Category Archives: 🦋 Retirement

Activities, places and photos where retirement takes us.

Don’t worry, beach happy.

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  • balancing act
  • ship ahoy
  • beachcombing
  • yes, I do take selfies…sort of.
  • surf life savers hard at work
  • a few surf swimmers about
  • smooth wet sand
  • a collection on pebbles and shells
  • sorted and saved a few beauties

This is Rainbow Beach. A beach teeming with shells and pebbles of different colours – probably how it got it’s name. It’s a beautiful day to be able to roam in spring. We love beachcombing. While re-hydrating with a cool bottle of water and nibbled on a finger-food lunch we sorted through our finds tossing many back into the surf or onto the sand. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we didn’t do any stone stacking.

Archived in: Retirement

Alfresco Kitchen/Diner Completed.

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  • Work began
  • Day 1
  • Day 2…then a snap Covid lock-down
  • 1 week later Day 1
  • Day 2
  • Day 3

  • It was a long slow process.
  • Tiler Tim was a perfectionist.
  • The bottom of the back steps were also tiled.
  • Then grouting began a few days ago.
Norm’s new BBQ/Pizza Oven/Cooker
First, check instructions.
View to back garden.
Decor creations.
Herb pots scattered around for handy use in cooking.
If you check the photo Norm is in, you will notice the new outdoor clock. The photo with the art work above was taken before we decided to put up the clock. The artwork won’t be down for long. We’ll find a new place in the garden for it. I’m pretty sure we aren’t finished yet with what goes where but I’m sure future photos will reveal changes here and there.

Archived in: I’m in the Garden & Retirement

More Alfresco Planning.

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To follow on from the post a few days ago, we spent this morning fertilizing the lawn and painting items for the garden and Alfresco area.

  • Fresh paint on an old pedestal
  • with a Japanese message
  • Does anyone read Japanese?
  • Everything is all ready for when lock-down is over and tiling can be completed.
    Only the strawberry pot and the pedestal will remain where they are now. The 2 large white pots and the blue pots will be relocated to the tiled area.
Below is the link to previous post.
A Bargain and another Snap Lock-down.

Archived in: I’m in the Garden

A Bargain and another Snap Lock-down.

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We found these 2 black concrete pots on Gumtree, a local online market place similar to eBay. They were just $10AUS each. While waiting for the tiling to be completed we spent our time stripping the layers of old paint, sealed and painted them white. When the alfresco kitchen/dining is completed I’ll post update photos. Update: We have gone back into a snap lock-down. Our tiler can only do emergencies. Again we wait.

Archived in: I’m in the Garden, Retirement & Covid Lock-downs

Eclipse and Blood Moon

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I’m a bit late with posting these. Sorry. I’ve been busy with my dad.

I think these photos got out of order but I could only uploaded the photos that I would work with WordPress.
There were bits of cloud that disrupted the view throughout the evening. At least the clouds looked interesting too.
First part of the eclipse.
I’m not sure if I would call it a blood moon. Other photos taken along NSW east coast look much the same. It was still beautiful and a great excuse to sit with neighborhoods with a bottle of wine in the drive way.

Archived in: Retirement

Morning Walk

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I hope you enjoy some of the animals I met on one of my morning walks this past week.

  • Walk Time
  • Feeding Time
  • Bath Time
  • Hello Time
  • Sleepy Time
  • Explore Time
  • Sun Time
  • Wake Time
  • Down Time
  • Exercise Time
  • Ponder Time
  • Swim Time
Just a 5 minute drive from home.

Archived in: Retirement

Cruise time

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With the floods receded and the weather beautiful, we decided to take a dolphin sighting cruise.
My dear friend, Lyn at The Call of the Pen is visiting for a few days.
To our surprise, we were the only ones on the dining room level of the boat until lunch. There were only a few small groups in other areas. At a quick count, there was probably only a dozen on board. No problem here with Social distancing.
As you can see, even zooming in we could barely see the white breasted sea hawk. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any dolphins.
Some of the debris from the floods are still coming down river.
Many of these prestige homes were under water to at least first floor just a few weeks ago.
Going over the sand bar where the river meets the ocean.

Archived in: Retirement

ECO River Cruise

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Today we took in the views from the Port Jet Eco River Cruise Boat.
It was the perfect day with lots of sunshine and clear skies.
The Hasting River Oyster farms were scattered along the route.
An old Sydney ferry waiting to be renovated for river cruises.
This old place was once used by oyster farmers.
Now fish, oysters and other marine life attached themselves to anything submerged.
Mangroves appear as nature intended up and down the north side of the river.
An Osprey watched all the humans floating by in the cruise boat.
Pelicans were the only other birds we sited.
Oyster farms, mangroves and then the mountains in the background made the perfect view.
Under the only bridge connecting the southern shore to the northern shore.
Captain Jake at the helm.
Osprey Nest.
Jodie a wildlife photographer was on board and told us this is a Female Osprey.
Bridge crossing the Hastings River.
Norm took a great photo here of a couple of many pelicans we saw on the two hour cruise.

Unfortunately, there were no signs of resident dolphins or other wildlife which we were assured by the crew was unusual. Perhaps it was the relaxing afternoon that kept them home.

Photos by Norm and Chrissy Siggee.

Archived in: Retirement

A Summertime Christmas

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I see a lot of winter Christmas posts and they’re all wonderful but I thought some photos of a summer Christmas needs to be shared.

It’s our 2nd Christmas at our new home but because we only moved in a few weeks before Christmas last year we didn’t decorate much.
Simple decorations in a little house can look good too.
Poinsettias are common here too.
Outdoors is where you will find us most days.

Archived in: Retirement

In the trees

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But up here it’s amazing.
Sometimes we just wanted to stay awhile.
One of the many huge staghorn ferns we saw.
Amazing trees. Huge and very old.
Now that’s a big tree. We were close to the end of the walkway and close to the ground. We couldn’t see the top of this one.
The base of this one wouldn’t fit into the camera viewer.
We could hear the roaring of the waves of a nearby beach.

Archived in: Retirement and Photography

Photos by Norm Siggee

Mathematics and the Cheese Board

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While we were visiting Timbertown a few weeks ago, Norm and I spent some time looking at items made by a local wood craftsman. I mentioned to Norm that I would love a large cheese board but we found nothing that I liked or big enough. Norm said he could try and make one. This seemed a good idea because now that he’s retired he is often looking for something to do but this was not one of his academic projects. We were given the phone number of the suppler who invited us to his property to view his huge shed full of all his wood. Well, I fell in love with some beautiful pieces but they were much too big. We were able to take one home to see if would work but we returned it because it was too much work for Norm who had never attempted anything like this. As you can see all his measurements and calculations went out the window.

Then it was sanded and lacquered on both sides. This took another four days. In the meantime, Norm cooked meals outside on the BBQ or in the pizza oven.
The final look.

Not bad for an academic’s first handyman project except I still need a cheese board.

Archived in: Retirement

Three days in Coffs Harbour

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We took a few days away to visit some of our favourite places and new places too. One of our favourites is the Butterfly House.

These are just some of the butterflies we encountered.
Another favourite is The Clog Barn and the miniature Dutch village.
Clogs are made and sold on the premises. I couldn’t resist the photo with the eastern water dragon that likes to sunbathe or take a shot cuts over the houses.
Day 2 we drove up to the sky pier that gives a panoramic view of Coffs Harbour.
As you can see, Norm had charge of the camera. We were the only ones on the sky pier. We then headed for the break water.
At the end of the breakwater we decided to continue the 2 kilometer/ approximately 1 1/4 miles UP 40 metres/ approx 130 feet above sea level to the to of Muttonbird Island.
Views from half way point. Zoomed in of course.
Yes, way up there is where we went.
While walking the break wall we booked a table for lunch. I had a fresh tuna steak with an amazing salad and Norm had roast duck. We both decided on this Mango cheese cake for dessert. It’s so good for a gluten free dessert.
Day 3 we visited the botanical gardens.
We walked several paths and board walks during the hour we were there.

My apologies if the photos are out of a alignment. I haven’t got these new WordPress changes worked out yet.

Archived in: Retirement

Old Timbertown

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A day’s outing took us to Old Timbertown in Wauchope. With the school holidays over it was a quieter day with very few visitors. Just the way we prefer it. It was nice to wander around with no itinerary.

The old water wheel in working order.
This is Honey, a young Llama with plenty of freedom to roam the town.
A draft horse being hitched on to a wagon. We didn’t hear the name .
The steam engine is powered by timber from the saw mill.
We couldn’t resist a ride.
Magic, another draft horse.
mmm…. it was tempting to leave him there. 🙂
An old steam tractor looking sad.
Old Fire Station.

We bought a few bottles of Timbertown’s red wine and a carved fruit bowl from one of the merchants. The blacksmith was just tinkering but was fascinating just the same. Stepping back in time for a day into the late eighteen hundreds and it’s slow life style made for an interesting day.

Archived in: Retirement