ADVENTURES............PART 3.

Travelling Home.
Monday morning saw us setting off for our journey home.  We'd already decided to use back roads to complete our time without caravan in tow.  Our trusty thermos was filled with hot water, sarnies made & off we went.
First stop was beside the Cotter River on the outskirts of Canberra, where we had morning tea.

Cotter River downstream of the dam.

Onto some very dusty road through the Brindabella Ranges.

Another creek crossing.

We drove down through Tumut (shown in Part 1 post), had our lunch, then travelled up through Batlow, Tumbarumba & down towards Jingellic on the Murray River.
Not far outside the town of Tumbarumba, we pulled into a side road for me to take these photos.......

but, another car pulled alongside & asked what we were doing.  Ooh, looked like an officer of the law.  Right, we'd pulled up at the gates to a Correctional Facility & were told we could take better photos a little further along the road.  Isn't this (above) the most amazing landscape & what lovely views for the aforementioned inmates.
Nearing the border between N.S.W. & Victoria we passed over this bridge on the Murray River.

Travelling & taking photos isn't always easy & although I try hard, I sometimes take them from the windscreen & have to edit out the bug splats, which I've not done on the pic below, just to show what it does look like at times.

Soon we were passing the backwaters of Lake Hume, an enormous water storage on the Murray River outside Albury, where we were booked to stay the night.

Back water of dam.

Dam wall.

Behind the large gum is another tree?  No, it is a small tree smothered in a creeper.  Quite amazing.

Next morning, for the last day, it began on freeway to Wangaratta, where we turned off to again come via back roads.  We stopped in Whitfield, a small village, to have our morning cuppa & was actually able to have a latte made on "proper" lactose free milk (not soy), as some will try to give you.

The shelter at the picnic area where we had our cup of coffee.

  Travelling further, we finally reached Mansfield where we bought some sandwiches, as it was the last town we would go through for a while and ate them at a picnic area beside a river, one of many which run into Lake Eildon.  The countryside in the area is beautiful at this time of year.

I walked back along the road a bit & took this with my smallest lens to capture the bridge where we ate lunch & the views we enjoyed.

A change lens, & I could zoom in on this shed.

The lushness of Spring, before it browns off,  if we have a very hot  dry summer.

This windmill was clanking away merrily in the breeze.

Tummies full, we headed off on the last leg towards our area of West Gippsland.

A sign you don't see very often here in Oz.
Most are for kangaroos, wombats, koalas & emus.

Stopped by this river for a few minutes.

Notice the size of our car  compared to the trees.

How far we climbed into the ranges, though this wasn't the highest on the entire trip.

Our next photo stop (the last), was at Woods Point, a small town which once had the second richest gold mine in Victoria & in its heyday boasted 36 pubs, 3 banks, Hospital, a school with 300 pupils, a cordial factory, 2 breweries, 2 libraries, 3 churches, its own Mayor & town crier.  It even had 5 suburbs, but not much left now.  We must take time to come back & explore more here.
This photo (below) is supposed to be the most photographed petrol station in Australia.  Much of this information was in a brochure we actually found in the Morris yesterday, whilst looking for something else.  It prompted me to get this Part 3 done!!!!

OK, we finally made it home after one final stop at Noojee for afternoon tea.
Sorry this has been so photo heavy (there were lots more), and hope I haven't bored you to tears, but I needed to get it done.  We've had a few day trips over the last week and I want to post about those before the Scavenger Hunt & Finishing Stitches which I participate in with 2 friends at the end of the month.
Uhm!!! No, I'm not done yet as I have a couple of artistic shots or as I'm not in the least artistic, should I say "funky" shots.  Sometimes I like pointing the camera in weird ways, whether it be upwards or on hands & knees, trying out strange angles or odd subjects & securing something a little different.  Well, just being me in other words.

Take care all and huggles from Susan.

ADVENTURES -- PART TWO.

CAPITAL DAYS.

Day 1 in Canberra was just a chillout day with the grandchildren who weren't sure what they wanted to do after a few of our suggestions.
Day 2 they suggested we go to the War Memorial in the morning & off we went.  I didn't want to take my big camera & for the life of me couldn't find my pocket one, so now photos taken whilst there.
After lunch we headed up to Mount Ainslie lookout, where with big camera took some photos looking down on our National Capital.

Looking across Lake Burley Griffin, which when I first visited Canberra in the late 50's was only just being excavated.
To the very right of the photo is the carillon placed on a small island.

Now we are looking further to the right again & you can see the water jet about centre of photo & some of the business district.

Again, panning right and more of the CBD with hills and mountains in the background.

On Saturday we helped DS2 in the garden with some mowing, pruning and weeding, which he' d got behind on over winter, which is very cold there.

Sunday saw us head out to Floriade, which is an annual event to herald in Spring.

Although I was told I'd been before, I couldn't remember exactly when , so I enjoyed the spectacular flower displays.

It was very hard taking photos, because of the crowds (I don't like crowds), and just as you were about to snap, somebody would pass by or stand in front of you, which was so annoying .  I deleted many photos, but here are a couple. 

The displays were breathtaking, but notice all those people in the background.

                                          The above two are just some more of the displays.

There were quite a few sculptural items dotted around & although I took quite a few, one in particular will come in handy for my next Photo Hunt, but here are two to for you now.

Two rather bulbous looking trees.  Notice that rather intrusive "bottom".  This man managed to put himself into every photo I took, so I gave up in the end and moved on.
Sorry about that, but I loved these 2 timber pieces.

A huge lotus floating on the water.

I love taking closeup photos of flowers, so I'll just pop one below, as a final picture.  Aren't they                                                                                      colourful

Enough for today and my last installment will be over the weekend, when I tell about the wonderful journey home.

Till then, take care.

Susan.

ADVENTURES -- PART ONE.

On Tuesday morning (26th Sept), we headed from home towards Canberra, to help with child minding during the school holidays.  As we were not taking the caravan, we decided to take some back roads as a change to travelling up the Hume Freeway.
Off through the Yarra Ranges and Valley & into Albury on the Murray River, which is the state border between Victoria and New South Wales.  Here we stayed the night & headed off next morning, hubby having made a plan to turn off the freeway & up the Snowy Mountains Highway over the Alps to Canberra.  We'd not travelled this road for many years.  First we made for Adelong, then onto Tumut, an area we knew well having lived in Batlow for about 6 1/2 years back in the early eighties.

The freeway heading out of Albury.

Fields of Canola dotted the countryside. (rapeseed in UK).

The "new" to us bridge over Adelong Creek with the pub in the background.

Hills in the distance between Adelong & Tumut.

Once we arrived in Tumut, we stopped for a cup of tea & amenities at the old railway station.  The trains no longer run in this area, but they have preserved some of the interesting pieces from days of steam travel.

    The station buildings and platform, now form part of an information centre, which wasn't open on this day.

If you click on this you can read some of the info, which is part of the interesting snippets about the days of steam.

Part of where those foot warmers were placed to be heated.

From Tumut we travelled up into the mountains, where we passed Blowering Dam, somewhere we picnicked when the children were young, though over the other side to where I took these photos.

Blowering Dam with forested hills in the background.

As we climbed higher, we stopped at Perry's Lookout, where I snapped a couple of photos.

Mountains as far as the eye can see.

Leaving the lookout, we passed through this type of scenery till we were even higher still and above the tree line.

Not many trees up here, but we do have a sign for brumbies, which we never see, but.................

today we were in luck.  Not the best photo due to roadworks we were passing through at the time & couldn't stop,.
There were actually 3 of them & beautiful they were too.

An old deserted hut in the distance.

Still a little snow laying around.  It was on the side of the road too, but our windscreen was so bug splatted, those photos aren't fit to post.

Finally we came to Adaminaby where we had the most amazing salad sandwiches, loaded with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beetroot, cheese & sprouts & for K, ham too.  This small town in the mountains is the stopping off point for cross country skiers & trout fishing on Lake Eucumbene, which was formed as part of the Snowy Mountains scheme to generate hydro-electricity & irragation.

The Big Trout.
We do have many "BIG" things here in Oz.
I've seen quite a few in times past & should find some old photos & do a post of them.

A snow plough on the right, to clear roads in winter & the sign for the Snowy Mountains Scheme Museum, somewhere we should think about visiting some day.

I didn't take anymore photos till after we reached Canberra, so that post will come during the week & one to follow later about our trip home, which was even more adventurous than this. 
Hope you have enjoyed coming along & although this is supposed to be a -quilting- blog, it is a diary of our life too, which has changed substantially since hubby gave up work & we are now officially retirees.
Enjoy the week all and take care.
Susan.

SEPTEMBER SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT.

Linking once again for the monthly photo hunt with I live, I love, I craft.

1.   SHUT.

My magnolia had this particular bud, for about 5 days before it decided to open, as the weather had been so cold & overcast.  Now the wind is blowing the petals off in no time at all.

2.   COPPER.

We visited Como House, a National Trust property in Melbourne a few months ago & I happened to snap this windowsill still life.  I remembered it, although I was thinking of something else to use for this  particular word, but couldn't find one.  Lucky wasn't I that I could fall back on the above.

3.   WRIST.

This was a hard one, so WRIST WATCH it is.
I got this watch on my 9th birthday & it had been my mother's 12th birthday gift.  I still quite often wear it to this day & it goes well.  I've just worked out that it is 77 years old.  At least it doesn't run out of battery power, although it does need a new band.

4.   QUARTER.

Another hard one, but as you can see from the title on the book, I did find "something" for this word.  I made this bag from the book to carry large quilts in or other craft work, when out and about & it is a 'Fat Quarter Bag'.

5.   IT STARTS WITH C.........

A "CHARABANC'. 
We spotted this on our way through Norfolk many years ago.  Not the best snap, but so many things I had for "C", that it was hard to pick one which might be different.

6.   FOAM.

"FOAMING' surf, crashing over the rocks on Phillip Island on a very blustery day last year.

7.   SCARF.

Just finished this for Missy Moo, who admired my purple one with all it's sparkly bits & asked if I could make one for her too.  She chose the blue colourway & I ordered it from the Wool Warehouse & as soon as it arrived, I made a start.  I chose not to do the same pattern as mine, which was super lacy & not practical for wearing to school.  I worked on a pattern of my own and am pleased with how it turned out.  I've written it all down so that other's can use it too.  Can't wait till she gets home from holiday to see if she likes it.

8.   LINE.

The large telescopes of Siding Springs Observatory near Coonabarabran run on a rail "LINE" for moving.  Taken quite some time ago when on holiday in N.S.W.

9.   NOSTALGIC.

I know I hate putting my photo on, but this is for me, quite nostalgic.  I see so many pet photos on blogs and feel that I miss out, but here I am in the late 90's with my two cats, Fluffy (left) & Tabitha (right), who are mother & daughter.  They lived to 14 and nearly 18, so we had them for a long time & I miss them both.  I worked out that I was still working when this photo was taken, as my hair had been permed, wasn't grey, I was wearing rather large round specs & we were living near Nowra on the south coast of N.S.W.  Definitely "NOSTALGIC'.

10. MY OWN CHOICE.

I love this set of stairs up the side of Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales and often use it as my desktop wallpaper.  I took this photo in 2014, but we didn't actually walk up them.  We were going to in 2016, but didn't even visit Malham that time, so maybe next time.

OK, that's my lot for this month and now I look forward to seeing all the other hunter's photos.
Thanks Kate.  Cheers all.
Susan.