maggies_lens

So what do you do when you have come off your horse and are feeling a bit battered and bruised? You come home, have a hot shower (finding all the little scrapes you didn't realise you have), shake out the grit from your pants (how the hell did it all get in there?!?!?!?) and head off into the Dandenong's to the National Rhododendron Gardens :) It's not Rho season at all, but it is still very beautiful up there and well worth the drive. It's 40 hectares of just beautifully landscaped gardens with massive old gums, cherries, and other trees plus loads and loads of shrubs and flowers. Always something to see there, even in the 'off' season. Peak season here is September through to about mid November. It gets really busy in there then. I missed out going last year. Place has a great history too, started about 50 years ago. Mostly cleared by hand until a huge fire ripped through there and effectively cleared about 90% of the stuff they wanted gone anyway :P Plus left behind a beautiful nutrient rich layer of ash and top soil for them to start again. The place was spared Black Saturday, thank god.


Mountain Ash

( garden stuff )

Went on another AWESOME walk today which I'll post about later, can't be stuffed at the moment :P

I can't believe how quickly my niece is growing. She stands up by herself now, although she uses things to pull herself up and keeps a hold onto stuff. She can stand alone but only when she doesn't realise she's doing it. As soon as she realises she is on her own, she plops down :P She has also taken her first steps but again without realising it. She prefers to crawl. Ah well, she'll get there in her own time. We'll prob look back fondly at this time in a few months and wish we were back in the can't-run stage :D She's HYPER cute and very giggly and sweet, Sarah - even you'd like her I think :D. I really hope she keeps that. She ADORES my mum and dad, and loves me :) Have discovered trying to get babies to pose is pretty much impossible. But I gave it a good go. Got some pretty ones, I reckon. Also got a couple pretty ones at my parents garden and also at a garden we passed when we took Izi for a walk. Please bear in mind portraiture is def not something I have studied and have VERY little experiance with, so be kind with any critiques but at the same time tell me how I can improve :)



( more of the cute stuff under here plus plant porn )

Going to have a very quiet one at home today, I think. Been longing for a day just spent reading and cuddling the dogs and cats. Plus it's a perfect laundry day so i may as well get as much done there as possible before the rain hits later this arvo. God my life is SO exciting :D I WAS going to read the 1st of the Fool's trilogy by RH but nooooooo, suddenly EVERYONE wants to read it and it's lent out at every single library within a 30k radius! WTF?!?! It's been out for yeeeeeeeears and now because I want to read it, everyone else wants to as well :P I could just go and buy it since I'm collecting them anyway, but I realy shouldn't with the mothers day lunch to pay for. WHY are books so damn exxy these days? I still remember when you could get a thick paperback like that for $14. Surely the author isn't getting a bigger cut. WHY are they making them harder to get? They WANT us to dumb-down? I could get it 2nd hand but I want the funky new covers so I'll just have to suck it up, princess. I'll get it after pay day. Good thing Koontz has come up with the goods and released a decent new one I borrowed, called 'Breathless'. Not as good as his old stuff but MUCH better than the stuff he's been releasing lately. I farking HATE the 'Odd' books. I also happen to have stumbled across these two books by a certain Megan Lindholm which look pretty darned good... :D Oh and look, Hampton Park library has Wizard of the Pidgeons, which I have only wanted to read for oh, the past however many years. Guess I'd better go for a drive :D

Spent most of today at one of Al's parents properties. Yeah I said ONE OF. This one is goooorgeous!!!! I would kill to live on a place like that; right up against the bush/rainforest, plenty of birds, insects, frogs, lizards and a couple little lakes. Just lovely. I did find a Banjo frog (still no Green Tree Frogs!!!!) but it hid before I could get a shot. I did find a Cane Toad. These evil bastards are an introduced species here who do incredible damage. They were supposed to control Cane Beetle... that didn't work out so well. The rest of Australia dreads them spreading. Here they kill them by the thousands and still it seems to have no effect.  We had a lovely lunch after all that, then Al and I went to Bramston Beach while his folks had a nap. Been a really nice relaxing sort of day.


Babinda Boulders :-) Guess how it got it's name.... :P

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