Day Twenty-five - Something Pink

Day Twenty-five  -  Something Pink

It was a lovely day with Adoring Husband today.

We drove into The Bay early, but came via Toogoom.

A number of times, when I have caught the bus into town, it has driven past a paddock with a large tree.  Underneath that tree, has been a large mob of kangaroos.  I often thought I'd like to get a photo, so that's where our first stop was today.

Then we drove to the Botanical Gardens in The Bay and spent about two hours walking the tracks and taking photos of birds, dragonflies, butterflies and plants.

Sacred Kingfisher

Across the path to ANOTHER Sacred Kingfisher

Kookaburra eating a bug

Juvenile Nankeen Night Heron

Satin Fly Catcher

That left us JUST enough time to get to the cinema.  We saw 'New Years Eve' and I enjoyed it very much.  There was a slight problem though.

Adoring Husband and I received ten movie passes for Christmas (at our request) and today we planned on using the first of them, HOWEVER, the movie passes all remained on the cupboard in our house, and we had to pay to see the movie today!!  **forehead slap**

After the movie, we went to Drummond Golf where Adoring Husband had some gift vouchers to use.

We had intended meeting friends at the Bowls Club tonight, but we arrived home late in the afternoon and just didn't have the energy or the motivation to get ready to go out.

Hopefully, we will see them at the pub tomorrow night for New Years Eve celebrations.

Looking forward to seeing the New Year in with friends.

Nite all.

Day Twenty-four - Animal

Day Twenty-four  -  Animal

A tourist brought her pet guinea pig on holidays with her :)

The Seat of Knowledge is almost back to normal, now that all but one of my boys has returned from their Christmas break.

One of life's great joys is complaining about the tourists with my boys :D

So you find people who like to feed the happiness INTO you!!

Had a pretty good morning with the camera.  It was quite cool and overcast, so it was easy to sit and wait for the birdlife to do something magical.  Some mornings, the sun bites into you, and you can't sit still for longer than five or ten minutes.

This one has been popular with my flickr group.  I think the Bee Eaters have run out of bees to eat.

Banana Bird with it's blue mask.

If they didn't have that spectacular colour on their wings, you'd never notice them !

I have a date with Adoring Husband tomorrow.  Photo shoot, the movies and lunch.  I'm looking forward to it, so I'd best get some sleep so that I have plenty of energy.

I have nothing more to say today.

Nite all.

Day Twenty-three - Sunflare

Day Twenty-three  -  Sunflare

Another cheater - taken two years ago :)

A glorious December day today.

This is how I started my day ...

The view from the Seat of Knowledge

and this is how I finished my day ...

The lagoon from a distance.

In between was pretty special too.

Before I got my coffee and went to the Seat of Knowledge, I took a detour to my lagoon to check out the bird life during the earlier hours of the morning.

A baby Fig Bird

Weaving my way through the tourists I found my Pacific Baza bird perched in the tree by the caravan park.

Pacific Baza

and then I found my peaceful place away from the tourists on the edge of the national park.

Unfortunately, the birdlife wasn't interested in showing off today, so I didn't get any good shots from there.

Adoring Husband had invited me out for lunch, so after I posted my photos onto flickr, we got dressed and drove to Goodies Restaurant at Toogoom, which is about fifteen minutes from here and right on the waterfront.

I purposely left my camera at home, because sometimes I force myself to take a short break from my obsession, however, the tide was high and the view from the restaurant was so inviting and I found myself feeling very disappointed that I couldn't take a few snaps.

Our meal was lovely and we ran into one of the girls who works at our local pub.  She was there celebrating somebody's birthday and came to our table for a chat.  Our table was in the outdoor area under the trees and there was a cool breeze blowing.  Very very pleasant.

We were there for about ninety minutes before we made our way home.

Not long after we arrived, Mrs Bucket pulled into the driveway and came in for a visit.  She stayed for about an hour and we heard all about her Christmas and Boxing Day.  She was happy... but then she is always happy :o)

So, all in all, it's been a very nice day.  Adoring Husband plays golf tomorrow, but we have made plans for a day together on Friday, to take photos and go to the movies.  I'm looking forward to that!

Nite all.

Day Twenty-two - Hands

Day Twenty-two  -  Hands

I need to harp on about Tourist season again.

This morning at the Seat of Knowledge, only Coral and Bill were there to share the glorious start to the day ... along with hundreds of tourists.

Tourists walking on the path that meanders along the river.

Tourist's children riding their scooters and bicycles and skateboards along the same path.

Tourists and their pets.

Tourists in long queues backing their boats down the boat ramp.

Tourists speeding along the river on their jet skis.

Tourists paddling their kayaks and canoes along the river.

Tourists lined up along the river bank with their folding chairs and their fishing rods.

Tourists cooking bacon and eggs on the gas barbecues at the park.

Tourists floating on foam noodles in the shallows of the river.

Tourists working themselves into a rage because there are too many tourists attempting to do all of these things at once.

My lovely sleepy little town has turned into an Anger Management Resort for the Rat Race Escapees.

I did make one satisfying discovery today about tourists...

... the river is their magnet, which makes the bushland surrounding the town a peaceful haven where I can  search out nature's gems without contending with hustle and bustle.

Honey Eater 

Wattle Bird

There are Whipbirds in the bushland too.  I heard them today.

The first I heard of Whipbirds, was at Bunya Mountains when we were there a couple of months ago.  They make a wonderful sound which has two parts.  The male sings the first part and the female finishes it.

I was so close.  They sounded about ten feet away from me, but the bushland was so dense, I just couldn't see them.

It's good to know that they are there though.

If someone had said to me ten years ago "One day, in your future, you will be creeping through bushland with a camera trying to find birds to photograph"  I would have laughed in their face.

An important lesson that I have learned in life is NEVER say NEVER!

Nite all.

Day Twenty-one - Faceless Portrait

Day Twenty-one - Faceless Portrait

Adoring Husband awoke on Christmas Eve morning to find many missed phone calls from the nursing home where his Mum resides.

When he called them, they advised him that his Mum had been rushed to the hospital during the night and that it looked like she may have had a heart attack.

He then phoned the hospital in a panic, expecting the worst, considering that she is 94 yrs old and this is the third time in a month that she has been taken to hospital.

Planning in our heads, another trip down to Sydney.  Wondering if we could even get flights to Sydney at short notice at this time of year!  Wondering how serious it was.  Wondering if she was suffering.  Wondering if she was afraid.

The hospital informed him that she was fine and that she would be returning to the nursing home that day.  They had found nothing wrong with her.

No heart attack.

This is becoming an emotional roller coaster for Adoring Husband ... and me, for that matter!

It's difficult being so far away because we can't just jump in the car and visit her, to see for ourselves, how she is doing.

We are relying on the nursing home and the hospital to give us accurate information and more often than not, that information is conflicting.

It's quite draining.  No, it's VERY draining.

Today, we fell asleep around lunch time.  I slept for three hours and Adoring Husband slept for about four hours.

We were supposed to attend a Boxing Day barbecue with friends at the Lions Park.  We missed it.

 **sigh**

At least my morning wasn't a complete waste of time.

After my usual time at the Seat of Knowledge, where only one of my boys was sitting, because the others are away with family for Christmas, I pedalled down to see Aussie H.

She was setting up for the big barbecue at the park.  Mrs Bucket and her hubby had gone home to get eskies and the remaining goodies that didn't fit in the car on the first trip.

So I chatted with Aussie H for about 30 mins before setting off to find something to photograph.

Bee Eater with a dragonfly

I'm informed this is a juvenile Whistling Kite

Mature Whistling Kite

Somebody commented about the amazing birdlife in our area, so I went into my flickr photostream to have a look at the birds I had photographed during the past eight months.

I was amazed to find so many bird photos, it would take too long to name them all in here ... although I may put that list of birds in a future post.

Time to sleep ... again.

Nite all.

Day Twenty - Bokeh

Day Twenty - Bokeh

Merry Christmas everybody :D

What a fabulous day we had today.  Our first with little Chicklet.  Good food, good company, lots of giggles.  Just a wonderful family Christmas.

It seems like I spent a LOT of time in the kitchen though!

We had a Skype call with Bubbles this afternoon and tried to call BGWLBH's Dad on Skype but got the 'call failed' message.  It would have been so nice to introduce Chicklet to BGWLBH and her family on Skype.

Earlier in the day there were phone calls from Number One Son, my sister Squirt and Adoring Husband's son JS.

Right now, I am absolutely exhausted and we have a big Boxing Day barbecue to attend tomorrow, down by the river, so yet another short and sweet post tonight.

Unfortunately, the photos were not as good as I'd hoped, and I haven't been through them all yet, so I will probably post a couple tomorrow night as well.

For now, enough,

Nite all.