Morning visitor

This morning we heard a woman's voice say, "Woo-hoo, woo-hoo" and thought it was the neighbor from upstairs. Went into the living room and there was this little guy - a gorgeous little owl at our front door! Ken had never seen one around before, but we went online and it said it was nesting season so they must have some eggs close by. He stayed for quite a while and was just the sweetest thing, didn't have anything else to say unfortunately, but seemed pretty tame.

I know he looks pretty similar to the kookaburras (at least he does to me in these shots) but it is actually an owl. You could tell when he turned his head around and blinked his eyes. Very cool!

Ken and I are getting ready to go to Casino, New South Wales for the weekend. It's Beef Week! His friends, Shep and Sue, have a cattle ranch there and we'll be staying with them. I can't wait to get out into the bush and see the beautiful country. And the cattle dogs! We leave in the morning and stay until Monday evening. It's starting to get cool at night and it's cooler there apparently, so I'm actually taking my Polartec jacket. We'll take the train down and it goes through a range of mountains - should be fantastic! Ken says they're more like big hills, but I'm really looking forward to it.

We've had a pretty quiet week or two. I had a girly shopping day alone while Ken went to the boat yesterday. It was fun to wander around the local shopping center and browse. Even more fun to walk through the park home. There is a rugby field and a bowls club (outdoor bowling) between our apartment and the shopping center. There's a lot of other stuff too, but that's my favorite part of the walk. Yesterday, the older men were playing bowls and the young kids were playing rugby. I wondered how much they could learn from each other if they took the time. Or if the kids ever thought, "That'll be me one day," as the old men said to each other, "Remember when we were that age..."

The birds are going crazy outside right now. Night is falling and the animals are calling to each other. Ken's playing on the Wii waiting for our nightly game. I need to get out there before he gets even more practice and kicks my butt more than the usual! We sound like such a boring, old couple, but it's a beautiful thing - the stability of knowing what you're going to be doing each day and not worrying about the next crises. Because there is none. I am so blessed.