We didn’t have anything going on for King’s Birthday long weekend so I found us a cozy Airbnb in the country where we could chill in a different place than our house. We didn’t do much other than blast the heater, eat stuff, knit/crochet, and watch movies, which was actually great. I did not take any pictures of us doing anything. Oops.
Great Egret
We stopped in Ballarat at Lake Wendouree on the way up and went for a bird walk around the lake. We saw heaps of birbs!
We also saw a few rakali… an Australian native water-rat.
Epic lunch. I have never heard of a carvery before. They have all the bits of a roast meal and you can customize your perfect meal. I got a huuuuge box of chips and gravy and roast chicken. Scott had a roast lamb roll.
Moonambel is pretty tiny but they do have a couple wineries! The pizza was from Summerfield Winery which was walking distance from the airbnb! The roast lunch was from Bigibila, which was also not far away. (I had to take a lot of Lacteezes.)
On the way back we stopped at the Creswick Woollen Mills which had a museum area that you could walk through. I bought a wool blanket which I have used every single day since purchase. I love it.
I have been wanting to go to the poop plant for a while but you need to go with someone who has a permit. I was pleased it showed up on the Birdlife Photography group itinerary on a day that I could finally actually go!
We all met up at the entrance and then merged into small groups with people with cars and keys and they drove us around all morning.
The area isn’t actually used for treating water any more (they do it in a different way now), but the land can’t be used for anything else because it still has traces of poop. It doesn’t smell though. There are rules like you can’t eat anything while you’re in the area and you have to wear pants and closed shoes. There’s a lot of standing water, which means there’s a lot of bugs, which means there are a lot of birds. It’s the best area in Victoria for birdwatching.
BrolgaBlack Swan and Australian PelicanWhiskered TernsSinging BushlarkRed-necked StintRed-necked Stint
Red-necked Stints are migratory waders that are born in Siberia and somehow make it all the way to Australia for the summer. Fascinating.
Growling Grass Frog
One pond was full of these frogs. You could hear them, and see them poking their eyes out of the water, but as soon as you get closer they duck under. They must be pretty massive.
I saw a lot more birds but a lot of the pictures we took later in the day were affected by Heat Haze, which made the pictures look like watercolour paintings (not in a nice way). The whole group together logged 107 different types of birds, in one morning!! I look forward to going again at a different time of year.
August was a busy month. Scott worked his first graduations days, and we went to Vietnam for a week, and in between we squeezed in lots of activities and some tasty meals.
We went hot air ballooning, and then went out for breakfast at Warung Coffee. We got a beef rendang toastie and a mie goreng toastie and they were ridiculous and salty and delicious. Yes that is a sandwich full of noodles.
I made Scott come with me to a birding photography outing to Muckleford and Newstead Cemetery. It was a cold but pleasant day. We saw a few new birds, but I didn’t get any particularly great pictures. At least now I know where to come back to try to see the rainbow bee-eaters this summer though.
Australian Pipit
We knew the steam train would be passing through around noon so everyone stopped birdwatching and changed their camera settings and got into position to best photograph the train… and then waited… and waited… and then finally fifteen minutes later it slooooooooooooooooooowly came around the corner. I think you could walk faster than this train haha.
Trivia. It was so loud. We didn’t do well.
Malaysian food all day every day. We went to Pappa Laksa again and had Pappa Special Laksa and Beef Rendang Nasi Lemak. Delicious.
RTE Pork Adobo and cucumber salad. Tasty, and affordable!
Trying out different methods of Brain Off time. Paint by numbers was pretty fun. Good ol’ Kmart.
Tiny bit of progress on the cable knit blanket.
Slow progress on Lauren’s hat. I only manage to get a couple rounds done at a time on my lunch breaks at work. And the pink thing was a project for Lara which I have now abandoned. Knitting it was going way too slowly, and crocheting was turning out way too heavy. I think a sleeve scarf would be a better project for someone with a knitting machine. (Can I buy a knitting machine??)
Unpictured stuff:
We took my whole work team to play pickleball at Pickle Play. Almost everyone came! We had to rent three courts! It was chaotic at first trying to teach them all how to play, but once they got the hang of it it was very fun. And no one hurt themselves. Success.
Scott took Beau to open day at UniMelb. They went to a bunch of science lectures and had KFC and had a good day together.
I’ve still been going to Bodypump pretty regularly. It is kind of stupid but at least it’s something.
And of course, still pickleballing. I usually do one drills session, and two social sessions per week. Still loving it.
OMG I’m so behind in blogging I can’t really remember what we did on this trip. So how about I just show you some pictures.
Winkipop
Bells Beach
Amazing ENORMOUS seafood platter
White-faced Heron
Spicy momos at the farmers market
Boardgames at the Airbnb
Ramen dinner
Entertaining ourselves while we waited for brighter auroraLil’ smudge of auroraI like that the signpost looks like a microscope pointer. Exhibit A: Milky Way
Knitting in the sun
Scott did a good job of planning the whole weekend (other than picking another Airbnb that has no bathroom door). It was a nice relaxing weekend away with delicious meals.
