TWO WEEKS HAVE FLOWN BY

MAIN EVENTS over the past fortnight - my birthday, the grand final and a visit from fran and mike, delivering my archibald entry and having some time away from the big city.

OCT 20 My birthday was a lovely day of friends, food and family phonecalls.  i had lunch with mia and sonja in mildura, seeing mia's lovely new home, then dinner with di and sam, fresh perch from the murray and an overnight stay.  rene called from japan, gail called early   -  a great day

waking up to perfect weather

beautiful birthday flowers from di and the sky in the morning as i

drove home.    skies up here are always wonderful

THE GRAND FINAL - well fran and i are cats fans of course, so we were excited and hopeful, in vain as it turned out :0(    fun though to put the balloons out on the road for fran and mike's arrival and to have pies and champers while watching the game

terrible shot but the anticipation is there :0)

etta's excited too :0)

i've been knitting bears, intended to make one for etta but it turned out so big i knitted a second, now i'm tempted to knit a very small one she can hold in her hand.

Fran and I took a drive out to Perry Sandhills on a grey cloudy day. it looked pretty special after the rain, lots of things growing, interesting plants and the pink dunes looked wonderful against the dark sky

SPRING IN THE GARDEN

it's lovely this year after the rains

I spotted this black-faced cuckoo shrike's nest while watching the willie wagtails building their nest.  zooming in i could see three big babies and the parent arrived to feed them at that moment

THE HIPPEASTRUMS are doing their October thing

Brazilian walking iris - i love this plant

A not so welcome resident on the kitchen, hasn't moved in three days

gorgeous red sunrise today - more rain on the way??

GRANDCHERUBS UPDATE

YESTERDAY fran and i drove to Trentham Estate for a platter lunch out on the riverbank in perfect weather.  i needed to drive in to mildura and fran couldn't come (no cross border permit for her)    I had a 20 minute sit in a line of traffic across the buronga bridge to get back into NSW and so there was time to cloud watch for a while 

More pics from yesterday on the way in to Mildura, the clouds yesterday were just stunning all day and all kinds of things are growing after the recent rains