Hague Family Visit

As you can see, we were so impressed with Lerida Estate that we took our visitors there for lunch. Him Outdoors was more than happy to celebrate his birthday with my family, some local wine and a couple of games of petanque.

Spazley Wiggins - rocking the ginger burns

Chester was keen to make friends, or at least sit on people.

Lerida Estate

Our excuse for visiting a winery on a sunny weekend was that we have visitors arriving shortly and need to be able to show them a few local 'sights'. Who am I kidding: we don't need an excuse...

Lake George wind farm

The Christmas Book Tree

As my nephew and niece are coming for Christmas (with their parents, might I add), it is essential for us to have a Christmas tree, and Him Outdoors can't complain about it - hurrah! I stole this idea from a photo, and as I had piles of books lying about, it provided a festive solution to my tidying up problems.

Him Outdoors erected the structure with his engineering skills, while I supervised (by which I mean I drank wine and pointed at things). Yes, Weevil, finally I got the chance to be Queenie. He then wrapped the flashing LED lights around it and I took photographic evidence.

My wooden ornamental William Shakespeare is our book fairy/ tree angel (whichever you prefer), but he needed a Santa hat to fully look the part.



Chester Poses

I haven't posted any pictures of Chester for a while, but he's absolutely gorgeous so I think it's time he had a post all to himself.

Kambah Pool

This is Kambah Pool - a natural swimming hole on the Murrumbidgee River. I think it looks typically Australian. There is a nudist beach just a wee bit further along. I didn't go there.

House and Garden

Some sort of eucalyptus flower in the garden

Due to several house moves, raucous parties, guests and an inquisitive cat (we blame him anyway), we no longer have any matching wine glasses. While we are particularly fond of our eclectic collection, I reckon that to ‘John Hague’ these vessels – pouring out accurate and even amounts (without the assistance of a measuring device) – must be very difficult. I imagine it would be his worst nightmare.

Equal measures in the wine glasses

As rehearsals increase in intensity and frequency, it is important to eat well, and to make lots of tasty treats to take along to keep us all motivated.

Mexican almond cookies

Quick Tahi poached chicken salad

We have a plum tree in our back garden, much to the delight of the sulphur-crested cockatoos who have stripped all the fruit from the branches. They like to crack open the seeds at this stage, but the fruit is not yet ripe enough for us to harvest it, so they get first pick, and now there are none left!

Canberra Botanic Gardens

When rehearsing for a play, I spend an inordinate amount of time indoors, so try to go for short walks and clear my mind. A stroll through the Canberra Botanic Gardens was a perfect way to get some air.

The flower of a Banksia shrub

Golden wattle

I liked the Australian water dragons who scuttle about the place looking grumpy but quite cute!



The crimson rosellas aren't considered exotic here, but I'm still impressed with their plummage.

Shaking his tail feathers