Maybe in Oz

I've been battling a pain in my right knee for several weeks now, and finally decided to go see a physio about it.  For those in the US who have no idea what a physio is, and for this program that keeps trying to get me to type psychic instead of physio, it's basically a physical therapist/masseuse/personal trainer/accupuncturist in one.   The physio determined that it was iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, a common knee injury generally associated with running. He started looking at the difference in my range of motion between the right and left side and noticed that movement on the right side was greatly impaired compared to my left.  That was when I remembered the blood clot I had 5.5 years ago.  It was in my right calf and basically felt like the muscle along the length of my calf was permanently cramping.   I had flown on a red eye flight from San Diego to New York for my grandmother's funeral.  The following day my butt was really sore but I didn'...

This month is Maybe's 5th birthday, and seeing as she has a blog and an etsy store named after her I figured it was time for a dog blog.  Please forgive me for the copious amount of adorable pictures but as you can see we are quite obsessed with our Maybe Jezabel. Maybe at 7 weeks. Her first walk in Utah where we got her. Just after her ears came up.  Only one came up at first and I was worried she had a defective ear.  Phil still laughs at me about that one. Puppy bath time! Maybe's first swim.  It was not exactly planned - she was frolicking with my parents' dog Sheba, fell down the small waterfall, and got stuck in a whirlpool at the bottom.  Fortunately Phil was there to pull her out. Digging at the property in the mountains After her first waterfall adventure we made sure she learned how to swim.  At first she didn't like it but with Phil swimming beside her soon she learned to love it.  She...

Yesterday we took a couple coworkers in town from Texas on our favourite tour of Phillip Island.  Yes we've been there dozens of times now but that doesn't make it any less beautiful.  Add the warmest day in months to the mix and it was a truly enjoyable day. We started out watching the pelican feeding in San Remo at noon and then went to enjoy some fish and chips of our own.  There were about 25 hungry pelicans out, looking extra pretty with blue markings on their bills which appears during mating season to attract their mates. hungry hungry pelicans Next we went to the koala sanctuary and got to see them in action doing what they do best - sleep! koalas love sleeping in awkward positions Then we took a stroll around the sanctuary grounds to see what birds were around.  We found this guy, a blue fairy wren- male fairy wren  and this pretty gallah- gallah in a gumtree Then we headed over to the town of Cowes to check out the coast an...

When we first moved to Melbourne people told us the city often had four seasons in one day.  I thought this was an exaggeration but I was very much mistaken.  The walls in my office are glass, and I can literally watch storms roll in and out in the course of an hour.  Last Thursday it was nice at lunch time and two hours later it was raining sideways and tree branches were flying through the air.  Then another hour later the sun came out and everything was calm again. The last few Thursdays have been crazy windy - around 100 km/hour.  Thursdays are of course trash day which makes for some interesting chaos when the storms pass through.  Today was a gorgeous 26, and tomorrow if we're lucky it might reach 30 for the first time in months.  And then as it does the temperature will be halved the following day.  Being a San Diego girl used to high of 70 low of 60 kind of weather 11 months out of the year I find this extreme weather fascinating.

Just down the street from our house are some wetlands that make for a great evening walk.  The bird life in the area because of this is amazing.  There are the usual generic ducks, but there is so much more than just ducks.  Maybe's personal favourite are the chickens - at least that's what we call them.  They are funny little blue/purple birds with a white patch on their butts and they run like chickens.   A "chicken" - or Purple Swamphen Recently some of the chickens have had babies, they are tiny little black fluff balls that are fun to watch. Baby chickens There are also quite a few storks and mystery birds like the one below.  One day we thought we saw a snake in the water, and after watching it for 30 minutes realised it was actually a bird.  Thus we named them snake birds.  Unfortunately they've been camera shy lately. Weird bird and duck having a staring contest   Sometimes on our walks we'll see an airplan...