The first day of spring and baggy wrinkles!

I'm not sure if I've shared some of this news already so please excuse me if I have.....

Rick has found a fantastic yoga class which does Hatha yoga (the breath one, always good to breath while exercising!).  Anyway I've been going along to the classes and would highly recommend it (the yoga not necessarily these classes, though you'd be welcome to stay) for anyone.  The feeling you have after a class is very peaceful, your body know's it's had a work out but nothing aches..... bliss.....

I've also found a local Tai Chi class which I've always wanted to have a go at as it looks so graceful.  I had to do a double take at the lady next to me she's the spitting image of Julie Walters!  I'm now practising the movements I've been taught everyday and look forward to the looking graceful and serene whilst 'doing it' bit!

The 1st of March was officially the first day of Autumn here and there is the occasionally Autumn chill in the air.  It is really hard to comprehend how it can be Easter during Autumn when all your life Easter has been a part of Spring.  Something which had never crossed my mind before now.  It currently surprises me every time I see hit cross buns and Easter eggs for sale!

We spent a chunk of Saturday rummaging around a few salvage yards looking for tiles and such items for the outside loo and other things which needed a wee bit of love for our Fox Den.  It was great fun.  Rick realised we were near  to Port Adelaide.

This looks like a much older part of the city, some of the buildings needing a bit of love but it gave the overall impression of being mainly original.  The customs building looking like a square solid building of authority.  The following photo was taken with my back to the quay facing the fish sorting building looking towards the town.

We found the One and All moored up there.  She is a beautiful tall ship a replica, now used for sailing courses.

It's here we learned abut Baggy Wrinkles, apparently it is very acceptable to have them if you're a tall ship!  Possible the only 'she' in the world that even benefits from Baggy Wrinkles.

What are they?  Well if you look carefully at the rigging you will hopefully see 'brown things' attached to the ropes.  Up close these look quite shaggy.  These are the Baggy Wrinkles.......


So now you know... great if you're ever asked in a trivial pursuit game!

We've had our first UK visitor.  Annie is a really lovely young lady (we used to be neighbours) who has been visiting New Zealand for the last two months and has just starting a tour of part of the east coast of Australia.

We had a wonderful walk around the Botanic Garden, every bird Annie wanted to see made an appearance.. she took some amazing photo's of the Rainbow Lorikeets playing around in the fountain.  I still can't get over how these amazing birds can blend in so easily with the leaves of a Gum.....

This is what we call a 'top knot' hopefully you'll be able to see the spikey feathers on top of his head.  They look very funny.....

 Annie wanted to see a Kookaburra.... we were making our way out of the garden, turned a corner and there it was.  Beautiful photo... the largest of all Kingfishers.  This one was being mobbed by a couple of Indian Myna birds, not at all impressed with his presence.

 This is an Ibis, they're very shy and stand about 3' tall.

Just as we were about to leave the garden I asked Annie if there were any other birds she had wanted to see.  Up to that point we'd not seen any Galah's.  With a cacophony of sound and a cloud of pink and white, a flock of Galahs arrived to roost in the tree not far from us.  Amazing






We did look at the plants as well...  the gardens are beautifully kept and considering how close it is to the CBD it is a real oasis of calm and tranquillity.

An Orange Jasmine bush with exquisite perfume

Easter Lillies

 March in Adelaide is known as the Festival madness season starting with the arrival of the fringe, which apparently is the biggest in the world.  For the fringe there is a caravan set up in Rundle Mall (main street in the city) and 'bales' as chairs for the audience to sit on.  Various Acts gave brief performances of their shows as tasters to entice you too buy tickets for the real thing.  It was brilliantly compared by this chap

It was great fun, the best comedy act (according to Annie and I) came from this young British lass (first visit to Australia).  The act will be called The Veil when she gets to Edinburgh and is a very funny mickey take of the acting world.

We finished the visit with a trip down to Glenelg and the beach.  The sand here is almost white and super fine, perfect to walk on.... not a hint of the smell of seaweed.  Just a gentle breeze and ozone.... perfect.  We had a bite to eat and walked a few paces to the sea to watch a perfect sunset.