17th July .... Darrens Birthday

Today is Darrens  36th Birthday and the family went over to Darrens for a bbq to celebrate his and my birthday,

 As well as meet up with Beverley the childrens cousin from England she is in Australia for a holiday and staying with her Uncle Michael & Loz...

We had a great day  and it was the first time I have had all 5 of my grand children together at once at Last !!! was hard to get them all to keep still for the picture though !!

John has a way with babies....lovely Adelyn enjoyed sitting on his knee...

 

We had a nice meal together before we took some family shots...

 

I stole a kiss from the birthday boy

My handsome man looking fit and healthy after losing almost 5 kls in weight...

A great day was had by all and we finished off with an ice cream cake, that the children helped to blow out the candles.

15th July ....My Birthday

Today was my birthday...My son Darren being the first one to wish me happy birthday by sms...then I had a flow of other sms and phone calls to wish me a happy day....one from Mychele and Steve both singing the FULL version of happy birthday over the phone... Lovely :)

My beautiful man bought me an "I Pad" which I was delighted about as I have wanted one for quite a while... see wishes do come true if your a good girl :)

Not an exciting part to my birthday I had to go for a Lung CT Scan so I had to fast this morning ... so no breakfast in bed for me...

Sharon and Jenna arrived later in the morning and I was given a lovely bunch of red roses and a red teddy bear from Jenna and Itune voucher from Sharon... which is great so I can buy more ebooks on my ipad ....

 

We then decided that  we would go to "Pancakes on the Rocks" at Campbelltown for a special lunch, me and John and Sharon and Jenna..its was very Yummy....

11th July... Returned to Sydney..

After leaving Kootingal we returned to Sydney as Trysha is having a few heart problems and we need to get them checked out before we travel further...

We stopped off over night in a bush camp at Braxnton...and the next morning before continuing on to Sydney I caught up with my foster-daughter Jessika Rose who I have not seen for some time...it was wonderful to catch up with her and her Mum Denise...

Just as a footnote to explain to people who don't know about Jessika... Many years ago my family and  I used to foster new born babies that were up for adoption...I would look after the baby for the first 3 months of its life till it was adopted...I did this for many years and I have lots of babies all over Sydney that I was their first "Mummy"

Jessika was a special needs baby with downs syndrome and when we fostered her she was a very sick baby..with 3 holes in the heart, feeding problems bowel problems etc etc and she was with us for 12 months, as we had to resolve a lot of her problems before she could be adopted out...

She went to her new home 3 days before her 1st birthday...and she was the last baby we fostered...

We have keep in touch with Jessika and her family ever since and every year she used to come and stay with me ...but now I am on the road its hard to keep in touch...

But when I can I do...she has grown into a wonderful young lady and she is now 13 years old...

Love you Jessika Rose 

7th - 10th July.... Kootingal

From Dubbo we travelled on to Coonabarabran and stayed over night at a little caravan park... then moved on to Kootingal the next morning...

On the drive to Kootingal on the Newell Highway we could not avoid hitting a dead kangaroo ( a big one) the right front wheel went over it and sent it flying in the air to the left hand side of the road, but on its way it splattered all blood and guts... all over the trailer and car  being towed at the back  YUK YUK YUK !!!!!

Arrived at Kootingal  where we caught up with John's Sister Diann and hubby John ..they have just sold their home and are now building a new one so we don't have the lovely big property to stay on this time.. so we booked into the local caravan park.

Boy did it get cold over night !!!!!!!!!!!!! apparently coldest its been in this area for a long time...it was -10 degrees...NOW that's cold.. !!!!

The car was frozen solid !!

We had dinner at John's nieces place and had a nice visit with them all...the kids had a dressup tea party...we caught them in action !!!!

Sophie Ella & Will



Ella

The main reason for stopping off at Kootingal apart from John catching up with his sister was to see his Mum, we went to the Retirement home to see her...such a beautiful lady...she is now 93



4th July 2011 Wellington Caves

We travelled to Wellington today ...to visit the Wellington Caves....

The complex is situated on the Mitchell Highway just 8 kl south of Wellington, it is one of the most significant fossil sites in the world.


It is said to provide a physical link to the time when the large ancestors of Australia's marsupials roamed around the Caves area. The Caves contain the largest deposit of Plio-Pleistocene mammal fossils in Australia and are the site of the first discovery of marsupial fossils in 1830.


These  discoveries attracted international attention during the 19th century and were important in the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

The Cathedral Cave boasts the Southern Hemisphere's and arguably the world's largest stalagmite, a limestone structure measuring 15 metres high and 32 metres around its base. 

Out of one cave we then entered the Phosphate Mine from the moment you don a hard hat,

 you enter a new world at one of the State's most unique mines.... Wellington Phosphate Mine.


The Mine not only features the old workings from a World War I mine, but bone fragments and fossils from a prehistoric era.

Seen as a forerunner in cave and mine restoration, the Phosphate Mine allows you to experience the conditions the hardy miners endured when they opened the mine early last century.

Also we was able to view fossils and bones dating back as much as 300,000 years.



The THYLACOLEO was first discovered in these caves...

This is what it looked like in real life...

This was the largest mammalian predator in Australia.. it was as big as a lion..but they were marsupials related to the wombats and not the cats..


Also they found a DIPROTODON which was the largest marsupial that ever lived, reaching 3 tonnes in weight. Although part of the Australian environment for millions of years it disappeared several thousand years after the arrival of aboriginals, it was also first discovered in these caves.

This is what it looked like in real life

The original pick marks and drill holes where the miners forged their way into the phosphate deposits are still clearly visible on the walls.

The mine opened during the First World War and during that time more than 6000 tonnes of phosphate were removed and used for fertiliser.







The extraction revealed the Bone Cave where, embedded in the walls, are bone fragments of creatures which roamed the earth long before man. Paleontologists from all over the world have been making pilgrimages to this cave since the 1930's amazing history.... fascinated me !

2nd July 2011 Western Plains Zoo

We are having some lovely weather here considering its winter and its Dubbo, it reached 22 degrees today which was great as we went to the Western Plains Zoo and we were able to put the top down and drive around and take in all the views....although I was a little disappointed with it...as always the animals are way out of view, or asleep under a tree...and you don't get to see them..But its nice that its open spaces and your able to drive around in your car, or hire a golf buggy, or if your fitter ride a bike... or even fitter WALK !!!


Here are some pics I manage to take of some of the animals being good and staying awake for us...

Now that's scary !!!!