Horse riding, Lake Leschenaultia and Mundaring Weir

What's this? Two blogs in two days, I know it's a bit much but we have been busy!

But before I start on our holiday here are a few quick photos from a trip to the Envirofest at Whiteman Park the other weekend.  Finley made a new friend, had his face painted, a hotdog and convinced us to take him n the electric tram car...rather an exhausting day!

Anyway, on with the actual blog.

Anna and I having a few having a few days holiday and to celebrate our Birthdays we decided that after five years of trying we would go for a horse ride.  So we headed about 30km north and east to semi bush land and finally got up on some horses.  Twas a lot of fun despite various aches and pains from us both :p

the only other thing was my horse, Mac, and Anna's horse, Wally, don't like each other so i had to hang back around 10m so Mac didn't try and bite Wally :p but otherwise it was a lot of fun and something we really want to do again.  And to prove we did actually go, the proof:

Next time we will work up to a trot me thinks :)

Today saw us heading out to the Perth Hills and a lovely walk around Lake Leschenaultia which has camping, canoing and strange birdies:

No idea what he is but pretty none the less.  The Lake itself has a 3km walk around the edge and it was so peaceful and quiet (well except for the dude and his leaf blower in the carpark) and we had wonderful weather, not to hot and not to cold.  It is really nice now that we walk around

and the gum trees don't seem so strange and alien, we are really beginning to feel more settled here and getting to know how where things are and how to get from A to B with out sat nav aid, yay :)

We then had another walk (i know two in one day, we're exhausted!!!!) along a trail through the bush above Lake CY O'Connor and the Mundaring Weir.  Again so nice just to get out of the city and get some space and peace :) I think we are both missing getting out to Judy Woods, so we are going to make sure that after swimming on a Saturday we get out and go for a walk somewhere.  A lot of these places have BBQ's so we can do burgers or sausages etc after the boys have run themselves ragged on a walk:) 

The Mudaring walk was nice and some spectacular views and of course we had to do some tourist shots as well.

Darwin and Caversham Park

Good Morning (especially to those people in Russia, Turkey and Germany that have read the blog in the last month, not sure who you are, but welcome :) ),

Well its just about winter.  we have had about 100mm of rain in the last month or so, most of it in one or two days and we now have to wear trousers as it is actually a little chilly at times.  I hate myself for saying that...its still low to mid 20'Cs but it does feel a lot cooler.  Very bizarre but hey ho. 

We are all generally doing well, Anna is more or less fixed after the shunt in the car, the boys are growing quickly and are making friends and getting stuck into nursery (sorry Finley...Daycare).  Marcus has moved up into the toddler room and so is coming home shattered after running with the big boys all day.  Just need to teach him to share a little better with other kids but he'll get there.

Anna and I had good birthdays and are now celebrating with a few days off, yesterday we trailed round a few schools to enrol Finley into Pre-primary, can't believe that he will be at big boy school in February.  Very Bizarre.  We are off horse riding today for a few hours so that should be a whole lot of fun, just hope my back stands up to it but I'm sure it will be fine.....

I have been sent to Darwin in the Northern Territory for a few days and will be spending more time up there soon which should be fun.  Specifically I'll be working around the mangroves, see the pictures below:

It should be interesting, if hard working in the above in mid 30'C and 90% humidity...still should get me fit at any rate :p

While I was up in Darwin (well Palmerston but tis close to Darwin) We had a day off for ANZAC day.  Which is the Oz equivalent of Armistice Day in the UK.  I went to the Dawn service and it was really moving, it is a huge day here and so many people turn out to remember and observe the past and current service personnel.  Twas a nice service and it was a good opportunity to think and remember those we have lost but are still with us and know how proud they would be of us.  Also it gives the quiet time we usually don't get to think about those loved ones still with us but a long way away who give us so much support and love and back us to the hilt even if it means we are thousands of miles away.  We certainly couldn't do this without them.  Thank you.

Meanwhile, Anna and the boys and some friends from work went to Caversham Wildlife park in Perth.  Everybody had a wonderful time and they got to stroke kangaroos and wombats (which are surprisingly big!) and they saw many other weird and wonderful creatures from this giant land of Australia.  However, I think the highlight for Finley was having a ride in one of those supermarket car things while being chased by dinosaurs (amply provided by our friends little girl :p )

Off for horse riding soon and then hopefully a nice walk or two tomorrow at a big lake up in the Darling Hills above Perth.