A little preview . . .

Some of you may not be familiar with Duncan's penchant for dressing up as Elvis. We will be attending the Parks Elvis Festival in New South Wales in January, and Duncs had a chance to try out the costume at his friend Steve's 70's themed 40th birthday. Steve, Lea, and Duncan. Andy Warhol, Princes Leia, and Elvis, respectively.

Thanksgiving in Oz

I made an entire thanksgiving spread for Duncs and his parents . . . .

The really liked the pumpkin pie. They eat a lot of savory pumpkin here, but not in pie form. Of course they have all heard of it through the american TV they get here.

Our Christmas tree! Put up on December 4th .. . a little earlier than normal, but I think I will need some help getting in the holiday mood while it is 85 degrees out.

More lawn bowls

Duncan's dad and mom


Duncs' aunty with her granddaughter, and his nephew Gilby and brother-in-law, Warwick. Cousin Nadia and sister Pru in the background.

Duncan's 40th

We celebrated Duncan's 40th at our local lawn bowls club. They have leagues on Saturdays but most other days they are open to the public for barefoot bowls.

I am demonstrating how close I got! You roll out a little white ball, the jack, then try to get the black balls as close as possible.

Pizza on the Barbie

My new favorite food has to be pizza on the barbie. I used my sourdough culture to make the pizza dough and put the pizza stone right on the barbecue. Garry assisted with some excellent dough shaping skills.

Hard to tell from the photo but we put an egg right in the middle of this one--Aussie style!

Hats

The Melbourne Cup made for some great people-watching, especially the ladies and the hats!

I thought this hat was especially fantastic--it must have been glued to her head!

At the Cup

Garry and Duncs in front of Makybe Diva, apparently a famous Aussie horse. With a 100,000 plus crowd and a general admission ticket we weren't getting anywhere close to the track. Luckily there were lots of big screens to watch.

Naturally I bet on Americain to win . . . and he did! My $10 bet had a $109 payout!

Melbourne Cup!

Melbourne's Flemington race track is a mere 5 minute walk from our house, so we could not pass up attending the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne Cup, "the race that stops the nation", as well as a public holiday in the state of Victoria. Duncs' friend Garry came down from Sydney to attend.
We started off the day with an American mint julep!
In the backyard--I was pretty happy with my newly acquired fascinator.

Crazy day of weather-we were drenched and sunburned.

The Garden

Just a couple photos of the first strawberries in our garden. My Grandma Traughber passed away last week . . . I tried to explain to her before I left that I was moving across the globe to Australia and I'm not really sure if she understood. She always loved nice gardens and flowers . . .

Crumbs Bakery - back of house

Gerald--owns the bakery with his partner Marion.

Marion--behind a stack of dough

My co-workers Gippy and Keith shaping dough


The OVEN--4 decks.

Crumbs Bakery

Thought I would put some photos up from my new bakery job. It is an organic, sourdough bakery that also makes vegan baked goods. There is a shopfront, but about 85% of their business is wholesale.

Healesville Sanctuary II

Pretty cool pelican I thought this was a great scene. A galah (type of cockatoo) perched on an emu's food trough, while another little birdy picks through the emu's poop for a snack.

close-up

Dingo!

This was one of the coolest things we saw--the lyrebird. Kind of looks like a peacock with only a couple feathers. When the male does his mating call, below, he scratches the ground, kicks up soil, then spreads its wings and does imitations of other bird's calls, it must have done at least 8 different ones. Duncan could identify a few, including the cockatoo.