Lots of Green Waste

The last week or so we have had lots of windy weather, we lost a branch on the big wattle tree out the back. It was just hanging down for a few days and then with the three days of southerly winds this week came completely off! A month or two back the men from church came around and helped fix our fence and did a lot of pruning back around the back for us. I had just finished a couple of Saturday's of taking the cuttings to the green waste drop off at the tip. Now after getting our roof done, gutters cleaned and trees around the roof trimmed it looks like I have a few more Saturdays of similar journeys! Amy was put to work cutting the branches to fit in the back of the hilux, I would load up and off I went- got three loads in on Saturday till the rain stopped me.

Alexandrine Parrots and Lyra the Eclectus

 Lily and Bach- Bill's Alexandrine Parrots. Bach is  pretty good around people but Lily is still very timid and jumpy. On the weekends or at night Bill opens up the top of the cage and the climb out and sit on the top. They are reluctant to fly around the room and will only do if we force the issue.

Here is Lyra sitting on top of their cage, we usually bring Lyra and Beau out at night into the family room and put all four birds in together. Lyra and Beau love it not so sure what Lily and Bach think! Lyra and particularly Beua just love the parrot seed we feed Lily and Bach so they spend most of the time eating that- they normaly have pellets along with their cut up fruit and veggies. Beau now imitates the Alexandrines and calls out to them from his room and they call back!

A nice shot of Lily and Bach- the little girl next door came up with the name Lily and Bill came up with Bach after Johan Sebastian Bach the composer!

Quick Trip to Sydney

Went up to Sydney with a couple of the girls from church, we drove up Friday morning and went to the temple, then stayed at the accommodation in Carlingford. After checking into our room and dropping off our bags, we headed to Carlingford Court for a late lunch. Then it was into the city for the rest of the afternoon. We parked at Darling Harbour and wandered around, visited the Lindt Cafe at Darling Harbour where hot chocolates and Iced Chocolates were the go. We were there for quite a while just listening to the music and the venue next door and enjoying the atmosphere. We wandered down to China Town and eventually found the night markets.

Saturday morning it was off to Ikea- I think this was possibly the highlight for Tara and Haley. I love the market place- can't wait till we get Ikea in Canberra- about 6 months away! Once the blue truck was loaded up with all their furniture we headed back down the Hume to Canberra- we had a great time away.

Birds, Parrots, Dogs!

 Bach- the Alexandrine Parrot has ventured out his cage

 Lyra hanging around on Amy's shoulder

 This was a break through- Bach on Amy's hand. Both Lilly and Bach are rather shy and wary of people, so he is getting used to us slowly.

 Luna and Jack outside enjoying a bit of sunshine.

Hard life for some dogs!

This is Lily- she is a bit harder to get a photo off as she is quite nervy when we come near .

Good Friday Easter Picnic

We had our traditional Good Friday Easter Picnic down at Lennox Gardens with Bindi and Simon and kids and again had a lovely morning.The weather was overcast and cool but didn't stop us having a good time.

Amy and I painted the eggs the night before- not very well but had fun and made a mess. The glitter eggs were popular with the girls and easy to do- painted with glue and rolled in the glitter!

Plenty of eggs for the Easter Egg hunt and below Simon finding tricky spots for the big kids to find!

 Lachlan gets to be one of the helpers hide the eggs an Bill as well!

 Bindi hiding her eggs

 Greg and Hayden getting ready for the hunt! Hayden has autism and I teach him for Primary at church, he seemed to really enjoy himself this year. Picked up some eggs but was also putting them back! His sister Anna below had great fun collecting the eggs and stole Hayden's eggs at the end- he didn't mind at all!

 Kids lined up to start the egg hunt. The youngest get to go first and get a head start!

 Amy brought Lyra along to the picnic and she had fun sitting in Amy's egg basket- it looked very cute!

 The other side of the Japanese Gardens the Chinese have built a garden so the area looks lovely and a great place for a picnic.

Lyra enjoyed the attention, she did get a bit cool and at one stage Amy had to cuddle her in a towel to help warm  her up.