Fairy Penguins

Here's my Camera Critters post, they are called fairy penguins. I took these pictures on separate occasion at Featherdale Wildlife Park, west of Sydney.
The Fairy Penguin is often a great tourist attraction in Australia, where people watch the colonies of these amazing creatures. They are found along the southern coast of Australia.
The penguins have a blue-type colour with a white chest. The penguins are attractive birds, and they waddle around in small groups in search of food or playing. They stand about 45 cms tall, and weigh around a kilo.
The penguins are great swimmers, and often dive to catch small fish, and other small ocean dwelling creatures. They stay dry, as their feathers are oily due to oil glands in the penguins tail.The female penguins lay eggs, and incubate these for a period of 39 days. The male is also known to incubate the eggs. The hatchlings are then cared for by the penguin parents for the first three months of their new lives.Animal Fact: Fairy Penguins live for an average of seven years.
(http://www.australianfauna.com/fairypenguin.php)

Sky Watch Friday

We don't have any interesting happenings in our sky this week. Since Monday we have had dreary and gray weather while on Wednesday and today, it was showering on and off, soggy and puddles are everywhere. I am glad while I am making this post, the shower abated and hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day. I missed watching the weather forecast after the news this evening so it would be interesting to see how our sky will look like tomorrow.
Anyways, my post for this week's SWF is the sunset on 07/07/2010. These were taken from our backyard.

Interested to join or want to see more sky photos all around the world please click, Sky Watch Friday .

Watery Wednesday

This is a man-made lake with a fountain in Nurragingy Reserve, west of Sydney. Picture was taken sometime last June.

Please visit Watery Wednesday for more watery sites all around the world.

Caught in the Act

I went outside to the backyard just to enjoy the beautiful sunlight on a glorious day, and to check my new plants to see how are they going after a few days of planting. After a while outside, I caught the sight of our neighbor's bunny at our gate enjoying my yellow daisy leaves. Yep, the bunny loves it. It's hardly no leaves now for I cut some of the foliage from time to time so it won't get bushy and the bunny keeps on eating the new growth of leaves. Beside the bunny you can see a native pigeon which is engrossed in something on the ground and seems doesn't care about the bunny's presence.

Today's Flowers

Here is my Today's flowers post. Taken at the Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour sometime last January of this year. These lotus flowers grow in the Lotus Pond, one of the biggest ponds in the garden.


And to see more Today's flowers entries please visit here.

Apple crumble

Last week a friend of ours gave us a bag of sweet juicy crunchy apples fresh from the farm. It was so many that I think if I would not think of a way of how to consume all of those, for sure we cannot finish it all and it will be left behind rotten, wilted and moldy in the fruit bowl and of course, I dont want that to happen. Since my family loves apple crumble and we don't get to eat it very often, I searched a recipe of how to make one in the internet. While searching I came across to many recipes using different kinds of ingredients with some are not available from my pantry. It took a while for me to decide which one. I want only a quick and simple recipe which has the ingredients that are so easy to find. So here we go, my first apple crumble.

A slice topped with thick custard.

Sky Watch Friday

During sunset on 16 July 2010 at 4:57 pm.
Interested to join or want to see more sky photos all around the world please click, Sky Watch Friday .

My mint

I have mint at the backyard. But it is not that I planted them nor I am a big fan of it. I have only a few herbs growing in my garden which are my favourites, rosemary and parsley and from to time I plant coriander as well. How I got mint? Well, our next door neighbor before planted mint along the side of her fence and because this is a kind of plant that spreads so quickly and can even take over your garden or yard if given a chance, they grow and spread past the fence and into my garden. I have to pull them out from time to time but they keep on coming back. Somehow, I still managed to get rid of them in my garden and now they grow just along the side of our fence. The mower controls them. I don't want to completely get rid of them for I use the fresh leaves every time I make fruit cocktail. Some use it in tea or even iced tea for flavour or garnish but I haven't tried it yet. And some make it into jelly or sauce for food flavouring or marinate.

Watery Wednesday

This is one of the water features at the Southern end of the Darling Harbour in the heart of Sydney CBD.Please visit Watery Wednesday for more watery sites all around the world.

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday is up again and here is my post. In the first picture below you can see that there is only a little ruby on the black swan. I took this shot during our visit to the Japanese Garden.
I am not sure what is the name of this vine that clings to the naked tree but the colour of the leaves caught my eyes. This was taken few years ago while we were having a picnic at the park one winter day.

Interested to join or want to see more pictures of Mary's Ruby Tuesday please click here.

David's new haircut

I took David earlier today to the hairdresser at the mall close to where we live to have his haircut. I used to cut his hair before but this time I feel that I don't like cutting his hair. So off we went to the hairdresser excited of what he will look like with his new haircut.We patiently waited for half an hour for his turn as I didn't make a booking. I was thinking to take photos while the hairdresser was cutting his hair but for the reason that I forgot my camera again, I wasn't able to. I just remembered it when we were at the main entrance of the mall. Grrrrr.. Anyways, he was so happy with his new haircut and proud of it. We met one of his favourite friends at the mall while we were having our lunch and first thing he did was to tell his friend about his new hair cut.
Tomorrow the school days resume for the 3rd term and the kids are so excited to be back at school again.

Today's flowers

Here is my Today's flowers post for this week. The first flower was the only flower among my fuchsias last month. The picture was taken before it was badly damaged by a heavy frost we had in the last few weeks.
The flower below is a Camellia which I saw while we were taking a stroll in the Reserve close to where we live.And to see more Today's flowers entries please visit here.

Going to the tennis venue

This was about 8:3o am last Tuesday while we were driving to take Dorothy to the School Holiday Tennis Clinic. It was a cold foggy misty morning.

Camera Critters

Here is my camera critters post. These were taken at the front yard late this afternoon. We were treated to the sight of these beautiful rainbow lorikeets feasting the fruits of our loquat tree.Interested to join or want to see more Critters from all around the world please click, here.

Sydney Aquarium video

We've been to Sydney Aquarium a few times but it was on the last visit that an idea popped into my mind to try to take a video inside one of the impressive underwater walkways, the giant tank where giant rays, giant turtle and the Grey Nurse Sharks occupied. I took this video with my digital camera only and not in good quality. I was just glad that at the time I took the video it was not that crowded with people. David who was with me looked worried that we might be left behind as our group were already approaching the exit area. Here, you can even hear him calling me. It was a great visit with family and friends . The kids always feel amazed and surprised
every visit there.

Sky Watch Friday

These are some of the photos that I took for the past weeks . The first one was taken at the tennis clinic venue where my daughter was taking a School Holiday Tennis Clinic and the rest were taken from our backyard at different times and days.
Interested to join or want to see more sky photos all around the world please click, Sky Watch Friday .

A day out in the city

Me, my friends and my sister with our families decided to go to the city last weekend, our destination was the Sydney Aquarium. The kids were so excited about the trip, not only of the Aquarium visit but because they were going with their friends, the kids of my friend and their cousin, Maddie, my sister's daughter. It was a great bonding for all of us as we don't get to do this very often. I mean going to the city with them is very rare to happen, once in a blue moon, I would say. It was a glorious day and crispy with few clouds scattered around the blue sky. We catch the train going to Central station and from there, we walked down to Darling Harbour.

David's 7th b-day

David just turned 7 years old yesterday. I can't believe how fast he is growing, as if it was just yesterday I delivered him. I still remember vividly all the memories when I delivered him by cesarean operation and hubby and Dorothy's excitement the first time they saw David at the hospital.
We had a small celebration at home the day before his birthday attended by few friends and families. We chose that day for it was the most suitable and convenient day for everyone to come. Even if the weather was not on our side for it was showering on and off but still the party was in full swing. The kids had a great time and didn't care about the wet ground. David had a blast and nearly came into tears upon the opening of his pressies. We bought the cake pre-made since he really likes the decoration with trains on it.