Deleting photos..

Thought I'd post some photos before I delete them to hopefully free up space and speed my computer up.

The story behind the skink eating cake picture is quite funny, I think. Annie and I were going for a day hike in the Blue Mountains and being girls that like cake we first went to the bakery and bought a cake that was so full of butter and sugar it weighed an astonishing amount for its size. We set off and walked and walked in this beautiful park and eventually sat down for lunch (obviously this is the abbreviated version..) and were joined by a large skink. For lunch we had fruit and salad sandwiches and the cake we'd packed in my bag to savor later. The skink "walked" right up to my bag, by-passing spilled grated carrots and our apple cords (to be disposed of later in a proper manner of course) and set about climbing it, got inside and started tearing at the paper bag that the cake was in. The skink was in a state likening that of a lady at pms time suffering from chocolate withdrawals. So we gave in a gave him a bit of cake which he devoured ferociously and Annie and I were sure he'd die, if not of choking, then from the effects of the unhealthy snack he'd just had (might well have been a her of course). Anyway, who would have thought that skinks also liked cake more that salad sandwiches and fruit??!

Here are a couple more pictures from that hike, a waterfall from below, cool and refreshing on a hot day.

Here's one of a weird bunch of grubs.. Tightknit whatever they are (hardy-har-har I'm so clever).

This hike started not far out of Katoomba and, as is seen on this next picture, was full of beautiful scenery!

On another occasion when we rented a house in Barrington Tops we found this little green tree frog in the toilet.

And when we were camping at Gloucester Tops we had a nice visitor change (nice change from the leeches!!!) in this small, pesky possum.

Garden update

My vege patch has gone crazy, or at least parts of it. Apparently the turnips and the brussel sprouts don't grow very well in this hot climate but the baby corn, squash, silver beet and rocket has gone mad! To think this is just 6 weeks since I posted the pre-plant picture.

My scare crow is looking worse for wear but is still hanging in there.

The other day I was invited by Jacqueline and her brother Daniel to lunch at their cubby house and even the "hairy" chook made an appearance.

I just had to put in this picture, it's so good!

New Years Eve 2009

John and I actually felt like adults on New Year's Eve when we attended a party at Lake Macquarie where everyone but us had kids! Welcome to the 30s and 40s. There were kids running around with glow sticks, toys all over the place and baby monitors galore.

The house was just beautifully located overlooking the lake. Unfortunately all the fire works were held just behind the hills you can see in the distance so when the kids lined up for the 9 pm fire works all they saw was a faint glow of colour on the night sky, just above that hill..

The glow stick bracelets, necklaces and star wars wands made up for the lack of pyrotechnics though.

The theme was black and silver for adults and this was my get-up (yee-hah!). For silver I had tinsel in my hair.

and Johnbob..

HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL!

Part two of our Kanangra adventure

That afternoon we got a wild thunderstorm and rain so it was really nice to have a bonfire to chill out around. I slept in a bivy and it wasn't actually too bad getting in and out of it in the rain and I didn't get wet at all! Haha, didn't really have faith until I tried it out.

On the third day we got up really early (6 am) as it turned into another beautiful day and we wanted to get our 800 metre ascent over and done with before it got too hot out. First we had to cross the river again and then we set off on a vague trail up the ridge of the mountain side.

This is the incredible view we got half-way to the top. Below is the Kowmung river we crossed so many times.

And this is us having a sweaty rest not long after.

Here's another incredible view from the top;

When we finally reached the top and the car park again we decided to throw our bags and go to a waterfall that we had seen across the valley. The water was absolutely beautiful and here we are in the refreshingly cold water.

On our way back up from the waterfalls we are met by a couple that ask if we are the owners of a silver Hyundai.. "the police is looking for the owners of that car" they told us pointing to the helicopters that flew overhead.

"No, we have a blue car" I replied. Turned out that we did have a silver car (that goes to show how much I pay attention) and the police was in fact looking for "us". Or at least for the two girls that I travelled with. The choppers however were not for them, it was just the National Parks one, doing it's rounds or whatever it is they do.

What had happened was a man had found the car unlocked with the windows down (the seats were wet as it had rained the night before) with all our valuables inside and thought that someone must have gone for a day hike and not made it back. Thus he called the police who had gone through our phones and called the boyfriend of one of the girls. The police was told by the boyfriend that we were used to hiking and not expected back until 'today' anyway so maybe the search party should be held off for a while. The police had told him that a lot of things could happen to trekkers including flash floods due to storms like the one we had the night before among other things. Not surprisingly he was most anxious to hear from Gen as soon as we got back. What an adventure!

Kanangra-Boyd Natinal Park three day navigational trek

It took us about three and a half hours to get to Kanangra walls from Sydney. Almost hit what I think was a common barn owl on the way over. He was just sitting in the middle of the road, didn't even move as we swirved around him.

There were 8 of us going on the trek. Five of us experienced and 3 not so used to hiking.

We meant to set off early in the morning on Boxing day but of course got delayed and started the trail around 11 am when the sun was high and it was starting to get pretty hot.

This is Kanangra walls overlooking Kanangra creek.

On the first day we managed to get lost three times and the trek that was supposed to take 4-5 hours took 8! We had a GPS with us that the owner was reluctant to turn on, the maps were to be kept inside the packs and only the photocopied ones were to be used even thought they had sections missing that we could only see on the original ones and we were told navigation is not about knowing where you are "it's about knowing in which general direction you are going". Haha, it was funny in a frustrating way. The books we were using were probably 2-3 years old and the trail that we had planned to take was no longer in use. The trail was blocked off by branches and sticks and it was probably obvious to many but not so to us. I mentioned that I thought the trail might be closed but since we weren't sure we tried it anyway... only to lose our way and being forced to turn back.

We tried another trail and walked north for an hour before stopping to argue about the way again as we were supposed to have walked that last hour in an Easterly direction. As it turned out, we had missed second top, our turn-off point and made it all the way to third top, way off our maps. After much discussion we finally turned back and eventually seemed to be on the right track. Here the descent to the river was approximately 800 metres in elevation and along very steep, slippery sections.

Having run out of water and with very sore feet we were extremely happy to reach the Kowmung river. Here's Genvieve and Annie as they are crossing the river to get to the camp.

It was absolutely beautiful in the water. As soon as we had crossed I was in, having a well-earnt and much needed "wash".

The bonfire that night was very nice for chilling out around.

The next day we had to trek 3 kilometres along the river to get to our next camp. That hike took us about 3 hours. We had to cross the river many times along the way when the vegetation became unpenetrable. The trick was finding a place suitable for a crossing as many places were too deep or the current too strong.

On the path we saw a redbellied black snake,

and a beautiful goanna. We also saw wallabies and water dragons and river trout.

Gingerbread houses in the making

I didn't have much to contribute when it came to Christmas dinner so I thought I'd make a couple of gingerbread houses.

I gave one to Dorothy and Ivan and kept the one with the most MnM's for John's nephews.

Unfortunately the climate here doesn't treat pepparkakshus well. The icing got mixed with the sugar (used for glueing the sides together) and made it brown in colour. Kind of like dirty snow..

After dinner I hopped on the train to Sydney as I was meeting Annie and her friend at Central station and then driving to Kanangra walls to go hiking in the Blue Mounatins for three days.

Melbourne

Khay and I left Sydney and drove via the Hume highway to Yackandandah where I stayed at a friend's house. Here Khay and I are in Gunning...

This is Cath in Yack and her dog Chants (I think that's the name of the dog..)

Stayed with Mel and Dan in Preston for a few days and went for a party in Ballarat one night. Don't have any photos from Melbie at all.

It was great to see my friends again, even caught up with Linda over coffee on Glenferrie. How I miss living in Hawthy!