee on a thistle.

These fellows were wandering up the road after a swim in the river.

And finally, I found a quiet spot by the creek and played with my camera.... fun throwing a rock into the still water and photographing what happened next....

trains

Mum, Dad, Ceilidh and I had a lovely Sunday visiting Ulong, Lowana and Nana Glen. We pottered around the old train stations in these lovely little towns and I got some photos of the old trains slowly decomposing on the tracks. I don't think these will be taking passengers any time soon!

flowers

Hi blogsters,

I have been playing with my new toy.... and taking photos in mum and dad's garden. So here are this morning's photos.. with just a little tweaking on the computer.

And just to finish off, a nice moody 'black' dahlia.

The adoption

Well, after a couple of weeks of planning.... the new family members have arrived. At the end of last year I started thinking seriously about getting a new companion for home - the kids are almost grown up (Lachlan would shoot me for referring to him as a 'kid') and I am ready for a new companion.

I went to visit the RSPCA intending to see what dogs they had for adoption. I was looking at a lovely whippet, but had some reservations about a dog of this size.... when someone told me to go down to the end cage to check out a chihuahua. Now, when I think chinuahua, I think Paris Hilton's handbag - definitely not the dog for me! But I went to look anyway... and there was a little 8 month old puppy. She was so sweet and put her head into my hand when I pushed it through the cage. I fell in love. Clearly the name would have to change (what sort of dumb name is "crystal" for a dog... it screams 'Paris Hilton')..... but the puppy was beautiful. Well that was ok, but then the girl from the RSPCA mentioned that they were euthanasing every kitten that came through the door at the moment as they were overwhelmed. She also mentioned that a kitten would provide a companion to keep the puppy company when I am at work. I went for a look in the kitten cage. Wow, there were purebred siamese kittens, gorgeous black and white kittens, lovely tortoiseshell kittens.... and then there was this browny grey tabby who just wanted to play. I was sold.

So, today I went and picked up my two new babies. Ceilidh (pronounced 'kaylee'....sort of) the chihuahua and Dougie (pronounced Doogie) the cat. Ceilidh settled straight onto the bed and is sleeping off her anaesthetic. Doogie is hooning around the house checking out every possible play thing and making his presence felt! It was pleasing to see Ceilidh doing ...well doing the outdoor thing... outdoors! It appears she is well toilet trained.

Ceilidh's story is that she was travelling around Australia with her owner when she got lost in Coffs Harbour. Her owner was back in Canberra by the time she worked out where her puppy was. It was too far to travel back to pick her up... so Ceilidh went up for adoption. I have no idea what Dougie's story is - but he forms part of a huge tidal wave of kittens which turn up at the RSPCA each day.... why don't people get their animals desexed? (Both of my new babies have been desexed - so that will not be a problem for us.)

Family members and friends are respectfully asked not to refer to Ceilidh as 'the rat' .... I know she is tiny... but I am sure she has feelings!

The Woodford Experience

Another year, another Woodford! An impossibly huge and wonderful event..... it would take far too many words to describe. So here are just a few of the photographs I took over a couple of days at Woodford. Enjoy!