Rob’s photography reached new heights yesterday with this stunning photo of a very busy honey bee amongst the lush flowers of a ficifolia eucalypt in Kings Park:-)

2nd January 2013:

Dear T2,

Thank you very much for making my nest in the Christmas tree at Grandma’s and Pa’s place. I loved being there amongst all the glittery decorations. Grandma and Pa have taken down the Christmas tree and I am back in my usual place on the couch next to Grandma:-)

Love from Grandma Bilby.

12th January 2013:

Dear Grandma bilby.

That is good that you like it, Grandma bilby.

I will make it again next year Merry Christmas and a happy new year grandma bilby.

love from T2.

Today we celebrated the new year with Rob choosing the first recipe that he will cook from the Jamie Oliver cookbook that I gave him for Christmas! This included buying things for the kitchen that apparently one needs to cook JO recipes and we don’t have; reorganising the kitchen so that Rob can use this gear; shopping for the recipe ingredients that we didn’t have.

Then we were ready to actually cook the food!

This is the second time that T1 has helped his beloved Pa do the barbecue and he’s getting the hang of it fast!

Yesterday we took T1 and T2 to have morning tea on Dusky Dolphin. They thoroughly enjoyed being reunited with their soft toys there, certain that their soft toys had missed them! And they had a good explore right through the boat, and around the deck. It was so relaxing that Tom went to sleep in the car on the way back home, so went to bed for a nap:-)

Last night we gathered here as a family to celebrate Rob’s birthday. A lovely way to be thankful for having our beloved “Pa” in our lives:-)

T1 and T2 stayed the night with us, and this morning they decorated the Christmas tree, and their bedroom. They wore reindeer ears for part of the time, and T2 had to make a nest in the tree for the Grandma Bilby that she gave me in hospital after my knee replacements.

We were blessed with a lovely day, here, today:-)

This morning Rob caught this lovely image of the new flowers on the Nuytsia Floribunda in Kings Park. They always come out for Christmas, and make me think of long times with family and friends:-)

It’s my father’s birthday today. If he was still alive he would be 88.

And today the moving people cleared the last of the furniture from the house. I never lived here; I left home when Mum and Dad were living down the street. Helen, Fiona and Rose lived here. Jeanette, Elwyn and Tristan have all enjoyed times here at family gatherings.

This was the view from the front porch, while I waited for the men to finish packing their truck. When I looked down into the garden there was just one last lily emerging in time for Christmas. Jeanette helped Mum to plant many of these here.

The new owners take possession in a week, on the 22nd, and I will leave a gift for them, wishing them well.

Today Rob and I went back to our roots. We had spent a day walking along Piesse Brook years ago, the day before man landed on the moon for the first time. Today we walked along the South Ledge part of the Bibbulmun Track and had a picnic lunch looking over the Piesse Brook valley. It seemed perfect for the day when we returned to wandering around the bush for our last practice run before we leave for UK and Provence next week:-)

And because it was early spring there were masses of wildflowers for Rob to photograph, and some couch honeypots for me to photograph:-)

It was a very special day.

Last weekend, Neil Armstrong died.

Rob and I will always remember his epic words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” when he stepped onto the moon for the first time for all mankind. It was the day that we fell in love with each other, and ever since this breath-takingly beautiful image of earthrise, that beamed back to us from the Eagle on the moon that day, has always hovered above Rob and I in our shared pathway through life.

A dear friend of ours, whom we knew at the time of Neil’s big day, remembered Rob and I then: “Those were the days. The cool guy with his motorbike and leather jacket.

The cool chick with her long legs and long hair.

A cool couple – who could have guessed all those years ago.“

More about the big moon walk here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/19jul_seaoftranquillity/

Bon voyage, Neil:-)