Day 8, Monday February 22

Clive's bike on the boardwalk section of the Bay Trail.

The Povlava Dessert, a traditional Aussie delight named after the ballerina Anna Povlava and handmade by Erika- meringue with creme and passion-fruit topping

A family of four kangaroos grazing on Rex's lawn.

Linda spent the morning collecting tomatoes, amaranth seed, and sunset runner beans before heading to the boundary road garden to pick tomatoes and collect data. Meanwhile Anne pumped up the tires on Clive's bike and headed down the mountain and along the shoreline trail for about 10 miles before stopping for a few groceries and taking the main highway back. A combination of pedaling and pushing got her and the bike with groceries back up the mountain.

The day before at the beach took a lot out of us and Linda stopped work early about 3PM to join Anne by the pool and have a little snooze. Feet splashing in the pool cooled us down so we were ready to enjoy the evening entertainment.

Rex (a co-worker for Digger's) and his wife Eileen invited a group of us to dinner. We had a tour of their wonderful garden and enjoyed Aussie-style cuisine including ground cherry and cherry tomato salad from the garden, roasted mini-squashes with rice filling and topped with tomato and cheese, and broiled lamb. We had our first sweetcorn of the year-yum. We brought 2 bottles of wine that Clive had generously donated from his cellar. Dessert was Pavlova, a meringue with creme and passion fruit topping.

Dinner included good conversations with other guests from Digger's staff and Rex's daughter Kathy and grandson Alec. But the highlight of the evening was the family of 4 kangaroos that hopped into view in the yard and stayed munching on grass while we took pictures. What fun to have unexpected guests at the dinner party.