Canada

Canada by kimsboxofchocolates featuring animal jewelry

Haberdash House animal jewelry
$24 - hannahzakari.co.uk

Au Revoir

I am feeling so french right now, not that I can speak more than two words, or understand how french women stay so thin but hey I am going to find out I promise.  And I'll let you in on it I swear!!

Actually the secret to eating thin is in this absolutely divine book.  Oh my goodness this is like a trip to Paris in a paperback.  I want to live there, well maybe, I must say she did have a very hard time fitting in for a very long time.  But the way she tells of the museums and the streets, oh I cannot wait to get there, which by the way is not long now.  Actually we leave in 3 and a half hours on the Greyhound and then in approximately 9 hours we are out of here all together.  Thrills of excitement up and down my spine.  EEEEE!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway back to the book.  You just must read this.  The thrill of moving to Paris with a super lovely Frenchman is just too much for me, really what is it with this country everyone is France mad!!!  There isn't a blog with a French title, or flavour that isn't devoured and followed by hundreds, me included.  I will honestly give you my absolute most unbiased opinion over the next month, I will take photos of the real deal ok and then you can judge for yourselves.  Is this crazy mad love affair we all seem to have with France warranted?  (Secretly I think it will be)  But let's wait and see.  The recipes in the book sound wonderful too, I am yet to try any as I have not really had time lately, not to say they seem terribly difficult they don't, so I am absolutely giving some a go when we return.  Well worth a visit and a trip in your mind to Paris this one for sure.

The girls and Paul and Adrian took me out for breakfast this morning for an early Mother's Day pressie.  I also received a huge hammock, that we will put up on our big deck.  And a book voucher at my favourite online super bargain book store.  Talk about spoilt.  It will be funny to come back and see how much bigger Alicia's tummy is.  So everyone Au Revoir for now and I'll chat from gay Paris very soon. 

Volcanoes and travel

I know you have heard about it, how could you not.  I have even read some blogs today where the travel cancellations have allowed friends to visit longer so there is some good in this.  BUT for me well not wanting to panic here but PLEASE stop erupting.  Please let the storm that is meant to come in the next couple of days come and settle the ash, please just let me get to France PLEASE!!!!!!!

I know, I know you think I am a cry baby, I am I admit it, I just want to see Gretchen again and I want to see France for th first time.  Adrian and I have been talking about how we might get there some other way.  Not land in CDG airport, but somewhere else that is allowing flights in and then hire a car maybe.  The trains seem to be full to overflowing, so driving ourselves to Paris is an option.  Hey we just want to get there.  I just heard on the early morning news that the major traffic main be rerouted through Spain.  Great we've never been to Spain and we would love to go there, we can drive from there I am sure and it's kind of an adventure then too.  Whatever way we have to go, we will we just want to go. 

Mother Nature she is sure letting us know we really aren't in control of very much at all.  We aren't either, we think we are but really she can just cause the most incredible disruptions without too much effort at all.  Incredible display of power we are seeing, isn't it.  Apparently over 90% of Iceland is not effected by the eruption at all and that is amazing.

So I am crossing my fingers, praying, wishing, really whatever it takes to make the skies clear so we can take off into the wide blue yonder and land in Europe. Join me won't you.

Join Me

These little fellas sit under a tree in one of the gardens here.  See no evil was broken quite some time back and I cannot get another one to match.  So instead I will concentrate on speaking no evil and hearing no evil.  It's a choice we make really don't you think?

Missy you've met before, she is sweet and a little neurotic, the fault of Danielle, who has pampered her and treated her like a human.  On the other hand Boston who would not let me get a good shot of his face yesterday and literally turned his butt in my direction is just like Ashleigh, his owner.  She is quite independent, has a couple of tattoos, I am sure Boston would get some too if he could, Ashleigh no getting any ideas here ok!!  It is strange isn't it how much like their owners animals are.  Danielle is not neurotic mind you, but she is a lot more cautious than Ashleigh is.  She has one tattoo on her foot, which she regretted getting the day after she did.  Ashleigh on the other hand has two.  One on her butt cheek near her hip, a southern cross, which is a star formation here in Australia, to remind her how to find her way home.  And a swallow and italian words on her foot.  What to do when your children grow up and make their own decisions.  Some you agree with and some you don't.  Shrug I have no clue sometimes.  I choose to love them regardless and how could I not they are wonderful.  Just like Missy and Boston, who make me smile so often and make my heart overflow everyday, just like my family.

We brought little angel boy with us from the other house, we had to I love him.  He actually looks so much more content in his new surrounds.  He is nestled in between a couple of trees in the front yard.  He watches us come and go and enjoys the sun and breeze he is truly adorable.

Paperbark trees are wonderful, the bark is used for making bark paintings.  The artists use layers and layers of different coloured bark to create images.  Often Australian scenes, houses, landscapes quite amazing.  We have several paperbarks in the yard, the leaves are thin and long and similar to a weeping willow in appearance.

See the incredible bark, it is soft to touch almost silky in feel and so many colours in every layer.

Bottle brush trees, native to Australia, we do have some weird and wonderful things here.  The yellow brush will become the brown pod on the right.  Equally beautiful in its own way don't you think?  This bush sits at our entry near the fish pond.

Gum nuts, the remainder of the gum tree flowers after the bloom has gone.  like little pottery jars aren't they?  There are so many of these on the trees along the border of the land, I cannot wait until the spring flowering to show you.

So another little tour is over, you'll be true blue Aussies before I am finished with you.  Only 15 days to go till France.  I had a wonderful email from Helene whom we are meeting in Cannes on the 29th May.  I met her blogging, isn't this world fantastic and she has offered to show us around Cannes for the weekend we are there.  How marvellous, is that!!?  The best part of travelling is meeting the people who live there.  Seeing their favourite spots, how generous and kind is she to take the time to meet us.  That is why I say you are welcome, to visit us.  Truly truly welcome.  With open arms I wait to greet you.

And Gretchen, my travel buddy from our Europe tour last year is taking the first tour with us as well.  She lives in Ohio and we have stayed in contact since we left the tour early last year.  She has inspired me as I have gotten to know her and I cannot wait to see her again.  So yes I am excited, to show you round my corner of the world, through this little blog and to meet you in your corner too.

Be Spontaneous Are You Kidding Me !!!!

Post in the Japanese Gardens Toowoomba - says it all doesn't it.

I was just reading through some blogs, checking out what you're all doing and I came across Eva's it inspired me.  Well it challenged me really, because see she is writing about taking this road trip with no planning other than picking the direction out of a hat, and the travel time the same way.  If you knew me well, then right now you would be like yeah right never gonna happen for you girl.  I am an organisation freak.  I plan. I plan the date, the time we leave, the direction we go, how we go, how long we go for.  I book the hotel, I check the booking before we leave, I print off all the confirmation emails and I fold them neatly into my purse.  I check the bank account, I leave phone numbers for people, hey who knows what could happen out there right !  I hate really, really hate just getting in the car with no idea where we will end up.  I like really good accommodation, I hate cockroaches, mice, spiders, lumpy beds and smelly bathrooms.  I cannot stand finding someone else's hair on the bathroom floor or in the tub.  EEwww right now my skin is crawling yuk!  I have tried it once, yeah I really have I let my husband talk me into it.  We were heading off for a naughty weekend away together and I was happy enough to do the usual planning but he convinced me to just get in the car and we would find a place to stay.  It would be fine he promised me.  Yeah right I should have known better.  We headed in the right direction, towards the Gold Coast, I lived there as a teenager, it was fun then but now it's pretty touristy and pretty crowded.  I figured we would be driving through on the way to maybe Tweed Heads another nice coastal town or maybe even a little further down Byron Bay.  Now we have at least a 2 hour drive to just get to the Gold Coast and it's round about 4 hours maybe a little more or less to Byron Bay.  So when we drove right on past Byron I was getting a little worried.  We headed to Shaws Bay.  Nice little town where years before we had spent the night during our first holiday after we were married.  We had wandered around, stayed in a caravan (yeah don't ask me how I let that happen) and we had won 2 hot chickens in the Friday afternoon raffles in the local pub on the beach.  The locals glared at us as if we had taken the food from their childrens mouths so before we found ourselves being chased out of town, we hightailed it to the van and hid out with the chickens for dinner.  Now this was some 20 odd years before our supposedly naughty weekend adventure and suffice to say times have changed.  Caravan park still exactly the same but if Adrian thought I was getting romantic anytime soon in a van he was delirious.  We could not find any other overnight accommodation everything seemed to be weekly or longer rentals.  We eventually decided to head back to Byron and see what we could find there.  Well to be truthful it had been years since we'd been to Byron and I guess we or should I say He under estimated the surge in popularity the place is having.  It was about 4.30pm I had a migrane from stressing about where the heck we were going to spend the night, who said spontaniety is easy and fun, rubbish!!!! and we had no where to stay the place was totally booked out.  Actually hotel owners were laughing at us when we would ask if they had a room, roll on the floor laughing, see this is why I book ahead.  Someone suggested this little resort on the way out of town and as we head towards it we realise it is out of town, miles out of town and not on the beach side of town either but in the scrub, did I say miles out of town.  So we keep driving and eventually we come across a Club Med tucked way in the sand dunes.  It used to be a huge camping ground back in the days when families took vanning holidays together, and camp grounds were run like the one in Dirty Dancing with lots of activities happening.  It had been bought out by the Club Med group and it was now a whole stack of little cabins, beautiful walks, push bikes to hire, a circus school where you could learn to trapeze and a restaurant.  We were able to get a cabin, some food, something to drink and an asprin. Remember the headache! So in the end it was ok, except neither of us had brought swimmers or hats and our walk into the town along the beach, the next day turned us into little red lobsters who couldn't get in the water.  Funny!  So as I say when I read Eva's post about this no planning road trip, I am envious, excited, totally freaking out and I want to do it.  What did I just say am I serious, how could that have come out of my mouth.  But I do want to do it.  Probably not starting here in Toowoomba, because to drive for 1 hour in any direction here really gets you no where, 2 hours well not too bad but nothing to exciting so maybe we head to say Brisbane and go from there.  Hmm interesting will I risk it?  See this is the exciting thing about blogland, you get to live vicariously through other people, you get brilliant ideas about how to spend your weekends, you get to drool over other peoples brilliant cooking efforts and then try them yourself.  Oohh i love blogland and am I up to the challenge ummm let me think about it.  I could probably google a few places, just to see what's out there you know, make a few tentative bookings you know just in case.  Am I alone in this are you all really spontaneous people and I am the only totally freaky control nut?  Tell me how do I change this or do I even try.  Aahh well I'll dream a little anyway.

A Winter Christmas

Christmas 2008 was spent in the beautiful countryside of England. Having two daughters who had been away from home for nearly 6 months as they travelled to America and then the UK, was certainly the catalyst to my wanting to head off too. I had definite pictures in my mind of what I would find in England. I wanted to see winding cobbled lanes, thatched roofed cottages, frozen lakes, naked trees and hopefully snow. We hired a car, took along our GPS navigator, absolutely the best decision we ever made and headed off to see what we could find. One of our trips took us to the lovely city of Bath and the River Avon winding its way through the town. Strange really the word Avon means river so literally the River River....

We ate at a restaurant called Garfunkels, and I can still smell and taste the grilled burger meat I had, delicious. We drove ourselves to the Cottswolds, which means sheep pens and here we saw the lanes and cottages we hoped for. Literally the narrowest lanes winding their way through the most beautiful winter country side. The air was icy and the trees bare of all their leaves. The dirt was frozen and as we traipsed over the fields you could hear it crunch under your feet. That is of course when you could feel your feet. It was icy!!!! In a little village, and there were many of them we found a sweet shop with its beautifully coloured sweets, looking for all they were worth like blown glass droplets. The flavours unlimited and mouth watering. Of course it was Boxing Day so the store was closed, probably lucky for our waistlines. And who hasn't seen the wonderful red telephone boxes that litter the streets of England? Well they are everywhere and it was our mission to have a picture taken in every one that we came across. I have dozens of red phone box pictures...I love them so corny..... so us!!!! The one here was taken by Adrian and I love it. It is ghostlike. Who is in the picture? Where are these people, everytime I look at it I feel like I am seeing a family locked in time in maybe the Tardis...and I am not a Dr. Who fan. But I adore this picture.