Me and the topiary bird..

After a very pretty walk through the gardens at dusk, we sat in the beautiful peaceful vine covered amphitheatre and had a glass of the complimentary sparkling to the piped strains of Bach..just gorgeous!

Dad posing with his mate in the fairy tale garden!!!


& some colourful dahlias!

So the afternoon we arrived in the Hunter, we went to this big Hunter Gardens complex- (tourist attraction, but beautiful nevertheless). It's a large ( many acres) garden, divided into separate garden themes, so you have the formal garden, the rose garden, the fairy tale garden, the chinese garden etc. Here is the waterfall garden and a small section of the indian tea mosaic garden..which must take a lot of work to keep the pebbles swept clean and litter free, but the most interesting thing bout this garden was it's strong pungent smell of tea!! It smelt like walking through a teapot!!! This cute elephant (you don't have to go to asia to find elephants!!) guards the entrance.

26th January,2006.


..saw us headed off to the Hunter Valley for a few days of r&r..winetasting, chesse tasting and olive tasting..mmm found some really yummy olives..here dad is posing in the vines. It is vintage, and the grapes about to be picked here are shiraz. Above...storage in oak barrels..mmm "how many of these can i drink"?

25th January 2006


The next thing that happened of any moment was my birthday dinner.. we all went to Dash of Chilli in Sorlie Road ..actually on the day before as Dad and I were off to the Hunter the next day ( will be subject of next post no doubt). We missed you Chrissy!!!

The night I stayed at Sue's was Josh's 4th birthday. Sue had a family birthday dinner for him. There were Sue's 6, Mum and Herb, Scott's parents and his brother and his wife and me. Nanna made him a Spot cake. I had forgotten how exciting a 4th birthday is!!! Josh got lots of loot and thoroughly enjoyed his birthday!!! here he is with L to R Jesse, Josh Trent and Clinton. I gave the camera to Josh to take this photo of Sue and me...i don't think either of us expected it to come out..well done Joshie!

Here we all are..rello photos in the backyard..

5th January 2006.

I went for a few days in Stanthorpe to visit the rells and attend the Townsend family reunion(honorary position!!). It was wonderful to see everyone. Had a night with Ros & Tony in Brissie- remind me never to complain about humidity again...it was so hot and humid!!! - then a few days with Mum and Herb and a night with Sue before coming home again. Here we have Tony and Rhys in Nanna's back yard.

27th December,2005.

Chris sets off on his adventure..we turn out en masse as a family ( well nearly - Andy had to work)to see him off...a hugely exciting day..am sad to see him go but at the same time excited for him..love the airport..so much human drama..people leaving sobbing rellos behind, other people being reunited, bored businessmen and backpackers..a great place for people watching. Megan rescued some poor little japanese businessman who had upended his lunch, we all had coffee then it was time for our own tearful farewells. Bye Chrissy..see you in London in May!!!

How exciting!!!!! a blog!!! now what to use it for... and what to put on it!!..well i guess the main purpose of a blog apart from an egotistical desire to launch oneself into cyberspace for hapless browsers to fall upon, is as a communication tool..so I think this would be great to keep our little family in touch with each others goings -on, so Chris can look and see what we have been doing we could all use it as a family communication channel!!!!!!!!!!! whatever...I will put stuff on here and people can look at it if they like!!!
Here is a link to chris's blog so we can all see what he's been up to
www.imnotgoodwithnames.blogspot.com