Tambo Upper

Joe & Jackie's farm is beautifully set in the rolling foothills of the southern reaches of the Great Dividing Range and overlooking the Tambo River.

Skye and myself shared our life with the menagerie of Robbie the kelpie, Bimmy the labrador, a very large persian cat, about 2 dozen chickens, 6 sheep and a couple of dozen cattle whilst their family travelled overseas to Hungary and the UK.

Robbie and Bimmy are two beautiful very loving dogs who like nothing better to cuddle up with you on the sofa, or in bed.  One night I woke up feeling VERY squashed and found that there were 4 other bodies in the bed AND I had the least amount of room!

Robbie and Skye were really good friends

Bimmy was the first to let me know that it's time to get up and prepare breakfast — she LOVES her food!

Our days were spent mowing, fetching wood for the fire, feeding the chickens, feeding the very spoilt cattle (they had a daily ration of Baker's Delight leftover bread which they just LOVED). As winter progressed they also relished their daily feed of lucerne.

After all that hard work we gratefully retired to the deck and enjoyed a well earned cuppa.

Back in East Gippsland

For the first time in two years I've returned to my stamping ground of the Bairnsdale area.  This time to Joe and Jackie's lovely property where I'll be housesitting for a few weeks mainly in June.

What a fabulous spot they have—high on a hilltop, with lovely views of the rolling hills—the perfect place to put your feet up and relax. (hopefully I'll have some better photos of the landscape on my next trip.  These were taken with iPhone)

  

Fresh Fruit Salad

On second thoughts though maybe I'd better get out there marching up and down the hills. These three photos show some of the Six Star quality breakfasts that Joe and Jackie conjured up between them and of course I was happy to reciprocate with a "Scottish" Breakfast—smoked Kippers.

Smoked Salmon with
Scrambled Eggs

"Hungarian" Breakfast

We visited friends who were camping somewhere at the end of a serious 4x4 track—many ups and downs which we just made it through in the farm ute (it's a diesel 4x4 though).

Back in Eagle Point

We've been at Jean's place near Eagle point for a couple of weeks now and leave tomorrow - the time has just flown, meeting up with friends, getting the motorhome serviced, Skye vaccinated and just generally relaxing

Over the Easter weekend we attended a party at Geoff & Sue's, lots of scrummy food and good company.  The photo above is the Easter Cheesecake Ian made complete with rabbit and rabbit poo.

Laurie and Timmy enjoying the party - oops I forgot to say that the party was actually a surprise early 60th birthday celebration for Laurie - when the cake came out and "happy birthday" started up Laurie said "whose birthday is............" then it struck her it was for her!

 Chicken anyone? I'm very popular with Skye, Murphy and Timmy

Our "leaving party" at the Main Hotel with 12 friends - in this photo, Ann, Geoff, Sue & Russ

 Barb, Marie, Paul, Ellen & Laurie

Week 2 Korrumburra

We decided to leave Sale for Korumburra on Sunday10th as the next 2 days were forecast to be 43 C.  It was a short trip, only 97 kms, but slow, as the road was hilly and winding.  We stopped for a coffee break in Koonwarra - this tiny town is a “waste wise” village and also heavily into sustainable living.

A REVIEW OF KOONWARRA FROM MIETTA'S

Stop in Koonwarra and go back in time. The old store has lots of edible goodies to take home or stop and have a cup of tea in the adjoining garden. As well as providing some charming cafe seating, the garden is a model of the environmental conscious 'kitchen garden' which routinely composts and recycles all produce.They also have cooking classes and provide a cellar door with tastings of Gippsland wines by the glass.

Korumburra Showgrounds are spacious with large pine trees at the top end where we decided to camp to get out of the hot sun.  Being under the trees proved really beneficial during the 40+ heat on Monday and the air-conditioner coped pretty well, with the temperature only reaching 30 C in the evening.

The daily cost with power is $10, $8 without power.

Of course we’ve sussed out the best cafe in town (have to get your priorities right), it’s the Green Door, an organic cafe - had delicious bruschetta with ricotta cheese (2 enormous slices of sour dough) for only $6.50.

The other folks from the CMCA forum (who are meeting us here) arrived during the week - John & Kay with their dog Gizmo, Peter & Jan, Paul (Salty) and his dog Cobber, Glen & Sarah their daughter Megan and dog Shane, John & Julieanne, Keith & Beth and a couple of Queenslander blow ins Peter & Jo.

John, Keith, Beth, Jan, Peter and Paul

Keith, Beth, Jan and Laurie

Laurie, Sarah, Glen, Paul and dogs

At the same time there was a CMCA Gippsland Chapter Rally here, so in all there were around 50 rigs and 100 people (not forgetting dogs and the occasional horse from Pony Club members).

The Gippslanders had an Op Shop (Charity Shop) Ball on Saturday night and Peter and Jan won (most deservedly) Most Elegant Couple - she resplendant in a 1980's dress and Peter in a very handsome navy velvet waistcoat, all from local op shops.

Peter and Jan

After a lovely sunny week the weather has decided to return to winter and it's currently arond 15 C and is alternately low clouds and squalls of driving rainl

Little Suzi to the Rescue

During one of my visits to Melbourne Laurie decided to move the motorhome so that Warren could mow underneath it - unfortunately she forgot that after rain the ground around there became very BOGGY.

Result - one very stuck motorhome - up to the wheel trims!

Today our friend Ian and his trusty little Suzuki Vitara arrived to rescue us damsels in distress.  I was a bit sceptical that Suzi would be up to the task of removing a 28 foot 8.5 tonne vehicle that was about 30cm deep in the soil.  However just look at this video

First visit to see Danni at Numurkah

Well we've just returned from both my first trip away and first visit to see Danni at her new home.  It was really lovely to see her again, although I was very nervous wondering if she'd a) remember me or b) "snub me" as she had done with some of the people from the Respite house where she'd stayed for 4 months before moving to her new home; as it was she gave a really gorgeous smile and pulled me down to sit next to her on the sofa, under her doona!

We went in Laurie's motorhome (along with Skye and Timmy the dogs)  travelling via friends in Melbourne, then up to Numurkah for a couple of days before heading over to Wangaratta to visit the Sisters for a night, then back home again via Melbourne - quite a busy schedule covering around 1,300kms and seeing lots of people on the way. I didn't really feel tired until on the way home - went to bed VERY early (around 6pm) and slept through till the next morning