A braver man than me!

Many moons ago Rick was 'foolish' enough to mention how one of the things on his bucket list was to sky dive.  I did some research and found that thankfully only tandem drives are permitted to start with.  After much thought and more research I decided this would be his 'special birthday' gift from me.

A week after his birthday we made the booking, bearing in mind that is is now Autumn here and it has been the hottest driest summer on record.  We thought the weather would continue to be kind... but no it started raining followed by high winds and storms... oh dear.  The day arrived heralded by yet more dark clouds a down pour of rain and some fairly strong winds.  We rang the diving school who cheerfully told us that clear skies and sunshine would greet us at the airfield... really!

An hours drive later and it turned out they were right.

Rick ever cool calm and collected showed no fear... I think I was doing all the panicking for him.  The team were very young and enthusiastic but also very professional and relaxed.  Their approach to this potentially life limiting 'sport' calmed me down.

After being kitted up with a harness and matched to a Tandem Master, Rick was off to the tiny airplane and off to the blue skies they went.  After what seemed like an age to me and way above the gathering clouds we finally spotted the chutes.
They had thrown themselves out of a perfectly good aircraft at 12,000 feet and free fell for just over a minute travelling about 125 miles an hour before the chute was opened .  After a very graceful 10 minute decent and landing Rick was back on terre firma and
I was breathing again... phew!

Would he do it again - well apparently yes he would.

Rick with Travis the Tandem Master and Cullen the Cameraman

The views over Lake Alexanderina, The Murray River and Langhorne (great wine area) were spectacular.  I saw the same thing with much less of an adrenalin rush from Google Earth!

Once we had got our breath back we went and had a picnic by the side of the Murray.  It is a fantastic and much loved river.  We were treated to an aerial display from 4 very large birds possibly sparrow hawks or even kites and a beautiful old paddle steamer gently glided past.

 

It was an amazing day though not for the feint hearted but thankfully everything worked out well.  Rick's account of what happened is hysterical.  The DVD very neatly picks up his disconcertedness (is there such a word?) at stepping away from a perfectly good aircraft into oblivion.  Equally you can see he very quickly relaxes and clearly enjoyed the experience.

Rather him than me!

The rest of the week has been very tame by comparison.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter, have fun

Ooroo!

Things that go bump in the night!

So there we were in a deep sleep, ceiling fans whirring gently in both rooms, front and back doors open to catch any breeze and bug screen doors securely locked.  Peace and sweet dreams prevailed then suddenly we were rudely awoken or rather I was and as it sounded like something very large and heavy rattling the front door I woke up Rick too.  Well he is more used to dealing with the beasties on this side of the planet.

After laying very still and listening intently for a while we heard a 'sliding down the awnings sound.  It turned out to be a Possum having some fun.  They are very sweet looking nocturnal mammals, big eyes and a dense grey coat.  They're about the size of a very small cat but are very much a pest here.  They like to try and get into roof cavities where they breed and party, making more possums and a hell of a mess.  So after we'd worked out what it was it disappeared into the night to wake some other unsuspecting sleeper.

Quite often when we we are on our early morning walks we can here the Possums bouncing around in the trees which line the streets.

It is much cooler in the mornings now and rain keeps being threatened but as yet hasn't happened.  I'm not complaining... honest.  Here the changes which Autumn bring are more to do with the beautiful gum trees coming into flower than the leaves changing colour and falling off.  They really are stunning

   

You can hopefully see from the close up of the flowers how the gum nut pops it's end to release the flower.  The bees and nectar feeding birds just love it. Amazing isn't it.... the flowers range from white to deep red and all the combinations in between.  All different sizes to depending on which gum they are growing on.

And then there is the plight of the Hairy Nosed Wombat

Sorry I don't know who this lady is but though it would give you an idea of the size of this wombat.  It is native to South and Western Australia and the largest burrowing mammal in the world.  Sadly it's numbers are in decline from rabbits and stock grazing the land and drought.  This is one of many beautiful native animals under threat.

On a completely different note we went to the Farmers Market held every Sunday at the Adelaide Show Ground.  We hadn't realised there was also a Comic Convention going on in one of the exhibition halls, saw these characters and wondered what sort of market it was....

What are they supposed to be? Anyone? Answers on a postcard please.......

We did find the market an oh what joy... I almost gave myself whiplash trying to see all the stalls.  There were so many wonderful Gluten and Dairy Free things to try....  Rick treated me to a delicious dairy free hot chocolate... happiness is...

And then we discovered a dairy free ice cream stall... the company is called Bush Tucker Icecream www.bushtuckericecream.com.au I had the plum one... delicious is an under statement.  There were sooooo many wonderful products to try... fresh pistachio nuts are amazing.... I've no doubt we will be visiting it again.

After a bit of a drive around we ventured to Hahndorf, a very pretty German village in the Adelaide Hills. It is very touristy but so pretty if you can handle the crowds it is worth a visit.  

Just on the outskirts is where one of Australia's most famous artists lived and painted.   

Our new home!

Hans Heysen had an incredible natural talent and was lucky enough to be sponsored to study techniques in Europe.  He returned to Adelaide and adapted all he learnt to the amazing light here.  He did well and became famous for the amazing gum trees and landscapes here.  There is of course a lot more to his story... they really are amazing paintings.

Droving into the light

On the home front, we are still sorting out the drawings. It's probably a good thing we haven't rushed as it has given us time to work out exactly what we 'need' in a home and to see what building materials are available.  Learning all the time....

Till next time... Ooroo!

Birthday celebrations

The past week has been very busy, Annie left us on Tuesday morning heading back to Sydney to meet with 3 girlfriends and drive up to Cairns. Which left me with Wednesday to prepare for Rick's special birthday celebrations which were being held down at Naracoorte.  Thursday actually being the day he turned 21 again!

THE day started as usual at 5 am and a quick 4.5km walk around the 'block' followed by loading the trailer with more heavy duty 'stuff' to take to Naracoorte.  Before I knew where the time had gone it was time for the yoga class, gentle stretching in an air conditioned room really appealed.  It turned out to be a pretty tough class I was very surprised at the way legs can bend and people can still walk afterwards!

Back home and by this time the heat had risen to 35c and a promise of another 4c by the afternoon... phew. As it was Rick's birthday I figured it was his decision for where to go to lunch.  He decided a cycle ride to the Botanic Gardens through the Parklands was in order... unfortunately for my already tired and slightly wobbly legs it was up hill!  But really worth doing, the gardens as I'm sure I have said many times before are a real oasis and very beautiful.

After lunch and a wonder around I discovered Betsy had somehow split her rear tyre and the tube was beginning to bulge out alarmingly.  This meant a trip to the bike shop and a ride through the heavy traffic and what felt like many hills to get there.  I could hardly speak by the time we arrived and was way beyond the glowing stage that ladies are supposed to do!!  Standing in the bike shop I realised there was a puddle on the floor beside me, which turned out (thankfully) to be from their air-conditioning unit and not me sweating!!

We had a really early start on the Friday (still dark), I thought I was quite awake and doing really well until I tried to put the Territory in gear! As it's an automatic I didn't get very far... oh dear!

On the way there was the most fantastic sunrise, the sky changing from pinks and oranges to liquid gold, the sky show went on for about an hour.  It's a shame this picture doesn't do it justice but hopefully it will give you some idea.

We were in another convoy but this time only one trailer which Dora was happily pulling.  We stopped for a break about every 100km, this is a very happy Rick with a very happy Dora, loaded trailer and the Territory behind.

It was a beautiful drive along the Coorong and this time I spotted 5 Wedge Tailed Eagles along the way.  Amazing......





Arriving in Naracoorte just after lunch and not a lot of time left before we met with the builders for a drawing update.  To our surprise their interpretation of our 'ideal home description' was very different to how we thought we'd described it.  Hmmm... after a bit of a stunned silence we went through it again and they've gone back to the drawing board.

Saturday was sent preparing for the party after unloading the trailer and some time on the block. As you can see I've got an easy job again.  The Pepper Tree behind me has started to 'green up' and the Canna Lilies which you can't see are going great guns.

The neighbours opposite breed Deer.   This is one of the young bucks, Fred spotted him at the same time he realised he was being watched. Their field is just over the road so we can easily sit and watch them.  It's coming up to the rut and we should soon start seeing wild deer coming in.

 This is what is locally called a Red Larry or I think a Rosella, not the best photo, but hopefully you can see the amazing colours.  There are a pair of them nesting in one of the trees not far from the block.  The same morning a couple of Kookaburra's were 'laughing' an amazing sound and so loud.  At times it feels like I have moved into a very large aviary... very beautiful.

For those of you who are interested this link should take you to a site where you can listen to and learn about all the birds I've told you about.  http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/birds/featured/Top-40-Bird-Songs

Time to focus on the party.   Deb had done a sterling job making several delicious puddings (here they're called sweets), all of which I could eat..... pecan pie and apple pie to name two.  I made a GF Carrot Cake (Deb's recipe) 'iceing' it with coconut cream, icing sugar, lemon juice, the birthday cake and very easy to do and delicious. Robert & Deb provided three very large chunks of meat, lamb, rump and pork to BBQ.  Perfectly cooked and accompanied by various salads and washed down with lots of local wine our sit down celebration with 22 friends went really well.  A fun time was had by all......

Monday (luckily) was a Bank Holiday for the Adelaide Cup, after lunch we had a gentle drive home.

Till next time.... Ooroo

Whoops!!

I'm sure many of you spotted the deliberate mistake well before I did.... it wasn't till this afternoon I realised I am even more confused about the seasons than I thought I was!

It is of course Spring in the Northern Hemisphere not the Southern Hemisphere... so the title of the last blog should have read 1st Day of Autumn and the Baggy Wrinkles.... oh dear...

Apologies for the confusion

Have fun xxxx

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.

Some firsts at the block......

Its been another wonderful week here with some firsts at the block!

But to start with I want to share some of the ordinary every day happenings which we tend to take for granted. Like the post....

'Posties' here are kitted out in fetching florescent yellow uniforms, crash helmets with Sahara neck protectors and all of course wear shorts.  They ride along the pavements on scooters delivering letters into mail boxes which are sited by the entrance of each driveway.  So much easier than for the UK lads and lasses.  There is only one delivery a day and they work a 5 day week.

Then there's the house hold waste......
The recycling/rubbish collections are much the same as they are in West Sussex with the exception of having all waste food collected.  This is put in special little purple (lovely colour) bio-degradable bags in the kitchen then every three days or so it's placed into the organic/garden waste bin.  It makes life very much easier.

The newspapers are delivered in much the same way as they are in the USA but around here it involves a man in a white van.  All possible lights flashing hurtling along zig-zagging up and down the quiet sleepy suburban streets and turning around in driveways.  It's quite alarming to see him hurtling towards you as you have no idea which way to dive for cover.  Luckily this takes place in the small wee hours when most people are still asleep, heaven knows what mortality rates would be like otherwise!

Also the radio programmes are different, all being much more community minded.  Everyone rings up for a chat, interesting topics are debated, from good news stories to world wide issues.  It's great and I guess comes from the days when you relied on your neighbours for help and everyone had to pull together just to survive.  This tradition continues and it is so refreshing to find these values still exist.... it seems to be second nature here.

Which leads me neatly to the block.

We headed off to the Fox Den at first light, another trailer and car load of 'stuff' to unpack and store, bulbs to plant and the 'Dunny' to get sorted out.

This is me at my elegant best, putting the Canna lilies in.  It's the first time I've used a long handled spade... to say it was a little dangerous is a slight under statement.  It will take some getting used to, I guess it's a very different technique from the shorter handles I'm used to using.  Anyway it was a joy to dig the soil for the first time.
We discovered a clump of Easter Lillies, past their best now, under one of the gum trees. I put our bulbs beside them and scattered the Freesia seeds Rick had kindly collected for me from the ones in the Adelaide garden.  They grow wild here and their fragrance in spring is amazing.
And not far from the Canna's I planted about 40 garlic cloves.  The soil is very sandy and free draining.  So for a lot of things we want to grow like the veg and herbs we'll need to dig in a lot of compost.  Probably best to grow these edibles in a raised bed as there are a lot of bunnies around.

It seems there are also quite a few Roo's around too first thing in the morning they graze a while on the grass on the block.  We've not seen them yet though our neighbours have.... something else to look forward to

Meanwhile Rick was busy unloading trailer and boot before getting stuck into sorting out the outside loo!

Deb, Mum (Hazel)  and Fred arrived with tea and coffee, very welcome and a little later on Robert and Peter (Robert's brother) arrived with a water tank and all sorts of equipment to help with the unblocking.

After much discussion and pipe clearing the loo was declared in working order.  The run off from the shower was also sorted out.

While the boys worked away, sun getting ever hotter, us ladies went and sorted out a picnic lunch.

Cold meat and salad, cold drinks and tea and coffee.  It was out first meal at the block and very special.  It is so peaceful there, gentle breeze blowing through the leaves on the trees.  Lorikeets chasing each other around and lots of Galahs.    We were so lucky, the bird noises changed which made us all look up to see a beautiful Wedge Tailed Eagle gliding past majestically.  They are huge with a wing span of over 7'.  I didn't managed to get a good picture of this one but here is one I took earlier......

Hopefully it will give you an idea of the size, that's a full grown gum, in the back ground.

These are the mosaics on the public loo... very colourful images of all the flora and fauna from around the area.  I thought it was a sports centre! We passed it on our early morning walk with Fred.

The weekend was finally over all missions accomplished.  We'd discovered the wool museum/information centre also sells a lot of handicrafts all by ladies of the town.  It seems a very creative and skilful group of people live here.

We set off for Adelaide taking the road back along the Coorong, much longer journey but so beautiful.  Groups of pelicans gliding past like something out of another age.  Tiny kestrels on the hunt and yet another Wedge Tailed Eagle, we're doing very well considering how rare these beautiful birds are supposed to be.

We caught the punt back across the Murray the whole area dotted with hundreds of Corellas  what a noise they made, all chattering away.  From the photo which  I hope is not to small the bank looks like it has a bad case of dandruff.

Wee beasty in the sink and other ramblings

As you can imagine coming from a land where there are lots of wee beasties which make you jump but can't actually do you much harm to a land where practically all wee beasties can do a person serious damage it can make one a bit cautious. Well that's my excuse.....

So to set the scene, I've just cleaned my teeth, had a lovely shower, drying myself off and I notice a fairly large brown 'thing' in the sink, which was empty when I cleaned my teeth a few moments earlier.  Breathing deeply and with heart beating much faster, I cautiously move towards the bathroom door having wrapped a towel around myself first.  Calling for Rick while looking for my glasses.

My knight in shining armour and I peer into the sink, the brown thing hasn't moved and looks fairly dead... and then it starts to look familiar.  Deb and Robert (whose bathroom it was) have a shelf above the sink and keep a couple of seaweed 'pods' on it..... one of the pods was the wee beasty in the sink..... not at all frightening.....

Well thank goodness for that.... note to self.... I must remember to take my glasses with me everywhere in future.

And on to other things...

It is coming to the end of summer here, the days are getting shorter and  the weather quite changeable.  Rain keeps being forecast but we've not seen any of it yet.  In the past week the temperatures have steadily risen, reaching 39c here in Adelaide yesterday, cooling down to 28c at night.  Something which not so long ago I found hard to imagine.

To stop the plants from completely keeling over we water the garden a couple of times a week about 6.30 a.m. to give it a chance to soak in before the heat really gets up.  Lizards go skittering around, they don't need the warmth of the day to get going as it's already warm.  There was a beauty yesterday morning.  Brave little fellow headed straight for my foot, reached the toe end and peered over the flip flop (thong) before skittering past me.  He was about 3" long from nose tip to tail end, pale blue with darker blue zig zags down his back.

Rick spotted one of the doves paddling around in the bird bath as if it was a duck.  It did look funny.  Mostly during the hottest part of the day (afternoon) not much moves, including sensible humans.


To help me keep cool Rick has rigged up a home made outdoor shower, it's brilliant and has helped huge amounts.... no sign of any heat rash which would have normally appeared by now (possibly a wee bit too much information).  The hose pipe attaches to the end (which is probably very obvious to all of you).  It's hanging over the shade frame in the back yard...saves alarming the neighbours when I dash out in my bikini!

Highly recommended for cooling off quickly.

At the weekend we went to a swap meet (my first), it was held at Murray Bridge.  It's very much like a car boot sale without the car boots being used.

This is the local (portable) radio station, it was brilliant and they played very good music.

 There were so many fantastic things there from old books, engine parts, lights, furniture even an old cart wheel.

Unfortunately when I took this photo half the people there had packed up to go home but it hopefully gives you an idea of the size of it.  There was a great deal of banter and bantering going on between everyone, lots of good humour and smiley people.  Great fun.

Following this we found a brilliant Gluten Free cafe and had fish, chips and salad for lunch... delicious.  They had a great range of home made GF food, the only thing which looked a little odd was Vegemite Fudge!!! Hmmmmm

Then onwards to the SA State Nursery.  What a fantastic find, they grow and sell native plants there and offer all sorts of invaluable advice.  You can imagine just how exciting it was (for us anyway) but we managed to restrict our buying to just two plants, both attractive to nectar feeding birds and great for little insect eating lizards to hide in.