Only one Party - 0Z day 09

January has been a quiet month and the wet chilly days have not really been calling us to walk or explore, more enjoyable to curl up in front of the fire, but do not despair, I can report on some worthwhile events.

The tits have returned early. Blue, Coal, Great and Long-tailed.

Of course I am referring to the small finch-like birds that are usually the early warning symbol of spring to come. Nice to see them from my office window feeding and fighting in the back yard with the wintering Robins, Blackbirds and chiff-chaffs.

We are acclimatising though and coming to terms with celebrating favourite days in the chill. Australia Day was celebrated here on January the 25th from 1:01 p.m. (0:01 a.m. of the 26th in Sydney) 30+ degrees on Sydney Harbour, -3 degrees on our front lawn.

The umbrella, Fosters and sunglasses were a staged prop to welcome our visitors, you may note the photo was taken from inside the nice warm lounge room. The beer can froze as the night fell.

I had intended to take some more daytime photos but forgot until late in the afternoon when the sun had set and the daylight passed.. From the quality of the shots you might think the sobriety of the photographer was also long past.

Sufficient to say the afternoon was very well spent and universally enjoyed. The Oz day party was Gail's idea and she invited those of her workmates who were not working and lived within a drive to Wetherby and we also asked our neighbours ( they can't complain if they are involved with the frivolities). The attendee nationalities included a wide sampling with Canada, Yorkshire, Kiwi, Iran/Swedish, and even other Oz folk all represented.

We requested all attendees to wear appropriate Australia Day attire which is why you will note open shoes in the frost and shorts with puffer coats.

Traditional summer salads and cold meats were supplemented by a lamb roast and the obligatory Pavlova x 2.. All praise to Gail for catering the whole shebang single handed. Well, with a little help from me.

Fireworks were exploded for half an hour from 6 p.m. with champagne explosions to match.

A wonderful afternoon and while most folk had to front up for work on the Monday (not us) and had left by 9p.m. there was a particular determined contingent that remained till well past 1 a.m. and required a walked escort to nearby accommodation booked earlier.

This was the only local adventure this month but one that warmed us enormously. We really do know some lovely folk and it was a joy to share our house with them.

February is forecast to be snowing but we have some plans to travel to nearby Wales for a couple of days so we will at least be able to show some snaps of that even if we do spend the rest of February in blankets by the fire. Of course we will be heading back to Oz for a few weeks in March and are quite looking forward to that. There are loose plans to spend a couple of weeks in Cornwall in June and even looser plans to go to Nova Scotia Canada and Niagra Falls in September/October..... so keep posted for continued travel adventures from Wetherby.