HEADING HOME

IT'S BEEN A GOOD WEEK, i'm off to the grampians to see don after a few days of catching up with friends in geelong and melbourne.



Boxing day was lethargic, after drinking champagne all Christmas day we lay low, heading back to eastern beach for coffee and breakfast in the newly renovated kiosk and cafe. it's been done really well and seems like it should be a success.





I had a walk around the town to look at some favorite buildings to meet denise at the station, we trained it to melbourne and trammed out to st kilda for her family reunion at a restaurant on the beach.

The Zaettas and Civellis get-together at the West Beach Pavilion

Next morning i walked from denise's  down to the barwon at the breakwater, i sat down on a bench and looked up and right there was a willy wagtail nest with three chicks.  i stayed and watched for a while, a lovely start to the day.

CHRISTMAS WEEK

IT'S BEEN LOVELY to have normal weather, high 20's and comfortable.



a dawn serenade and a beautiful rainbow to start the trip down to geelong for christmas

a good trip down, staying in the pretty town of st.arnaud which has a main street of completely intact old shopfronts, verandahs still there and beautiful windows with tiled surrounds.  my accommodation was a motel room, very 70's, at the back of a lovely old hotel that is now a residence.

Next night was at Denise's empty house, perfect to prepare my food for christmas day at Susan's, where i am now on the day after boxing day.










On the way i stopped
to take a few pics
at the pretty Avoca
cemetery

i was excited

to photograph

this at a great

distance and

realised it was

a goldfinch, i 

haven't seen

one for 

decades

We had a lovely christmas, food was fab and susan and seans house was perfect for the day.

we walked down to eastern beach which was a real eye opener for me.  it's been completely restored and looks better than it ever has. there were literally thousands of people down there, huge families of islanders and muslims, indians and asians all set up with tents and bbq's, picnicking, playing soccer and volleyball, in the water.  the promenade was packed.  the ferris wheel is there for the summer and sunny, susan, jenny and i all had a ride,  terrific.

 susan and sean's neighbour across the road

boxing day was a write off for me, i was very tired and secondhand but we walked down to easter beach again and had breakfast at the newly opened re-renovated eastern beach kiosk cafe.  very nice and looks like it should take off.
now i'm at susan and seans, getting ready to travel up to melbourne with denise on the train to have lunch with her relatives.

SURVIVED THE WEEK!

WOW, what an inferno of a week, tues 42, wed 44, thurs 45, friday 46.5 by which time the birds were all sitting quietly inside shrubs and the air was light a fan oven.  i left the hoses on all day and the activity around the bird baths outside the loungeroom and kitchen windows was constant and a delight to watch while i tried to stay cool and do a bit of painting in the kitchen.
i've set up an easel on the kitchen bench under the cooler vent and have started two more self portraits.

it's been a christmassy week despite the weather on friday.  i've been in to see martin, he had the big reveal of the large piece he's been working on all week, it's the beginning of something terrific.  we had lunch too, always so good to spend time with him :0)  despite the 46.5 deg temperature  😟

On wednesday i spotted a small group of wrens far off on an old dead climbing rose.  they looked so pretty in silhouette i zoomed in with the camera and started taking pics.   when i got the pics on the laptop and zoomed in more, lightening the silhouettes i realised it was a family of white-winged wrens, i've never seen them here before - didn't even know they existed until an excited airbnb guest returned from perry sandhills with some gorgeous shots.

i think i might use some of these pics for prints at some stage

AROUND THE BIRDBATHS before and after my visit to martin in the stinkiest hot day of the week.

friend di dropped in for coffee and spotted this gorgeous black-faced cuckoo shrike behind me - it's usually way up high and out of sight, i hear it but rarely see it. but it came down all day to be near the water.  i wonder how the kangaroos fare out in the saltbush

it was funny to watch the face-offs between different birds but in the end they all decided it was too hot to bother about pecking orders and shared the water

last night was christmas drinks at rod tebrett's, a friend of friends sue and derek.  haven't been there before, he has the cutest little scottie like dog dougal and a magnificent lemon-scented gum in the front yard.  and who was there?   Don Cullinan, the guardian angel who saved vicki and i the day we ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between broken hill, pooncarie and wentworth on a very hot day last year.   i thought he lived on the property he took us to for petrol, but he and wife cherry live next door to rod in wentworth.  so we had a good old catch up.

i love these pics, sunny was asking about them so i dug them up in an old album,  classics!

 I've been sent more pics from the old days at Brights - it's hilarious to think that fashion manager maxine thought these costumes would somehow draw attention to the shoes in this shoe parade. she came up with the whackiest ideas for parades and ads, and we had a groovy fashion shop for a while called Clobber Globber!! ??

darling ray again, so serious about his role :0),
and mary, lizzie and bill from menswear

what can i say??  maxine looks impressed (in black vest)

Cool mornings again, it's such a relief - still getting up in the 30's during the day but sleeping is comfortable and the house stays cool

i'm wondering if

the large goanna

is pregnant or

just ate something

large and oval 

the hot 

weather

does bring

gorgeous

sunrises

and sunsets.

staying cool by the lock

HOW GORGEOUS now to have cool silvery mornings 

again