DURING THE WEEK . . .

HAD LUNCH with a few of the girls for julie's birthday on thursday.  the world's worst santa, small and slim in a huge santa suit pulled in with a tight belt,  accosted our table with offers of lollypops.  julie got smooched,  then he offer them around the table calling lisa 'grannie' and jan 'old mum'.   barb completely lost it and dissolved into tears of laughter and donnie was hiding in the ladies the whole time.   pretty funny

SATURDAY -  yesterday donnie picked me up and with martin we all drove out to wangumma.  it's such a gorgeous place, the old red brick homestead on a billabong, birds everywhere.  the weather was perfect, probably around 30 and breezy, we walked up to the river, martin found a reed warbler's nest, donnie and i played scrabble, i did a drawing,  martin and peter drove down to lake victoria and we just had a lovely relaxed day

a tree full of birds on the way, fabulous wedge tailed eagle on the left, crows and smaller hawk or falcon

 

glossy cows, an assortment the one in the middle decorated his head for christmas

two big emus ran across our path, donnie said if you wave a white hankie out the window they turn around and come back,   martin did and sure enough they were curious

i want to find out
what this gum
is, it has the most
beautiful white
trunk, deep red
young branches
and these
lovely large
blossoms

we came across a swarm of bees that have set up house on the track to the river - we decided to go the other way

heaven only knows how martin spotted the nest in here, but he dived in
and brought it back for donnie (it was old and empty).  the nest still
had two long reeds attached, very pretty.

what a fantastic box tree

lunch in the kitchen, a completely separate building beside the house, the breezeway created between the two brick buildings is always cooler no matter what the temperature. it's a classic old homestead made of bricks made from the river clay

interesting old ceiling rose in the kitchen

pelican ballet - this group of pelicans was floating sideways, then they stop, lift their wings as though they're cooling off, gently list around and head back the other way, repeat the wing thing and change direction again, back and forth, back and forth - i should've taken a movie.

martin and peter found these pelican remains on the way back from lake victoria

BACK HOME AGAIN in the evening, a beautiful sunset,  grass parrots on the lawn