Travels

St Arnaud

Hello people, we’ve been interstate to my mum’s place again. If you recall, last November we spent the visit unpacking mum’s moving boxes. This time I hung her picture collection. Mum is thrilled to have her ‘gallery’ around her again after 10 months of being packed away.

Coming home on Sunday, we had lunch at St Arnaud. I always associate the place with horses as my dad used to go to races there when I was a kid. It was built on the back of the gold mining boom in the 1850s and still produces plenty of gold nuggets for fossickers.

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A statue dedicated to the fellow who inspired the name of the town takes centre stage in a pretty park.

 

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Marshal of France Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud (Public Domain)         Wikipedia says: He served as French Minister of War until the Crimean War when he became Commander-in-chief of the army of the East.

We were going to visit over Easter, but Mr R spotted a car he wanted to buy – which we did on Thursday. It exceeded our expectations on the home trip. I can’t see it being our last car, as there will come a day when I can’t climb into it!  Later this month, we ‘re getting a wind-down solid floor camper, so needed a proper tow vehicle.  The Triton will pull a caravan if we decide to upgrade from the trailer tent.

car

I keep putting off the date of my retirement … but very soon, that’s for sure. The way I feel at the moment, I’d rather it was now. I think I’m hungover from the single bottle of Chardonnay I drank over the last two nights. Had to celebrate such a flash vehicle. (It is dark blue  but looks black in shadows. )

Thanks for reading.  I do hope you had a great weekend.  🙂

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Bees & Bugs

Drone Fky

These photos taken with the Nikon D3000 this morning. I am still chasing the teddy bear bees around for that perfect shot. Got one good one this morning. I was side-tracked by a flash of red in the sun and found this drone fly who, unlike the frisky teddy bee and the blue-banded bees, consented to pose.  I seem to have a bit of shake this morning. I still haven’t got a tripod. I guess the best thing to do is to set up a tripod, focus on a particular flower, and wait. I’m feeling a little sun baked after spending a good while out there.

Yesterday, I vacuumed pretty much our whole house and cleaned little corners where I haven’t been for an age – like the top of my dressing table and behind the wood burner.  I did lots of laundry. I had hoped to get to work on my proofing in the afternoon but then constant sirens alerted us that a bush fire had started  barely 10kms away. Thankfully, the wind was against it speeding our way and the fire brigades quickly built a perimeter around it to keep it contained.  Even so, my head space was ruined.

I’m hoping to get the proofing finished over the next two days. March is ticking away and I will have this book behind me by months end!

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We are grandparents again with the arrival yesterday of our latest grand-daughter by C-section. From the photos on Facebook, she is gorgeous, as is her mother. Makes a difference when neither is knocked around by the usual trauma of childbirth. Mum and dad were a bit shocked at the suddenness of bub’s arrival since the op was unexpected.  This fine family has now reached their magic number of eight children.

Thanks for reading! I had only intended posting the photos and a few words.

All the best for the coming week. Have a good one. 🙂

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Birds

Rainbow Lorikeets

Hello all, sorry I haven’t been posting much. I’m still flat out  with the finishing touches to my book (see christinejrandall.com) though I did take some time out on Sunday to catch up with laundry, vacuuming, and washing the dog.

I don’t see the lorikeets as much since I stopped putting seed out, but I hear them in the flowering gum trees by our house. This time of the year, we get the red-and-blue parrots (crimson rosellas) at the ornamental cypress in our yard. They dig seeds from the little round cones. They are usually too fast to photograph but the lorikeets are much braver and let me get close with the Nikon D3000.

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The lorikeets refused to oblige me by sitting in a sunny spot. The lighting was a bit odd, being late in the day with lots of shadows. I had a bit of a fiddle with GIMP software to bring the birds out from their background.

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Thanks for looking. Do have a good day.   🙂

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