It's Good to be back!
After a gap of some 5 months it's hard to know where to start.
There's been lots of kayaking, some visits to Sydney, a lot of gardening, Christmas, reunions, bushwalks, New Year and Australia Day celebrations, birthdays but not much travel other than the S.Coast after Christmas with the family.
There's been a couple of 'sporting ' incidents.....
Mary had a wisdom tooth extracted today as out patient at hospital and is right now recovering on a lounge in the sunroom. She also faces (week pun) removal of a Bcc on her cheek, by a plastic surgeon in a week or so.
Our choir and band activities continue as do our French cultural activities, revolving around films, food, conversation and visitors and the local now bilingual school expands every year. We may even get the French submarines after AUKUS if 'he-who-cannot-be-named' from USA keeps acting the way he does !?
Our post Christmas Mollymook beach holiday with Mary wearing new snorkel, (sea monster look)a massive jigsaw completed largely by Louis and Max and a friendly manta ray at the beach (sting long gone!) Also the route of a short tropical forest walk
Louis has started sailing in earnest, competitively too but jumped on a jagged oyster shell at a Christmas sailing party and had to have an operation. Kayaking under overhanging mangroves. Bushwalk with Cub scouts to a very attractive pool I'd always wanted to see in the Royal national Park and a bushwalk sign from Mollymook area. Pond lilies and gladiola from garden
Very big monitor lizard near our picnic in the local 'park' (primal wilderness forest) Max painted the old garden cat on the patio and also pruned the pansies for me. Emu in an Aboriginal owned and managed secret creek, plus genuine ancient hand prints and a visit to the 'lost city' of sandstone pagodas in the blue Mountains, currently under threat of new underground coal mining operations - new coal mines? --EEeek! The robots pic taken from an otherwise serious historical magazine in the Blue Mountains, showing their 'committee' at work . Very clever/funny I thought.Then an Amarylis Belladonna (Naked Lady) from the garden
The weirdest art display ever -huge ex-WWII concrete oil storage tank in central sydney converted to a -well--by a professional structural engineer with an art degree into an indescribable display of working 'junk' items-- a real stainless steel steam room,converted from a milk pasteuriser a workimg sauna from an old shed, working recovered washing machines and dryers, a huge steel road plate converted to several barbeques , a cottage for resident artist, lights made from empty 1000litre chemical cubes and so much more --people spend all day there. It's in the museum of contemporary art.
Slight 'sports injury on concrete at a reunion (very embarrassing) fortunately or not, our retired was there. , kayaking under Gladesville Bridge in central Sydney on Good Friday, Louis 'chained up' at Easter at Al and Craig's place and family on couch, Michael with Lachie and Harry , Jess (now Mr's Bancroft and professional lawyer) , Louis and Max. Finally me with cousin John near Newcastle (NSW) and me in a another sporting accident, being 'rescued' in a somewhat remote location with Probus hike group (extremely embarassing) as there was nothing much wrong when I tripped except a bruised shoulder, but they called Emergency anyway. We had another GP with us this time as well. There's a pattern here somewhere.....
