A White Christmas.

Not quite like the Northern Hemisphere but at this time of year we do have our own white Christmas thanks to this lovely little tree.

An Australian Lilli Pilli tree.

With these lovely white snow flake blossoms.

Only three more sleeps before Santa arrives.

Happy Christmas everyone and we hope you have a Happy and Healthy 2015.

Storms

The weather is very different to this time last year. Our visitors wouldn't like this.

We are having high temperatures and high humidity which result in stormy weather.

Late afternoon each day we are getting big storms building up. I know I asked for some rain but a gentle rain more often would have been good.

Another storm cell building up over Kurrajong Heights.

Very dramatic.

 Down comes the rain.

 Not like this last year.

 Our neighbours tree took a lot of damage.

 

These are just a few of the branches that fell to ground.

The SES were called out to take down branches that were loose, but caught up in the tree, which could fall and do more harm.

A Year ago Today

A year ago today we were all up early making final preparations for the arrival of the rest of our little family.

Lots of hanging around and waiting but ....

.... they finally arrived, tired and happy to be on the ground.

Great reunion and nearly four months to enjoy their company.

Summer

Today is the first day of Summer and its been a wet one. We have had the most welcome and glorious rain in the last couple of days, with the grass showing a hint of green already. It doesn't matter how much we hand water there is nothing like a nice drop of fresh rain.

A visit from a pair of Little Corella's.

Today is important for another reason. Exactly this time last year we were excited and all frantically getting ready for the arrival of our little Swedish family.

Its going to be a little sad and quiet Christmas this year. 

Thank goodness for Skype.

Day Out

Today I met up with Alex, Cathy and Graham at the grounds of The Sydney Society of Model Engineers at Luddenham. Its somewhere I've wanted to visit for a number of years but never had the excuse before. The site is quite open and as the temperature was 37C. we could only manage a couple of hours.

The grounds are quite extensive and house cars, boats, planes and trains in all their various modes and scales.

Steam trains in the marshaling area.

Some very impressive examples of engineering, and beards.

There is over 3 Kms of well laid out track in a very nice enviroment.

 

Alex was allowed to take the controls of this little three speed diesel loco. His hat is off just for the photographs.

 There they go.

Alex in control.

Other models in the park were all moving too quickly to get any good pics. The tethered race cars were reaching speeds of nearly 200kms/hr.

It was a good day but I would like to go again in a cooler time of year.

More gardening.

With some recent good rain and the warmer days, the garden is bursting forth.

The first bloom on the white wisteria.

Plenty of the blue wisteria in the garden.

The bees love these blue flowers.

A big Fiddle Head Fern doing well despite being more exposed now we have cut back the big over hanging Lilli Pilli tree.

Cut back trees are all shooting.

Even the big Lilli Pilli is starting to shoot.

Walking Lilly

Unfortunately the beautiful flowers don't last very long.

Rainbow.

Monday 13th October, just over a week ago, we had some much needed but very heavy rain. 

After the storm was over and we wandered outside, we noticed this lovely rainbow.

I rushed back inside to get the camera and record the moment.

It took a while to notice that there were in fact two rainbows. I was afraid that if I moved to a better view point they may have faded so I just kept clicking.

Its not often we see a complete rainbow let alone a double one. I should have been on the roof to capture the best shots but it was still wet and too slippy.

Hawkesbury Machinery and Truck Show.

This all happened a few weeks ago but I have only just got around to down loading the photos.

I know I will get into trouble for this from SWMBO, about  the number of photos, but I love this type of event. 

There is such a diverse range of trucks, tractors and stationary engines all lovingly cared for.

These steam rollers are now becoming few and far between.

Jumbos truck next to a lovely Chevrolet owned by Graham Franks .

 

An exciting find. A steam driven Sentinel made in Shrewsbury UK.

Another road roller.

Row upon row of stationary steam engines.

 

 

 

Now some of the big stuff.

 

 Good play on words.

I wonder how much these gold plated wheel nuts are worth?

 

A steam traction engine.

A stationary engine providing belt driven power to ploughs, generators etc..

This is one of my favourites. A single cylinder tractor using paraffin.

It has to be pre-heated with a gas burner and when it fires its like a mini explosion.

One of the exhibits heading home.

The rail line passes alongside the Showground and the Machinery Show happened to coincide with a visit to Richmond by two Steam locomotives.

Take your choice of the locos but I know which I like best.