Burning Palms walk and Jacqui's birthday

The family (but unfortunately Michael and Kris not available) arranged to do this walk on Oct 26, which Jacqui had chosen as a birthday bush walk. The walk is from a location in the Royal National Park down a scarp slope, to the sea, at a place called Burning Palms,

Visit to Steelworks

Today our Probus club had arranged a visit to Port Kembla blast furnaces where most of Australia's steel is made from iron ore and coking coal. The sight of the blast furnace was stunning-like a volcano with the slag from the reaction at 1450 Deg C running

Sydney Museum

Michael, Kris and boys came down to Manly for a couple of nights and we met them at the Museum. Many sections have been refurbished in a very creative and interactive way. Also in a very 'solid' way so that specimens couldn't be accidentally knocked - so

Jess and Aidan's wedding September 6th

This was held in a dedicated open area inside Centennial Park in central Sydney . It was a bright, sunny, windy  day and Jess and Aidan had arranged everything for family and friends. Jess' brother Toby even came back from a European holiday for a few days, to be there.

Birthday party weekend

The same weekend as the wedding, we held a lunch at Home for all the family on the Sunday . it was all prepared by Kris, who made it all very attractive. Jacqui provided the cake, her speciality, and the whole lot was enjoyed by everybody. Fortunately, the weather proved well

Big week for celebrations.

In the same week that we celebrated grandson Harry's first birthday , we also celebrated granddaughter Jessica becoming recognised by the High Court as a lawyer. 25 year gap between cousins. As if that wasn't enough--Jess held a Bridal shower for wedding in September!

Mary's very significant birthday!

Hosted by Alison and Craig, we were joined by all three other sibling families and grandchildren and second and third cousins. The first cousins were invited but as well as a small accident in the garden, the weather for the journey from the mountains was horrendous. It was also pretty

Bastille Day

Trouble withpictures

Back walking

Finally , Saturday, able to don walking boots, grab poles and march off into national park tracks! Starting in a gentle way at nearby Kurnell, in history as the place where Captain Cook's ship Endeavor first landed and forced colonisation began. Some good tracks to a whale watching station.

Meals

We fare-welled a couple ( Anne- born in  NZ  and Olivier - born in France) from our French group at a posh-ish restaurant -they are spending a year in France and Europe .  Olivier has been our FASS President for a few years now and will be very much missed. Then

Kayak trip June 20

Rerouted from our initial plan we had our break on a 'spoil heap' in the local hacking river. This was created post war by 'Ten pound Poms' who first settled here in the 1950's. Builders dumped their excavated soil by barge, at this point

French Market 2025

A cloudy, windy, very cool day but mercifully dry until about 4.00pm. The event is organised by a local bilingual primary school (one of only three in NSW) that we helped get off the ground about five years ago. It's the school annual fair day. In spite