Remembering places and faces

Our thanks to those of you who have contacted us to make sure we were not in the area of the Cyclone Debbie and its aftermath. That weather happened some distance north of us in the neighbouring state of Queensland, although some areas of northern New South Wales were also affected. We're in south NSW. As is usual for us, we did have lots of rain during that time, but nothing to the extent of Cyclone Debbie.

What I'd like Canada and Australia to adopt from each other

I'll start with a sign that shows we're in the southern hemisphere. Seeing a spring event being held in October highlighted the different seasons 'down under'.

Signs we're definitely not in Canada

As we head into our last week in Australia, it's time to reflect on our experience. We've been here three months, which is the maximum we can stay in the country for any one stretch, even though we have a one-year visa. We plan to wend our way back home over the next few weeks. More about that later this week.

Experiencing 50 shades of grey

For those of you who read the title of this post and were anticipating something other than our ongoing weather news ... sorry to disappoint you :)

Greg tends to remind me when I've gone a while without updating the blog. I've been hesitating as I felt all I could show you was more photos of ocean and grey skies. However, yesterday was a breakthrough in the weather.

What a weather week it was!

While we're house sitting in Flinders, New South Wales, our homeowners are travelling with their caravan (trailer) to the south and west of us. They've now been away almost three weeks, and in that time they've had blue skies and sunshine, pleasant daytime temperatures, cool evening temperatures for sleeping, and two nights with rain. Ideal conditions for that type of travelling, so we're happy to hear that.

We've had more days than we care to remember with heavy downpours of rain, or else skies that constantly threaten rain. Let's just say we've done more reading than usual :)

Following a day of torrential downpours here yesterday, this is today's weather warning:

Brightening up a cloudy day

Summer is officially over in this part of Australia, and we've now moved into autumn.

On a recent gloomy weather day, I went for a walk in the neighbourhood. 

A blustery day at the blowholes

Hint: to look at any photo full-screen, tap or click on it.

Let's just say we're had more than our fair share of rain lately. After a weekend where I managed to read a whole book (that would usually take me at least three weeks), yesterday we were ready for a road trip.

Although the rain had subsided, we were faced with blustery conditions with a wind of 50 km/hr (31 miles) for most of the day. 

rough water all along the coast

It's raining cats & dogs!

We're now living about an hour south of Sydney, in Flinders, New South Wales, population 5,200. It's a suburb of the city of Shellharbour, population 69,700. We're just over 2 km (1+ miles) from the village of Shellharbour (a district of the city of the same name), which is a popular seaside area of quaint shops and eateries.

Shellharbour village waterfront

The social side of house sitting

The past weekend highlighted one of the great joys of house sitting, particularly with friendly Australians.

Our homeowners returned Friday afternoon, and that evening we sat down to a beautiful Thai green curry prepared by the homeowners.

We said goodbye to Ollie, who
has such a beautiful temperament

Why did the kangaroo cross the street?

We've been living a quiet life here in the suburbs of Canberra. We enjoy spending time at this beautiful home, as well as walks in the neighbourhood, and discovering the northerly part of Canberra.

We ventured into the city on Saturday, to enjoy a day at the 3-day annual cultural festival. We anticipated seeing colourful national costumes, international dances, traditional music and a great variety of food. Unfortunately it rained steadily the whole time, which certainly dampened the spirt of the festival. We saw about 80 countries represented with booths at the festival, but Canada wasn't one of them. We wondered why.

Although we feel like we're living much the same way we would if we were at home in Canada, each day brings us experiences we just would not get at home. That's part of what makes the house sitting so enjoyable. One of my favourite differences is the abundance of beautiful wildlife here. Note that I have not altered the colour in any of these photos; they were taken on different days at different locations.

The planned city of Canberra

We've now been in Canberra for a week, which is halfway through our sit here. Before we left Canada I had done some reading about Australia and was particularly interested in the history of the design of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Although my primary focus in planning our sits was to stay near the coast, I was pleased to stray from that plan, to be able to see Canberra.

Greg's in the car, with our buddy Ollie in the back

Are those sheep hopping?

As you may know, I was born and raised in Wales, where sheep outnumber people by three to one. Apparently in Australia, sheep outnumber people by more than four to one. However, we've seen very few sheep since we've been here.

In the two days since we've been in Canberra, we haven't seen any live sheep. However, we did see two that made us smile.

Two days ago, I went to the store for a bottle of wine. I just couldn't resist this one.