Christmas

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Christmas Lunch

The Christmas Holidays

. . . are finally here!

pine forest single track

With the return of La Nina summer has been wet so far.  Good bike riding weather through the bush and pine forests.

bush single track

Mushrooms and toadstools are doing their thing

End Of The Year

Oliver graduated from primary school

And William began Ninja training

Oliver's Birthday

Well its been well and truly back to reality over the last month: Lots of children's school things, being busy at work, lots to do in the garden, lots of catching up with friends.


On Tuesday Oliver turned twelve so we had a chocolate moose cake with some raspberries from the garden to celebrate.

Tuesday Birthday Cake - another coming on the weekend

First of the season's raspberries

Oliver got a laptop so he was pleased.  Henri was less pleased as his laptop succumbed to the dreaded Katusha virus and after many hours trying to disinfect it had to be re-imaged.


And Katherine and I continued our diet - seafood, salads and only fruit based deserts.

And they say diets don't work

Back to work

Well, its been back to school and work for the Vickers family - a bit of a shock after five months of holidays.  Outside of catching up with friends, some gardening, rediscovering the local mountain bike trails and the like, its been off to work we go.


Its been nice to come home to the flowers though.

home among the flowers

the roses are doing well

as are the bearded irises and daisies

Spring Weekend (for the Frenchies)

C'est le premier vrai weekend pour nous dans cinq mois.  C'est le Samedi matin, tôt. Il va fair beau et les enfants ont des copains qui vient jouer à la maison.  On vas fair un tour en velo et puis aller à la piscine plus tard.  Pour commençer, ç'est le jardin.

le soleil se lève

la maison

les tomates commences à pousser

Allez les bleus!

Booderee Dreaming

The opportunity was there for one last trip before starting back at work next week and this saw us dusting off the camping gear and heading down to Jervis Bay for a couple of nights.  It had been raining so the tannin-stained creeks were running out into the bay and although it wasn't particularly warm it was deserted and as picture perfect as always. Kangaroos, wallabies, fish, dolphins, stingrays, echidnas, bandicoots, possums, kookaburras and a profusion of parrots - Booderee National Park is teaming with wildlife.

Where the forests meet the sea (with a beautiful white sand beach in between)

Katherine and William

William

Kangaroo prints on the beach 

Henri and William in a tree 

Sandy nosed beach echidna

Rockpool

More photos on Flickr.

Mount Ainslie

This morning I walked up Mount Ainslie with Bill. Along with the usual kangaroos and parrots, we saw an echidna (despite his attempts to bury himself), orchids and a bearded dragon.

And enjoyed the view over a sleepy Canberra on a public holiday Monday.

Spring Day

The apple blossoms are out and so, finally, is the sun.

So we loaded up the bikes and went for a ride around the lake.

We saw an interesting pink bush.

And then went home, dug the garden over and watched the goldfish frolic in the pond.

Molonglo Gorge

It's a grey and cool day - perfect weather for bushwalking and looking at trees.

Charlotte's Pass

The ski season is finished in Australia for the year but someone forgot to tell the snow - oh, and us.