What I saw on my walk - wordless wednesday

I'm joining in with wordless wednesday day over at My Little Drummer Boys blog.

Walking with Kookaburras

You know that I'm going trekking in the Himalayas in 8 weeks time? Yikes!

So I'm doing some serious training - walking, up and down hills and walking some more!

Here are some pics from todays expedition - a beautiful little spot just 15 mins drive away in the National Park in the foothills of the Blue Mountains.

The track goes through a popular picnic and camping area at Euroka Clearing which was a farm in the old days.
As I sat on a bench to have my lunch who should arrive but Mr (or Mrs) Kooka!

Then there were 2!

...and then 3!

The middle one is a bit hard to see.

The walk ends up at the Nepean River which is looking a bit brown after all the rain we've had lately.

 Not so bad close up -

It's a great time of year for doing walks around here, as the summer is normally too hot.

A great 3 hour workout - done!

Wordless Wednesday - blogtoberfest day 19

Bike ride along the Parramatta River bike path

I think this counts towards bloctobercise, started by Lori on her blog.

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

Joining in with wordless wednesday on Faith Hope & a whole lotta love's blog

And on Erika Price Designs blog.

Canoeing and creating

I meant to post this last week as the canoe trip was the weekend before last (east coast aussies will know how wet it has been the last week!).
I really wanted to get outdoors but to do something that didnt involve walking! (for obvious reasons) and we hadnt taken the canoe out for yonks. Our first excursion wasnt that great because we put in at an oversize pond in the middle of a picnic area, but luckily on the way back we found a navigable part of the Nepean River and spent a very pleasant couple of hours messing about on the river.



We bee eaters and kingfishers and lots of water dragons - all these are killingly difficult to photograph with a little camera from a bobbing canoe - so you will just have to take my word for it. (apart from the waterdragon)



It was very special because the two men in my life were there too.


Meanwhile back at the ranch.......I made earrings, just 'cus that's what I like doing.
I love the czech glass drops and have now started wire wrapping them. However I didnt have copper earwires to go with the copper wrapped aqua beads.
Now I know that many jewellery designers make all their own earwires - but I dont!
I buy them.
But I really wanted copper earwires and I searched on-line to see if I could buy them - well of course you can buy them - you can buy simply anything on-line!
Then I had a "eureka" moment and thought "I can make those with the wire that I have and then I can finish the earrings today"
So I looked on-line for a tutorial ( I know those clever clogs of you who make the afore-mentioned earwires will be laughing at this!)
I found an easy tutorial on cut out and keep and Bob's your uncle! (my kids think that is really funny 'cus they actually do have an uncle Bob!)



And I made some bracelets -

and some little simple earrings -


What have you been up to this week?

this week

I went on three bushwalks.

One to Mount Hay on not a very nice day.
Sometimes there were views -


and some bits were scarey -


One around the eastern escarpment of the Blue Mountains.

Down to the old Knapsack bridge - a wonderful feat of engineering.



And the third one in the Glenbrook section of the Blue Mountains National park, along dappled tracks -


down to the Nepean River gorge.


Then I made some tshirts -


How was your week?

Laos - part 2

Travelling in Laos was surprisingly easy.
In Luang Prabang there are many travel offices offering day trips and extended adventures or organising travel to the next town, next country, whereever.
The guest houses will also organise things for you.

With only a couple of days in Luang Prabang, we first went on a boat trip to the famous Pak Ou caves, up river on the Mekong.
I was filled with emotion as we sped, um er chugged upstream in the longboat, my dream of travelling up the Mekong was realised!


The tour stopped at a small village, where Lao rice whiskey is made.
We tasted, even though it was 10 o'clock in the morning!



Wandering through the village we found the weavers.
This lady let me take a photo if I bought a scarf, and as it was only $2, it seemed fair enough.

The caves are filled with hundreds of buddahs.
It seems that in Lao more is better and there is great spiritual merit in the many buddah images.



The boats tied up at this wonderfully rustic bamboo pontoon.

bamboo pontoon and boats at the Pak Ou caves

Another day was a minibus trip to the Tat Kuang Si - waterfalls and beautiful blue swimming holes.