Visitors
Yesterday we visited Mary's favourite National Park site--Wattamolla, with Bella and Emma. Before we set off, Bella managed to catch a picture one of the Wattle birds that I feed at the front door, in full flight. The park is the oldest legislated National Park in the
Kayaking
A visit to Captain Cook's Landing place at Kurnell--the National Park. The next day (today) we made an evening visit to Swallow Rock at Grays point to teach kayaking and paddle-boarding. Both girls (really nervous!) did really well --never fell off or overturned, in spite of
Visitors
Two girls arrived from Sydney yesterday, looking forward to some 'non-hostel' accommodation by the sea. Bella has a distant cousin relationship to me and Emma is her friend. Here they arrive at Caringbah -looking relieved to have found the right station! We plan to teach them kayaking,
Home, Garden and Sydney
The pair of native Wattle-birds nested nearby again this year and here is one of their two young in the frangi panni tree.
Scouting
A large number of people from several scouting 'generations' attended an afternoon in the hall grounds to celebrate this event. The second pic is of this group of prior leaders and ladies Auxiliary members. The eldest person was 91-Ron-who gave a great speech. Another -Peter, demonstrated
Scouting
This annual District Scout and Guide event attracts almost 1000 members for a weekend of competitive camping, sailing, land races, Roman Ballista construction, paddle boarding, canoeing and wind-surfing, at a nearby beach.The scouts had a lot of fun! A major event is raft construction and decoration--the Guides
Kayaking
Friend Matt--ever hopeful to make a fisherman out of me--we arranged a paddle on a day forecast to be 34 Deg C. We set off from Tonkin Oval, Cronulla at 10.30am and were blown to Darook park, our intended fishing spot, a river cruise boat passing us
Kayaking
Ten days after return--I finally get on the water again, complete with sail, to start with. A short paddle towards Bonnievale -someone kindly took a pic of me on my camera (they came from Dartford!). The odd 'angle' of some shots show the effect of the wind
Home, Garden and Sydney
My efforts to introduce some variety and colour in the front garden, with a pond, have been rewarded again with this beautiful water Iris --which has three more buds on it. All the pond plants seem to have survived winter--plus the frog ! Waiting to see if any dragonfly larvae
Home, Garden and Sydney
On return from the UK we had one leaking toilet, which was repaired with a lot of frustration, a broken water heater, which was replaced -at considerable expense the same day--and a beehive in our compost heap! Lovely. Mary found a list of beekeepers who would collect them and
Family
Back home to brilliant weather here in Sydney, we must thank all of YOU for so many things these past 6 weeks. First thanks to Craig and the children for letting Alison come with us. To Matt and neighbour Kylie; Matt looking after our cars (I haven't looked
Family
Sydenham, where Jacqui and Tom live, is a restored inner southeast suburb, densely populated and very multicultural. I was amazed how quiet it was (for the number of people) and the lack of graffiti or rubbish. It was cleaner than Caringbah. My cousin Keith, living nearby, tells me there is