Out & About

As a family we are trying to make an effort to eat out once a month and try somewhere new each time.

Last week, we were all tired after a busy week so decided to go to a local hotel for dinner. We went to the Courthouse.

Kady had been there before with Nicks family and enjoyed her meal. We weren't disappointed. The meals were lovely and the service was fast and fantastic.

J an I had Stockmans steak, Kady had a beef pie and Leah had bellypork.

Leah

A friend of Leah's posted this photo of her on facebook. Leah was about 7 or 8 I think.Leah and Zoe had been playing dressups at Zoe's house.

 

How time flies.......

Busy Weekend

We had a busy busy weekend.

Saturday just flew by. We went to visit Mary in hospital after her operation on Thursday. The hospital were short of beds so Mary ended up going home so we all headed back to her house and picked up fish and chips for lunch.

Laureen, Joe and Pop stopped by to visit so it was lovely to catch up with them. We headed home late just in time to get Kady to work for the evening.

Sunday we were up bright and early and headed off to a karate tournament. It was an interdojo competition and Jason and I were both fighting. Poor J was so sick but still managed to win one fight and lose one. I lost both of mine but it was a lot of fun just competing. Here are a few pictures below from the day.

It was a long day and we were there for over 9 hours. Our dojo won a couple of trophies.

Dad's Visit

Day two of Dad's visit we started the day off with a cooked breakie on the bbq followed by a drive down to O'briens crossing and then onto an area where we found a miners hut not long ago. After a walk down towards the river we found the hut and had a good look around.

Leah has taken over the use of the video camera lately. She loves recording everything.

The miners hut. A more modern one with lots of metal but it still has the clay and stone walls. It looks like the roof was added after maybe the orignal has fallen in.

The river is at the base of this hill. A steep climb down.

Dad checking out the hut.

Exploring around the mines and diggings.

Kady and Leah. The forest is thriving after all the summer rain.

We left the forest and grabbed some chips for lunch and headed home to watch Tim McGraws movie. It wasn't too bad but a little slow in places. We listed to some music dvd's whilst I cooked some chicken parmigiana's, potatoes and veg for dinner.

Dad left early hours the next morning and headed home on the long drive back to Queensland. He stayed the night in Narrabri and got home about 8 o'clock the following morning. It was so nice to catch up with Dad.

Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day. We met up with the family and went out for lunch at a local Thai restaurant. The food was delicious.


Cassie and Sue were over from New Zealand visiting for a few days so it was lovely to spend some time with them.


Sadly Kady had to work but her and Nick drove down later in the day to spend a little time with us before Cassie and Sue headed back to New Zealand the following day.

J's entree, Tom Kha.

My mixed entree.

Leah's entree, Money Bags. Leah loved these and wants to make some at home.

Here are some pics of the family.

Happy Easter

Easter this year we decided to all get together for a bbq at Blackwood Mineral Springs. We were lucky with the weather. It was a lovely warm day.

The local mascot all prettied up for the Easter Woodchop Festival.

Hot Cross buns and snags were cooked first. I cooked steak, chops and gourmet sausages on the gas bbq.

Kady and Nick.

One of the mineral springs. The water is really nice from both the springs here. Probably the nicest I have tasted in the area.According to a local history book the Chinese were to have discovered the presence of mineral water on both sides of the Lerderderg River. In 1879, an acre of land was surveyed and approved as a reserve. In 1889 the first wooden bridge was constructed over the river but was later washed away in flood water. Several other bridges suffered the same fate. In 1910 a swing bridge was built and remained until 1967 when it was replaced with the current concrete bridge.

The rotunda in the picture above was built over the iron spring in 1891 and the other rotunda on the other side of the river was built in 1914 over the soda spring.

Bush walk to Shaw's Lake.

Shaw's Lake. Shaw's Lake was built by Richard Shaw Senior and his son's. It was originally built to hold water for the family mining operations. The entire dam was built using picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. Originally it was one acre in size and was used for sluicing work by the means of a number of water races which wound around the hills for many miles to reach teh alluvial miners in the area.

The lake was later stocked with fish and used as a swimming pool by the tourists. Dressing sheds and a diving platform and springboard were on the sides of the lake. The dressing sheds were burnt down in January 1952.

Toadstool

Megs and Zac loved playing in the water.

Leah and Marnie loved playing on the fallen tall gumtree over the river. We lost many local trees are all the rain over summer. Their root system is so shallow they drop easily after the ground is drenced and we get a bit of wind. 

 

J practising a karate kick on the gum tree.

Megan and Zac convinced Dad to walk them along the tree over the river.

We had a lovely relaxed day with family and friends.