Holidays day three

 I needed to get out of the house and do something fun.
 Some of my favourite days are days like this one, little adventures by myself. Getting out amongst beautiful nature, clearing my head, making room for new thoughts, more positive ones.

I took some craft projects and a book so that Id have something to do but I didnt need them. All I needed was the green grass to lay in, the breeze that rustled the leaves and blew the occasional one gracefully to the ground.

I love looking up and seing the sunlight lighting up leaves from behind. I love seing snippets of blue sky framed by them

All I needed was to be somewhere else, somewhere fresh and new where I new that I wouldn't see anyone I knew. Somewhere where I could climb trees and just be... with no worries or thoughts of the past or future, just the present there and then.

I held on tight to the trees strong trunk and felt safe knowing that it would hold me up high

I love this beautiful life I have

There can be such freedom In new surroundings

Melbourne

Thursday morning we went to Melbourne with Benny's parents, uncle and two of their good friend.

The reason for the journey was to take Benny's dad to the footy as a suprise for his 50th.

We had a busy busy 3 days, making the most of our short trip.

We stayed at a really pretty hotel, went on many fun tram trips, went st.Kilda beach, Victoria markets, the casino, the MCG (melbourne cricket grounds) for a tour (which didn't bore me as much as i thought it might) and i surprised myself by really getting into the footy game and thoroughly enjoying it even though crows lost.
Melbourne was beautiful, and had so many things to see and do, we all wished we could have stayed much longer, it was so much fun. Benny's parents, uncle and their friends kept us laughing all weekend long, they are so funny when they get together.

pics-Benny waiting to get on the plane, Autumn leaves on the way to our tram stop,waiting to catch a tram, our airoplane, autum tree, river water, Benny walking, Benny's uncle+his dad+Benny

photo booth pics, us at saint Kilda beach

me with my handsome

cow up a tree, our lot on the tram, lilydale sign (lily and dale have you guys seen this?!!! for those that don't know my family, i have a cousin lily whose boyfriend is dale), graffiti

st Kilda beach, palms, st Kilda painted in graffiti, guys lookin at the beach

super cute old tram (that we went on, i loved it sooo much!)

australia day and last weekend

happy australia day!
for australia day we went to kadina. me benny and dad went to the beach for the morning and had a barbeque for lunch at the park with mum when she finished work

on the weekend we went to 'the rocks' in balaklava with bennys parents. there wasnt enough water to swim like we were hoping but we still had fun

heres benny and his mum looking for tadpoles and fish

i went and stayed with mum because i had first aid course in kadina

do you know what was super fun about first aid (who knew there was anything fun about first aid) i was told i was in a full day class but when i got there he told me i only had to stay 2.5 hours as it was a CPR refresher. yay!

we went walking around kadina and also went for a walk on the beach at wallaroo. i love walking and chatting with mum

and this was last week when it was hot

because i got out of first aid so early i bought some journal making supplies, packed some fried rice and water and had a picnic in my favourite park. i so enjoyed having nothing to do but make and eat, enjoy old familiar trees that ive grown up visiting often. so nice to just sit and watch the world wizz by while relaxed my mind

i wrote my very fist page (theres nothing like filling that very first journal page!)

heres my new stainless steel drink bottle that i got after reading this about sigg (i used to use a sigg bottle) If you use a sigg bottle i recomend you read that link and decide for yourself if you still want to use it. i was pleased to discover that my new bottle still fits into my favourite cover

my new journal. the sticker at the bottom says dreams and wishes

camping on the river

on the weekend me and benny went camping near morgan with his parents at the spot theyve been going to since he was a little boy. friday night we arrived at the river. their favourite spot was taken so we had to search for another site.

unfortunately the spot we found was a little to sandy. we got bogged. then it started to rain. after all getting thouroughly saturated trying to get the car out we gave up and camped there overnight. and woke up to a flat tire on the caravan!

from there, luck couldnt get any worse so it got much better. once the car was out and tyre changed we went and found their favourite spot was free. the rest of the weekend was perfect blue sky, white puffy clouds, picture perfect

we had lots of fun checking out local opp shops and garage sales (bennys mum loves opp shops as much as i do!) found lots of $1 clothing bargains.

i loved their caravan that pops up, cooking damper on the fire, eating stew (real camping foods!)

benny and i wandered to all his favourite spots and he told me memories from when he was younger

plenty of perfect hours were spent reading on the river while benny checked fishing lines and their dog jasper paddled (and chased ducks) in the water

we caught a few good fish

shrimp were caught for bait. i was more excited about the shrimp than fish because i could get them out of the pots and hold them. oh and no scary hooks!

ahh, feeling thouroughly refreshed and happy. i had so much fun

thankful for cool

this morning i packed up my bag full of goodies and went to my newly discovered favourite place

i walked down this path

and followed this arow and there i was, a quiet place, a thinking place just for me

sitting atop a huge slab of concrete (in which i have to jump and climb onto, what could be more fun?) i had water flowing around me, making its way back out to the sea

i ate breakfast cake and wrote some wishes in my journal

and then released them into the world. it was a perfectly breezy day so that they ebbed and danced down to the stream, and floated out of my sight. the tide carried them to the big wide ocean that links to the whole wide world. so that the big wide world would know just what i wish for and be able to send my dreams back to me

if i could choose any neighbours it would be these guys!

finally me and dad went to see lynsay and kaia and met there little man callum for the first time. we had such a nice day there. it was of those times that you dont get around to going somewhere for a long time and then as soon as you get there you wonder how you could have stayed away so long. too long.
we had a barbeque together and shared stories of our lives since we were last together

sadly i was having a bit of a fuzzy camera focus day:( but i am learning to accept that in my beginner slr camera days this is a fact of life. sigh
i still love this picture of kaia and callum, afterall pictures are about capturing moments and memories and this picture will remind me of their beautiful bond they share, watching them play together and have fun. and that i need way more practice using my camera...:)
i realy enjoyed getting to know kaia better, we have a lot in common, our enviro friendliness, we both love making and just seemed to agree on pretty much everything. weve definately got to have a making day together one day


isnt he just a cutie!

and then we went outside, sat around callums sandpit and soaked up the native bush beauty that surrounds their home and ate yummy salad rolls. i just cant get enough of being outdoors in good company

love the expression and joy in this photo

the green machines maiden voyage

well... friday morning i woke early, drove to adelaide (1.5hours) to pick up my (then immaculate and shiny) beautiful car, rushed back to kadina(1.5hours), picked up kylie in wallaroo(15min) and headed to roxby downs (6hours) and then went to our friend becs in andamooka(30mins) Do you think by this time my car had been worn in?

here is my car in its filthy state by the time we got there
friday night we hung out at becs funky caravan house. i so love it, its small and everthing is little and has its own little spot. we had a good old gossip catch up session and caught up on whats been happening in the last 4 months since we saw eachother last (way too long if you ask me!) then we went down to the local pub (called the opal as andamooka is a mining town where they mine opals) and laughed at drunk people trying to sing karayoke ha ha
sat morning bagon and eggs cooked on the barbie (yum!)
heres the little kitchen, c, isnt it cute! (cuter still when it isnt clutterd up with my n kylies stuff)

their rock garden and cool old rusty stuff that i loved

sat nite we went to a dress up party, bec as a 'knocked up prom queen' ky as little red riding hood and me as a pirate

us as three amigos at oct'opal'fest. we missed lotsa the avents coz we over slept but there was keg throwing, tug of war (so so funny, the rope snapped, big men went flying all over the place and everyone was crying with laughter!) mud fights, andamooka idol and fireworks

heres some of the kids having a mud fight, they so luved it!

bec accidently stepped into the mud. i was so buisy laughing at her an trying to take a photo that i stepped in it too (wasnt laughing quite so hard then! ha ha)
and bec with all her octopalfest drinks (ok so some of them were ours lol)

we had soo much fun, good work ky for suggesting the road trip. sadly kylie is movin up to work with bec at the beginning of next year. i think another andamooka road trip will be in store (and then another one next octopal fest!!)