A few days in the Adelaide hills

We have just returned from a few days in the Adelaide hills, in the beautiful suburb of Blackwood.  We stayed with our friend, Moira, in her lovely spacious house, with its wide amd cool veranda, where we spent many an hour talking and looking out over the valley.  The weather was perfect, in the mid to high twenties.  Last year when we stayed there the temperature was in the high thirties and we had to stay inside in the cool comfort of airconditioning.

The view over the neighbour's house and down to the valley.   The birdlife was amazing, with a variety of birds flitting from tree to tree and calling to each other.

I loved looking at the mottled bark and sparkling leaves of the eucalyptus trees in front of the house.   This tree lost a limb during the last storm.

The magpies were very curious and hopped up close to us during breakfast. I always warch them a little warily as they can be quite vicious, especially during nesting time.

And there was a koala in one of the trees.  So cute.  The magpies annoyed it constantly but the koala just batted them away with its hand.  Such placid and sleepy animals.  It did open its eyes and look at me, no doubt wondering about the strange animal standing on the ground below it.

Now it is sound asleep, with its head resting on a branch.

A small flowering gum.  Magnificent flowers.

I walked down to the park below the house, to take a few photos.

The beginning of the Sturt River I think.  Just a trickle with plenty of green grass around it.

A house bordering the edge of the park.

The agapanthus, both blue and white are providing a great show at the moment.

An impressive landscaped garden on a high corner block.  Imposing.

A beautiful sunset.  I missed the really red part.  The same skyline that we see in Camping Manjastre, south of France.  So many similarities.

An Aussie barbeque with giant T-bone steaks.  This is certainly not the normal English barbeque fare that we are used to, for sure.  The T-bones just melted in our mouths.

Angus, the dog, looking longingly at us eating our steaks in the next room.  Such a loving gentle dog.  And extremely well behaved too.

Some of the McLeod family, minus Alex and Brody, who we had seen a few days earlier.  We really enjoyed catching up with all of Moira's family.

A really lovely few days.