Good work Zakky on the photos! I'm very proud :)
Mainly for Zak & Moo, Aunty Jenny got me these awesome gumboots!

Hope everyone is well :)
Clare

greetings from the south coast

Hi all,

Let,s see what I can do. I did it!!! My old buddy Jane and me at beautiful Meroo N.P. in January.

Our eastern water dragon, on his chair in the garden. just have to work out how to get photos in sync with words. Hasi having a morning coffee.
Stay tuned for the mosaic mirror in bathroom when we load them on to the computer.
I'm so excited!!!
Love to you all, Zak

Kate's here

Hi All

Kate has called on Monday because Genevieve visited the Illawarra on Friday. We want to put a few photos on and, like me, she has difficulties putting them on so we're doing it together. Then she can tell you the story.
Gen and I had a great day on Saturday, scouring the op shops of the Illawarra, and also a few of my favourite other shops. We both got some bargains, Gen mostly. As we sat around the fire on Friday night, Bridge spoke to us from the deep south. Amazing, sounded like she was just down the street.
Hopefully, I can now put photos on the blog. I will try at home in the next few days, then you may all be sorry, when I start sending heaps of pottery and  garden shoots.  The chook pictured is Milly, one of Bridge's we are looking after for her. When she came to us, her arse was red raw, no feathers, she was pretty scungy. We have just emailed this shoot to Bridge, so I hope she's impressed.
Time for lunch. Mum and dad are fit and well.
Love to you all, Zak

greetings from the coast

Hi all,
I will just say hi, to keep the blog rolling along.Annie you will be glad to know there is a bottle shop about 5 minutes walk away from Mart and Claire,s place so Claire doesnt have to start stock piling.
The womens fellowship of the pots went on an excursion to an amazing ceramic exhibition last night in Port Kembla. 3 local women potters were exhibiting, very beautiful stuff, and very inspiring for us beginners.
I have finally been allowed to "try" to make a teapot, by my potting guru, Ms Chell Jones. She has lent me a book on the hows and whys of teapot making. I am overwhelmed, and now realise why I had to wait till I had a decent amount of knowledge and experience with clay. I will never look at a teapot in the same way again.One of the exhibiters last night, has indeed perfected the art of teapot making, and it was beautiful to behold!!
Tonght Genevieve (aka Evie Chesterfield) is heading to the Illawarra, if she can still stand, after a very hectic week at the Mercedes Fashion Week in sydney. I will plan an itinerary today, so we can squeeze in as many of the best Illawarra op shops as we can tomorrow. Also it is national garage sale weekend this weekend, as Im sure you are aware Mart, so it will be double the action. Reminder to myself-put roof racks and trailer on car!! For those interested there should be a register on line of addresses partaking in the garage sale scheme. Its all about recycling so get out there and save the world for your grandkids to come. As I dont have to worry about that angle, I'll just do it for the fun of it!!
Love to you all. Its going to be a fun weekend.
P.S. Mum dont forget what you have to do.
Love Zak

News from the capital

Hi all, Steve and I are back from Melbourne after finally seeing the great Burt Bacharach. It was well worth the wait. Great songs, prompting Steve to say more than once,"did he write this?" It was hard to fit so many songs into such a short time, so there were lots of medleys. (that's songs put together one after the other). For an 83 year old he is pretty good and still write great songs! I really love Melbourne, as a Sydney girl, I have to say that Melbourne definitely tops it. You can walk in the middle of Melbourne on a thursday night at 10pm and so many people are out, enjoying themselves, not hassling you, and we ate dinner at a Greek place that was open 24 hours! The trams are also great- makes getting around so much easier. We came home on Saturday night, to make sure we saw Lucy before she went back to uni on Sunday. It was great to have her home for two weeks- she is really loving uni, which makes us very happy. Clare was also happy to have her home-she is really missing her. Holidays will be over before we know it, and then it is time for musical rehearsals- no life for me for the next 14 weeks- why do I keep doing them?? I think it's because the kids enjoy them so much and get so much out of them. By now most of you know that Kate and I are heading to Darwin in October- plane tickets are booked. Look out Marty we are on our way. Claire, start stocking up on the champagne now!! We are both really excited about going. Anyway, that is about all. Love to all, Annie

P.S from the south coast

P.S.Happy 50th to Bridge in the Fridge. Cant wait for the party on her return to Oz.

greetings from the south coast

Hi everyone,
Yep I had an amazing weekend with lots of my favourite women friends on the beautiful Shoalhavan river a few weeks ago. The weather was completely awesome, so we could jump out of the tent and straight into the river each morning. We had the amazing Ikea kiln up and running as well as a pit firing. This was indeed a very special weekend.
Hasi and I then headed out to Kanangra Boyd National Park. We were lucky to have 2 days of good weather. Even overcast is good weather for walking, even if we couldnt see to Sydney, which you apparently can on a clear day.  We stoked the fire up well for the evenings, which were not as cold as we expected, before snuggling into the tent with welsh patchwork blanket.
However we did have a near death experience when we woke to an enormous crack, as a huge "branch" from an old gumtree above us broke and crashed to the ground, less than a metre from the tent. Definitely it would have killed us if it landed on us, as it was too heavy for me to lift. We were pretty freaked out, but thought whats the chance of it happening again the very next night,so we left the tent where it was.
The next night it wasnt the tree that was the problem, it was the mattress which kept going flat, followed by the rain, that came pouring through the roof of the tent. Nothing pisses you off more, as you would all know  than a tent that isnt waterproof. It is a well documented form of torture, and when you are already in bed in the tent by 7 or 8pm, it can be a very long night.
Last week we had a sky light put into the kitchen. As none of you are very frequent visitors, you may not know how dark the kitchen gets this time of year, thanks to the no taste monstrosity that was built by our northerly neighbours.  It is really amazing the difference it makes
.Well thats about it for news from the south. Hope alls well.
Love to you all, Zak