On Sunday we went out walking from our place into the heathland and national park which is only one block away from our street, up a slight hill. We are always looking for reasonably short works, say an hour or so, that aren't too taxing and that can be done after work or for a quick walk on the weekend when we have other things to do. We are spoilt for choice around here, but are still learning all the tracks and beginning to name them as part of our new personal map making landscape.

I love this photo of Jamie, with his new haircut. After all these yars, I still think he is gorgeous.

Some of the yellow wattle has come out. It seems too early but I guess this is just an early variety. Come August, the whole place will be a lit with yellow flowers. It's quite a spectuacular sight - everything glows, particuarly in the late afternoon. This day was a bit of a dull day, so forgive the dull photos.

As we walk up the track we get a video message from my 3-year-old grandson who is asking us about kangaroos. We send one back of Jamie bouncing through the bush and say that he is a kangaroo.

"Noooo. That's gwwwwwwwwwwwwandpa." he says in his cute way. Bless. In fact, we did say three or four kangaroos but I didn't get my camera out in time.

We cross onto the old coal mine track which is shut off to traffic now and generally used for cyclists walkers and runners. On this day, nobody is out and about. That's winter for you. It's much quieter. I love it.

They have cleared big spaces on the side of the road which will create a fire break which makes us feel happy. Of course fire is always on our minds, but this is the safest season to be in really and we're very very little risk of fire. When you think there's houses not far away, it's quite reassuring.

You can see the old chimney from the coal mine. They stopped mining here years ago and are still clearing up the land and figuring out a use for it. For now we are hoping for lots of rain to fill it up as a lake for birds. At once stage they floated an Eden Project like the UK but it was shouted down by the community. Too much traffic and tourists - we have enough already in peak season.

There are a lot of beautiful old gum trees, a variety of grasses, acacia trees, and banksia - this would all be foreign for any of you that are reading this from overseas and I acknowledge we have a totally different landscape from many of you.

This is the banksia from above - Australia certainly morphed some wild looking flowers.

It's a good firm track to get a good pace up with a slight downhill as it goes down towards the river so I really enjoyed the walk.

We end up at the beginning of the river which winds down to the sea. There are clear paths on either side and it is very calm and peaceful. We paddle board along here or ride the bikes and some people kayak or fish, although there are no fish at the moment because it is too acidic. They are still trying to solve this problem. Little bridges cross the river so you can cut across at various points to go to the other side of town. Even though it's not far from the houses, it feels like it's in the middle of nowhere.

I don't picture it that here but we pass the picnic area and a huge children's playground that is shaped like a pirate ship that all the local kids have loved for some 20 to 30 years. I remember taking my boy here when he was little. We stopped for a little while to look at some fairy wrens and fre crest finches And then take some different roads home to look at all the different houses. This town is very unique like that there's all sorts of quirky houses and no uniform estates which is really nice. Some are falling apart summer modernised and there are a couple of new builds amongst them as well, but generally there's a real range of different houses and we get inspiration for our garden as we walk.

It takes longer than we thought to get home because it's the weekend and we stop and talk to a couple of neighbours as we go up our street. We are really enjoying being in a place that has both wild natural environment around but also a community of people we are getting to know.

I make a scrambled eggs for breakfast and Jamie makes coffee and then we get on with a garden. This is Sunday for you and it couldn't be more perfect.

We decide to call it the Grandpa Kangaroo walk. We are in the habit of naming all our walks locally for easy conversing about which route we will take. I wonder if other people do the same, adding to the personal mapping of their own lives.

With Love,