Its been a busy week

Had a few complaints about the lack of any new posts in the last week, so here is a summary of what we've been up to. Quite a lot as it happens.

 This is what the loungeroom looked like early last Tuesday morning.

 And by Tuesday afternoon - furniture!

This is our bedroom with our beautiful big latex mattress bed that we have been yearning to sleep in for THREE LONG YEARS.

A (flat) champagne to celebrate having couches to sit on. And to fortify ourselves for the box unpacking still to come. As I write we are about 40 boxes down the track with at least as many to go. Its been like Christmas, unwrapping things we had forgotten we had. Some of it lovely stuff!  Some of it awful. A big garage sale is on the horizon. Followed by a visit to St V de P. Then the tip.

We used a Taree firm of removalists, Wrights Removals and Storage, wanting to support local business. They did really well.  A bit of minor collateral damage but hard to say whether it was from the moving or from the storage guys. To be expected anyway. I don't care because I am never moving again. Never. Not ever. No.

 The garden has been officially started! With lillipillies.

 After a couple of days of unpacking, we were on the road again, first stop Newcastle to look at outdoor tiles for the terrace. The on to Sydney, past the first of this season's bushfires - this one on the Central Coast near Wyong.

Just a bit of smoke, no delays and we arrived at Surry Hills late Friday afternoon. Spent the night with Linda and Phil, shared a great breakfast out with Denise and Greg, then drove to Canberra. Side trip to Fyshwick to return the cheap used filing cabinets we bought last time, that turned out to be too tall. Epic fail in the space measurement department. Sigh. Have ordered, at ruinous expense, specially made new ones, that actually will fit under the bench in our study.

Then it was off to Mae's, with a box full of photo albums. All my children have been complaining about the family photos having been in storage for the last three years, during which time, Lian, Julian, Wim and Mae have all acquired new partners!

By this time on Saturday it was pouring down in Canberra and so the wedding we were scheduled to attend in the Parliamentary rose gardens was relocated to On Red, a restaurant at the very top of Red Hill overlooking a stunning panorama of the Canberra's seats of power.

Ariane and Andrew are a gorgeous young couple, she's a psychologist (did her internship in my practice a few years back) and he's an environmental entrepreneur with big hopes. It was a fun wedding, but I have to admit we were so tired we slipped away after the speeches and before the nightclubby bit started to happen.

This visit we stayed with friends Kris and Ed. Didn't see a lot of them as we spent most of our time with Mae, but we did share breakfast with Kris and David's former teaching compadre Nina, who came to breakfast (with Daniel) to show off new baby Natalie. David enjoyed demonstrating that, as well as being a cat magnet, he is a superior baby whisperer.

Kris and Ed's place is inspiringly stylish.  I always pick up a few decor ideas there.

Mae has just been through her second round of chemo and it's tough. She gets very nauseous, plus there are nosebleeds and mouth ulcers, a bit of neuropathic discomfort and a general sense of bone weariness. But she never whinges, just gets on with things as best she can.  By Monday, she was up for a bit of an outing, so we took her to the Portrait Gallery to see a digital photographic portrait exhibition, plus a collection of contemporary Chinese works. Bit of a sit down needed, and the infusion of some chocolate cake, then she announced she could manage a bit more, so we went for a drive in the country. Here's what we saw.

This is the new dam at the Cotter River Reserve. Interpretive signage at the site went on about the historic nature of this reserve and mentioned a huge event held there in the 70's: The Down to Earth Festival. Well, I'm old enough to remember that! In fact, I was there. Not only there, but conducted a workshop in "Bioenergetics" at the time, having just come back from the UK where I had learned all about it. My workshop was attended by a range of hippie types, including some who came stark naked. Couldn't happen these days but this was the 70's after all.

 Paddy's River Road is so different than I remember before the fires. The big trees are gone and the fire scars are still there. We headed for Tharwa.

This is Gibraltar Rocks, near Tidbinbilla.

Such a typical limestone country palette of colours - pale, impoverished soil, straw coloured grasses dotted with a few hardy green plants. The sky blue or blue grey, as it is here, just before a hailstorm hit.

 No idea what this little bi-plane was up to. Get on the ground soon, I thought.

Quick trip this time. Its Tuesday today and we have driven back to Diamond Beach, via Lake George, which I always want to photograph because it is so scenic.  I should explain, Diamond Beach is our neighbourhood's name and Halliday's Point is the general district. The region is known as the Mid North Coast.

Finally, this photo is one for overseas readers. A sign stencilled on the path leading to the dunny in a rest area off the highway. Not a joke, by the way. I checked carefully, just in case. No snakes today.