The Chronicles of Williams

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I found these videos of my favorite bird sounds... Kookaburra and Whipbird.  This whipbird sound wakes us up many mornings and sounds like a laser beam is in our room!  Really strange but super great! You'll hear the male and female calls... they always make them together and it's so cool!  The kookaburra laughs and makes me laugh, especially in the evening when we're out grilling... they love raw meat! Here's a video of the kookaburras in our front yard having a laughing party.  Cheers!

This week was a fun week and was topped off with a visit to a beach, then another beach, then another beach and another beach.....  This week David and I were invited to a nice dinner with David's colleagues at University of Western Sydney for a special event. It was nice chatting with people from France, Belgium, USA, Russia etc.  The dinner was awesome and the view was fantastic!  For 3 or 4 hours drive in any direction from where we live, it is like living in California.  Mild weather (about 70 to 75 degrees every day) with green and gorgeous flowers,  manicured hedges in every yard and horses and other animals looking happy and eating grass.  Check out these pics of the old orchard that is now a B&B/restaurant about 25 miles down the mountain from our house. David and colleague What a view! Add caption The 19th was David's birthday so Cullen and I prepared a special dinner for him... everything chocolate! Using recipes from my favorite site...... Epic

We headed to Bondi Beach on Sunday.  We arrived around 10:30am on Sunday and were surprised atthow big this beach was... and so many people!  We finally found the perfect parking spot and headed to the Coastal Walk on the south side of the beach to see the sculptures that on exhibit for about 4 weeks with this being the last day. (186 sculptures along the coastal walk) Ceramic statues Where to start?? Metal sculptures on the cliff.... cool see through eyes Look how tall Cullen is getting! David and Cullen liked getting a break from the crowds Eucalyptus tree wave sculpture We decided to sit on the beach and jump in the water to keep cool.  It was fun to people watch and listen to the waves.  The waves were gorgeous and the water was so aqua blue.  This beach is in a cove and is very large.  It seems to be the perfect beach for swimming, laying in the sun and surfing.  It's fun to watch the lifeguards drive up and down the beach monitoring the tons of

"It's getting warm so Christmas is almost here!" That is one of the funny phrases I heard this week.  45 days til Christmas in Australia and the fake trees are on sale along with the decorations, but we're saving our money to buy gas for the car so we can head to the beach with all the kids.  There is so much to do these days, being so close to the mountains and so close to Sydney which is the hot spot of Australia for sure! This weekend, we're going to Bondi Beach where it is supposed to be 33 degrees celcius (a perfect 91 degrees farenheit).  We'll head to the beach for the day and sit in the sun and play in the water (between the flags where the sharks are NOT) and then we'll head home and BBQ and sit outside where the weather will be a perfect 70 degrees or so.  Yum! A pic of Bondi Beach.  Hopefully it won't be too crowded yet.  While we're at the beach, we'll visit the Sculptures by the Sea.  Sculptures are exhibited along the Bondi B

This blog was easy.  I think about our boys every day and have their picture on my refrigerator, and a framed pic of the three of them on our kitchen table so I can see their little faces every day. Living in Tucson. Swimming hair..  well, and just .... long hair This morning as Cullen was getting dressed for school, I thought about how he is a pretty cool teenager.  We get on each others nerves sometimes but mostly we enjoy bugging each other and having a good time.  As a 14 year old boy willing to move away from his brothers, grandparents, cousins, friends and give up his room, video games etc... well,  that's a pretty big step.  He eats all of my crazy foods that most teenage boys wouldn't like and just enjoys the ride of life! Cullen's first day of Ozzy school And then Tanner and Austen... on the other side of the world from us are doing great. Tanner is living in the dorm and I'm sure enjoying all of the friends and freedom that brings, but he a

Gardening in Australia....   This borgeous flower blooms for just 1 day from a vine that grows in our tree. Well what an adventure I've had the last couple of days with my garden here in Springwood NSW.  I figured that anyone with half a brain can garden in Australia since the weather is moist and the vegetation is so diverse.  Plants, ferns, vines (and even plants growing on the side of other plants) surround us so I needed to figure out how I could make my garden better without really knowing the plants. It looked like a forrest and just totally covered with vines and ivy and all kinds of things so maybe that's how I should keep it, but then I realized that if I could clean out the leaves at least, I could either get rid of the snakes living under there, or duke it out with them! The big tree in our backyard. I realized I am (was) really scared to go out there.  Locals have advised me to be careful working in the garden.  After living in Wyoming where we don'