Lorne for our 29th Wedding Anniversary

Bill and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks back so last weekend we went down to Lorne on the start of the Great Ocean Road. We flew to Melbourne ( had picked up cheap tickets on a Virgin Sale) and hired a car. It was a two hour drive down to Lorne and an easy drive out of Melbourne on the freeways and ring roads. It really is a lovely part of the world.

On Friday afternoon we went for a lovely walk up to Teddy's Lookout which gave us this lovely view down the coast. We headed down the hill and back into Lorne, met up with some very tame sulphur crested cockatoos- bit to tame for their own benefit I suspect.

Panorama shot of Lorne Beach- I much prefer beaches in winter, not so many people!

On Saturday we went for a drive down towards Apollo Bay before heading up into the hinterland and the Otway Ranges. Lots of lovely little walks and waterfalls and tree ferns. This is part of Sheok Falls.

We came across a walk to Lake Elizabeth up near Forrest in the Otways. Lake Elizabeth was formed back in the 1950's when after a heavy rain period the river bank collapsed and formed the lake. It was a lovely walk with all the tree ferns and tall trees.

We had a lovely break away and enjoyed the 10 degrees on the beach on Sunday morning in the sun sipping my turmeric latte when it was minus 6 and foggy back in Canberra!

Bird Defence Techniques

With 4 parrots flying around the house I have had to adopt a few bird defence techniques. We have spay bottles with water at various locations around the house - just showing Ziggy the bottle now is enough to get him to move on or move off or leave me alone!

Finally discovered something to keep Ziggy and Zoe off the fridge- some pipe lagging with icecream sticks sticking out of it- not quite as drastic as barbed wire!

The chook, tea pot and chopping board protect the apple bowl, otherwise Ziggy will take a bite out of each apple!

This pig keeps Ziggy away from the coffee maker!

Here is Zoe on Amy's hat stand, she kept herself entertained chewing an old bottle top for a good hour or so!

Chris

Chris and Siobhan James came down to visit us a few weeks ago. These are the Sydney cousins, they were married back in November last year and Lachlan was one of the groomsman and we all went to the wedding. We had a lovely time visiting with them. Lachlan and Amy played some Zombie game with them over the weekend a number of times.

On the Friday I took them for a drive, took them up to the Abouretum, then across to Mt Ainslie, then we visited the High Court and finished off at Old Parliament House and saw the "Behind the Lines' Exhibition which is the best of the political cartoons of 2016.

Chris and Siobhan at the Arboretum

Chris saying hello to Ziggy- or is it Zoe- still not sure!

In Training for our Walking Holiday

In November Bill and I are off to the North Island of New Zealand to do a three day walk in Tongariro National Park, so we have started going for walks on Saturday morning, so far just walking from home- we are lucky to have places from our front door to head too. Below is Stranger Pond in  Bonython, we walked in along the Murrimbidgee then home around Stranger Pond. It was a frosty morning but we left about 10am and enjoyed the lovely sunshine.

Then a couple of weeks later we headed up to the back of Gordon and walked along a path that runs along the back of Gordon with lovely views over the Lanyon Valley.

Luna comes with us on some of the walks- it tires her out for an hour or two when we get home!