Time flies; most perplexing creatures

No, sorry this is nothing anbout time-travelling insects, it has more to do with the fact that since the last post of the dog standing in the snow waiting to have her photo taken, nearly half a whole year has passed. In that time it seems like we havent seen or done all that much, but thinking back on it all there have been trips to the Holden Day 2007, up the Murray through the Red Gum forests, the Deni Ute muster, a few more renos, tidying up the place, planting of trees, watching the grasses grow and Christmas has come and gone. A lame sumary I know, but based on the fact that a picture speaks with precicely the right diction and pronounciation, heres a few to look at.

Hi there sailor! I wore my strange hat and we parked the monaro amidst a paddock full of holdens for the 2007 meet. There was around 800 cars there on show and probably another 400 in the car-park. The old LS was outshone by some absolutely shmicky examples of old everyday holdens everywhere you looked.

This year I took a little longer wandering around the panno's getting some tips. Although there wasnt that many at the meet, the ones that were there covered justabout all styles of pannelvans. Check out the brown number in the row shouting out 'Im from the early eighties, and proud of it!'

Van-it Janet! Yep, Gotta love an old holden with matching plywood van. Next stop, the Big Banana !

The Deniliquin Ute muster 2007 was abso-blo-freezing on the first day due to a gale force wind blowing up from the south. Our tradition spot on the eastern edge of the ute parking area soon became over congested and subsequently, the dust, smoke, young city yobs and excess morning drinking started to turn the camp into something a little ugly. Never-the-mind, HD and I picked up the tent, esky and chairs and relocated everything on the far west boundary. No smoke, dust, crowded camp sites ao city yobs. In fact the west boundary had it's share of HQ driver-appreciaters. And so a good time was had by all. Photos show the dust pit in the wind on Friday night, circle-work comp on Saturday, my pick of the utes at the muster (and we saw them all) and the stickered Falcon

From Deni it was then on to Swan Hill and then headed east along the Murray Rv, checking out the sights and camping on the river in the state forests along the way.

On the way doiwn the river we found more than enough quiet river bends to nose the ute into and boil the billy. Great to hear the bird life settle in the evening and then start up on the picininy. We even took a dip or two. Next time we will be wetting a line. The red-gum forest away from the river did look crook. Alot of the older trees were suffering the effects of drought and over-controled water in the river. 'Better enjoy it while it lasts' the locals were saying.

At Echuca we looked over the museum to suss out some of the timber history of the place and find out more of the Paddle-steamer times. I would love to kyack the river with a copy of the old steamer maps and compare. Echuca also houses a very fine Holden Museum, so we also paid our shilling and took a few hours out of the day. I could ramble on about what we saw in there, but I promised not to make this a atomotive ramble.