In Umina

This afternoon we came up to the Central Coast with the Booths and we are staying in their daughter's condo. Umina is beautiful as you can see from the photo above. We walked the beach stopping to see a fisherman's catch (snapper and flounder). On the way back we walked up by the houses and condos so we could decide which one we want to move into.

This morning Lyn went to church and she hopefully prayed for Colin, Bob, and me as we went to the Rotary Flea Market instead. It was a beautiful morning to wander among the booths. Some had fall bedding plants (pansies, succulents, etc.) and I had to remind myself that I couldn't take any home for my yard. Bob and Colin were the big shoppers while I combatted the urge to buy.

Rob, you can see from the above photo that Dad and I found pop cheaper than what you paid at Wagga Wagga. It is the best deal we found by about $1.50. Leah F., I could have added to your Nabob-Red Rose jar collection by buying a Bushells (tea) jar. Wait, my luggage is already full so I had to leave it behind and it even had the original lid.

Changing the subject slightly, I didn't know if I should write Bushells or Bushell's or Bushells'. I always told students that if someone made me King of English my first decree would be to eliminate apostrophes as so few people use them correctly. The Australians seem a step ahead of me. We were at Wilsons Promontory (no apostrophe) last week. We read department of highway signs that said "Dont Pass." May Australia lead the English world in the abolishment of apostrophes! (Some of you may also want them to outlaw exclamation points and brackets as I tend to use them excessively.) (!!)


Lyn and I did not resist the temptation of a fabric store and even Bob and Colin browsed. Bob was a great huntsman and quickly found me the section with Australian prints and Colin zoomed in on the kangaroo buttons. Why don't these two men come with me to all fabric shops?

Here is Bob doing some serious browsing.

My Day

How cool is this photo! The Mama had her joey in her pouch and truly the joey looked like a lazy teenager who should leave the pouch. He was stuffed in there tight. You can't see it in this photo but not only was his head sticking out but one of his long legs was too.

Now this blog entry is a little different in that the next paragraph is for Elizabeth and then she should quit reading. The rest of you can start reading after that paragraph.

Elizabeth, our day with Simon was a terrible, no-good, horrible day. I don't know why he thought we would want a tour of Sydney's sewers. It was dank and dark. Then he wanted to treat us to lunch and we thought he was taking us to Oporto. Instead to pulled lunch out of his backpack for us. It was overcooked kangaroo with vegemite spread over it. So, indeed, we did not enjoy our day with Simon. Now that you know that, you an go back to making lasagna or whatever because the rest of this blog entry won't be interesting to you.

And now to the rest of you: today was FANTASTIC. Bob and I spent it with Elizabeth's friend Simon and he had a wonderful time organized for us. He took us to a farmers' market where we met his parents and had a quick visit. Many of the vendors had small samples of their goodies so I tried rabbit and other tidbits.

Then we went over to a Koala Park where there were Australian animals and birds. That's where we saw the kangaroo shown above. There were also koalas (obviously, by the name of the park!)
They are in the background of this picture of Bob and me.

I took lots of photos of chickens that were roaming free at the park. That's so Leah F. and I can strengthen our argument to Dave to allow backyard chickens. In the following photo you can see Bob and Simon enjoying time together. This was taken in the picnic area of Carlingford School.

Simon did take us to Carlingford School and for some reason the gates were unlocked even though it is school holidays so we were able to wander around the grounds. Finally we picked up food at a deli and had a picnic at Clark's Point. There you could see the Harbour Bridge and the skyline of Sydney. There were ferries and sailboats on the water and fishermen and artists on the shore. I forgot to download of photo of the scene here but I can do that tomorrow.

After Simon dropped us off, Bob and Colin went to a Swans' School Induction Program where they heard interesting info and got goody bags. Rob, I think you will want to requisition the items: a Swans' scarf, Swans' towel, a football, a picnic bag (maybe for beer), a photo of the team, and a water bottle.

Then Colin, Lyn, Bob and I went to the Swans versus Melbourne Magpies game. The Swans won by a lot and the young man beside me talked not only footie to me but also Canadian medicare system, travel, and much more. After the game fans could go onto the field and they certainly did! Look below:

Well, we had to join that celebration, didn't we, so here we are below. I must contact the Roughriders to ask why they don't let us do the same. After all, 28,000 fans were at this game and any of them could go on the field. What it really did was keep some people there while others drove away so that you weren't held up in a traffic jam in the parking lot.

What a wonderful day!

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

Yesterday I didn't post the photo I meant to of mountain bikers getting their bikes up the mountain. Isn't this cool?

Today we left Canberra and had a beautiful, sunny drive to Sydney. Our intention was to get over to the ocean and spend the afternoon and night there. Traffic was heavy though and it was taking us ages to get over, so we turned around and found a hotel room near where we have to drop off the rental car tomorrow. Tonight we hoped to get in touch with the first Rotary Exchange Student the Weyburn Club ever had. I thought I had her phone number, but it ended up being her office number. She and her husband are both doctors so we are thinking their home phone number is unlisted. We will have to try track her down during office hours on Monday.

Bob and I went for a walk tonight and learned why so many of the suburbs end in the word "Hills." We are in Castle Hill and it certainly has more than one hill!

Tomorrow should be great as Elizabeth's friend Simon has the day planned for us. Simon, if you are reading this, know that whatever you tell Bob and me to do, WE WILL DO! I hope you aren't going to turn us into a 2010 version of the Ned Kelly gang.

The photo below will make Elizabeth so envious. The truth is, we haven't been in Carlingford yet, we just drove down the street that had the sign. But trust us, Elizabeth, in the next few days, we will be there!

Who Can Pronounce "Kosciuszko"?

Today I had to start with my two favorite signs. We did see a couple of roadkill wombats, but we didn't see any live ones.

There are some really beautiful trees in the Snowy Mountains. I am going to have to find an Australian botanist to identify all the plants I have been taking photos of. Most trees here aren't deciduous, but those that are, are changing color now since it is autumn. I learned today that Australians never call autumn "fall." Maybe it's because not that many leaves fall here in the fall. In any case, we spotted poplars and oak trees with leaves changing color.

Glenda will know that I have wanted to go to Kosciuszko ever since she and I started reading Mount Everest books. Mount Kosciuszko is the highest peak in Australia. Bob and I took the chair lift at Thredbo which leads to the walk up to the summit (a 13 km. walk). The next picture shows who else was using the chair lift. There were many mounatin bikers taking up their bikes and riding down. Bob talked to one who had made 7 trips up and down by noon today.

Bob and I certainly didn't walk to the summit as the temperature including wind chill at the top of the chair lift was -1C. Everyone else was busy buying toques in the gift shop, but Bob and I figured our ears had experienced -1 before and could stand it again. We could see our breath though and we had fun trying to take photos of each other that would show our breath. None of our photos were good enough to post here.

The next photo almost shows Kosciuszko. It's under the cloud cover and to the right in this photo! There's nothing much we tourists can do to change the weather.

And now for a few personal messages:

Rob and Elizabeth, neither of you have commented or Emailed or FBed for a few days. It's your filial duty to keep in touch with your parents! Oh, and, Elizabeth, have you heard the crazy news about stupid changes to Scrabble?

Elizabeth, we were in Jindabyne and I tried to find a postcard of it to send you. No stores seemed to have one. I took photos though.

Janelle, I wish you could have been with us tonight. We attended a Rotary meeting in North Canberra and the guest speaker was a forensic expert who had worked on some very famous cases in Australia. You can google "Peter Falconio" to read about one of the cases where this woman did all the DNA work. Her speech was totally fascinating and would have meant even more to you than it did to us.

Cam and Myrna, the two gentlemen that Bob and I sat between at the Rotary meeting had both been district governors. Their club of 24 has had four district governors through the years. I tried Emailing Cuddles last night (since I found out she is such a good correspondent herself!) but for some reason it wouldn't send. I'll try again tomorrow. Cuddles had sure kept it a secret that she is a very articulate, grammatically-correct writer.

Michele, you have to join Facebook as Christa has set up a Crocus Quilters' group. She had photos from the last meeting so I felt like I had been there.

A Little Rain Will Fall

Last night, after some confusions, we finally got to hang out with Holly who lived with us when she was a Rotary Exchange Student. She's a wonderful, young woman and we not only reminisced, we also caught up with her life.


This morning there was a market in Mornington, the town we stayed in last night. The booths were set up for blocks and blocks on each side of the main street, in front of the businesses. There was everything from vegetables and flowers to these button bouquets. This lady, a teacher, makes button bouquets and does photography in her spare time and then sells the items at the market.

Vanessa and I have been questioning real estate prices in Weyburn lately. Well, would any of you pay $90,000 to $300,000 to not own, but lease, one of these huts on the beach? They are large enough to fit a table and chairs, but you cannot have a bed (if it would fit) and you cannot stay overnight in them. They are on the Mornington Peninsula.

Did you look at this photo and say "big deal - a sandy beach"? The reason I included this is that it is actually the water at Mornington. It is so clear that you can't even tell there is water in the photo. All the beaches we have been on have been immaculately clean. Good on you, Aussies; some of us other countries should be following your example.

We did have one of the first disappointments of our trip today. We went to Warragul where Elle, another Rotary Exchange Student, manages a grocery store called Aldi. Unfortunately she was in meetings all day so we didn't get together.

One of her employees recommended a restaurant nearby for lunch. I had a smoked salmon and avocado sandwich, but Bob felt he had to have the burger "with the lot." Don't think "hamburger deluxe," think "THE LOT." The hamburger had the beef plus fried egg, onion, bacon, cheese, pineapple, beetroot, lettuce and tomato. Bob made a valiant effort, but he couldn't finish it.

We did have rain today, but as we were mainly driving, it didn't spoil our fun.

I Ate PassionFruit from the Garden Today. Did you?

The Lawrys took us our to Wilson's Promontory today. They hoped to show us kangaroos, emus, and wombats in the wild. This national park encompasses something like 50,000 hectares so we couldn't expect to see them all. We were lucky to see these two. I took about ten photos, each one one step closer as I figured they would spring away at any moment. This is the closest one.

We also saw rainbow lorikeets. And Bob has to confess that Australia has one less rosella. He isn't saying if he hit it with the car or it ran into the car, but, either way, it is nothing but a carcass at the side of the road.



It was wonderful to visit and visit and visit with Sarah and to meet her parents. I know why Rob and Elizabeth had such a good time with them that one Christmas. They are avid hikers and those many preliminary walks in Weyburn only partially prepared me for the hikes ... up and down and up and down and up again.

Here are a couple of the marvelous views.

The Lawrys' garden is so different than ours: orange trees, a lime tree, lemon tree, grapefruit tree, passion fruit, and kiwi as well as raspberries and strawberries. They have an avocado tree too but it is still too young to produce. There are similarities to my garden though: lavender (only theirs is a hedge!), daisies, dahlia, begonias, veronica, geraniums.

From their place we drove to the Mornington pennisula where we hope to get in touch with Holly. We are staying at the wonderful Mornington Motel which is about the same price as a Comfort Inn at home. You can see Bob in the photo below. He's lounging with the 36" flatscreen t.v.

The manager of the motel recommended a Thai restaurant down the street as "the best in all Australia." As we walked into the restaurant a delivery guy was leaving. I pictured him delivering a 10% commission to the motel manager. We have no complaints though as the food was good except that the rice had squid in it which was a bit weird for us.

TimTams and Port Arthur

We had an amazing day. We drove down to Port Arthur and along the way stopped to look at Tasman's Arch, Devil's Kitchen, and some tesselated pavement which all have things to do with the shoreline. I wish I could record the smell here as there was ecalyptus mixed with other vegetation fragrances. Elizabeth, more than once as we drove, we saw black swans on rivers and lakes. Why didn't you ever see any? I also saw two kookaburas in the wild.




Michelle Irwin, thanks so much for recommending Port Arthur. We had a marvelous time there and didn't miss much of what there was to see. We couldn't stay for a ghost tour; that was our only regret. It was Easter Sunday so we were worried that both the roads and Port Arthur would be crazy busy, but they weren't. We even came back through Hobart, just to take a different route back.

I tried to stick my head right up to this hydrengia just to show how big the bloom was; it was way bigger than my head - and I have a big head!

We didn't see a tasmanian devil, but we sure did like these evil-looking signs. Would you really want to swerve to avoid a creature that looks like this?

Those of you back home who are familiar with the regular TimTams, look what we discovered! Need I say "delicious!"

And, also, those of you back home, we are wanting Weyburn news. Email us, Facebook me, or leave comments here.