Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning and our little tree is quite impressive!

Well, I think so anyway!

For $9 it did the trick for me - not only put me in the festive mood but gave me somewhere to place our presents!

Woody was in a quandry with his present.

It smelt good and he was dying to rip into it but his good manners didn't allow him to.

It smelt like a pig's ear but didn't look like one.


Shall I? Shan't I?

He needed some encouragement.

My sons would be mortified if they knew I dragged this out, yet again.

A primary school effort.

Three pine cones, wrapped with tinsel of various colours; stick a parrot on the side and Bob's yer uncle!

My bauble; gift from the Blood Bank!

Critter comes to Stay

This may appear to you to be a dog.

It isn't.

She's A PERSON!

She's the first dog I've come across who doesn't like liver treats.

That's because liver treats are for dogs - and she ISN'T A DOG.

When she goes to bed she nestles into her covers until she has her head out one end and her feet out the other. Like I said, she's a PERSON!

She tried her best to manipulate the 'man of the house' (our dog) but to no avail. (Although he did allow her to share a 'clean up'; see below.)

He had back up as they say in The Bill.

Three attempted mountings and three reprimands from ME later, she gave up.

She didn't give up, however, on trying to join us on the lounge suite and bed.
"But that's where PEOPLE sit!" she cried.

"You're A DOG!" I said.



She thought wearing nail varnish would impress.

It didn't!

Trip to the Eastern States

What a great place to have lunch!

The train ride from Sydney to Orange is wonderful.

First you go through the city with its colourful graffiti and spectacular Jacarandas in bloom.

Then you climb up into the Blue Mountains where the views are spectacular.

Below is Orange; a large town in the Central Tablelands District of New South Wales. Orange is nine hundred feet above sea level. Originally known as Blackman's Swamp 'Orange' was so named by Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell in honour of the Prince of Orange, who later became the King of Holland.

November and the next morning we woke to snow! Two days later it was warm and sunny.











I don't think I have ever seen so many lovely gardens in one town. No one seem to have any problem creating a colourful and healthy garden but this may be due to the soil. Twelve kilometres west of Orange is Mount Canobolas and millions of years ago this was a volcano; hence the good soil for hundreds of miles around Orange.

I haven't seen holly growing in Australia before!






Orange has a couple of dams for its water supply but is on strict water restrictions.

We went up to the top of Mount Canobolas and found some remains of the snow that had fallen two days previously. Not enough to make a snowman, unfortunately.

This is the picnic table at the top of the Mount and it was covered in lichen. I've only seen lichen growing in a temperature rainforest.

We went for an hour's bush walk and would have gone further except it was getting dark.

We spent a day in Canowindra (said: Canoundra) which is about 25mins drive from Orange. Back in the mid-fifties a chance discovery during road building revealed an extensive fossil bed dating back 360million years ago.

"From 12th to 22 July 1993 the original Canowindra fish site was excavated using the same Caboone Council excavator and driver. The project received full support of the Canowindra community - business people, farmers, truck drivers, teachers, students and local residents etc.
Results exceeded expectations! Some 70 tonnes of fossil slabs were recovered, some weighing more than 2 tonnes. The slabs, now stored in Canowindra on 100 pallets, contain over 3000 fish specimens. Almost all are complete and represent at least 6 specimens, some new to science."

"The recovery of these remarkable fossils is only part of the link of in a unique chain of events which began 360 million years ago when a large lake or river, with tens of thousands of fish living in it, dried up during a severe drought.
The fish tightly concentrated in a small area were rapidly but gently covered with sediment soon after death and before their bony scales and plates fell apart.
Buried deep underground, the sediment turned to rock until some 360 million years later, this unique record of mass-mortality event was brought to the surface again by natural erosion. This happened where a country road intersected the fossil layer, it was pushed aside by the bulldozer driver and then its significance recognised and reported by a sharp eyed apiarist.
One wonders how many other such finds are never seen or reported and are lost to science!"

We visited the "Age of Fishes" museum to see these wonderful plates.

Orange has some lovely parks, one of which was "Cook Park" dating back to the 1880's. They planted Sequoias and Oak which now tower above the park.

Are these really Buttercups?

And a beautiful old Oak Tree!!

From Sydney I flew to Melbourne to see Matt and his new house.

A proud man!

Walkies

When are we going walkies? Lucky old Woody is getting quite a few walks at the moment.

Not only are there still a huge amount of wild flowers blooming but there are orchids too.

Above - Cottonheads

Quite a few "bob tail lizards" about too.

Above - Looks reptilian but is in fact the remains of a grass tree (Xanthorea)

I still can't stop taking photos of these beautiful flowers!

Click on the images to see them up close.

Above - Coral Vine

Below - Little Pink Fairy Orchids

Below - Scented Sun Orchid
(Thelymitra Macrophylla)
These Sun Orchids are the reason Woody is getting extra walks.
We usually walk mornings and evenings and the Sun Orchids always seemed to be closed. So we went to look at them in the heat of the day and lo and behold the flowers were fully open. (Hence the name dummy!)


And this one is called Blue Lady Orchid
(Thelymitra Crinita)
We thought all the Cowslip orchids had finished but came across these.

Oh, and Woody made a couple of new friends. But he won't be seeing much of them. They are living at the bottom of the pond now.

They are gilgies, freshwater crayfish.

We'd gone looking for some tadpoles and came back with these.

(We haven't named them yet but one suggestion came up... Gill and Mike?)

Not sure how to attract frogs to our pond but had this idea.
We're going to put a sign up down at the local creek:

Come and view this beautifully landscaped pond:

• alfresco dining;


• multiple lilly pads provide extensive games area;


• three storey reeds with valley views;


• five small fish and two gilgies leasing at present but willing to share...

Be quick! Don't miss out on this one!

Back to the Beach

I am wondering where we're going.

For the last six months all the trips in the car have ended up at the vet's!

Not the park, not the beach, not friends' places - THE VET'S!

There, I had pins stuck in me, a Number One (short hair cut) on both back legs and dreadful things done to them!

And I'm SICK OF IT!

Yyyyyyyyyyyyesssss!

The BEACH ! At last!!!
I can dig holes without getting into trouble!


I can bark at absolutely NOTHING!
And best of all... I can get completely and utterly WET!

So many bums to sniff and so little time!

If she calls me I'm not coming! Throw that stick and I'll show you what a marvellous swimmer I am!

Mum couldn't take her eyes off me (understandably) and oops!

Didn't see that wave coming in .. two 'booties'.

Shoes, socks and jeans all wet and squelchy!

Very funny.

So that's it, eh?

It's all over, Rover.

Why can't we stay all day?

Why can't we live here?

I will make it quite plain that I am extremely unhappy, in a deep deep depression and only a really lovely treat will cheer me up.

I'm tired and depressed - LIFT ME into the car please.