Christmas 2024

 Christmas 2024 

Fairly quiet Christmas this year, Amy was no feeling very well.  We did get the dogs some Christmas outfits. Lucy wasn't very happy about being dressed up, Hugo just took it in his stride. Here is Hugo as a Christmas Elf- super cute! That ended up being Lucy's outfit and Hugo was Father Christmas.

This year in Canberra, our church was sponsoring the Giving Machines, it was the first time they had been in Canberra. I did a shift at the Canberra Centre on the first day it was opened on November 28th. It was pretty quiet, people getting used to the idea. It was a chance to donate to some local charities.

 

On Amy's birthday, we headed over to Bindi's and decorated Gingerbread Houses with the Sarah McCallister and her girls and Tara and Anna Scott. Poor Amy was not well, but just glad to be out and being distracted. Didn't get many photos unfortunately. 

We headed over to Bindi's on Christmas Day for lunch and had a lovely day. We were supposed to have Abby and Lachlan over on Boxing Day but they had COVID, so that happened a couple of weeks later.

 On the 27th December, I went up to Sydney temple with Bindi, I was doing my first shift as a temple worker. My brother Kim and his wife Fil, were up from Melbourne, we caught up with them at the temple and then for dinner at Castle Hill. Saturday 28th November was the day for my first shift at the temple but also 60 years since our family was sealed in the New Zealand temple. Was lovely to be at the temple to mark that occasion. 

We got to see the Christmas lights at the temple, they were lovely.

The Shell House

 With the passing of my mum, the Shell House that was passed from Grandma Nelson to mum, came to me and will be passed on to Amy. The shell house is well over 100 years old, and was made by relatives in our family- the Shipley's. Gary brought it up from Melbourne for me on the Melbourne Cup Day weekend when he and his family came to Canberra for a visit.

Have set it up in the lounge room, and decorated up the cabinet for Christmas.

One of the other things I acquired from my mum was this portrait that was painted of her, when she was 3 years old, by a traveling artist. I have it up on the wall in the lounge room as well. There is also a framed picture of me at a similar age, that shows the similarity between us.

November and December

 Trying hard to update my blog and slowly getting there! Some of my adventures from November and December.

Having had a bit of a space theme with our trip to the Warrumbungles- visiting the Parkes and Siding Springs telescopes, I decided the Tuesday Girls needed to visit the site of the tracking station at Honeysuckle Creek. Kerrie and Deb had never been and it had been a while since I had been.
Naas Valley at the Apollo Road turn off was looking lovely and green following recent rain.

The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station is no longer there, but a few years back they put up signage to commemorate the significance of the area. The forecast was for a hot day but up at Honeysuckle Creek it was cold and misty so we needed our jumpers.

I was reminded what a lovely spot it is. I have ridden my bike up a few times over the years but haven't done any walking so enjoyed a walk through the bush.

There were still a variety of wildflowers to be seen.

For my birthday a few friends went out for lunch at Les Bistronomes at Campbell for lunch. We enjoyed a very yummy lunch.

Another Tuesday Girls adventure took us into the National Gallery where we got to see the new "Ouroboris" which was recently installed.

View from the inside

And from the outside

Always love seeing the Pear sculpture

 And this is the Within Without art installation.

From without

And within

We really do live in a beautiful city with things so easy to get to.

I recently went up to Guthega in the Snowy Mountains with Bill for an Astronomy weekend at the Brindabella Ski Lodge. Unfortunately it rained all Friday night and Saturday, and so the telescopes never left the van. They did do some talks on the Saturday, Bill did a talk in the morning on an Introduction to Astronomy and another CAS member did one in the afternoon on an Introduction to Astro Photography. Was interesting to see Bill in Astronomy mode- quite different to what he is at home. He was in his element talking about the stars!

I did manage to get out for a 5km walk Saturday afternoon. It looked like it had stopped raining, so I headed out, it did shower on and off but I had my umbrella and rain jacket. It was lovely getting out after being cooped up all day. Mountain country is just something special. This was quite the suspension bridge, one person at a time!

This was the Snowy River, not to far from its source.

Heading Back to Canberra

 We left Mudgee early as heavy rain was predicted throughout the day, fortunately it didn't really eventuate till we were nearly home. The countryside was lovely and green.

On our way to Bathurst

After Bathurst we headed the back way towards Crookwell through lots of little towns. We stopped off at Tuena when we spotted this community café in the local hall. Friendly locals with some yummy home made cakes and slices we needed to sample. Picked up some local eggs and jams as well.

 Then a short stop at Crookwell before heading on to Gunning where we had our final stop before heading home to Canberra.

Good to be home after our Warrumbungles adventure- where too next time is the next question!

Mudgee

 We left Coonabarabran on Thursday morning  heading to Mudgee. It was interesting going home a different way, going on roads I had never travelled on before and visiting towns that were just names on a map. We headed through Binnaway and then onto Coolah. The countryside was green and lovely.

We stopped off at Coolah for morning tea then headed towards Mudgee.

We stopped off to do "The Drip" walk, it was just lovely, green and lush, we walked along the track with the cliffs on one side and the Goulburn River on the other side. At various points  you could hear the water dripping off the side of the cliff- thus the name- The Drip.

 Very picturesque and one of the nicest short walks I have done. Then it was on to Mudgee where we are staying the night.

 First stop was the Mudgee Honey Haven for lunch and some shopping. Everything honey you could think of. The honey ice-cream was just delicious. Lots of different types of honey to taste.

Then it was the High Valley Cheese Co where we enjoyed a cheese tasting. We tried 5 different feta cheeses and other cheeses they hand make, it was hard to decide what to buy!

We settled into our motel and went for a self guided tour of the beautiful buildings around Mudgee.

This is the Post and Telegraph Office built in the 1860's.

This was an old bank.

The Town Hall, now the library.

Another old bank now a solicitors office

One of Mudgee's many churches.

Mudgee really is a very pretty town.