They're back!!!

Norway's loss is our gain. David, Louise and little Adam arrived a couple of weeks ago. They now have a house and car and David's back at Uni - so they are already in full swing. Little Adam is totally gorgeous (a completely objective and unbiased view). I spent a few days down at the Taj Ma Briedis and the others came over. Adam and Freiya laid waste to any semblance of order. We went to Luna Park, ate a lot and generally had a good time.

David and Louise (pronounced Louisa.... with a Nordic accent - the 'sa' is like the 'sser' in 'kisser') down at St Kilda pier on the way to Luna Park and appallingly unhealthy chocolate cakes at the Village Belle (now more usually just called Atkins street).


Louise and Adam at Luna Park (just for fun!)


David and Adam playing with a yellow balloon


Adam on the kitchen floor - an Alna floor of course!

Snow
(there's snow business like snow business......) (sorry....)

No snow on the house - just on the hills all around. Nice to see. There had been fairly heavy snow for a few days but with very heavy mist we couldn't see it. Finally some sun.

Snow on Mt Mary - Adam's cottage in the foreground, plus water tank and shed.


Snow above the house


Mt Buffalo from the road just down from the house.

Grapevine

The last of the autumn leaves on the grapevine.

Nice news (for those in Oz, but not in Norway)
David, Louise and baby Adam arrived back in Melbourne from Norway yesterday.

Louise, David & Adam


Baby Adam looking horrified at seeing Melbourne weather for the first time.

Hot bran mash!
To keep then laying with the cold weather they get this daily treat - which they LOVE.

The four browns (minus Doris who is otherwise engaged) with their plate of hot bran mash.


The six blacks with their plate. The browns are still too bossy to share theirs. The blacks (being simple chooks) haven't figured it out yet that they are just as big as the brown chooks and more numerous - they still defer to the browns.


Doris laying an egg - tormented by the smell of hot bran mash.

Jack the Wombat-dog.
Cute but ridiculously spoiled (it's Julia's fault).

Asleep


He realises it's a setup.

Chook bedtime
Taken with flash in the pitch dark. They didn't like it at all.

The young black chooks


The brown chooks - Daisy, on the left rules the roost. Bosses the blacks into place and when everyone is in their right spot, then settles down herself.

We're back!!
By popular demand!!
....well actually because I've received death threats if I didn't update the blog.
I've been totally slack.
Mind you, after fires and comets.... it's a hard act to follow. But of course there's only one thing that can possibly beat such dramatic events.....
A BABY!!

More to follow soon!

Here's little Adam at 9 months:


And Louise, Adam and David

The comet

McNaught's Comet has been across over the sky over the last couple of weeks. We missed it at it's brightest, but last week spent an evening sitting out next to the road watching it. We couldn't see it from our place - the mountains were in the road, so all we could see was the tail. So we drove down to the vineyards to watch, with Jack running around chasing things in the dark.

It was hard to see until the sun had set, but then got brighter as the evening got darker. There was a moon unfortunately, but no matter. Once it got dark, we were astonished at how long the tail was - millions of miles I suppose.

The comet just after the sun had set


Later on, with just the last glow of the sun over the horizon.

Eggs!!

I know I know, we're starting (starting?) to sound like the couple out of The Good Life - but to find these very first eggs this morning was ridiculously satisfying. So the chooks are finally starting to earn their keep.

The eggs - only little ones so far.... from little chooks.


The eggs in a little egg basket in which Julia's grandma used to collect her eggs.

It's Freiya's first birthday!!

This is our little birthday card to Freiya

New Years Day

Well last night we had over 5mm of rain!!!!!! That mightn't sound much, but it more than doubled the entire rainfall for December - and took it out of the 'lowest on record for December' bracket. And just in time - it fell before midnight so it could be counted in December's total. Much heavier rain fell further into the mountains and it seems it has really doused a lot of the fires this time. There are still various fires going, but they are well contained. And the Buckland River is running properly again. So this is absolutely and positively the last 'fire report' on the blog for the time being.

I spend a few nice days in Melbourne over Xmas and here's some pics to prove it.

My ridiculously gorgeous bunch of nieces. Elizabeth, Luciana, Dahli with baby Freiya (known as 'the bundle') and Crystal from Canberra. Isabella, Luces' twin, is up in Byron Bay. This is the annual 'Lemon Tree Photo' - taken in front of the same lemon tree on Xmas day for the last 15 years or so.


My sister Hassanah with Freiya, Dahli and Hussien.


Dahli sews and glues leather soles on Freiya's little shoes. We don't have such an award but if we did, she'd get 'Mum of the Year'.


Freiya dancing outside.


Huss at Mission Control (the computer).