Weekend

I had all of my children home on the weekend and a few extras to celebrate my middle son David's birthday on Saturday .It was nice to have them all here as it rarely happens now they are all grown up and leading their own lives.  At the moment they are all not too far away so I get to see them a little bit more than I used to.

 Sunday while they were all sleeping, we headed out to get yet another load of wood. It was such a nice morning to be out although a couple of hours more sleep would have been nice.

 I remembered to take my camera with me and had a chance to go for a wander and have a look around. I haven't been up the back of our friends farm before and there were some amazing views from the hills on either side of the gully we were cutting the wood in
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 It was a contrast looking through the Australian landscape to see the English trees in the background with their Autumn colours.

The fog has started early this year although Sunday morning it was only around the hills. We have already had a couple of days this week where the fog is so thick it has been nearly impossible to find our drive.

 There were signs of the past on the top of the hill with part of an old post and rail fence still standing.

And an old telephone insulator that had been used for an electric fence. Signs of the make do attitude that farmers developed in the past when money was tight.
Sunday night I went and had dinner with my Sister in law as my brother was away fishing. She whipped up  a beautiful prawn curry and  a salad from Jamie Oliver's cookbook. Steph is an amazing cook and it was an absolutely delicious meal.

While I type this post Dave is out splitting the wood we brought home and finding all manner of insects and spiders under the bark. He isn't very impressed at all. There are so many Huntsmen Spiders living under the bark that I was wary when loading the wood on Sunday and if I had of known about the massive centipede that he just found I would probably have stopped picking it up and throwing it in the trailer.
At least we are getting a full woodshed because I think we are going to need all the wood we can get.

Days until or days of?

I was getting the washing off the line yesterday afternoon when I heard something that I rarely hear at my house. Black Cockatoos.  The number of Black Cockatoos you see is how many days until it rains or how many days it will rain, I can never remember which one it is but if someone does know, please tell me.  There were 7 of them flying and squawking and as they passed over one of them turned around and landed in a gum tree at the back of the house while the others kept flying. He kept calling out and I wondered what on earth was going on until four more Cockatoos appeared. The one in the tree flew to meet them and led them in the direction the other birds had gone. I was fascinated. I have no idea if the slow ones were the young of the flock or the old ones but it was nice to see they weren't being left behind. Of course while I was standing there watching all of this I missed the opportunity to take a photo. Why do these things happen when you don't have a camera in your hand?
Today I have to make a birthday cake for middle son who turns 23 today. I know all the boys will be here and probably a few of their mates as well so it will be a busy day.
Autumn has settled in, the leaves are falling and the nights are very cold. This morning my neighbour dropped the paper off and said the fog was so thick he nearly missed my drive. Looks like a long cold Winter here this year.

My long weekend

I hitched a ride with my niece on Thursday to Bermagui where my sister (her Mum) was camping. We were supposed to have the weekend there but the weather came in rough and we decided to pack up and go back to their place at Mogo. Before we left we went for a walk, the ocean was pretty quiet for a while but came up rough later in the day. It put a stop to my ride in the boat out to Montague Island.

The Blue Pools were awash with massive waves.

When we were little we camped at Bermagui every May school holidays for two weeks. There are many happy memories of this little seaside town which hasn't really changed all that much over the years.

Yesterday we went for a long walk on the beach because as usual, the day we were leaving the weather was absolutely beautiful although the sea was still very rough. 

I had a really good weekend with my Sister and her family though. We had lots of meals out, poked around some lovely little shops in Cobargo, Bermaguii and Batemans Bay and even managed to visit a couple of Op Shops along the way.

Dinner and dancing to an excellent band until the wee hours on Saturday night was fun and apparently I am going back mid May when the band plays again.