Out and About with Melinda

Just lovely to get message from Kerrie sharing her birthday celebrations with grandad, Emily and Matt from the Quod!

Well another beautifully sunny morning and Melinda and I went to meet up with her friends from the Church which she does regularly. It was so nice to connect with both Shirley and Joyce.

Shirley has MS but it doesn’t stop her from enjoying life – such an interesting person. And Joyce, well she was so brave and came to Sydney 50 years ago by ship…. BY SHIP!!! when she was only 16 years old. It was called the ten pound poms. And there’s me talking about a trip of a lifetime! She came over and got a job as a secretary, married an Australian and stayed.

The three of us chatted and chatted about the 60s, music, the Royal Family, our families, people and places… loved it.

There was an opportunity for a bit of local photographing this afternoon. So many spring flowers out. I was particularly taken by the camellias in many different colours and huge trees of them, not just small bushes.

One even had three different coloured flowers on the one tree.

There were also azaleas in many colours and gorgeous tangerine coloured lilies growing in lush borders along house frontages as we would perhaps have hydrangeas back in the UK. I have taken so many flower pics, too numerous to put on here but will put them in a gallery when I get more time. As I made my way along a footpath down by the railway track I was suddenly surrounded by my first killer critter experience! Big Australian bees!! I turned around slowly to see the biggest bees nest I have ever seen in my life and gently moved away for fear of mass attack!

The afternoon became quite warm and I decided to change into a teeshirt at last. Melinda drove me over to a very pretty area called Bobbin Head which was a deep ravine with Hawkeshead River at the bottom. We went deeper and deeper following a winding road until we came out into a beautiful spot with a marina containing some exceedingly expensive looking yachts.

Kylie, is this a magpie?