Here are a few pics of some of the birds attracted to our garden feeders. We have so far had Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins Chaffinch’s, Sparrows, Pied Wagtails, a few Wood Pigeons and Black Birds. I have only been able to get good photos so far of the Blue Tits, Great Tit, the Black Bird male and a Sparrow.
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Great Tit
Sparrow - a native to Great Britain.
A Male Blackbird
Here are some pics of our new home in Warwickshire. We live in a small village near Leamington Spa. We live in a converted barn on a farm which seems to mostly have horses. We have three pubs within walking distance, one is only about 5 minutes through the fields. It is a beautiful area with a lot of wildlife and great walks. It is a great change from living in the city.
Our house is part of this converted barn.
A view from our drive
The local church - started in 1215ad about 1 minutes walk and the track through the fields
Corinne with our local pub in the background
A view of our barn from the fields
A local pub
Our local from across the fields at dusk
The church at dusk
We skied at Whistler for a week for Liv’s 30th birthday. Whistler is in British Columbia in Canada and is just the most awesome ski field. It is made up of Whistler and Blackcomb, so you actually get 2 ski fields-we loved skiing here, it’s way better than skiing in Australia and unlike any ski fields we’ve seen before. The runs are all well groomed, wide and smooth which makes skiing so much nicer. The runs are also really long so it actually takes you a while to ski back to the bottom- we skied for one and a half hours to get home one night. We stayed in accommodation in Whistler village which is pretty impressive itself. There are heaps of shops, pubs and restaurants in the village so we had a pretty good time. The best part was coming home to our hot tub!
Gorgeous ski runs and mountains.
The boys in their thermal underwear- it was very cold on the mountain.
Liv after a big fall on the run in the background. This was the peak to creek ski run which went for over 5 km.
Ben and I on the mountain.
Ben and I in the hot tub!
On one of our days in Las Vegas we drove out to Hoover dam. It is a massive dam in the colorado river and on the border between Nevada and Arizona. We did the tour which takes you down into the guts to look at the hydro-electric portions as well as the diversion tunnels used when building the dam. It was all very large and impressive. We also stopped on the way back and had a very nice unusually healthy lunch in Boulder city, built to house the dam builders originally.
The wall, very thick at the bottom
7-8 of the 14-16 turbines/generators. The dam was actually built to contain flood waters and hold irrigation water rather then produce electricity.
The bottom of the dam where the water comes through the turbines.
One of the tunnels made for the initial diversion of the Colorado river - massive.
An intake tower and a small view of Lake Mead - the lake created from the damming.
After Yosemite we drove to LA and stayed at Venice beach. We spent our two days there visiting Universal Studios in Hollywood and the next day we did a hop on/Hop off bus tour of LA eg Beverley Hills, Hollywood, Downtown etc.
Universal Studios was pretty good, interesting tours and rides and shows, good food at the flinstones grill too. I got saturated at the water world show when i eyes off one of the actors, he hit me square in the chest with a bucket of cold water - ass.
The tour of LA was good as we could stop and get back on as much as we wanted. we visited the Hollywood boulevard, santa monica boulevard, koday theatre, chinese theatre, beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, Tar pits, some big Mall etc.
We had a really good burger in bevereley Hills one of the best of many that we have had in the US.
Jaws is coming through this splash of water at Universal.
A scene from the full sized War of the Worlds Set - a full sized 747 is actually chopped up here.
Wisteria lane home of the loser desperate Housewives
Me and Corinne patting a friendly shark.
A Beverley hills rd with the big palms - nice
The la Brea Tar pits - we didn’t stop here but maybe next time as it looks interesting.
California is Full of Gum Trees - feels like you are home.
The famous sign.
