from the Freezer to the Oven (NYC)

It had snowed in the mountains near Canberra just before I left and we had a quick visit, someone else had made the snowman,









I went from 0-30 in 30 hours, didn't fly Qantas this time. Nina and I drinking lychee bubble tea trying to get rehydrated after we went shopping at Century 21












A view of Union Square from the Wholefoods eating area, the lady in the white boots carrying the bag, (she needed it to cover her short shorts) is a regular who works from the square, we had been shopping at Shoe Mania where everything was 70% off.








Ikea have come to Red Hook, not that I needed to shop there, its about a 15 min walk from Laurices and they have a free water taxi to the city, Ikea has certainly improved this area of Brooklyn and the water taxi was a great ride, recommend it for all tourists, most of the people on the taxi weren't carrying Ikea shopping bags. I was talking to some people from Boston, so its a tourist trip already. The photo below is of one of 4 waterfalls they have made in the waterways of New York, and this one can be seen for free from the water taxi

Barraga Beach

Its such a secluded spot the Tom Tom couldn't find it and for some reasons I can't upload my photos, you will have to look again when I've overcome the problem.

Here are the views of the beach, the sharp rocks, cliff edges, (which I didn't try to climb), a crevice running up into a cave with beautiful blue green water and a very clear rock pool.

Just to show I wasn't always outside, I had time to do the 500 piece bird jigsaw which was provided by our beach cottage, there is no phone coverage so no internet to take up time, just peaceful bushland, lyre birds and bell birds and burrawong cycads everywhere.

Rocking along at Mimosa Rocks

Oskar and Carlo enjoyed the rock climbing as well


















More Lava formed rocks













We spent ages climbing the Mimosa rocks and found this mini blow hole. Oskar had never been this close to a blow hole before and crossed over just in time for the next blow, then as Chris was passing it went again, Sorry Chris to decapitate you but I did get the spray action.













I found this baby camel rock, you can just make out the shape if you look hard

Rocking along

Life in Canberra has been moving along.I've been up on the ladder painting (Chris and Alex have been doing house renovations) and lots of time with the Grandchildren. Carlo wants to try everything Oskar does











We had to go to Barraga Beach near Bermagui for a wedding and the weather was great for exploring the coast line. No its not beach house, just a rock which reminded me how varied nature is












The amazing rock formation at Mystery Beach are the leftovers from an extinct volcano. Why is it called Mystery Beach? Ages ago two people disappeared from the beach and they were never found. From Mystery Beach you can look across to Montagu Island which has a colony of seals and penguins. We also managed to see some Humpback whales heading north,












After Mystery Beach we drove to Central Tilba for delicious apple pies with cream and ninish tarts, nothing tastes as good as oldfashioned cooking. On the way home we took a quick detour to view Camel Rock. Named by Matthew Flinders. It certainly looked like the real thing











Climbing the ladder to paint has certainly improved my rock climbing skills.