G'day, everybody.
Sharon, all the best for easy child. We've definitely been there done that with easy child 2/difficult child 2. I'm glad difficult child let you sleep in.
Fran, definitely fingers crossed for difficult child. It took difficult child 1 some time, but he's now more confident about travelling by train. He had a babysitting job today with neighbours of ours, but he had to meet them (and their kids) in North Sydney, just where the Harbour Bridge touches down into skyscrapers. It's a busy part of Sydney that difficult child 1 hasn't been to before, we got a panicked phone call from him asking, "Now where am I supposed to go again?" We didn't hear from him after that and the neighbour didn't ring me to ask where he was, so it must have worked out.
We had a fun but busy day today - I had a few errands to run, there was a chance we might have been doing a leaf run to the koalas at the zoo, but when I rang them they didn't need any so we've left it on the tree, with a plea for the zoo to send the head keeper over (aka the son of the owner) to do his next harvest run at our place.
So we had no excuse to go for a drive, but we went anyway. The day began cloudy and overcast, so our guest (for whom we were driving - we love to show visitors around!) couldn't see much; but by the time we really got underway the clouds lifted. We stopped at a few lookouts including one place where we love to swim - you can swim under a waterfall in the lagoon, it cascades about fifty feet over a smooth sandstone cliff. There were kids jumping off the top of the waterfall, it was like a scene from a South Seas movie. We took some photos - I'm sure they were local kids, I think I recognised one girl. I'm wondering if I could blackmail her, threaten to show the photos to her mother... but nah, I reckon she already knows.
Everything worked out perfectly for our guest - at Bald Hill the hang-gliders were taking off singly and in tandem and skimming the hilltop over and over. It's the best site in Australia for this, it's also very historic. I got chatting to a couple of US flying fanatics, they've come over for a few festivals happening over the next few weeks. husband & I have been following hang-gliding since it first came to Australia, and a flatmate of mine used to teach back in 1976. We went to watch him fly a few times. A lot has changed since then!
Down below the cliffs at the beach (Stanwell Park) are the best burgers on the coast - you'll never want a Big Mac after one of these - fistful of meat squashed into a pattie and fresh-cooked; grilled bacon, fried egg, cheese if you want, and salad consisting of onion, lettuce, tomato and the Aussie necessity - beetroot. The whole thing on a freshly baked, freshly toasted bun twice the size of any from a commercial chain. We had a lovely lunch then drove to Sea Cliff Bridge, which you might see sometimes in a few ads. It connects a few small villages to each other, it really doesn't serve very many people but it's become a tourist attraction in its own right. From the bridge I saw the huge splash of a migrating whale. They're heading back down south for the summer.
Sea Cliff Bridge (named by a local schoolgirl) was built as a safer road over the edge of the ocean instead of hugging the sandstone cliffs, which are constantly crumbling and very dangerous. The old road had partly collapsed and working o it was going to be too dangerous and too expensive. This bridge was built in a series of beautiful curves, from the cliff tops north you can see this as a landmark.
We're glad we did this today; there is a fundraiser bike ride tomorrow, the road will be closed and most of today's outing would have not been possible.
Tomorrow is the art exhibition of our sister village, it's also where in previous years they also put sculptures and other art work out in the water - it's a tidal sand flat which is dry at low tide and knee deep at high tide. As the tide comes in various parts of the sculpture float and interact with the sea. Absolutely amazing!
But it is raining tonight and the satellite images show heavy falls. We welcome the rain but it could wash out the festival tomorrow. And the cyclists heading south - very damp.
At least all the planting I did today is getting watered in... I can hear the thunder rumbling as the next storm is moving in. These are gentle storms at the moment, no loud crash and thump, just a gentle, soothing rumble reminding us that our rainwater tank is slowly filling.
Enjoy your Saturday, everyone.
Marg
