Tonight was T2’s birthday party – she turns SIX on the 28th!

As usual Tristan and Blaine and T1 and T2 decorated their place beautifully – this time to the theme of a disco party including their own costumes.

It was a lovely occasion:-)

This weekend we decided to go walking instead of sailing, because it’s not only me who has lost a lot of walking fitness – Rob is worried that he won’t be able to keep up with Elwyn when we travel with her in France!

So when we enjoyed a walk around Bold Park I felt as if I was walking on air, just being able to stride free:-)

Life is good.

As we prepare for the first overseas trip for my new knees I have tried on all my old walking shoes and boots. NONE of them work with my new knees and their new alignment with my legs. So sad. Between them my old walking shoes and boots have walked many hundreds of kilometres. Yesterday I put them on the verge for other to continue their journeys on the earth. I lined them up in pairs, in a long row.

By this morning they had all gone! 😦

I had a magic walk in Kings Park this morning, the bright light bringing out the life in all the flowers – the red and green of kangaroo paws, the dusky pink of the myrtles, the gold of the wattles. What a gift it is to walk amongst all this beauty again with my new knees:-)

Each evening, as I light the candles by our dining table, I give thanks to those who gave us life on this wondrous planet, and so enabled us to give life in our turn to our beautiful children: Rob’s parents on the right and mine on the left of the candle stick.

This morning we enjoyed a lovely romping sail back from Rottnest in the sun, after staying last night in Geordie Bay at Rottnest and enjoying a lovely sunrise there with the early morning swallows on the lifelines. It was so lovely to get back there, with the terns and gulls and oystercatchers calling around us:-)

With spring almost upon us all the trees and flowers and birds and animals around us are right onto spring things. After a good writing session at Zamia Cafe today I heard a mallard duck calling as I came out. Looking up I spied this one calling loudly from his perch in the lovely old marri tree next to Zamia. How on earth he managed to navigate between the branches to land there? But looking for mates by standing around on tree branches and calling seems to be what these lovely birds do as spring approaches:-)

We are spending 3 days on Dusky Dolphin, celebrating being able to get out again. Yesterday we sailed south to Rockingham (see the lovely sunset) and today we spent most of the day sailing back north to the sailing club to avoid the bad weather coming tonight. However looking at the photos (including the view from the galley window as I prepared afternoon tea) you would have trouble believing that bad weather was on the way!

Oh it’s soooo good to be getting outside again with the sky as our roof!!!

This morning was fine and sunny and cold. Rob had planned for us to go to the gym but the outside called to me VERY loudly so we went for a walk. What a lovely morning! Not only were there lots of birds busy amongst the trees, but the osprey pair were busy working on their nest in the pine tree. Suddenly one of the ospreys took off from the tree top and headed over us, skimming over the trees around us. We heard a “snap” and looked around to see the osprey now carrying a stick that it had broken off a tree back to the nest!

Further on we spied dolphins leaping together – there must have been fish to catch there:-)

What a lovely morning of wild gifts!

Today was a blessed day.

Even as we drove to our bushwalk, we stopped the car when a red-tailed black cockatoo flashed across the road in front of us. We were rewarded with time with a pair of these wonderful birds taking care of their young’un, with his/her higher-pitched call.

We walked to Mt Dale Campsite to have lunch, where I captured Rob on camera as we both realised that, after 7 long years of life closing in on the outdoor times that we love to share, we can dare to dream and plan and DO outdoor times again, even overnighting on the Bibbulmun. At this moment a huge flock of red-tails flew by!!! I was wearing my NZ “the earth has music for ears that listen” tee-shirt.

And the wide-ranging view from the top of Mt Dale was breath-taking, even though I was still using trekking poles:-)