Niagara Falls

We have arrived in Niagara Falls after a four and a half hour drive from Pittsburgh.
We picked up our underpowered Lincoln (285 cubic inch V8) and with the help of a nice lady (not Judy but a sat nav lady) we found ourselves at our hotel. The roads are a keep the average up bloke's dream, unless you are travelling with an elderly woman you never have to stop!

The roads bypass everything and with the cruise control doing all but steering it does become a bit tedious. We have wandered down to see the Falls which are only a few hundred metres from the hotel - hope the sound of rushing water will not disturb us too much.

We are on the seventh floor in a "Canadian view" room and see Canada we can just across the Falls, all most satisfactory.

Christmas day

Well our Chtistmas day has come and gone for another year. We did not receive the promised snow but it was a lovely day nonetheless. Quiet and circumspect as befits someone of Judy's advanced years. The highlights were turkey and homemade cranberry sauce (easy apparently if fresh cranberries are to hand) and a slice of pud just slightly larger than our car (thanks to Rudolph's deft hand with the knife).
As is obligatory we ate too much and even did not bother with an evening meal even though we had some turkey just in case ..

We have just 4 more days in Pittsburgh and will be out and about again today, checking out an inclined railway and may be museum of carriages and cars. The shops are keen for our custom as well, sales were down and they want us to spend, spend, spend. Somethings are culturally neutral.

Its Cold!!!

We spent yesterday shopping (again) but this time for Phil. I have now bought a coat, a new scarf, a new beanie and gloves (and thermal underwear which we seem to have lost! not because I took them off I can assure you). Sorry no pics...

Last night we walked back from the bus stop and nearly froze, it was I believe - 11 c or something (it ceases to matter much) with a wind chill that made it all that much colder. Either way when we woke we had ice on the inside of our window directly above the radiator (still trying to work that out!).


But despite the weather we have been out to buy a tree and had a flat white!!
After looking despairingly at the menu Rachael said "If I tell you what I want will you make it for me?" The barista (female) said "Oh sometimes they call that a flat white", seems she is a coffee nerd who surfs the net reading articles about coffee and she had seen the description and remembered it!
The tree was cut by our friendly attendant and we have carried it back home in light snow!
All we have to do now is trim it.

Pittsburgh

Well I tried to blog from the iPod and it allowed me to put a heading and label in place but then steadfastly refused to allow me to add text - kept you all guessing I presume? (In defence of the minute piece of equipment I will say it has opened PDFs and even spreadsheets as attachments!)

The day in question we went with Rachael to see the Cathedral of Learning or simply the Cathedral if you are a local. It has several floors dedicated to cultures from all over the world and each room (which are routinely used for lectures) is decorated in a style which reflects that culture. It is quite bizarre in a respectful and tasteful style.

Above is the Austrian room with a couple of Australians (not the same) - a confusion often made all over the world.
Opposite the Cathedral is a non-denominational "chapel" built by Heinz of the 57 varieties for the students of the University.


You may get some idea of the size of the chapel from the people standing in front - there are stained glass windows inside that are 73 feet high! It is an impressive building to say the least.

We've arrived...

Not personally but in New York. And to prove it here we are in Times Square.


We arrived at Newark at around 8 pm local time after far too many hours without any sleep. We were met by R & R and made our way to our hotel, then went out for some meal or other (I think our fifth that day) at diner just around the corner from where we are staying. Sunday we headed into New York and saw some of the sights - it is a remarkably vibrant place and I am not sure if the NSW government know but there is an efficient and working ticketing system on the trains and buses! May let them know when we get back.

Monday we shopped until just after we dropped, Judy has so far only found 3 new coats - getting it all home could be interesting. I am blogging from "Mission Control" at Rudolph's place in Hoboken and tonight we are having tea with them.

Not much else.

D

We had a great time on Ian's cousin Bruce's farm in Robertson. The place was beautiful - even had its own maze designed and built by cousin Bruce.
Ian outdid himself in tacky decor and continued the farm theme.

We have been enjoying all the lovely birds at our place. The latest visitor has been a tawny frogmouth - very odd looking but interesting.

We also have a couple of magpies which have become quite tame and probably too reliant upon us. We have only to walk into the back yard and they come to see if we have something for them.

Here are some pix that Emma took of a recent visit to Geelong.

Weekend in Geelong

Last weekend we headed off to Geelong to see Ma & Pa (Ruth and Ian). A 10:40 flight meant we did not have to get up to early but did have to rush in Geelong as we were booked for 12:30 for lunch with Jenny & Ted as well. Unfortunately the fellow in the queue for hire cars did not realise we were in a hurry!


Lunch was good - even though I did not realise the meat loaf in my ploughman's lunch was not bread and buttered it. Ah well, will wear the glasses next time (I wondered why it was so warm....)

Above is a picture of one of the incredible zygotes Pa has growing, it is as impressive as the rest of Geelong is dry - they really need rain.

We went for a drive after lunch and then headed into Geelong to find a motel room. Oops! We seemed to have hit a busy weekend and found the No Vacancy sign out everywhere. Eventually we found a room in Belmont.

There was a restaurant nearby but it was booked out for the night. Take away pizza was good though.

Sunday we saw Ian Ruth again before heading off after lunch.

We were there too

Before we left home we took some photos of our garden. We're on a gardening kick again - trying to sort out the mess under the macadamia. The pix are of some heartsease and a native iris.

We were there at the lunch too - as you can see by J & J's blog. It was a bit chilly but lots of fun and lots of laughs.

Kerrie worried that we were too cold of course but we were OK. The food was ordinary but it was altogether a lovely afternoon.

After lunch we called into see Grandma. She was as confused as ever but is always happy to see us.

A couple of days away

We took off on Wednesday afternoon and headed off to Taree where we found a motel for $65 for the night - it was remarkably nice and Judy found the decor did not prevent a good night's sleep (who does do the decoration in the average motel and why do they think stripes and checks should go together?)

Our well tuned body clocks had us on the road so early we were in Bellingen (so Judy said....) too early to buy pies (Is that possible???) 

We had a couple of good days with Jon, Danielle and the boys. 

It seems they have thrown off any influence of nature (or nurture for that matter) an are wildly competitive and completely engrossed in any pursuit which involves balls or racquets.

Saturday morning we headed off for Tamworth to see Marg & Neil and Matt & Jane.

Matt & Jane have done an amazing job on their home, Built fom a kit in 12 months it is great and I especially loved the complete independence from the grid, a few tiny batteries and a solar cell array is all it take apparently!

It was so good to get back home and get back to work....

Woods Weekend

Jenny and Cathy arrived on Thursday. They walked around in the city for a while but got tired. They booked in to the Holiday Inn at The Rocks and slept for a few hours. Then they sat on the balcony overlooking the harbour and drank coffee. A bit of an expensive way to have coffee but they thought it was great. We took them to Il Lago for tea.

Friday they went to Bondi - via a long cut they found.

Saturday Cath was busy with friends and we took Aunty Jenny to Mt Wilson where the gardens were a picture with blossoms and gorgeous flowers. We had a gourmet picnic lunch of delights I had taken. We drove across to Mt Vic and came home that way, stopping at Echo Point for yummy ice cream overlooking the valley.

Sunday we took them both to St James then lunch at Woolloomoloo finger wharf. We had coffee and lovely catch up with Jen and James then dropped the Melbourne ones at the airport.

Dad and I then went and had drinks with I & S. Susan is home - weak but making good progress.

Silver Fox is 60

Dad's 60th was great. Lots of yummy food and plenty of alcohol.

He was blown away by the balloon gift. We will book a flight - probably in November as we are told that is the most reliable time weather-wise.

We missed Rach and Rudolph and Jon, Danielle and the boys but it was nice to hear from you guys.

Jen and I had lots of fun cooking and preparing for the feast and Dad and James did the metro-sexual shopping together. They went to Victoria's Basement (not Victoria's Secrets) to buy glassware.

At last some action

We had a lovely weekend. We went to Kiama on Saturday afternoon. We stayed in a swanky spa room with (almost) a water view.

After a breakfast of some consequence and calories we made our way to Shellharbour and did our best to ride off 1 or 2 calories on the cycleway around Lake Illawara.

And just show we may be Ag-ed but not OLD we came home and added some syzygium paniculatum (dwarf!) to our new garden formed by the great wall.

Aged but not as old as some

I think I've started