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Getting back to no place of your own was a bit disorienting. We are currently living in Karen and Terence's basement guest room, and are adapting to being homeless at home.  Searching across four different locations for the clothes and possessions we needed for the next two weeks takes much of our time.  The rest of our effort and daylight hours are spent on sorting out and filing taxes; dealing with six months of mail; checking in with the tenants; finding what we needed for our upcoming European four-week cycling trip; acquiring a bike for Kate that will carry what she needs and has the gearing to climb Swiss mountain passes; driving to Sunshine Village to ski with neighbors who moved away from us, then driving to Fernie the next weekend to ski with neighbors we moved away from!  We have now caught up with most of the relatives and friends that have been asking after us and are vaguely settled back in Canada.  We have a primary pack done for Montreal, which is ti...

As our time in Australia draws to a close, we thought we would post our plans for the rest of the year. If we happen to be in your neighbourhood, let's catch up!! March - we arrive back in Calgary on 14 March and will spend the rest of the month there. April - 2 April we head to Montreal and are doing a month long French immersion course. May - first week we will be in Ottawa then Calgary from 10th before heading to Europe 22nd. France to attend my goddaughter's first communion and perhaps Amsterdam June - cycling through Switzerland and Italy then back to France and Calgary July - BC for first two weeks then Calgary for FolkFest Aug/Sep/Oct- generally in Calgary at this stage with a week around southern Alberta as travelling marshals with The Tour of Alberta Nov/Dec - Thailand and Malaysia cruising and racing aboard SY Popeye.

"The Door Was Left Open" Our final few days in Australia were spent in beautiful Sydney.  We stayed a couple of days in the city that allowed us to explore art galleries and Sydney's newest park - Barangaroo Point Reserve.  An evening at Middle Harbour Yacht Club racing on No Friends was a reunion with the Raja Muda crew. A grand time was had. Of course, no trip to Sydney is complete without a few days on Dee Why Beach with Miss Amanda.   Dee Why's golden sands and sparkling blue surf was appreciated with early morning swims and beach side lunches. View from Craig and Lynne's gorgeous home in Clareville Manly ferry enroute to airport Exploring Barangaroo Point Reserve No caption needed!

We have landed on a family that we originally met in Canada and that have returned to their home town … and are now growing back into their regular life. The Phelans entered Kate’s world when Tim (the patriarch) worked with Kate around 2007. Tim was to be based in Fort McMurray and Kate was flying in and out of the work site in the deep north of Alberta on a regular basis. When Tim relocated his family from Brisbane, they set up a friendly Fort Mc home-away-from-home and would often invite Kate, a poor-little-displaced-and-familyless-Aussie, over for a properly cooked meal when she was up north. When Kate met Sean and set up her own friendly little home in Calgary, they would have Tim (and often the family) over for dinner … and the occasional two week stretch when the kids were on summer holidays. The Phelans were eventually repatriated to Australia and returned to their bigger, nicer home in Brisbane’s suburb of Ashgrove.  Even though Kate and Tim no longer worked toget...

Here we are, back at Big Sister's place in Palmwoods.  Tom has had his epic 21st birthday party. Much alcohol was consumed. A pig and a lamb were roasted. A band played great backgound music, then got everyone going with dance tunes even us oldies enjoyed. Old people were bemused. Young people did not get out of hand. Speeches were made. Thank-you's were offered. No one was seriously injured.  All was good. Now what? The partygoers (all ninety of them, by our estimates) all emerged well after mid morning and did an admirable job of tidying up the paddock were the party was held.  Tents were disassembled, thousands of empty beer cans were gathered, garbage disposed of and rental tables and chairs stacked and made ready for Monday pickup.  The friends and birthday boy headed back to their jobs, Emily headed back to school and the rellies hooked up their caravans and have made themselves scarce.  Whoosh.  It got quiet here in a hurry. scrambl...

Sam"s house How did we get here?!! Our nephew Sam is an agronomist working on the Darling Downs based in Dalby, a three hour drive from Palmwoods. A road trip was obviously required! Bunya Pines We piled into the Pajaro and headed west over the Great Divide through tropical rainforest, pastoral lands and crops of sorghum and mung beans. Chicken Parma at the local pub, a good night's sleep then off to explore the Bunya Mountains. The National Park includes the most westerly tropical rainforest in Queensland and the world's largest population of bunya pines. (Since bunya pines are endemic to South-East Queensland, this claim is not quite as impressive as it sounds!!) Looking up through a Strangler fig the original tree is long gone It is stunning. A few degrees cooler than down on the plain making hiking very pleasant. We wandered through the towering bunya and hoop pines, marvelled at the 400-year-old strangler figs and were awed by the views. There are...

You need a pretty special beach to impress an Australian. We are visiting Wendy and Graeme who live in Palmwoods, Queensland - near some of the more spectacular beaches in the world.  Hundreds of kilometers of tan-coloured sand awaits, every afternoon, every weekend, every holiday.  So, where do they go when they have guests from the other regions and they really want to impress? They head here - Double Island Point.  The only way to get here is to: know about it own a four wheel drive vehicle drive 35 minutes north from Mooloolaba take a 3 minute long vehicle ferry ride across the river at Tewantin navigate the soft sand dunes that are famous for bogging unworthy vehicles drive for 20 minutes along this beach (which is a registered road with all road rules applicable and speed limits) As we made our way to our eventual picnic spot, we zoomed along an east-facing beach, exposed to the full effect of the winds on the Pacific Ocean.  Waves would roll...

Cook St. in Flinders, long ago General Store on the left The Flinders of my childhood was a farming community where a few people from Melbourne had beach houses. My parents were dairy farmers, surrounded by other dairies, beef, orchards, strawberry farms, chickens and eggs. It was quite acceptable to trudge into the General Store in your gumboots and ask Mrs Commons 'do you have....?'  We went to the back of the store for dog and chook pellets, right for hardware and farm supplies (men's stuff)  and left for newspapers, the Commonwealth Bank, haberdashery and clothing (women's stuff). Clothing was limited to overalls and gumboots but that was the farmers uniform then. The beach houses were just that, small, mostly fibro shacks clustered around the golf course and over looking the thundering Bass Strait. Roll forward a year or two! The dairies have gone as have most of the chickens, the eggs and the fibro shacks. The Peninsula now sports multi-million dollar hol...