Domesticated animals, gratuitous machinery & a birthday

It's Theo's birthday & he loves cake.

He did also get roast beef, vegies & yorkshire pudding.

And due to his fascination with engines of all descriptions, he got a hot air engine.

On our recent Ballarat road trip, we saw & therefore couldn't pass by another old dredge/other giant machinery.

And everyone is interested in the new duckling. The chooks want to eat its food. Daisy runs around outside her cage at full speed pecking at everything, including the other animals, & makes the chooks freak out.

The dogs think she's a mouse and so can't be left alone with her. They also just try to sit on me all the time because they can never get enough attention.

And then there were three of them trying to sit on me, because we were dogsitting Hayley's dog, Roomie.

And the chooks enjoy the sunshine :). And dirt. (Note the lemons which I have not turned into lemonade. Um).

So I sit down. The cat sits down. The chooks peck me, the dogs sit on me, the duck pecks everything, the chooks run away, the rabbit watches on & the other cat hides in the shed. I'm surrounded by crazy animals & it makes me very happy ;)

Steam Engines & Travels

Theo got some time off work but I was too sick to go camping, so we just went to Beechworth for a night. I'm not sure if I've actually been there before ;). It was on our list of things to do anyway, but that particular weekend was their annual Ned Kelly festival, so we got to see the suits of armour all on display and smile goofily across the street at Sigrid Thornton standing there with a cup of coffee. And John Jarratt rode past on a horse. Entertainment. I also got to sit down in a dark corner because all the multitudes of tourists and children almost made me throw up (well, remember I was sick anyway...), and we waited til 15 minutes before closing to see the suits of armour because that line had all day been very long.

You may not know how much Theo loves his steam engines. They had this little display set up in this park area there, and here's some vintage and model (wooden, even!) ones :) 

While we're on the topic, here's Theo's ones he made years ago, he finally set up to show me them going: 

On the way back from Beechworth, we meandered around & found one place we might go camping one day: 

And I'd like to say we like crossing the state border so much that we did it twice, but the truth is we were looking for something and couldn't find it... :D 

We do like our road trips.

Camping Adventures on the Buckland River (yay!)

We finally went camping, Theo & I! Theo couldn't get another day off to make it a long weekend, but we left Friday night after work to make it a bit longer. We went to the Buckland Valley, near Bright. Theo's been there before. (p.s. don't you love the whole idea of a website dedicated to public toilets? Very useful). 

Here's my new raincoat. It packs up into its pocket, which is also a little bag. It's pink. It was on special. Need I say more? 

Breakfast/Brunch, whatever it was, by the time we got ourselves out of bed in the morning & the fire going, with all the wet wood we had ;)

Travelling up a very blackberry-infested creek, trying to get to a spot on the Buckland River to go gold panning. It wasn't bound to be very successful - the river was too full - but it was fun.

Just after here I lost my hat. Theo left me at the creek near the car and went back to get it. My hero! Lucky the hat was white....and it wasn't snowing...

Me, poking the fire with my fire stick. Enjoyable occupation.

Why not put a moth on my nose, says Theo.

And home again

To Ballarat & Beyond!

On the Queen's Birthday weekend, Theo & I went to Ballarat to visit his brother Nathan & his wife Sharon. It was meant to be a surprise for his dad's birthday, who was driving down to spend the weekend too, but I forgot/got confused/somehow wasn't told (probably just forgot) and spilled the beans to him the week before. So we decided to keep the cake and birthday tea a secret, but someone else let that one slip LOL;) 

Here's Theo at the lookout at Mount Buninyong. Too foggy to see much of anything & I had a bit of a freakout about the tower and heights LOL but it was fun anyway ;)

We ate lunch at a little cafe which had good food and pots of tea & lots of pink. And it's name was pretty good: 'The Cupcake Cafe' :) 

We had a trip in the afternoon to Nathan & Sharon's new house they're about to move into. There's a shack on the property that has been propped up and bits added on for the last hundred and something years, the house is more recent. Local rumour has Peter Lalor (of Eureka Stockade fame) living on the property, sometime after the rebellion. 

(Notice Theo freezing in one of the above photos, because he volunteered his jacket to me:))

And here's a pretty, unknown berry (currant?) bush that was growing on the side of the road on the way home.

And I finally got to visit The Lark in Daylesford, whose blog I like to read. Where I admired lots of interesting things & bought this little poodle handbag mirror, which is vaguely reminiscent of 70's and 80's swap-cards. 

Did you do swap cards at primary school? I must admit I hadn't thought about them a whole lot since then, although I do have a stash in a special childhood box somewhere. But, on another tangent here, I did a little bit of googling & found this website. To think of all the internet-window-shopping trouble I could get into here.....

A surprise proposal

Here's Powers Lookout, which we went to see after the Violet Town market, just us going on a lovely scenic drive....

And by the way, I've got a surprise picnic in the boot of the car....

And I won't just surprise you with a bunch of flowers, but I'll ask you to marry me. So he did. And I said I will :)

He couldn't wait any more until the 'real' ring is ready, so he bought me an in-between engagement ring, with two lovehearts and I think two diamonds in them. It's very sweet and big enough so I can wear it on my right hand when my 'real' ring comes :).

So the wedding planning is now on full steam ahead :)

Family Christmases

Visited Dad before Christmas this year. 

Here's Theo & my dad, doing blokey thitogether, jump starting my dad's Harley.

 Here's the marvellous shell museum at Lakes Entrance.

 

Some jellyfish & a swan family in the water.

Entertaining school concert for my little bro & sis & two nephews. The ones on the floor are sheep and my nephew is on the left :).

 We also went to visit Theo's brother and sister in law in Ballarat & I was extremely nervous as I'd never met them. It was funny later that I'd even worried because the brother was just like Theo and his dad, and his wife was really nice and we had a fair bit in common. Silliness.

Hanging Rock

 

 This was one of our impulse Sunday activities. After church we went hey, why not go to Hanging Rock? So we did. I don't think I'd ever been there, Theo had. On the way there we stopped at another POW camp site at Graytown and on the way back we stopped at what I originally took for the world's largest ant hill, but was just a pile of diggings from some mine. Theo posed, I photographed. Memorable moments.