Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 6)

Here is Liga going for an early morning swim at Warrnambool.

Yes, this is the same Liga who has been complaining about being cold every day since she got here! She didn’t stay in for long, though she admitted that the water temperature wasn’t too bad.

As soon as we set foot outside, I knew that today was going to be hot. Liga had better be careful what she wishes for!

But she did it. She swam in an Australian sea. She was very upset to learn that she can’t swim in the sea when she gets to Cairns, because of the crocodiles.

Before we left, I had my usual tight-arse breakfast of Vita-Weets and Vegemite. Naturally, they had to try Vegemite.

I think it’s safe to say that this will be the first and last time they eat it. We went to a café so they could have breaky. There were some fire engines there as well, with heaps of firies.

“It sounds like you’re almost saying ‘fairies’,” said Liga2.

“Nah, these aren’t fairies! They’re FIRE – IES!” I said.

I can’t help myself. I liked this mural on a shop at Halls Gap.

By the time we got to Halls Gap, a little town surrounded by the hills of The Grampians, it was around midday and it was 30C. The power was out and all of the fire warning signs had their arrows pointed to extreme danger of fire. The wind was whooshing along the tops of the trees. If someone was stupid enough to drop a lit cigarette on the ground, it wouldn’t be good.

People from Melbourne absolutely love The Grampians. They’re only a 4 or 5 hour drive from the city and the bushland is pristine. If there’s a long weekend, you can get two full days of camping in the bush before you have to go home. Evry time i said I was bringing the Ligas here, people’s eyes would light up.

We went to the Information centre for a map of the walks around town. Liga decided that she would do the longest and most difficult walk ( of course), so after making sure she had water, sunscreen and some nut bars to eat, we drove off to a car park and left her there, agreeing to come back at 5:30 to pick her up.

Liga2 and I aren’t insane. We decided to see McKenzie Falls, The Broken Falls and the Balconies. Why push ourselves?

You wouldn’t believe it.

We were walking towards the McKenzie Falls lookout when Liga2 heard a noise. There were 2 fat Blue Tounge lizards. These ones were a bit more shy than the ones from yesterday, so they were easing themselves away as other tourists approached.

McKenzie Falls. We decided not to go down, as the stairs looked very steep and Liga2 was worried about how the heat might affect her.

So we pushed on and saw Broken Falls, which weren’t worth a photo (sorry!).

Our next stop was The Balconies walk. It’s around 15 minutes to get there.

I took a photo at the initial lookout, just to prove that I was actually here.

I’ve had this hat for around 20 years. It doesn’t have a chin strap, so I was hanging onto it to make sure it didn’t blow away. I love this hat.

Even before you get to The Balconies, the views are amazing.

The trails are really well-maintained here, though having said that, while Liga2 and I were walking merrily along, chatting about all sorts of things, Liga was clinging to cliff faces and inching her way along in places.

She was also having a lovely, if at times slightly daunting, time.

This is the view along the way.

And here we are! I was a bit sad that the tourism authority, in all its wisdom, has fenced off the rocky outcrops that hang out and over the cliffs. I remember sitting on them and gazing out at the view when I brought the kids here, probably 20 years ago. Part of the fun was knowing that you’d die if you lost your footing.

Happy tourist!

We decided after this that we’d “done” the Australian bush, so we headed back into town to find our room and unpack the car.

On the drive down the mountain, Liga2 spotted some echidna in a ditch by the side of the road. Incredible.

Just before it was time to go and get Liga, I asked Liga2 if she’d like to go to a spot where we had a good chance of seeing wild kangaroos.

It was at the local recreation park. And it absolutely delivered. There were around 5 kangaroos with little joeys in their pouches, while another joey was there beside its mother, munching on grass.

We swung back here after we picked up Liga, so she could see them too.

Most of the kangaroos were carrying joeys, but this one was like having your 50-year-old son living in the basement.

So now we have wild kangaroos to add to the list the Ligas have seen.

Let’s see – they saw a whale in Sydney. We won’t count all of the rosellas, lorikeets, cockatoos and other birds they’ve seen.

Koalas. Blue-tongue lizards X 2. Echidnas X 2. A snake at Mt Martha.

Honestly, it seems like the Australian wildlife are practically flinging themselves out of the Bush at them! I’ve never seen anything like it.

And to end, here is a short video, where you can hear the sound of the cicadas. Not 10 seconds after I stopped recording, a kookaburra started to laugh.

Honestly, it can’t get much more Australian than that!

Halls Gap had no electricity for most of the day, so the few businesses that either had a generator or had minimal prep work to do were absolutely swamped for dinner. We walked around town and eventually ordered pizzas – which had a ONE-HOUR WAIT.

The girls elected to sit and wait to pick up the pizzas, while I left them to it and went back to our room, where I poured a wine and read my book. They need some time to themselves to speak Latvian, without constantly having to translate everything they want to say into English. I don’t know how they do this – it must be exhausting.

Tomorrow, we head out of Victoria and into South Australia. The Crazy Road Trip continues!

Dad Joke of the Day:

I was lucky enough to have one and a half weeks with my boy after I got home from my trip. The vet put him on antibiotics and steroids, but they only made a minimal difference. He was on his way out.

Jeffrey and Poppy were litter brother and sister. We got Poppy from her breeder when she was 8 weeks old, after our old girl Molly, a tricolour Cavalier, died. We had a rescue old man Cavalier called Bertie and we hoped that having a puppy in the house would perk him up, but he was having none of it. Poppy, always a very intelligent girl (for a Cavalier) was bored with him. So I rang Jenny, the breeder and asked if she had a sister for Pops.

“No, but Poppy’s litter brother was returned a few days ago,” she said. “He was intended to be a stud dog in Sydney but he’s still missing a testicle.”

He came home with us a day later. They were 6 months old. Given his soft, sweet nature, living in a breeder’s kennels wouldn’t have suited him much. That missing ball was the luckiest thing that ever happened to him. An added bonus was that Bertie gained a new lease on life. Can’t have another rooster in the henhouse! Haha!

A funny little habit he picked up from then was that for the first couple of months, he was very anxious every time we went for a walk, possibly because he was afraid he’d be moving house again. Every time we came home, he’d jump on top of the couch to cuddle me and ‘thank’ me for coming home again. Over time that morphed into a ‘thank-you’ for the walk. On his last day, he still did this.

Jeffrey – named after Jeff Probst on ‘Survivor’ – was a very pretty boy and moved like an absolute dream, which as a former breeder meant a lot to me. Once you know the breed standard, it’s hard to ignore anything not up to scratch. He floated over the ground.

One thing he knew how to do very well though, was to love. Specifically, to love me. If I was home, he HAD to be either beside me or at the very least in direct eye contact with me. If he woke up and I’d moved, he’d go on patrol throughout the entire property until he found me.

Even on his last day, when I sat on the other couch, he jumped down and then up on the other couch to sit beside me.

Whenever I left, he’d position himself along the back of the couch where he could see from the window and he’d wait for the click of the gate or the sound of the car. He’d stay there for hours.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a breed you buy when you want something happy with everyone – man, woman or beast. A dog who is content to be with you and is happy to do whatever you want to do.

A walk? Fantastic!

Sit on the couch and read a book all day? Terrific!

Go in the car for an adventure? Wonderful!

This was Jeffrey all over. A soft, sweet boy who was happiest when he was with me.

These photos are all taken on his last day. I went to the ballet with Jenna on Tuesday night and had dinner with her and Evan28. I said to him, “You have to come and say goodbye to Jeff tomorrow. He won’t be around when we have our family get-together in a couple of weeks.”

This shocked him and he came around in the afternoon. Thank goodness he did.

Jeff was having a good day, but that night he wasn’t great. He was bewildered and couldn’t rest, and at one stage we were on my bed and he turned, locked eyes with me and gave me ‘that’ look. Every dog owner who’s had an old dog knows what I’m talking about. I looked right back at him and said, “Ok, baby. I’ve got you.”

The appointment was for 6 pm the next day. The next morning we went to the beach so he could smell all the smells for the last time.

He rode there in his pram. As soon as I lifted him out of it, he lifted his leg on the pram, which made me laugh.

He pranced for about a metre in his old way, then stopped. It was too much trouble. Scout was busy chasing the ball and having dips in the sea, while Jeffrey just stood beside me and sniffed the breeze.

It was hard to get a good photo of him because whenever I moved away to get a shot of him, he’d come and sit within an inch of me.

Here he is, looking at his Mum.

We slowly walked to the foothills, where he indeed smelled all the smells and got some seaweed in his hair, then after a while I loaded him back in the pram and we walked home.

As I said, he thanked me one last time. It looks as if he’s smiling in this shot, but he was really trying to breathe easily.

We spent the afternoon on the couch, where he tried to settle. He couldn’t get properly to sleep all afternoon. Interestingly, Scout, who was never happy with Jeff cosying up to her, allowed him to be next to her for hours.

Davd31 came after work and we went to the vet together, while Georgia stayed with Scout. Apparently, Scout howled non-stop while we were gone. Georgia was a wreck by the time we got home.

Jeff had a beautiful death. He simply lay on the vet’s table and didn’t move, while I sang his silly song to him and talked to him as he drifted away. I said to David31, “Honestly, I’m relieved to see him at rest. He was so tired by the end of the day.”

We brought him home, lay him down so that Scout could sniff him and realise what had happened, then we buried him in the orchard next to his sister. He’s as close to Poppy as we could get. I sprinkled some poppy seeds over the top, so if any escape the birds, they’ll both have flowers to mark where they are.

I’ve owned Cavaliers for 41 years. I bought Poppy and Jeff’s great-great-great-great-grandmother when I was 20 and I’ve owned all the generations in between.

Jeffrey has been an occasionally exasperating dog – he was as dumb as a box of bricks – but he’s been an easy-going, loving boy who I’ll miss dreadfully. Scout isn’t a velcro dog. How will I be able to sit on the couch without a Cavalier glued to my side?

I feel so glad that he waited for me to come home and we had nearly two weeks together. All the boys came and said their goodbyes and he knew he was loved.

You were a good boy, Jeff. A very good boy.

After writing my Wednesday W’s post a couple of days ago, I sent the link to the friend who was in the conversation with the person who said the problematic remark. I’m so glad I did!

Straight after she read it we had a phone conversation. She asked if I’d heard what she replied to the remark about my writing.

It turns out that she said, all eager and ready for goss, “OMG! Where did Frogdancer lie??”

The person couldn’t give her an answer, so my friend casually said, “So I just didn’t believe them.”

My livid levels dropped quite a bit after hearing that!

And just to prove that I’m not perfect, yesterday’s walking group met in the suburb that my sister Kate lives in. It’s a countrified suburb with lots of dirt roads. I was walking with a guy who has travelled extensively with his wife, and I was engrossed in the conversation. We were talking about treks in Nepal, security bags to stop bag snatchers, cruises, wild animals and more.

We walked right past my sister’s house and I didn’t even notice. I only know this because Blogless Sandy was walking in the group behind us and assumed I would have told everyone about the house.

Yes, sometimes I’m not very observant. I had coffee at Kate’s place afterwards and when I told her, she laughed, rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, that isn’t very surprising.”

Ah well. I DID notice the bloody great hill we had to walk up, which is on her street though! That’s when I decided that maybe trekking in Nepal isn’t really for me.

What a lovely little place to wake up to! This was the view I saw when I drew back the curtains.

It wasn’t a great morning. I was so SLEEPY…

After the shenanigans of the first night of our trip, Megan’s snoring and sleepwalking had been fine. But unfortunately, the snoring reached new heights last night. Seriously, I could almost believe someone snuck a megaphone into the room and she was using it. At one stage I raised myself on an elbow to see if she was sleeping on her back, so that I could tell her to roll over. But no. She was already lying on her side.

You know how if you get up, you REALLY wake yourself up? I decided that if I got up and started rummaging around in my suitcase for the earplugs I brought with me, then I’d be wide awake, for the rest of the night. So I lay there and tried to drift with the movement of the ship.

It was a restless night, which was made worse by the guy, (not our lovely regular butler), bringing us our room service breakfast. We ordered it for 7 – 7:30, but he brought it 10 minutes early and SWITCHED ON THE ELECTRIC LIGHTS, instead of drawing the blinds.

Bloody hell.

Even though it was early, my poached egg and avo on toast was stone cold. It’s not the recommended temperature to eat them. My Americano coffee was normal-strength coffee.

Like a first-world hero, I set aside these huge drawbacks and struggled to the dock on time to meet our tour guide. I was sleepy and quiet.

Megan was very apologetic, but it’s not as if she deliberately set out to make a noise proclaiming, “I’M FAST ASLEEP AND YOU’RE NOT HAHA!”

But I told her that when we get back to the ship, I’m reserving the right to take a nap.

This was one of the ‘free’ excursions we selected before starting the cruise. All we had were tickets saying, “Tour Haines Summit Viewing.” We had no idea what we’d signed up for. I was assuming it was a quick bus tour up and down the only street of Haines, but I was wrong.

We were asked to bring our passports. That should have clued me in. We were popping back to Canada!

Incidentally, one of the things I really like about Alaska and Canada is that they have planter boxes filled with flowers all over the place. The councils have them in public places, but they’re everywhere in private homes too. My hypothesis is that when the snow melts, they have a limited time to enjoy seeing colour, so they go all out.

Our tour guide for today was a very jaunty woman named Elora.

“This is my first time being allowed to take a tour by myself,” she said as she took our tickets. We had to sign waivers… “We DO live in bear country!” she said as she handed them out.

There was slight confusion as 8 people turned up to take the tour. “I was only told 7,” said Elora. When we turned up to the bus, only 7 people got in. Elora, being her first time in sole responsibility, got flustered. She went looking for the unidentified person, and it was only when she returned to the bus that I asked her for the waiver forms and started calling the names out from them.

Like good little students on an excursion, everyone answered – except an Asian lady who had filled out a different form and then disappeared, presumably on her proper tour, never to be seen by us again.

You can take a teacher out of the classroom, but she never loses the skills. I know how to keep track of many people on an excursion, even when I’m sleepy.

Around 20 minutes later, I woke up completely. I was in the front seat of the bus, idly wondering if I should use the tine to take a nap, when I found myself yelling, “BEAR!!!!”

Frogdancer Jones, one of the most unobservant people on the planet, was the one to notice a fine fat Grizzly, sitting in a gravel pit by the side of the road, eating dandelions.

Elora jammed on the brakes and slowly backed the Pelican up so we could all get photos.

l was so pleased with myself. I’ve now seen both the black and grizzly bears.

I kept an eye out for the rest of the trip, but the grizzly was the only animal on offer.

We were held up by roadworks for a while. There is only one road in and out of Haines, so when an avalanche demolishes part of it, it’s a real drama. Parts of the highway were built up so that prevalent avalanche spots can pass underneath the road.

This river beside the road is one that never totally freezes, so it has the last salmon run in the area, usually in November. Around 4,000 Bald Eagles come, as well as bears, to feast on the fish.

That’d be a sight to see, for sure.

Suddenly, we were at the border. A polite Canadian border officer rifled through our passports and then let us go on our way.

Soon after we crossed the border, the vegetation changed.

“This here’s the tundra,” said Elora.”It looks like we’re on another planet, don’t it?”

I snapped this shot to show you what the scenery was like as we were travelling around in the Pelican. The mountains are huge.

We were heading for the summit at 3,500 feet/1,066 metres.

“A week ago all of this ground was snowcapped. It’s melting pretty rapidly. The river by the side of the road wasn’t visible last week,” said Elora.

This place is incredibly isolated. It’s an 8-hour drive to the next town, called Whitehorse, so it’s actually quicker and cheaper to take a 2-hour ferry ride to Skagway, and then drive 2 hours to the town. The weather is completely unreliable, so if someone leaves town to do some shopping, they may find that they have to spend a couple of extra nights in a hotel before they can get back home.

“Costco is the cheapest,” said Elora. “Whenever someone goes to Costco, they take orders from people. For example, a 4-pack of toilet rolls is $12 in Haines. In Costco, you can get a 48-roll slab for that price. So whenever we go to Whitehorse, we CLEAN UP!”

They used to go to Juneau to the Walmart, but it had to shut down because of theft, so now the good people of Haines go to Whitehorse instead.

“Do you people have overnight delivery?” asked Elora. When we all said yes, she continued, “We order non-perishables from Amazon, but they take 3 weeks to here. Half the time, I can’t remember what I ordered by the time the package gets here!”

As I was getting out of the bus to view the summit, a tiny movement caught my eye around the bush near the sign.

It was a ground squirrel.

I stood there taking pictures of it while everyone else was standing right nearby, oblivious. After a minute or so, it decided to quietly go away.

We stood there in the cold and wind when a truck came rushing past. It wasn’t the most well-used road I’d ever seen. Later, Elora was complaining about “all the traffic” she had in front of her on the way back to town.

There were two cars.

You could see how thick the snow was by the side of the road.

The highway was lined with these poles on either side of the road. These are for the snowploughs, so they don’t lose track of where the road is and drive off the side.

I can’t even imagine how deep the snow might get here.

We had some time to kill so she showed us the local newspaper. It’s released every two weeks and is this thin.

Everything has to be put in it, even the police reports.

The crime rate is so low that there are only two police assigned to the town.

Here are some of the 911 calls the intrepid police had to handle:

A request for assistance for two dogs quilled by a porcupine.

A man was reported trespassing on the road.

A vehicle was reported parked more than the posted time limit in the town centre.

A backpack was turned in.

A wallet was turned in.

You can enlarge the items and read them. There’s certainly not much excitement happening in Haines!

The views changed from the windows every few minutes.

We stopped at the US border crossing post for a toilet break. This little building caught my eye.

A very American sign!

To think that I pull out any dandelion I see in my garden. It’s probably a wise move – they attract bears.

We set off again, and then to our surprise, Elora pulled off to the side of the road. We were going to have a picnic! Or as Elora phrased it, we were going to “break bread together.”

This caused a bit of consternation with the British members of the Pelican, who were worried that she was going to pass a loaf of bread around and that would be it.

Honestly, that woman was working her arse off. There were supposed to be two people but they were running low on staff, so she had to drive, talk to us about everything we were seeing, prepare the lunch and answer any questions we may have. She was already thrown by the mysterious appearance and disappearance of pasenger number 8, but she was doing a cracking job.

Look at the scenery!

Honestly, everywhere you look in this country, there are amazing vistas around every corner.

Looking forward to the road we’d soon be travelling on, back to town.

Over lunch of chicken wraps, a bag of potato chips and a chocolate chip cookie each, people told Elora that they hadn’t seen many bears. She kindly shared the following two videos with us.

Here’s the first video Elora shared with us.

This was taken on the summit where we had just been.

How wonderful! And a little scary…

This one was taken at the local weir. The salmon are shut off except for one point where wildlife officers count how many go through. Meanwhile, the bears come down and eat their fill.

Once we were back on the bus, I asked Elora if love or freedom was the reason she’d left the law and come to Alaska from New Jersey. She laughed and said, “Good question!” Then she grew a little sombre and turned off the microphone. She leaned towards me and said, “A bad divorce does things to people. I didn’t want any memories, so I came to Alaska. There ain’t no memories here!”

Once we were back in town, we went for a wander to look for souvenirs.

Like when I found my beautiful moose antler sculpture in Sitka, I felt in my waters that there might be something here at this pretty little place.

A jewellery maker had his wares here. Look at this amber! I’ve never seen anything like it. The jeweller said that it was formed in seawater.

When we came back to the room, I went straight to bed for a nap before dinner. Megan said, “I’ll sit here on the couch and do my puzzles while you sleep.”

I woke up 2 hours later to this:

It made me laugh!

Dad joke of the day:

Poppy has gone rapidly downhill, and Georgia has made the call that it’s time to green dream.

She’ll be going over the rainbow bridge later today.

This is her on our last walk on the beach, eagerly waiting for me to throw the ball.

This is her last night, home from the Emergency Vet, lying on my dressing gown with her brother Jeffrey beside her on the left. They were probably lying like that in the womb.

I’ll miss my constant shadow. The only quality she lacks is a sense of humour – she’s the most intense Cavalier I’ve ever owned – and the most beautiful. I’m not sure how I’ll ever get anything done without my little helper by my side at all times. (Well, except when there was someone in the kitchen!)

Goodbye my baby girl.

I love you.

Woo hoo! Megan and I got the coveted front seat on the bus! She’s sure it’s because she bumped into Sharon in Whistler yesterday and mentioned that she had been scared as shit all the way from Jasper to Whistler because of travel sickness.

Being in the front seat, we were on Wildlife Duty. No wildlife showed themselves, so it was pretty easy.

Or maybe we were just really bad at it…?

This is the second biggest granite outcrop after Gibraltar.

The white patch on the mountain is said to look like a witch flying on a broomstick, but I see a duck looking over its shoulder.

We stopped along the way back into Vancouver for a look at the Shannon Falls. 

It’s 3 times higher than Niagara Falls.

When Sharon said this, I thought I’d heard wrong. Isn’t Niagara Falls supposed to be HUGE? When I asked Sharon about it, she smiled and said, “Niagara Falls is only about 51 metres tall. But it’s wide,” and she spread her arms wide to illustrate what she meant. 

The falls started from way above our heads.

I don’t know what it is about running water, but everyone seems to love it.

Here’s a photo of Megan taking a photo of some of the people from the coach.

There was a path along the side of the falls that wound back towards where the coach was parked. The stream running alongside was very pretty.

Here’s an action shot.

The temperate rainforest reminded me a little of the Dandenongs.

I must take a drive up there when I get back.

There were some wonderful vistas on the drive.

Also, some very pretty number plates.

We saw that in Canada some provinces don’t require front number plates on their cars. That seems bizarre to me, but Sharon said it was the poorer provinces, to save money.

Here’s a tunnel under the Fraser River in Vancouver.

Seems crazy that they don’t have an emergency lane. How would they clear the tunnel if someone had an accident?

We had to take the ferry to Vancouver Island. We grabbed lunch and then we sat by a window.

Megan was following the course of the ferry, on a map on her phone, while I sat and wrote this post, looking out of the window now and then to enjoy the scenery. Once I finished, I took a nap with my head down on the table. People kept coming up and asking Megan if I was all right, which spoiled the nap a little. But I felt rejuvenated once we got back on the coach.

I was worried about Poppy. Georgia had to take her to the vet because she wasn’t eating, which for Poppy is UNTHINKABLE.

This is the photo Georgia sent me as proof of life. She’s now on a course of antibiotics and we’re waiting to hear the results of the blood tests. Our vet is very ‘hands-off’ when it comes to ordering expensive tests, so the fact that Poppy had them is making me even more worried.

She’s my shadow.

Anyway, I can’t do anything about it from here and I trust Georgia implicitly with the dogs so they’re in the best hands. Georgia said that Jeffrey doesn’t have a care in the world, but Scout is sticking closely to Poppy.

We went to Butchart Gardens, where even the rubbish bins are pretty.

This was a fabulous place. A rich family moved here in the mid-1880’s and ran a quarry right near the house that they lived in. When the quarry was empty, there was a great big hole left. What an eyesore!

Mrs Jenny Butchart bet her husband Robert 25c that she could create a beautiful garden there. Safe to say, she won the bet.

It shows what money can do. There’s no denying that she had the vision to see what could be done. But she had the money behind her to make it happen.

She laid rocks around where the garden beds were to be, then had tip trucks full of topsoil come and dump their loads to create the canvas for the garden.

She had guts. When the garden beds were completed, the bare walls of the old quarry looked awful. So she swung from ropes as she went down the sides of the quarry, putting some soil and a vine in every hole and crevice that she could.

It transformed the place.

We bumped into the couple who were chased by the bear yesterday. He showed me a picture of how close the bear got. Mehgan moved away, and I had to listen to his ideas about how much this garden would be worth if the heirs sold it all to create housing.

“I reckon there’d be at least 50 million,” he said. “Imagine getting your hands on all that money?”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” I said. “It seems like there’s it’s a family legacy.”

“But there’s always one grandchild who wants to get their hands on the money,” he argued.

“Yes, but it looks like there’s always one who wants to carry the legacy onwards. Sharon said there’s a great-granddaughter running the place now,” I said.

It was strange. Amid such beauty and obvious dedication to the upkeep, all he could see was dollar signs.

As time went on, the Butcharts expanded the garden by buying more land around them. There was also a formal Italian garden that they put on top of their tennis court.

I think they got a little bit carried away by this stage.

I saw a gardener and went over to have a chat. The garden is full of flowers and the gardeners are committed to making sure that whatever the season, the place will be full of colour and fragrance.

They achieve this by extensive use of annuals, overplanting them around the permanent plants.

They don’t plant anything unless it has at least a couple of flowers out. These plants will last until October, when they’ll be pulled out and something else will take their place.

A Monkey-Puzzle tree! I remember this from the estate we went to in Ireland. The Victorians loved them.

Here’s one that Megan spotted, covered with blossoms.

The gardens were dotted with water features. Here’s Megan, enraptured by the dragon.

I was very excited by this one. My first Redwood!

I liked the line of tiles on the steps here. Maybe I could try this at home?

See how the boar’s snout is gold? You get good luck from touching it. I, of course, am Fortunate Frogdancer so I’m already lucky, but I loaded up on some more luck, just in case.

Megan’s loading up on good luck too.

There was colour everywhere.

And I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that I like a good sculpture.

Here’s the one that was in the background of the previous photo. Hermes was the messenger for the gods of ancient Greece.

It’s a pity that a bird pooed on his shoulder.

Everyone kept talking about the signature Blue Poppies that these gardens are renowned for. When I finally tracked them down after asking if any were blooming, to be honest, I was a little underwhelmed.

I thought they’d be a cornflower blue, instead of this more subtle shade.

I liked how the lanterns were the same shade as the wisteria. I had no idea it came in yellow!

I love azaleas.

These were massive.

I also ran a little mad in the gift shop:

Some silver earrings, and…

… these wonderful ceramic numbers for The Best House in Melbourne.

All I have to do is figure out how to attach them to the fence…

That’s all for today. We have a free day in Victoria, Vancouver Island tomorrow.

(Well, I have a free AFTERNOON. Megan is out whale-watching while I’ve been getting this blog up to date. It’s 11:50 now. I’m going to jump into the shower and then go and explore Victoria!)

Our tour ends tomorrow. Amazing how quickly it’s passed.

Dad joke of the day:

We leave on Sunday for our land tour of Canada and our expedition cruise to Alaska.

Friday night at 10 I listened to my voicemails and there was a message from Megs, my travel partner: “Look at your emails.”

Our Alaskan cruise has been cancelled. The ship had a problem that was discovered during a scheduled maintenance stop and the company was pulling the whole cruise.

Bloody hell. We booked the trip through Flight Centre and they don’t open on weekends. We had just one day to get this sorted.

OMG it was a THING!

I left an email for Montana, our travel agent, saying I’d be there at 9 AM. Then I spent the rest of the evening until 1 AM messaging with Scott and my Antarctica friends about possible workarounds.

At 8, I received a call from Montana asking us to come in at 12, to give her time to work through some options.

Well, we got to the travel agents at 12 and we left at 4:45.

It was a huge drama, much more than I thought it would be. We tried about 20 different alternatives, with the travel agent calling different companies to find out whether different tours and holidays would work with our dates. She started with 3 possible cruises. One was hellishly expensive and the others were only 7 days. (Our original cruise was 14 days.) One had children on board – yucky.

We started looking through brochures and exploring other options. Land tours? A combo of a short cruise and land tour? Going into the US instead?

Nothing would work. It was a nightmare.

Finally, after 2 hours, I looked at Megan and said, “I think we have to go with the expensive cruise. It’s the only thing that fits.”

She was reluctant, as she’s putting a new kitchen in as soon as we get back, but it was the only way.

It’s a 10 night cruise to Alaska. We’ve been upgraded to a balcony room WITH OUR OWN BUTLER!!!!!!

Haha! Not very frugal at all.

My Antarctica friends are now coming up with crazy requests for the butler. This could be fun…

The annoying thing is now that we’re not on an expedition ship anymore, we’ll have to dress for dinner. Apparently, “elegant casual” is the way to go. I’m going to have to bring my linen clothes – at least I’ll have a butler to iron them for me!!

A know-it-all woman I used to work with had this suggestion on FB:

“Little black dress, 3 bright scarves, 1 Isadora scarf, sparkly jewellery, a headband and a feather.”

Sure, like I have those things in my wardrobe… She said they might have ‘theme’ nights but we’ll be in the air when the company emails their ship information to us, so we’ll be missing that info. Never mind… maybe we could get the butler to help us?

“James! Find me a costume for the Bordello in Mexico night!!”

All up, after we get a full refund from the cancelled cruise, we’ll be $2,200 or so out of pocket. Our travel agent will see if our travel insurance will come to the party on any of this. Our holiday will be a few days’ shorter than originally intended, but hey – it’s better than being two WEEKS shorter, which was what it was starting to look like!

I got home utterly exhausted and was in bed at 8:20 PM.

So we leave on Sunday at 11AM, with a full itinerary, thank goodness. If anyone in Melbourne is looking for a good travel agent, Montana Edwards at Flight Centre Mordialloc is like a dog with a bone. She wasn’t stopping until our trip was sorted.

I guess I should start to pack now, hey?

Proper travel blogging will commence shortly. 🙂

Dad joke of the day:

What’s top of my mind: My 7th continent!

Yes, in a few more days I’ll get the set! Megs and I leave on Sunday.

I can’t tell you how incredibly lucky I feel to be one of the few people in human history who will be able to say that I’ve set foot on all 7 continents. We live in an amazing time, that’s for sure.

Where I’m going: Canada and Alaska.

I’ve yet to meet someone who hasn’t enjoyed this trip. Everyone raves about it, so even though I’m pretty much going inblind, I’m pretty sure I’ll have a good time.

We’re meeting Martha (a blog reader) on our free day in Vancouver. I’m looking forward to this. 🙂

Where I’ve been: in denial.

I’ve done no research, no packing, no real garden prep for winter… Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have 3 days to get my shit together.

What I’m reading: SO MANY BOOKS.

But I don’t have the time to back-track through Goodreads for you.

Sorry.

What I’m watching: ‘The Gentlemen’ on Netflix.

I finished this last night and I loved it. As soon as my sister told me it was a Guy Ritchie series, I was in.

What I’m listening to: Jeffrey snoring.

Apparently, I’ll be swapping this for Megs snoring…

I’ve already bought some earplugs, but to be honest I’m not fond of the idea of earplugs. It’s a safety thing. Still, I’m going to give them a red hot go.

What I’m eating: Food.

Nothing of note.

What I’m planning: Liga’s road trip in Australia.

Remember my Antarctica trip and how we ended up being a tight friendship group? I stayed with Corinna last year in London and now Liga from Latvia is coming to Australia in November! I’m so excited.

She said that she wants to see 4 things while she’s here: 1. Me. 2. The Opera House. 3. Uluru. 4. The Great Barrier Reef.

Fortunately, she has around 3 weeks up her sleeve, so her wishes are do-able. It’s going to be tight, though. Latvia is a country the size of Tasmania, so I’m not sure Liga’s got her head around precisely how big Australia is.

I’ve spent far more time working on this trip than I have on Canada/Alaska. This will be Liga’s 7th continent so I want to make sure that she sees as much as possible.

She and her friend (also called Liga) will land in Sydney and spend 3 or 4 days there. They’ll then fly down to me. On the first day, I’ll take them to Healesville Sanctuary to see all the Aussie animals. Then – the road trip starts.

Melbourne – Halls Gap – The Great Ocean Road to Warrnambool – Adelaide – Port Augusta – Coober Pedy – Uluru.

I leave them there, and after a couple of days, they fly out to Cairns to the rainforests and the Reef. Then home.

They’ll see the bush, the desert and the rainforests. Cities and the Outback.

I was going to drop them off at Adelaide, but Liga said that she wanted to drive in the desert with the red sands stretching away on either side. I thought that sounded cool, so once I found out that the Ligas were going to be charged $ 900 USD extra for hiring a car in Adelaide and leaving it at Uluru, I decided to just drive up there with them.

The drive to Uluru and back isn’t for the faint-hearted.

Who deserves a thumbs-up: The travel money people.

As I was typing, I got a text to say that my CAD and USD money is now available. Off I got to Mornington to pick it up!

What has made me smile: our early Mother’s Day.

Megs and I are flying out early in Mothers Day, so the kids gathered here on Sunday for an early MD. Jenna couldn’t make it as she wasn’t feeling well, but everyone else was here. It was lovely to see the two quiet girls, Izzy and Sophie, get to know each other better.

Tom32 took me out to dinner a few days before, so we had a lovely evening just chilling. He lives in Frankston and the council there has invested heavily in street art, so he took me on a little walking tour before we grabbed dinner. Just up my alley! (No pun intended.)

Evan27 gave me some flowers with a card that read:

“Hey Mum, Happy Mothers Day.

I adore you and have such a privileged life with you as my mother. Even if it was a lot of smoke and mirrors in the early years and times were tougher than I realised. It was a delight.

Now, even if we don’t see or even talk to each other every day, it’s nice knowing you’re always there when I need you.

It’s been great becoming friends as adults on top of mother and son. I’m thrilled for you, with all these travels and can’t wait to read all about it.”

Do you know what this means?????

I finished reading it, turned to him and said, “Does this mean you’re going to READ MY BLOG???”

He laughed and said, “Well, I’m going to try!”

Dreams do come true!

So yes. Starting from now – the travel posts will be back on both blogs.

Dad joke of the day:

Here’s the set up for Christmas Day inside. Ugh. Inside. How strange.

I spent so much time, effort and money and making the gardens look beautiful for the Big Day, and in the end no one saw it.

I wrote about our day HERE on the other blog. Pop across and have a look. It has a different Dad joke… it’s better than this one, to be honest.

I’ve suddenly got my quilting mojo back so I’m going to be going into my sewing room and actually using it for the first time in a year…

Have a happy few days between Christmas and New Year! Always a strange time of year.

Dad joke of the day:

“Colchester has seen better days,” said Scott as we picked our way through the shopping mall in the centre of town.
I nodded in reply, keeping a tight grip on my iPhone. There were quite a few dodgy-looking people hanging around.

However, once we got the stuff from the chemist that Scott needed to fight his chest infection, we were out of there and on to the HISTORY!
The Priory at Colchester is a fabulous example of 1100’s Norman architecture.

A surprising amount of the original building is still standing. Normally, there’s just a couple of walls standing, but with this abbey you csn get a feal feel for the layout of the place. These sturdy circular columns were certainly built to last!

The information board says, “The priory of St Julian and St Botolph was founded in 1103 by a community of priests who had previously served an important church on this site. The dedication to St Botolph, an East Anglian abbot who died in 680, indicates a Saxon origin for the community.”

“Influenced by widespread church reforms, the community chose to embrace the full religious life in the 1090s.”

So this was all well and good, but things went a little sour when 500 years later, Henry VIII decided to create the Church of England and grab all of the abbeys and churches for himself and his friends.

But get this…!

“By the early 1530s, the priory was home to a much reduced community. It was closed on the orders of Henry VIII in 1536 and its assets were granted to Sir Thomas Audley, the king’s Lord Chancellor who died in 1544.

Sir Thomas Audley!!!!
We were at Audley End only two days ago. I love it when the patchwork starts coming together.

This ruin was so beautiful.
But a castle was awaiting us.

Colchester is the oldest city in the UK. The Romans established it as their capital city here. It was completely torn down and burned to a crisp when Boudicca rebelled against the Romans. Even today, if you dig far enough, you’ll find a thick layer of black that marks where Boudicca and her troops taught the Romans a lesson. It’s called “The Boudicca Destruction Layer.” I think London has one too.

We’ll return to those days in a second.

Colchester Castle is the largest Norman keep in Europe. It’s built to the same plan as the White Tower in the Tower of London, but it’s 50% bigger. No-one knows how tall the castle was. 2, 3 or 4 floors. Drawings differ.
Anyway, in 1074 it was built. It was used extensively until the late 1200’s until the crown sold it in 1670.

But first – they had this excellent sculpture in the gardens to celebrate the recent coronation. It looked really good. It’s made from woven willow branches.

Fortunate Frogdancer and Scott arrived at the castle just in time to jump onto a guided tour. I really like these… you often hear bits and pieces that you wouldn’t otherwise get to know.
The tour began under the castle. Down in the foundations, which were originally the foundations of a Roman Temple for Claudius.

When Emperor Claudius was alive, he brought troops over to England to expand the Roman Empire. There had been a bit of trade going on between the Romans and Saxons, but when he turned up for 3 days (after the fighting had finished) with a few thousand troops and 18 elephants, then Colchester and it’s surroundings became part of the Roman Empire.

When Claudius died a few years later, he became a god (of course) and so a huge temple was built at Colchester.

Here’s the guide, down in the vaults, showing us a model. It’s to scale… see the tiny human figure on the front steps?

Anyway, the temple was only up and running for 3 years when Boudicca swung into town in 860 or 861 and everything was toppled and burned to the ground, including the temple.

Not to be deterred, the temple was rebuilt, along with the rest of the town, and was in use for another 3 or 4 centuries, until the Romans packed up and left in 410. After that, it quietly sat there being gradually plundered for building supplies for people’s houses probably, until William the Conqueror came along and needed a castle built pronto.

The walls of the vaults all look like this. They are made of mudstone brought out from the river, with the lower levels being made of sand to stabilise the whole building. The white bit to the left is an oyster shell. The guide said that a worker must have thrown it aside after eating the oyster for lunch.

The gaps between rooms were very small.

Look at this! A Roman tile, complete with finger marks from the man who made it. We passed this around the group. We see so many of these tiles as we go around and look at the old churches.

And this is part of a Roman mosaic.

Then it was up to the Great Stairs. These are 4.8 metres in diameter and are the largest stairs in a Norman castle in England. Notice how the spiral turns to the right? This castle was built for defence.

As we were standing at the bottom of the stairs, we could see some graffiti that had been carved into the walls over the years. The guide pointed this one out and said that it was a sign to ward off witches.

There was a witch hunter who lived at the castle for a while. He died when he was 27, but before that he killed over 200 “witches.”

I bet you a million dollars that if I’d been alive then, I would’ve been in trouble. Me with my 3 “familiars”, my herb growing and single ways…

Unless my 4 sturdy sons saved me. But then again, I would have died in childbirth trying to deliver Tom31, so I would have been pretty much screwed either way.

Up we went, and onto the roof.

It was good to be out in the open air, looking at the view.

As we emerged out of a doorway back to the upper floor of the castle, we found ourselves in the middle of a group of primary school kids who were there on an excursion.

“What’s behind that door?” demanded a blond, bullet-headed boy with piercing blue eyes.

“I can’t tell you,” I said. “It’s for grownups.”

“Awwww,” he said.

Later, I bumped into him again.

“No really, how did you get behind that door?” he demanded.

“I’m sorry. They only let Australians see behind the door. I’m Australian,”.

His face darkened with indignation. “But I’m from Colchester!”

Look! Roman tiles being recycled in the castle!

A Roman soldier for the Christmas tree.

And a witch.

We wandered around town for a while after we left the castle. There were a few pretty buildings around.

You can just about see this little guy on the photo above. By the way, I patted that dog.

It’s the last week of my holiday and I’m missing the little woofs. Oh! And the boys, of course.

This house doesn’t look like anything special, but some extremely influential people once lived here.

These women wrote “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” among other nursery rhymes.

After a sumptuous lunch of McDonalds, sitting on some benches near he bus stop, we went back to the car to track down something called “A House for Essex.”

There’s a guy called Grayson Perry who’s way famous in the UK. He’ an artist, documentary maker, cross-dress and ceramics maker who designed this holiday home in the middle of nowhere.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes the house:

“The house encapsulates the story of Julie May Cope, a fictional Essex woman,^[47] “born in a flood-struck Canvey Island in 1953 and mown down last year by a curry delivery driver in Colchester”.^[48] Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ellis Woodman said, “Sporting a livery of green and white ceramic tiles, telephone-box red joinery and a gold roof, it is not easy to miss. … Decoration is everywhere: from the external tiles embossed with motifs referencing Julie’s rock-chick youth to extravagant tapestries recording her life’s full narrative. Perry has contributed ceramic sculptures, modelled on Irish Sheelanagigs, which celebrate her as a kind of latter-day earth mother while the delivery driver’s moped has even been repurposed as a chandelier suspended above the double-height living room.”^[48]“

It’s certainly eye-catching.

Scott was more enamoured with it than I was.

The nappy pins on the tiles were a whimsical touch, though.

You can rent the house for a little getaway, but you’d have to be prepared to have tourists peering through the windows.

Then we were off to Harwich, pronounced “Horritch” for some inexplicable English reason. Scott says it’s so they can spot the outsiders.

Harwich is supposed to be where the Mayflower set sail. Personally, I think that any boat full of religious extremists is bad news, but Harwich is milking this for all it’s worth, even though it’s not absolutely certain that this was the port.

It’s worth looking at the board to see some of the names. A few of these people have names that would take an awful lot to live up to.

And the baby born at sea on the way to America?
Oceanus.
That poor kid.

One thing Harwich IS sure about is that the captain of the Mayflower was a home-town boy. Here’s his house.

The weather had turned and it was starting to rain.

That night we went to a Mexican restaurant, where I ordered a margarita and what I thought would be a light meal of a salad.

it was bigger than my head.
Ah well. At least I went to bed with a full stomach.