Speeding up; Family time

G'day Mates,

My God, it's already the 4 th of March and I'm still in December with my story so I have to hurry a bit because we are now in Tassie (Tasmania) and I'm dying to share our adventures with you.

OK Lets start;

When we came from the Grampians we went into one of the Victorian Goldfields with my cousin. We had a great 5 days together,

we; the tough girls, digging our buts of and Fred did the cooking. 

After these 5 days we had a house sitting again in our beloved Bendigo.....

 In the meantime my uncle Ton from the Netherlands had arrived (in October already when we were still in the West) in Australia. He lived, together with us and our whole family in Australia in the fifties/sixties and was in his teenage years. Most of the family went back to Holland except for one uncle (Ben), he stayed in Australia for ever and was married in the meantime. Ton never had come back to Australia until now, so the two brothers now have spent quite some time together.

During our house sit in Bendigo we invited them to come to us for two nights, our house sit address happens to have an Airbnb studio. We did some site seeing in Bendigo, had a coffee and a nice lunch.

Bendigo, the city we still love and was our first choice to go and live if we had sell our house 9 years ago.....

They were very lucky as on the 13 th of December they were still with us and we had a champagne breakfast together because it was our anniversary. 

We also had Christmas together, at Ben's place. Ton likes cooking so he spent most time in the kitchen. 

The result was sublime!

So was the rest of the dinner....

Very exiting all the "social" media.....

Boxing Day we went to other family and spent some time there as well. We even went bush for a day which was very challenging but the end of the spot was worth going.

Hans and I even had a swim, I won't show you the pictures of that.....

 I made a little movie from the way back because on the way up I was too scared to look outside properly. My God this was the worst road we ever driven and we had some experiences before as you know!

Anyhow, when we were back at the safe side I was happy!

Movie time;

A little stop to enjoy the view

In the meantime my Aunty from Queensland had arrived in Victoria to spent New Year's Eve with all of us so we had a whole bunch of Dutchies together who were dying for Oliebollen, a Dutch tradition which is eaten on New Year's Eve. And who do you think made them.....

They were great!

another dinner.....

And then.... its 2018!!

January

At the 9 th of January we had a house sitting again in Muckleford, near Castlemaine, and when we came there we were welcomed on a special way.....

Yes, there was a snake!! And we had to call the snake catcher....

Got 'im!

Did you know the snake has to be freed within 5 k's where it is caught?

We had a great spot there....

After that house sitting, which by the way was terrific, we brought are little house on wheels to its accommodation where it will stay when we go to Tassie. 

(NOO, that's not our house on wheels!! Could have been though, living all those years in it already!)

 Look at the stunning spot he will live for 7 weeks.

The cows will keep an eye on him as well as our dear friend Rob! Thanks Rob for letting our house stay with you. 

Of course a lot things had to be done before it goes under shelter....

It has to get messy first before it's all organised....

And there it is, nicely safe and dry, see you soon little house....

Even the Kookaburra is watching over him....

Next will be from yeeeehhhh!!

TASSIE

Cheers...

Going Bush in Moondarra State Park

G'day Mates,

As promised I'm now going to show you what the Aussies mean when they say "we are going bush". Going bush is very popular during weekends for families but also for mates together.

What you do is; choose a place you want to go, preferably as hard to reach as possible, you pick up your camping gear, a saw and an axe (sometimes you even see them running around with chainsaws) to cut wood for a fire at night or even during the day when its cold, some fishing gear if you a near water and don't forget the barbie stuff (barbie is Aussie's for Barbecue so certainly NOT a doll), when a woman is involved there most probably also will be some salad, and MOST important and NOT to leave behind is; The Booze!! A lot!!

Pack the car and off you go.  In our case, Hans had just renovated his garden and had a lot of old railway sleepers taken out so he decides to burn the whole lot during our bush days.

barbie stuff and booze.....

On our way to Moondarra State Park

arrived on the camping ground and sorted out our spot....

Ah, a part of the Booze has been secured.....

Hans made his bed.....(our bed is always made haha)

After all the work we were allowed to rest a bit, waiting for things to come....

but you can't only hang around talking bullsh.... and drinking so we also went for a stroll....

the advantage of that is, that you see things, in this case a very strange mushroom/fungus...

 I first thought is was a lamp.....

me and my shadow........

when we came back from the walk it was time to start a fire

wet our inner body again and relax a bit..... 

and enjoy the peace and bird sounds......

(don't look at the empty cans)

Then its time for dinner and Spaghetti is being prepared....

Hans made a bit too much which we wouldn't admit.....

but here is the evidence, too much on the plate and it was spilled all over the place haha!

Its getting darker and colder....

so the chief of fire is very busy to maintain the fire, well, we have enough wood!!

after a nice sleep we had another day on which we didn't do much as it was too warm, except for the drinking and talking part....

and then its Barbie time!!

we had a lovely meal and a great time.

During the second night we were thinking of staying another day and we planned what to do to inform Val, Hans' wife who stayed at home, of our plans, because we didn't have telephone reception in the bush!

Well it wasn't necessary as when we woke up next morning, it was pouring rain, so we packed up and left.

Luckily as there came a lot of bad weather!!

Dear readers, if you want to enjoy this for real and also want to feel the atmosphere, drive together with us to the bush, hear the bullsh...... talking and the sound of the fire and birds, then its a MUST to watch the movie;

MOVIE TIME;

Cheers!