Hoorah! I finally got a night-time shot without laser eyes! She doesn’t look that impressed though does she? I think it won’t be too long before she starts shutting her eyes in every photo like Mojo does. 
Thursday started off as such a brilliant morning. It was slightly overcast and just a little on the cool side - so for me, that’s perfect weather to go for a short hike in the bush. I checked the weather radar and while there was a band of rain hanging off the coast, nothing on the scopes for where I planned to go for my little walk. Being school holidays, the picnic areas at JC Slaughter Falls at Mt Coot-tha were pretty popular. In a time when Nintendos and XBoxes seem more popular than the beauty of nature, it was refreshing to see so many kids out with their folks enjoying a day in the bush. It’s a short hike up to the summit lookout on Mt Coot-tha - around 4km round trip I think - and steep in places but the view is worth the walk. It’s probably a good idea that I did head up to the summit since I could see the rain clouds fast approaching, signally a timely descent to the bottom. I had a rain jacket in any case, but fortunately I didn’t need it. 
This past week has been another crazy one with a mad dash down to rural NSW for a family event in the tiny one horse town of Quirindi. I love seeing new parts of Australia so it was a perfect excuse to extend the trip a little more than necessary and spend a few days in Dubbo, just for something different. On advice from some lovely Warwick locals I met at work, we headed west past Ipswich, south to Warwick and then further west to Goondiwindi and took the Newell Highway down to Dubbo. It made for a much quicker trip than the route we were planning on taking. But boy was it boring as far as landscape is concerned. No hills. No mountain ranges. Just flat plains, some planted with crops, as far as the eye could see. Oh and of course, B double trailers by the score. On the way home, we decided to go up the New England Highway instead which was just lovely in comparison. We didn’t get to see too much of the New England region on our return home but it would be nice to go back down to Glen Innes and stay a few days and see more of the area.
I guess if you have ever done any fairly long trips over a short course of days, you’ll know the kind of fatigue that sets in after several days of being constantly on the go. We had ten hours to Dubbo the first day, the next day off sight-seeing and visiting the zoo, then the next day four hours to Quirindi and finally a good seven hour drive home. Although we loved visiting NSW, we were grateful to Cunningham’s Gap looming ahead of us. From there, we knew we only had an hour to go and it truly was a sight for sore eyes. I couldn’t get a decent shot from the other side of the gap due to dense foliage but I did get a snap coming down the other side.
When I first moved here, there were very few birds around the area which was hard to get used to - given that I grew up in an area where birds are prolific. Every morning I woke up to a mixture of kookaburras, lorrikeets and magpies. By contrast, the dawn chorus of the birdlife in our area was non-existent. Of course, this changed with the coming of the budgies and the peachfaces but I still missed the sound of the birds outside. After planting a few bottlebrush plants, some grevillea and lillie pillies around our property, the birds are slowly starting to return. Initially, it was just finches, doves and willy wag-tails but now we have a couple of resident magpies and a few lorrikeets which come round periodically to feed on the bottlebrush flowers. Even though we have the cat park on the same side as the bottlebrush plants, the birds don’t show any fear of them and happily browse while the cats have a snooze in the sunshine. 
This week has been a bit of a stressful one for myself and my family. Late last year, my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. However, they caught it early and have been able to treat it successfully by having a full mastectomy. We have had good news since the surgery - it was completely contained and has not spread. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the staff at the Kim Walters Choices program which operates out of The Wesley Hospital. While it is highly unlikely that she will ever read this, I would like to say a big thank you to Janine for her advice and support. It has made a difficult time that much easier for both my mum and myself and we are very grateful that this program exists. Also a big thank you to Kevin Walters, who started the Choices program as a memorial to his late wife, Kim.
The Choices program is a free community service for women who are affected by breast cancer and they rely on the generosity of the public and major businesses to continue providing this vital service to the community. Their annual fundraising venture is Think Pink week (14-19 July) - a fair way off yet but something to keep in mind. No woman wants to think they will be personally affected by breast cancer but the reality is that it affects more than one life.
Part of the grounds of the Wesley Hospital, on the banks of the Brisbane River.
