Is that the rustling of leaves, or the sound of Summer leaving?

Summer 2010/ 2011, what a blast! What a season. It was fairly wet, a bit humid, the grass didn't stop growing, neither did Tess. All in all, a splendid few months.

  What... another one? Yup, this is (will be) the family wagon. A proud 1973 HQ Kingswood Wagon, stripped down to its most rudimentary parts and getting a rebuild.

The colour Ive chosen is green.. really really bright green. There are far too many white, drab silver and metallic gold-grey cars on the road.

As for the M21 (old BSA bike). That has also taken me to another level. Most unfortunately, its not mine and belongs to a mate who allowed me to assist in its rebirth. Kindly he allowed me to hold onto it for a bit while it I give it a tune, run-in, tighten down, another tune, another run-in.... maybe another run-in if the weather is good on Sunday. (So very cruisey).

I'm going to cheat here and throw in a random sample of March.
I will have to browse the going ons of Summer and put in a Summer entry next.... maybe during the depths of Winter when I grow tired of de-frosting the axe before getting the firewood in.

And of course, Tessera soaking up the afternoon warmth on the verandah and enjoying the fact that she has helped HD and I see the sunrise almost every morning for the past 6 months. All of which have been fine :)

Gotta' love a good sunset.

Late afternoon and that sky begins to drip off its heat.

Being an avid sky watcher, I do enjoy a when a free light show comes up. The new year celebrated out west saw the swamp still full and the swamp nearly always provides a good foreground/ backdrop to the western skys.

These were taken on the good old Cannon snappy-happy. Rather than slinging a great wad of a camera around, I throw this one in the top pocket, jump on the bike and go photo hunting. The camera always grabs good shots easily.

As someone once said, 'The main secret to a great shot is just being there!'

But there afternoons that you will never capture, so I dont even try. I will leave the camera behind and go and stand out on the edge and soak it all in. The best sunsets are locked up in my memories.

Mmmm, September was a big one.

Woah woah woah, hold the date line on the Blog.

Let me tell you about the new addition. (Not the HQ wagon)(That's another story).

On the second last Friday of September 2010 we said G'day to the newest member of the nest, Tessera Jean (or T.J, or TeeJ, or Tess...) our baby girl. A remarkably smooth and mellow entry into the world she was 3.6 kg, 520 long with dark hair, blue eyes and a 'turn the lights back off' look on her face.

I write this 4 months down the track where the bizarreness of being a father is slowly getting the edge taken off it. (Although I do wake up in the night still wondering what was that noise creeping into my dream, and then remember that we have a 3rd member to the household.)

After we found out that HD was preggers, we were both thankful of a good 7 months of preparation and psyching-up and listening to stories and reading. Looking back at HD's pic when she was 8 or 9 months is like 'you were really pregnant wern't you?'.

All good... that stage was fun, HD breezed it in and looked good doing so. Now almost a 3rd of a year is already over and putting together photos for the blog, TeeJ has changed soooo much in so little time.

So onwards and upwards, everything is more or less new for us and her. She enjoys watching leaves on the trees in the wind, quiet contemplation of the blue and green and brown world beyond her hands, discovering her voice.... its all a fresh canvas.

I'm sure she will get a mention in the coming months.

Here's a month by month review in a few pictures..

ZZzzzzapp!

Something had to get up on the blog sooner or later.... This is later.

I went out on dark to lock up the chooks, turned around and was blown away by the HUGE thunder cloud over the mountains, still glowing pink from the setting sun and edged in silver from the full moon rising behind. Then if that wasn't good enough, the lightening show began in earnest. There was amazingly long cloud to cloud bolts, earth to cloud and then earth to space. Long bolts spiraling upwards into a clear black sky into nowhere. And with the moon keeping pace with the building thundercloud it was like someones crazy 70's fantasy airbrush mural.

Thanks to HD for the photos. We sat on the verandah and she caught a few good pics on the little Cannon snappy-happy. 4 worked out of 120 pics taken. Ahh, the joy of digital.