Dublin CIty

Today we went to the movies! We went to an Australian Embassy Screening of Ladies in Black-which was a great movie! Then we spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Dublin. It started off a damp drizzly morning then it cleared to a cool but sunny day.

 City Hall

Dublin Castle

 GPO

Glendalough , County Wicklow

Later that afternoon, Bill and I headed down to Wicklow County with Bindi, Simon and Charlie. We went to Glendalough where we wandered through the ruins of a 12th century monastic village then walked around the lake. Beautiful countryside and lovely weather.

Liffey River and Irish War Memorial Gardens

Have arrived safely in Dublin, it sure is a long flight from home! On Saturday we headed out with Simon who had some diplomatic duties at a women's AFL footy game. While he was doing that, Bill and I enjoyed a walk along the Liffey river and a wander through the lovely gardens at the Irish War Memorial. It was a lovely autumn sunny day.

Wattle Trees in Bloom

Not many photos to post on my blog  for the last few weeks, but here are two. It is now spring and the wattle trees are in bloom, I love that time each year when our driveway is a tunnel of yellow. Not to good for the hay-fever sufferers in our family! The magpies have started to swoop while out riding as well- so you know spring is on its way. 

Can you guess what this is? Yes it is the insert from my slow cooker soaking in a tub of water that filled up out near the carport after the rain. I was putting my bike in the car to go for a ride and noticed it there, I had used the slow cooker the night before and someone was soaking it overnight- drought saving measures are in operation at our house- have been ever since the last drought 7 years ago- we will have water buckets in our showers! 

Batemans Bay to Merimbula

Amy accompanied me on my trip down to Merimbula, we went via Batemans Bay and spent the night there on Friday night. Saturday morning we headed south. First stop was the Moruya Markets which we enjoyed wandering around and a few  purchases. It was very windy with some gusts blowing down some of the stalls. We then headed down to Bodalla and called in at the dairy, where we had some cheese and icecream tastings.

Bodalla is only a small town but it had this lovely church on top of the hill.

 This tree was in the grounds of the church  not quite sure what sort of tree it was but it was worth a photo.

 Next stop was Narooma where we did a boardwalk around the coastline.

Then it was on to Central Tilba where we found another cheese factory and some lovely shops to explore.

 Our final stop was Tilba Tilba at a lovely little French Cafe for some afternoon tea before heading to Merimbula our stop for the night. The sky out over the sea had all these amazing clouds and shades of dark and light.

Driving in the Snow

I was down in Merimbula on Sunday visiting the branch of our church down there. Amy had come with me, we had a little mini road trip, heading down to Batemans Bay after work on Friday, then on the Saturday taking a leisurely drive down the South Coast to Merimbula where we stayed the night. On Sunday morning I went to church then Amy and I headed home to Canberra. We set off and as we neared Brown Mountain we could spot the fires that were burning out past Bemboka to our right and then to our left we could see this massive white cloud over the mountain which we figured was snow. After we reached the top of Brown Mountain it started snowing and snowed for about 50 minutes as we drove to Nimmitabel and Cooma.

It was real snow and as you can see was settling on the ground.  Amy was most excited and we had to stop a couple of times and take some photos.

We took it very carefully, there was a bit of traffic on the road so the snow wasn't settling on the road and we felt quite safe. We stopped at the little roadside park at Nimmitabel so Amy could get out and play in the snow- like lots of other kids were doing along the way. We saw a snow plough heading towards Brown Mountain as we drove through Nimmitabel- it was a magic experience and Amy had a big grin on her face as you can see!

Random Photos

Someone asked the other day how the birds and dogs got on- I had to show them this photo. Luna was relaxing most elegantly in the kitchen, right in the way as usual. Amy threw Beau down and he landed on Luna, and just sat there for about 5 minutes- neither of them were phased by it so I think that answers the question!

Beau flies around the house, usually sticking his beak into everyone's business and he often pays the price with Amy putting him in all sorts of tricky spots- this is just one of them!

 Here Budgie and Hawk are helping Bill mix up his cereal and sampling it for quality control!

I have never seen a platypus in the wild but spotted one for the first time on Saturday morning in this pond below. There is no picture but had to take a photo of the place. I was most excited and it was 15 minutes from home!