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Monday, January 08, 2007

Back Home Again ...

Hello, my patient Blog-Friends !!!

A big thank you, and hugs to you all, for the wonderful comments to my brief posts whilst I have been away. You are all amazing ... thank you for being my blog friends.

Hope you are all well. We have returned to civilization today, have unpacked, gone shopping, retrieved Bambi from the boarding cattery (and boy, is she glad to be home !!), and am now finally bringing you all up to date on what I have been up to, before heading out to all your blogs to visit .... stand by, I'm on my way !!!

Anyway, after a lovely Christmas Eve with my family, with wonderful food and company, we left home on Christmas Day, after opening presents and stuff. We all did well ... Santa was very generous, particularly with Chicky ... she had quite a collection of goodies !! The drive to Bonnie Doon was, well ... in a word, WET !!! It actually started sleeting at one stage (I've driven through hail many-a-time, but sleet ... now that's something very odd in the middle of Summer in country Victoria !!). It had stopped raining briefly when we arrived at our caravan, enabling us to unpack in peace!! We had Christmas Day lunch (well, more like early dinner, really) with my cousins (who own the caravan park where our 'van is located) and aunt & uncle and others. A lovely, big (huge!!) meal, with lots of laughs !! More pressies, and the day was over. I guess, that was that, in regards to Christmas !!

The weather improved from then on, getting warmer and hotter. We had many days of mid to high 30sC ... thank goodness for air-conditioning. The smoke from the bush fires came and went (unfortunately some of the fires are still burning, and they were doing a heck of a lot of back-burning, so depending on the wind direction, we were occasionally smoked out !!).
New Years Eve was fun ... the park had a live band, which played great music, and the atmosphere was wonderful. We also partied on with friends back at our places ... lots more music, lots of food, lots of drink ... fortunately I stopped drinking early, so didn't suffer the next day !!

We did some driving through and around the lake bed (which, as you probably know, has barely any water ... down to around 11% now !!). 4WDing and motor bike riding is a big thing in the area at the moment ... makes up for not being able to put boats in the lake !!

Friends had their boats (we left ours at home), and we drove to a nearby lake, which has enough water to play in. Chicky learnt how to Wake-Board ... go Chicky !!! Lots of fun was had by all on all the various water toys, towed behind the boats.

All in all, though, we did a lot of nothing. I read a few books, did some puzzles, talked heaps, did nothing heaps !! Isn't that what a holiday is all about ... relaxing.

Enough of me rabbiting on ... here's some photos (hope Blogger is behaving itself today !!). ENJOY !!

Bye for now.

Take care,

MEOW



This rainbow was a special gift from Santa on Christmas Day.


An old photo of the Bonnie Doon bridges ... the rail bridge on the left, and the car bridge on the right ... when there was water !!

The rail bridge is now called the RailTrail Bridge, and is a foot bridge ... here is Hubby and my dad on it ... you can see the car bridge to the right. There is absolutely NO WATER underneath it at the moment !!


An interesting view of an old bridge uncovered by the disappearance of the lake.

Looks more like a desert than a lake-bed !!

Bits and pieces remaining of an old homestead, which was buried in the lake back in the 1950s.


Ummm, there is usually a beautiful view through these trees ... unfortunately, it was one of those days where the bushfire smoke obscured everything.
A beautiful sky.


A cheeky little Crimson Rosella, who loved to come and share our nibblies !!


This cheeky Cockatoo just had to have what the Rosella was having !!!


Mummy Rosella feeding Baby Rosella ... it is sooooooo cute !!


I've always been fascinated by clouds !!

More clouds !!!

Chicky on her first Wake-Board adventure !!!

This little (?!?!?!) fella visited us this morning !!! Hubby quickly ran inside to grab the camera. There were 2 of them, just nibbling the grass beside our decking.

19 comments:

Merle said...

Hi Meow ~~ A great post with lots of good photos. I especially liked the rainbow. Glad you hada good rest and a lovely Christmas. Yhanks for your visit and kind words. I am OK, and hoping to get to the funeral at Rosebud. It is a long way and I am not sure if my son can get the day off. We got 6 mms rain last Friday. Wed is supposed to be 37 and Thurs 40, so hope we survive that I am minding my other son's little dogs while he is on holidays, they are cute.Take care
Connie. Love, Merle.

Puss-in-Boots said...

Hi Meow, sounds like you had a lovely relaxing break - and you're right, that's what it's all about!

Lovely photos, especially the birds and kanga. It looks just as bad down your way as it is up here, all sorts of things coming to light now that the water has receded.

I'm just looking at a news item now about the fires on Vic. It's creating quite a lot of havoc with road closures and power cuts. Boy, I hope we get some rain soon!

Hugs xoxo

Ebun said...

Happy new year! Your pix are beautiful, glad you had a nice time at christmas.
Have a lovely week.
Ebun.

Jeanette said...

Ho Meow
pleased you had a lovely holiday.. great photo's of the birds sharing some of your titbits and the Kanga so close.A few hot days on the way we been forecast 40 wed. 40+thursday. we could all do with some rain. If we dont get rain soon there talking about lowering our lake.were only on level 1 restrictions. take care

Anonymous said...

I think vacations are meant for just hanging out and doing much of nothing! At least that is how I spend mine! You had a wonderful time as always. Your pictures are just stunning. I love the shots where things are showing up due to no water! Must have been great to rummage through! The birds are so colorful and just so picturesque to view! And Chickie really looks to be having fun. If we don't get some cold weather soon we all will be out on the water having fun!

Carole Burant said...

Ooooh what a wonderful relaxing holiday you had and I so loved all the pictures! It always seems funny to me to see birds and animals that roam free in your part of the country where here, we would only see them in zoos! I can't believe how dry it is over there...I am fascinated with that homestead that you can now see bits of, that is usually underwater. Seems like a completely different world! Welcome home dear Meow:-) xox

Cisco said...

Hello.
Indeed great pictures. Your "lake" is so much like our Lake Mead here in Las Vegas. The water level has gone down so much that many things are being uncovered or rediscovered due to the low level.
Lake mead is a man made lake.

Anonymous said...

So glad you are back. I missed you.

Sounds like you had just a wonderful time. Your pictures are testimony to this for sure. I love the birds of course and your kangaroo visitor.

Thanks for sharing all your fun with us.
Take care,
Connie

Raggedy said...

What a wonderful trip!
Wow! The pictures were amazing and fabulous. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Welcome Home!
Have a wonderful day!
*^_^
(=':'=) hugs
(")_ (")Š from
the Cool Raggedy one

Nikki Neurotic said...

Looks like you had a great time. I love the animal pics, I've only seen those birds in cages in pet stores before so iot was a bit strange to see them just out and about...and I adored the kangaroo pic. Again, first time seeing one like that and not just in some nature book or something.

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Merle ... thankyou. The rainbow was my favorite, too. Hope you can stay cool in the upcoming heatwave.

Robyn ... it was a relaxing break, thanks. The fires are still burning, causing all sorts of problems. We still need to do that rain dance !!

Ebun ... thank you.

Jeanette ... thanks. A lot of the people from the caravan park spent time at Yarrawonga, for the holidays, to play with their boats and wakeboards !! Hope they don't lower your lake !!

Debbie ... thank you. Seems like the weather is odd everywhere. I guess it should be snow weather where you are !

Pea ... thank you. The homestead is fascinating, I have pictures of the way it used to be in a book somewhere. We did a bet of exploring, got out the metal detector, and stuff like that. All good fun !!

Ciscokid ... it is really interesting when man made lakes expose what used to be where they are now. Like a history lesson.

Connie ... thank you. Glad you liked the pics. Knew you'd like the birdy ones !! It's good to be back.

Raggedy ... thank you. Hope all is well in your world.

Silverneurotic ... thank you. Our wildlife is just incredible, and so colourful. We are lucky, that so many of the birds are so tame ... so much fun.

Take care all, Meow

Michelle said...

Sure is nothing like the blue aussie sky :o)

Love the rainbow photo...very special :o)

heiresschild said...

you always take the most awesome pics.

sylvia

Kylee said...

Wow what another amazing trip. Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures!!
Glad you all had a good time

sonia a. mascaro said...

A Very Happy and Wonderful 2007!

Kyahgirl said...

Hi Meow, Happy New Year!
As always, I love your photos. Chicky is sure growing up.

Its interesting to get glimpes of our similar 'UK history'. You showed a picture of the Bonnie Doon bridge and we have a Bonnie Doon area of Edmonton.

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Michelle ... I know what you mean, our blue skies are just spectacular

Heiresschild ... thank you so much.

Kylee ... thank you, and you are welcome.

Sonia ... thank you, and same to you.

Kyahgirl ... I would love to learn more about your area of Bonnie Doon.

Take care, Meow

Heather in Beautiful BC said...

Wonderful photos - thanks for sharing your holiday, your family events and your beautiful country! How amazing to see that homestead after it's been underwater 50 plus years - very interesting. Yay Chicky - looking good on that wake board!

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Heather ... thanks. Chicky is so proud (as I am). She looks so comfy on the water.
Take care, Meow