​Time certainly has flown. We have been here for over 12 months and are enjoying it more than we could ever have imagined. We have accomplished a lot in 12 months, and continue to love working  on our new place. 
Bruce has cleared acres of lantana (a highly invasive species) and in doing so has made much of  our impenetrable forest accessible to us. I have also worked on this, but Bruce has been on a mission to return our forest to a more natural state. In doing so he is now fitter and stronger than he has been in decades. 
We've felled trees, built terraces, started a veggie garden, set up our solar power, put in more rainwater storage , refurbished multiple fruit trees that were doing very poorly just sitting on bare ground and most of all we have settled in to our beautiful forest  home. We have good neighbors (we can never hear them from our place) and have  discovered a strong, cooperative, tolerant community to be part of . 
Our life is simple. We spend most of our waking moments outdoors surrounded by the sounds and sights of nature.  We don't see many people from day to day and rarely watch screen entertainment. We read,  watch  and photograph birds and animals, play music, work on our many little, medium and large sized  projects.  We  go camping and exploring some of the national parks that surround us. 
Life is so completely different to life in an urban environment. We both feel the joy of this new life we are so fortunate to have. We will be posting photos elsewhere on this website. Cheers all.

After several months of self imposed avoidance of social media, I have decided to re-engage. 
It's been a busy 6 months, and we have truly settled in to our new home. I'm going to post a bunch of photos over the next week  for anyone interested in seeing our  little patch of paradise. 

There have been small bushfires burning all around us for a couple of weeks, but in the last 2 days one has gotten bigger and out of control.  It is 12 kms from our house. The SES  ( State Emergency Services) blokes showed up tonight and gave us the update - backburning tomorrow , watch the wind- have an evacuation plan - get the hell out if things go bad tomorrow,
Being surrounded by huge trees, we will have no choice, but hopefully the wind and the firefighting efforts will get things under control. They have been water bombing all day, but one house has already been lost . The bush is dry and inaccessible . 

In other news, our bird water on the deck has continued to attract all sorts of beauties.  

​Parrot City (Crimson Rosellas  and King Parrots)

Four weeks in and we have planted our first (and second) passionfruit vine - Hooray!

The possums (brushtails) have started to make their presence felt. Chompimg on our avocado tree  all night long has resulted in action- Today we put some corrugated roofing perspex around the base of the tree - we'll see how that goes . 
We have wallabies and pademelons also hopping by nightly, so we can't be sure who ate the tips off our  thyme and rosemary. They now have wire guards on them ...
We removed an old fenced area which was overgrown with lemon grass and tree lucerne and uncovered ... a youhg avocado tree! Amazing . It is now muched and fertilized- and watered!
Bruce continues the lantana eradicationand is making good progress ripping out the dreaded pest plant. 
Best sighting of all was our resident lace monitor. It seems to be around the garden a lot, and runs up the nearest tree if we come out. Such a beautiful creature.

We are also having regular fires outside in the evening -Had a great chicken curry  in the camp oven recently.

.We have a so many birds coming around on a daily basis.  These are just a few of them.

In the last few months of our time in US, I took some time to revisit some old favorites place and also go see some new places.  

In January,  I went with some of my friends for a long weekend to Austin,  Texas.  It's a great place to visit, the music scene is amazing, as is the food. It was here I had the BEST BBQ ever. We had to order a week on advance to avoid waiting for up to 2 hours to get served, and it was  so delicious. The brisket was like eating butter- the  most tender yet most flavorsome ever.  An added bonus was that I was able to catch up with an amaxing your friend, film maker and ex- teacher, Kelly Norris. 

We avoided the enormous thunderstorm, and headed out to meet Chuck and Charles the next morning on the river. They had had heavy rain and the river was moving along . Normally we only paddle flat water, but with Charles in the lead we ran shoal after shoal. It was not a dry trip by any stretch, pulling out three times to empty the kayaks. This was our first experience in sit on top kayaks and while they were not dry, they were basically unsinkable. This was fortunate because we went through some very  fast moving water. I had never been on a paddle like it. Several times we went over drops of 1-2 feet. Several times the boat was totally awash, but despite this, it kept on floating and moving. Without Charles leading the way it would have completely freaked me out, but  we just followed his boat and seeing him come out the other side of each whitewater section gave me the confident to just keep paddling.  
The river was wide with forest on either side. We did a little less sight seeing than usual, as for a fair chunk of the time  we were focused on paddling. That said, we would not have missed it for quids. It was terrific. 
We were due in New Orleans that night, so we had a 6-7 our drive. By the time we arrived, our shoes were almost dry!
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 I was lucky to get to spend a long weekend with my friends Larry and Barbara  in California's state capital early this month. Although we spent most of our time just talking, we did see some interesting sights. I also got to spend an evening   with their  lovely  kids and grandkids .  It was great to see everyone again after a couple of years. Below are a few random photos from my weekend. 

We've been on the road for roughly 3 weeks and are finally in one place long emough to upload some of our travels. Watch the intro to the road trip here. 
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