Early morning walk

I woke up yesterday morning around 6 in the big empty bed - Steve has headed south to visit family and friends scattered across Newcastle, Central Coast and Sydney - and argued with myself about whether I should get up and start my day or fall back to sleep. 'Active Kev' won you will be pleased to know. I hadn't walked up to Billen Cliffs for quite a few months, so that's where I headed. We've had some lovely cooler and wetter weather up here over the past week so the morning sky was grey and brooding and cool enough I put on a thin sloppy joe. I bid my usual 'good morning boys' to Baxter and Dexter, as I strode down McGuinness Road and eventually into Martins Road. Red necked wallabies love misty, wet mornings, and so they were out in abundance. For some reason I cannot stop myself from wishing them a good morning as well, so I had quite a chatty walk.

I inadvertently scared a few brown quail from their hiding places as I strolled along Martins Road - you would think by now they would have evolved into a species that was confident in its hiding abilities. They were all perfectly hidden until they exploded out of the grasses, flying off with a wingbeat audible in the still morning air. I reached the beginning of Billen Cliffs Community and decided to be superfit and walk up the VERY steep road until I reached another road to the left that would then take me back in a big loop to the entry to the community. I hadn't done this before on foot, so I was eager for adventure.  The steep road was not such an ordeal as it turned out and as I made my way into the other road my efforts were rewarded with a lovely view of a swamp wallaby looking back at me from the middle of the road, about 20 metres away. Swampies are solitary wallabies unlike the much more abundant red necks, and rather more shy as well. This one stayed looking at me, still munching on some grass, as it stood upright, for about 30 seconds before bounding up the slope and vanishing into the bushes.

I walked along the road, cheerily greeting only one other early morning walker, and sticky beaking at the different houses and their idiosyncratic designs and building styles, before I joined the road that took me back to the entry and then onwards back to Maryville@Larnook. These early morning walks really seem to energise me because I wrote out a big long list of things to do and spent the day doing them!

Up until about 5.00pm that is, when Glen arrived. We broke out a bottle of sparkling wine and adjourned to the hot tub to chat and laugh and and giggle and watch the sun set. Julia arrived an hour or so later and joined us in the tub. I had slow cooked a leg of lamb with baked veges followed by a Sarah Lee apple pie (crumble top)....washed down with litres of wine (or so it seemed). We didn't even get around to watching a movie.  Great night!