Saturday

Enjoyed my day at Eltham Library today, even if it was a bit quiet. Guess it was better than being too busy to be able to find my way around, as every branch is a little bit different and have their own ways of doing things.
Thursday was disappointing for our Grand Final to be washed out. So we go back this week to finish off.....albeit with a slightly different team, as one of our girls can't make it this week. We went ahead Thursday night however with our end of season dinner out, which was very enjoyable.
Saturday last week we went out with Ginny and Kerry to a Heidelberg Choral Society concert....Nabucco in concert. Was a great concert, with wonderful soloists too. Just wish they had access to a bigger venue, as it was rather close quarters for full orchestra, 8 soloists and 100 strong choir. We all came away having thoroughly enjoyed the performance, but just a little bit deaf. I managed to take a couple of photos with my phone camera:
Then last Sunday we had another night out with some of Ginny and Kerry's other friends to celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Was a good night, enjoyable company, and good food at the Mylin Vietnamese restaurant. Again I forgot to take my camera, so have just a couple from my phone camera:
My current project is to go through a lot of botanical photos to select some for a powerpoint presentation. Need to have this done in a couple of weeks I think, ready for a community talk a couple from our plant group will be giving at Mill Park Library.

Sunday 3rd August

It is nice to be home again after my brief sojurn to Cairns to help Margaret. I am not sure how much help I was, but certainly hope I wasn't a hindrance. Wish I could have stayed longer to help with all the running around, and maybe I will get back if I am still needed later on. It certainly is a good time to visit Cairns, not that there was any sightseeing done, but the weather was just balmy compared to Melbourne at the moment. Even the windy day was okay if you had a cardy on - maybe a bit more if you were a Cairns-ian.
Got through tennis on Thursday after the late flight back Wed night, in a bit of a daze, but we won, so we are still on top of the ladder and into the start of the finals next week. Then Thursday afternoon and evening was spent getting stuck into finishing the newsletter, getting it printed Friday, collecting it, folding, stapling and labelling them, and posting today....hooray. The email version is already sent.
And now I have just successfully uploaded photos from the two July garden visits onto my web album - see link to My Botanical Web Albums under Plant Links on the top right.
Had a nice birthday dinner out with Neil tonight at the Machan, a local Indian restaurant - a bit noisy, but nice food and ambience.

Sunday 20th July

Back into the routine here again. Sorry for not posting for so long. It has been a busy time with meetings and paperwork, and it has taken a lot of time reducing the 300 or more photos from our trip to Numurkah and Canberra. As you can see from the new slideshow here I have reduced the photos from Numurkah. Have had some lovely garden visits here closer to home too, which photos still have to be processed. Then there is still the newsletter to do for next month.

Lately of course we have all been very worried about Peter and Marg. Let's hope things keep improving for Peter in hospital, and that Marg can get away to get some more sleep too.

What a pleasure to look out at the damp drizzly weather at last. Katie and friends spent the weekend up at Mt. Hotham snowboarding, and said they had pretty well blizzard conditions the first day, and more rain and snow the other days.

Hooray, Katie passed all her subjects including her thesis - what a miracle, and Keryn did well in her subjects too. Both Neil and I did react rather strongly when Katie jokingly talked about a PhD next......."not in this house you won't"!

Would someone just tell those weeds to stop growing please? Now there is this lovely weather, but which is not very nice for going out in, and the weeds they just keep on going.

Wednesday

Well, here I am at the National Library (in Canberra) able to access the internet/emails at last. Neil is at the conference at Geoscience Australia today, so I am a free agent, and enjoying exploring old haunts. Was going to go shopping, but will instead visit the Botanic Gardens, National Museum and National Gallery if I get time.

I am glad to see Ann is enjoying her newest grandchild in NY, though I imagine by now everyone there will be feeling a little sleep deprived.

We are staying in a b&b in our old street, so it was nice to catch up with an old friend just a short walk away yesterday. Canberra is having a cold snap this week, just for us, but it is really what we expected.....foggy cold mornings, with glorious sunny afternoons. Last night we also caught up with another couple we had not seen for over 20 years. They moved to Wagga Wagga soon after we returned from Perth, then we went to Melbourne after they returned to Canberra.

Not looking forward to our long drive back on Friday, but since I have work arranged for Saturday, it has to be done.

Tuesday 17th June

Congratulations Joanne and Andrew, and welcome to the wide world Liam.

Another event today did not go so well.....our tennis Grand Final. We lost by 3 games. A bit disappointing, but I enjoyed the tennis, and was not as nervous as I used to be on such occasions. Was a bright sunny day, but a bit windy, with several points being won by the wind.

However this afternoon also brought back the internet. Having been deprived for almost 4 days, I phoned Optus once again(5th time), but this time I was not so polite, and, among other things, said we would be changing providers if it wasn't fixed within 24 hours. It may be a coincidence, but it was back within 20 minutes, and hasn't faltered since! What a waste of time it was yesterday spending one and a half hours talking to the help desk in India.

Looking forward to our trip to Numurkah this weekend for the Quarterly Gathering of the Australian Plants Society Victoria. And also to our trip to Canberra following, albeit a very cold venue. Will be nice to catch up with some friends of old we haven't seen for some years now.