Reminiscencing, what else is there to do on a dull cold winter's sunday in UK???

A whole twelve months ago today we left for our holiday in Australia and for them it was the start of the dreadful fires.   We both want to go again and would love to see some of the places we visited again!

The Railway station in Melbourne... we past it most days on our walks around the city

I loved Melbourne and I can now understand one of my son’s longing to live there.

We loved the trams and used them to get around.. we are not great shoppers but the arcades offered the cool of air conditioning, so we often found our way to one of them for morning coffee.

This one had two known oddities, Gog and Magog..... I have driven over these hills named this on my way to Cambridge    This has imported Italian mosaic floors, glazed ceilings supported by elaborate iron-lace columns, and octagonal glass domes.  The Royal Arcade is Melbourne’s oldest, built in 1869, and features two folklore giants of the ancient Britons - Gog and Magog - who strike the time each hour

There was such a lot of old Australia just as I imagined it to be and some I just couldn’t have hoped to have seen. I was so emotional seeing this house
This is the original house that my Grand mother's sister Poll and her husband Idris lived in when they emigrated to Australia in 1912.. they never met again and letters were slow as my grandmother had left school when she was eleven to go into service which would have been 1898 and so writing was a very slow process for her. But she lived for letters from her sister Poll and as  small child in the fifties I read them to her and she dictated hers for me to write for her.. So I learnt a lot about my Aunty Poll and saw all the photos of them and this property with them sitting outside.
Isn't the most beautiful property.. It is still in the family but rented out these days.

Off we went with views to die for!

This little fella was in a tree of a house where we had B&B and the owner complained about the grunting noises he made all through the night! We just thought he was beautiful

... this was in Portland on our drive along The Great Ocean road... there was the most fabulous fabric shop here, it was lush and smelt like it too! And we visited a launderette there, a long time since I had done that. It  had internet connection there so we had an hour mailing home, were we home sick not one bit!!

And how could I reminisce with out my relatives being part of my memories...this is the me waving from the verandah of Linda and Idris's (Idris is ,my second cousin) Wouldn't it be wonderful to wake up to this each morning. We ate on it the evening we arrived and watched a cukaboro come down for an offered chicken bone! And the sounds of the birds were amazing and of course the flowers. This is in the Dandenongs, and was breath taking...

And just some of my Australian relatives meeting up for a picnic in Queenscliff, I am holding the red folder which Keen had given me showing that I have 389 relatives?? Well I only met a few!! There were approx 80 people at the picnic plus children, I loved meeting them all especially Linda and Idris and Coral and Lance. Coral and I have written for 8 years so it was wonderful to meet her and I loved her right away..

It was all wonderful and we would love to go back!!