Goin Up The Country Again Part 2

Kathy and I kick back by the fire as I give Leo
some milk while his Mum and Dad were out picking up his sister

Eli, his girl Kylie, Leo and his sister Crystal live in a converted train carriage on the property. Kathy and Siobhan’s bedrooms are in another train carriage that is attached to the house. It’s a very cute bedroom to have!

girls are so funny! I think Princess
Siobhan has the Best hair. I Wish my hair would do what hers does. But of
course, she hates it. She’s always straightening it! She’s also shy and is
going to hate me for putting all these pictures up!!

The
sun set and I went to check out Eli’s pad, before our BBQ and bonfire.

He
appears to have an interest in horticulture!

Kathy
and Eli discuss his use of petrol as a firestarter, but it worked.

and we got to push over a few more dead trees to
add to it. It was lotsa fun.

Cool night for it, too!

We got the torch out when the dogs started freaking
out a bit – might have been a snake – but it was just this cute Shingleback.

I headed home the next day, but not before a quick
pic of the cows. Kathy warned me not to go too close, apparently Angus are a
bit skittish and you need to watch out for them. That’s all the warning I need!

Goin’ Up The Country Again

Last weekend I went to visit my 2 sisters, a neice,
a couple of nephews, an aunt and my great-nephew!

After a lazy start, my first stop was Jenolan
Caves. I love Jenolan. It really is the most magical place I’ve ever been to
and I never tire of visiting there. As it was late, and raining, and about 3
degrees celcius, I chose a short and sweet cave tour. Inside, the caves are a
relatively balmy 15 degrees year round, so I didn’t freeze the whole time

Can you see the dragon’s head
in this next picture? I know, the picture’s not that clear. Still getting used
to new camera….

I try and
imagine the people exploring these caves in the beginning, by candlelight. It
would have been near-impossible to make out all the beautiful colours and
formations. In fact, one year after the electric lighbulb was invented – in the
USA – they had installed one in this cave

Right here. The funny thing
is, people used to make the long journey from Sydney not to see the caves, but
the lightbulb. Sydney’s streetlights were still gas-lit at that stage!

Why it never bloody snows
when I go to the mountains I don’t know. 1 degrees and raining. No snow.
I headed to my sister, Lisa’s, house in darkness. Lucky I drive that
clunky, Swedish car with the great heater! Lisa claims she is a vampire and
won’t show up in photos, but I snapped this one of rockstar-in-training Alex..

Next morning,
after a quick drop-in to see my Aunty Jean, I headed to Kathy’s farm. You
may recall her place from a blog last year about her baby wallaby, Joe.
Unfortunately, despite the best of care for him, sleeping in their beds with
them, etc, he died. No particular reason. He was quite robust. But it was very
sad to lose him. Anyway, now she has some cows, ducks, dogs, and that bloody
horse which I sat on last time, but didn’t go near on this visit. Kathy has
100acres, but it includes a couple of mountains, so she hasn’t seen a lot of
her land. Next time I go up, we’re going exploring to see what’s there. Last
time I was there, I didn’t see this spring-fed dam, which is just beautiful.
It’s blue, like the blue pools at Angourie. There’s been some recent rains
after a long drought, so here it is