Christmas & Katydids

Don found this splendid fellow on the mower - it's a Spotted Katydid Nymph. Hopefully it's a good sign that the weather is warming up for Christmas. It just doesn't seem like Christmas time unless it's scorching hot...

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

A holiday in 7 photos

And now for the climax - summarising the holiday with 7 photos (minus the wedding - we'll save that for a special post). Wish me luck!

Dubbo zoo.

Paddle steamers at Echuca.

Smiling faces at the Coorong.

The blue, blue, oh so blue lake at Mt Gambier. (P.S. It was blue!)

Stalactites in a limestone cave.

Breath-taking views along the Great Ocean Road.

Ye Olde town of Soverign Hill at Ballarat.

Holiday - wildlife shots

I'm not sure whether you could classify Galapagos Tortoises in the zoo as wildlife, but I'm sure it was wild once - in a very sedate kind of way...!

There was a plentiful supply of ducks along the Murray River.

Beautiful swans on the lakes at Mt Gambier. I just missed a photo of it spreading it's wings!

There were so many koalas at Cape Otway it was ridiculous! So lovely to see them up close.

Not much 'life' left in this shell, but so pretty!

Holiday - botanical shots

I'm trying to sort out my holiday photos at the moment. Won't tell you how many we took... But here are some highlights of what I call the Botanical sights.

These gorgeous red flowers were on a tree at Dubbo Zoo:

The bark was in horizontal strips on this tree in the Adelaide Hills. Lower down there were only chunks of bark left. I thought it was quite interesting...:

We loved this vivid purple seaweed on the beach on the south coast:

There were lots of these delicate little blue & yellow flowers along the south coast. They are about the size of your little fingernail:

This was a little creek coming off the Murray River. We played on the bridge while Don tasted wines in the Rutherglen region:

Santa Free Zone

Yes, I'm fed up with ye old Santa rubbish. Completely irrelevant to Christmas - why focus on some bubbly drink sponsored fellow with obvious deep psychological issues, when God himself came to Earth to save the world and offer us the riches of heaven itself! Not to mention adoption into the royal family! Crikey! The children are a little non-plussed at having to explain to strangers on the street that Santa doesn't exist....

Back again

We've just had a lovely 3 week holiday - travelling around South, and attending my cousin's wedding (congrats, Holly & Sam!). As a result, today we're having a very quiet washing day...

Here's a glimpse of our trip: