Still Hanging Out with the Wrong People- Cycling to Yass

I  haven't learnt, still hanging out with the wrong people- about two weeks ago on the last Wednesday in April on a beautiful autumn day, 4 degrees to 24 degrees with no wind, I rode from Stromlo Forest Park to Yass and return via Fairlight and Mountain Creek Road. It was just wonderful weather, we headed to Yass, took a break at the Murrimbidgee, where some of the less crazy ones turned around, but 6 fool hardy souls headed onto Yass. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Roses Cafe before riding back to Canberra on the same route. Very little traffic, quite a few hills on the way back though! Left at 8am, home about 4pm, a total of 140km. Was a great day out, was rather tired at the end of the day though as I have only been riding 60 to 70km, so 140km was a bit of a jump, but well worth the effort.

 There were some lovely views along the Murrumbidgee corridor

Amy Cooks and the Birds Clean Up

Amy has been doing lots of cooking of late. Last week she made French Onion Soup. It was a fair bit of work and cutting up the onions made her cry lots. I was a bit worried that all that effort and the soup might not be worth it but it turned out really well and was very yummy.

The Eclectus parrots have taken to joining us for dinner. We dish a little bit up of what we are having on a saucer and they happily eat away. Ziggy is a bit of a rat bag at dinner time so he has to stay in the cage, but as you can see afterwards they love to help clean up the plates!

Rogue Sunflowers

It has been ages since I have posted in my blog. Since being called as Relief Society President at Church I have been rather busy and my time is filled doing stuff that isn't really worth photographing and finding the time to do my blog has been a bit of an issue. So I am in catch up mode!

These pictures of the sunflowers are pretty hopeless, but we have had a number of of sunflowers come up on their own. This week we have had some beautiful autumn weather, cool starts but lovely sunny days, I just wanted to get a couple of shots before the really cold weather comes.

Good Friday Easter Picnic

We had our usual Good Friday Easter Picnic with family and friends and had a lovely time as usual. It will be the last one for three years with Bindi and Simon as they head to Dublin in June. The weather was a bit threatening, we had rain on the way in but it stopped and held off so we had the usual bacon and egg rolls cooked by Simon with Charlie as assistant cook this year. We had hot cross buns, juice and fruit. Soon it was time for the Easter Egg hunt- Lennox Gardens has just the perfect places to hide Easter Eggs. Then we had the Easter Egg throw which always provides us with lots of laughs. I couldn't be bothered dyeing eggs this year so took along markers and everyone had great fun decorating their own eggs. A great time was had by all.

  Bindi and I

 Decorating the eggs

 Getting ready for the egg hunting

 Looking for eggs- big kids and little kids.

Molonglo Gorge Walk

On Easter Saturday Bill and I went for a walk with a couple of friends out at Molonglo Gorge. It was a lovely day for a walk and it was a walk I had been meaning to do for a while so was nice to do something different.

Garden Shed- Lachlan's Project- Part 1

While Lachlan is between jobs he has been doing little projects around the house for me. One of the main ones was cleaning out the garage and sorting out his stuff which finally after about 2 years us almost done. He decided last week that a little garden shed out the back against the garage wall would be a good spot to put all the garden tools and lawnmower, thus freeing up more space for him in the garage! Bill had been thinking about this as well so we gave Lachlan the go ahead. He sorted out exactly what we needed, though it was a small shed we needed to put down a concrete base, so off to Bunnings Lachlan and I went last Wednesday- me with the credit card and Lachlan with the list of supplies needed! Couple of hours later we returned with the necessary ingredients. Saturday he dug out the area, Sunday he prepared the slab area, Monday he borrowed our next door neighbours concrete mixer- that was lucky and with Bill as his concrete labourer and Luna as the overall supervisor the project has begun- he seemed to know exactly what he needed to do, most impressive.

Birds, Birds, Birds!

 I have decided that Ziggy the Macaw might be the closest thing I get to a grandchild for many years to come! He is very tame, you can turn him over and lie him on his back. Here I was cradling him like a baby and holding onto his claw, he just loves the attention. Beau decided to have a look as well, he normally keeps well clear of Ziggy. Ziggy is like a little toddler, needs to be closely supervised while out of his cage and given toys to play with. He can crack a walnut in a few seconds now and that keeps him occupied for about 10 minutes eating it.

 Each day Bill puts out the old bird seed from our birds cages onto a tray out in the yard and we get lots of galahs, sulphur crested cockatoos and the occasional Rosella in to check out the seed. These are some young galahs- they continually squawk at their parents to feed them- the poor parents. It is lovely to watch the collection of birds that come through our yard.