Day 186- Bird

4 July 2012- Sometimes living in Australia brings about moments that are hard to believe. There were about 20 of these birds just hanging out in the trees here. Yes, the owner was encouraging them to do so by providing food, but these are wild birds!  Not something you see everyday in the USA or UK. In all fairness, Australians are often amazed/gobsmacked by things like rabbits or squirrels.  Squirrels don't exist here, and I don't think anyone was silly enough to try and import them.

Day 185- Stanthorpe

3 July 2012- We went to Stanthorpe for a few days- here G is taking a picture of J at Quart Pot Creek, in the centre of town.

Day 174 - a cup for tea

23 June 2011- Another souvenir from Stanthorpe, an old teacup. This one is japanese, so even though it is very pretty, and the china is very fine, it doesn't have much resale value, so it wasn't expensive. I collect a mix of new and old teacups, and this one adds a different angle.

Day 157- Embers

6 June 2011- The place we stayed at in Stanthorpe had a wood burning heater, which we took advantage of. Here are the embers on the last morning.

Day 156- Doing the touristy thing

5 June 2011- Still in the Stanthorpe area. This dino sits outside the defunct Ballandean train station, just next to the New England highway. We pulled over to take a few photos. After we were done, some others pulled up as well. I don't think you are meant to do that on an interstate highway.

Day 155- A novel experience

4 June 2011- I took a lot of photos in Stanthorpe, but this one is the one becuase it is somehting I never see in Brisbane. There are no native decidous trees in Australia, and the imported ones do not have the same cycle in sub-tropical Brisbane. So no beautiful autumn leaves here. I miss them, and I miss the smell in autumn of many leaves changing and falling to the ground. Pretty exciting just to spot them!

Day 154 -On the road

3 June 2011- We drove out to Stanthorpe. This is on the road up to Cunningham's Gap. As a result of substantial rain in lat 2010 and early 2011 bits of the 2 lane highway (as in one lane in each direction) have fallen off the mountain. Not quite as badly as Arthur's Pass in NZ (which is highly scary now, let alone when bits fell off regularly) but enough to reduce most of the climb and descent to one lane bits where you wait for the traffic going the other way to end.