Hello 2011!

Well hello to my lovely cyber friends! My best wishes to you and your families for Christmas and a happy and healthy 2011. My apologies for not getting them to you earlier! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, well away from internet connections.

The harvest of our lupin crop was completed on Christmas Eve. The yield was disappointing, with much of the crop unable to be harvested as it had been flattened by wind earlier in the season. We may just recoup our costs. 2011 will surely be better?!

Finishing harvest so late meant a 4.00 am start on Christmas Day to travel to the coast for Christmas. At least the traffic was quiet!

Christmas with our coastal cousins means lots of food, lots of noise, good coffee, bushwalking, beachwalking ...

... and even a bit of fishing:

A few days with family was followed by a visit with old friends further down the coast near Narooma.

It is so easy to take the beauty of the Australian coastline for granted. There is a stunning landscape at every turn!

There was time to enjoy some of our amazing birds & blooms. Some hastily snapped native orchids in the bush ...

... and some drop dead gorgeous birds, which come in to feed at our friends' back verandah: a stunning King Parrot ...

... and the inimitable Rainbow Lorikeet.

We visited the historic little village of Tilba, and had fish and chips on the beach at Bermagui. Unfortunately, this was closely followed by a violent, but thankfully short-lived bout of food poisoning for me, just to mix things up!

We then had a couple of days in Canberra across the New Year, catching a free NYE concert of The Whitlams, one of our favourite live bands.

 

I went to see the Ballet Russes exhibition at the National Gallery. It was very beautiful, and I loved seeing the textiles and construction techniques of these now 100 year old costumes. Someone had amazing foresight to have purchased these costumes for the Gallery way back in 1973. At that time, they were stuffed in a box, heavily soiled with makeup and sweat.

 

The conservation that many of the costumes has undergone is truly remarkable. This exquisite 'Costume for a Squid' was in confetti sized pieces before its conservation treatment. Quite remarkable.

Of course, there was a day of Canberra shopping for Miss 15, and the inevitable visit to Questacon for our excitable 12-year-old boy. Unsurprisingly, the free fall slide was the highlight for him:

Miss 9 was intrigued with the patterns she could make at the more artistic Recollections exhibit:

So after 10 busy days away, and 1800 kilometres in the car, we are now officially returned home for a rest!


Happy New Year everyone! Bloom x