There and Back Again

We have just returned from a wonderful driving holiday to New South Wales - particularly to visit the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. We stayed at the zoo overnight, which was absolutely worthwhile. The zoo accommodation is under canvas, but with luxuries such as heated tile floors and a proper wheelchair-accessible bathroom. The "lodge" was a central gathering place with common room, bar and restaurant. Our package included a three course dinner and full buffet breakfast, three 'close encounter', behind-the-scenes tours of the zoo, free bike hire - and the provision of a wheelchair-accessible taxi to drive us to the various exhibits on the tours.

While the zoo was definitely the highlight of the trip, we also had a lot of fun staying in odd places and visiting such attractions as the 'Crystal Kingdom' in Coonabarabran and the botanic gardens in Goondiwindi. Listening to audio books in the car made the time pass quickly - with family favourites "The Hobbit" (read by Garry) and "Fawlty Towers", as well as some Lemony Snickett. The kids were marvellous the whole way - waking up cheerfully, never complaining, and providing great conversation and entertainment along the way.

No doubt you will read more on the other blogs... but that's all I have time for just now.

Just quickly...

Catherine has *at last* updated her blog - click on the link to the right to navigate straight to Faerytopia.

Timber!

The treeloppers arrived yesterday morning and achieved an amazing amount of work in one day. Two enormous trees are gone - now mere heaps of wood chips on the block. It was sad to see them go.... and watching such a beautiful old tree go down is quite an experience. The word that springs to mind is majestic. Several large pieces of trunk also remain on the block, which we hope to grow vines over alongside the wheelchair pathway.



The trees really did need to come down, sadly. You can see from the above photo that one in particular had a decided lean towards the house. Garry experienced some anxious moments when the loppers were pulling down the first tree using a rope and truck - and the rope snapped, sending the tree swaying towards the house!

The skyline has changed quite a lot, as you can see from the before and after photo looking towards the house and shed from our driveway:




Postscript: One sad thing about this was that cutting down trees is so much against the way I prefer to be in the world. I would much rather plant trees, and nurture them to full growth.... to prune them into beautiful shapes... to enjoy their unique shapes and scents and sounds. Chopping them down is an ugly act, one that brings none of the creative delight that getting to know a tree does.

Awwww

Ctrl Alt Delete cat.... needs someone to hold Alt

see more crazy cat pics

HSM Ice Tour

Catherine and I travelled to Brisbane last Friday to see the fabulous "High School Musical Ice Tour". It was so much fun to take her - she loves both movies and knew all the songs and characters. The show was very impressive, with some excellent ice skaters, costumes and special effects. Makes me wish I could look as graceful on ice! The only sour note was the merchandising, which was excessive and overpriced.

All in all - it was great and we both really enjoyed ourselves.

PS, I haven't been able to upload pictures to my blog for weeks and weeks... a problem I don't know how to solve. Sorry for the pictureless posts, everyone.