The Year of the Dragon - Chinese New Year.

This year is the Year of the Dragon 🐉.  We went shopping at Tsing Wah Asian Grocers for our supplies and decorated for Chinese New Year and celebrated with lots of Chinese food over the weekend.

I bought new Chinese lanterns for outside. 🐉

Lucky money envelopes and Lucky Candy. 🐉

My Chinese Panda salt and pepper shakers. 🐉

My Chinese Dolls I have had since I was about 7 years old. 🐉

Blue and white Chinese ornaments. 🐉

Chinese lucky turtle and lucky candy. 🐉

Blue and white Chinese trinket box. 🐉

Sweet chilli chicken pizza. 🐉

Dumplings and Sizzling steak stir fry. 🐉

Okonomiyaki pancake for breakfast.  I know it's Japanese, but it's Asian. 🐉

Chinese treats for New Year. 🐉

Chinese chicken and scallop stir fry. 🐉

Sticky rice with mango and coconut chips. 🐉

🐉 We enjoy Chinese New Year with different variety of yummy food to eat. 🐉

Australia Day BBQ

We had a lovely get together for Australia Day on the Saturday, the day after Australia Day as everyone was available.  We had a great time catching up, eating, drinking and chatting or snoring depending on who was awake or not.

The Wednesday before Australia Day, there was a full moon, 

the sun was just starting to set but it was 

still daylight when I took this photo.

A close up of the full moon.

We started Australia Day with a cooked breakfast. 

You can't have Australia Day without (giant) lamingtons with jam and cream.

And an Aussie pizza for dinner with egg and bacon.  So yummy.

Richard taste testing the BBQ lamb.

We had a butterfly leg of lamb cooked to perfection on the BBQ.

I made Koala cupcakes....

and white chocolate cheese cake with lamington topping.

Jason had a little snooze after eating lunch.

The pretty flowering gum tree next door.  

It usually had parrots feeding at the flowers, 

but not yet.

One of the many little Honeyeaters in the agapanthus in the front garden.

There were a few people out on the water.  

This little catamaran was zipping all over 

the place with its bright yellow sail.

We had a lovely long weekend for Australia Day 🐨

Kayaking.

We bought ourselves a two person kayak for Christmas.  We have been out kayaking in the Tamar River a few times and we have really enjoyed the adventure.  We had a kayak this morning as the weather and tide was on our side.  Awesome fun.

Heading down the Tamar River.

Just chilling.

We were swooped by seagulls from this boat.

Cormorants at the back of this boat.

We went to investigate the wreck across the river.  

It broke it's mooring during a storm 

and had been there for several months.

Our red roofed house from the river.

Views of other houses along the way.

A boatshed and jetty at Lanena.

Heading back to Gravelly Beach.

We saw a lot of jellyfish today.  

I believe they are called Catostylus

Or Blubber Jellyfish.

Can't wait to go out kayaking again.

A Weekend with Heather, John and the Girls.

After Olivia and Maddison's wedding we were able to spend some time with Heather, John and the girls.  We had a lovely time doing the touristy things around Launceston.  It was great fun to catch up with them.  The weather was magic and we all had a lovely time.  

On Sunday we went to the Seaport and The Gorge.

To the Seaport and Rupert and Hound for lunch.

The girls.

The Seaport.

The Tollhouse at the Gorge.

Carpark at the Gorge.

One of many peacocks at the Gorge.

The Rotunda at the Gorge.

The Swinging Bridge.

Walking over the Swinging Bridge.

The next day (Monday) we caught up with Heather, John 

and the Girls at City Park before they had to fly home.

We watched the Macaques at City Park.

There was a Mum and her new baby.  Very cute.

The Macaques are always grooming each other.

Taking photos of the beautiful flowers in the Consevatory.

The girls loved the Hydrangeas.

I loved the Liliums.

The Children's Jubilee Water Fountain erected in 1897.

The Dolphin Fountain in City Park.  It was installed in 1861.

We ordered Pina Colada Mocktails.  

A refreshing cool drink at the 

Hotel Grand Chancellor 

before we had to say goodbye.

Thank you for a lovely weekend.