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.