Well, my husband and I have been living in the Dandenongs now for just over 3 months.  This is such a pretty part of Victoria, around 40kms south east of the city.

My absence has purely been because of our packing/shifting/unpacking and getting used to new surroundings. I have been taking tons of photos and plan to share more on our lovely city with you soon.

Now we live in the Dandenongs we decided to go to the Kallista Tea Rooms for Sunday morning breakfast.  Something we’d promised ourselves before we even shifted. It only took us 6 weeks to go.

We were disappointed that even with a booking they didn’t have a table for us when we got there and they had to rearrange other customers to fit us in. This was partly because the MG Car Club had increased their booking just that morning and the windows where I hoped we would sit weren’t available. So I wasn’t able to take bird photos at the feeder - one of the special things about the Kallista Tea rooms and also one of the reasons why I wanted to go there.  I had brought my camera prepared.  However when the MG Car Club people turned up, I was able to content myself instead with some photos of their cars.   If you click on the image below you’ll see more of their cars in the gallery at Flickr.

MG Car

We’ve really had very up and down weather over the past few weeks.  1st December traditionally marks the beginning of Summer here and yet in the latter half of October and beginning of November we saw above normal temperatures and extreme heat.  Summer seemed to hit with a vengeance and in fact in some parts of our country there are bushfires already burning.

And then this past week we’ve had lots of rain - in one day we got what we would normally get in a month for this time of year and I’m sure we probably did again yesterday and today too. In fact perfect weather for ducks.  Must explain why my husband and I had ducks in the yard of our new home yesterday.

Melbourne has been hosting the “Around the Bay in a Day” bike ride for 17 years. It’s a great fundraiser while promoting fitness.  Those participating in the race can choose from 50km to 250km and distances in between.

My husband did this ride a few years ago.  It’s always held in October each year and always gets a lot of participants.  Below is a small selection of the photos I took this morning but you can see more at my photo gallery.

With my impending shift to the foot of the Dandenong Ranges I’ve begun looking to see ‘what’s on’ to explore and see - and take my camera to!  I discovered the beautiful Tulip Festival in Silvan, not 5 mins away from my daughter’s home in Monbulk, so I picked her up on Friday morning and we went for an explore.  It didn’t disappoint and I got some great pics.

Whet your appetite?  You can see more here.

The Royal Melbourne Show has been running for the past week. It’s currently school holidays here in Victoria so the show is always a popular place to go.

As my own children have grown we don’t go to the show very often but I decided it would be a good place for some photo opportunities - anything to take my camera out!

So here’s a few shots from my time at the show which is at the Showgrounds, Flemington.

My husband and I were exploring Selby which is where our new home will be and we discovered only 5 mins drive away a lake park we didn’t know existed. It’s at the top of Cardinia Reservoir and is called Aura Vale Lake Park.  It’s apparently the run off water from nearby areas which is prevented from entering into the reservoir. So it was quite full, and really lovely to visit.  You can go canoeing, kayaking, walking, have picnics and just enjoy the scenery.

Approx 54kms from Melbourne itself, it can be easily reached via Wellington Road for a lovely outing.

While it was a cool afternoon it was certainly pleasant and there were few people around as we visited it.  A couple of pics below but if you want to see more then visit my blog at KathiesPhotos.com.

It’s almost Spring in Melbourne but at the moment we’re still experiencing cold weather and rain - which is good. We’ve had lots of wind this season - far more than I can remember from past years.

However I do love being in Melbourne all year round.

Today I visited my daughter in Monbulk and we were sitting in a cafe in the main street when suddenly it got dark, the rain came down and then we noticed it was actually hail - it was bouncing off the road.

My husband rang me late afternoon asking what the weather was like where we live and he’d noticed a sudden temperature drop to 9.6C.  When he checked where our daughter lives it was 4.6C.  Brr, we still have winter.

Just had a guy who said he was from AGL and showed me a badge. He wanted to replace my globes for free energy saving ones - I had heard there is such a promotion. But who’s going to let a stranger in the house to replace their globes for them? I’d have to spend time watching and waiting.  I told him he could leave the globes but he said he’s supposed to take the old ones away with him.  I told him ‘no’, I didn’t want him in my house.

I sent a message to a forum I run and immediately had others come back with information. One said it was a scam, a couple of others said they’d had men coming to their doors too but they turned them away.  One in another state said her electricity company wrote to them to advise this was going to take place.

I elected to ring AGL and query them whether they had someone coming around the streets of where I live and if not, I would call the police.

I couldn’t believe the response of their call operator.  She said they do have staff coming out to do this and they carry ID badges.  I told her he did flash one but I didn’t see it much and didn’t feel comfortable about letting a stranger in my house - especially since we had not been previously notified. She just said it was my perogative and I didn’t have to have him in. She showed no concern whatsoever about my need for confirmation or safety in the home.

Is this a reflection of the company itself? I hope not.  Given that it’s easy to create fake badges and flash one in front of people that was not sufficient evidence to me.  At least the company could have sent us a letter advising this was going to take place and when.

And it’s been a winter in my life too which is why I’ve not been here a real lot. But spring is on its way and with it renewed vigour for lots of things, including writing here.

If you haven’t already, you might like to visit my photoblog which is posted to daily and shows photos of different things here in Victoria and around Melbourne.  I did spend June overseas so my photoblog has many pics from there too.

In the meantime, this is a wattle tree out in full bloom at Lysterfield Lake Park, which is south east of Melbourne. Beautiful place to visit.