A family Christmas?

 We've jsut hosted Rebecca, Max and Rob for Christmas and the subsequent end of 2022. It was great fun and time for reflecttion. Bec celebrated her 40th birthday, a major milestone in one's life.

Here she is ... all smiles.

And here's the birthday cake puchased from a local supermarket! Christmas is a busy time and it seemed easier to buy a cake froma supermarket shelf. Anyway, it was a good purchase and we implanted 4 candles rather than the usual 40. There wasn't enough room for all that number. Nor could we compensate with 10 cm tall candles - each cm representing 10 years.

Anyway, the birthday celebrations wen down well. Our visitors took quite a few interesting trips. For example Bec drove one morning to Point Lookout to watch the sun rise over the east coast of Australia.

Since sunrise was about 5.40 am and it takes maybe 50 minutes to get to Point Lookout, she must have left home here at about 4.40 am in pitch darkness. We didn't hear her go!

Another trip took us to see Aboriginal pock paintings at Mount Yarrowyck maybe 30 km west of Armidale. It's a great intersting walk from the car-park at the heritage site to see the works of art. Here's three pictures of this event, starting with a glimpse of Mount Yarrowyck, a sacred Aboriginal site.

There's a steep walk up to the cave containing the Aboriginal art-works.

And here's Rebecca taking a picture of the art-work which is apparently several centuries old and pre-dates European settlement.

By the way, some Aboriginal art-works in Western Australia or the Northern Territory have been dated as far back as c. 40,000 years old!!

AS