Home from holidays ~ Happy New Year!

Hello there, it has been a pretty soggy three weeks away with no internet connection. I didn't realise I was about to isolate myself from the www when I loaded up the car and headed south for a break in the beautiful Northern Rivers hinterland; if i did I would have at least wished you all a merry Christmas!

There is so much to share, I even bought presents but I'll have to do it in instalments because in true Shannon style I have just downloaded 356 images from my camera (it would have been more but for some unknown reason I sent my battery charger home with my beloved when he came back to Brisbane to go back to work).

We did a spot of house sitting for a friend and her menagerie in a little hinterland town called Eureka in the Shire of Bryon Bay. Here is the view from her front verander on our first evening.

 
Our first full day there was December 21, the summer solstice, so the girls and I headed to Byron's main beach, Belongi, to watch the lunar eclipse. I forgot my camera which meant that I just sat back and enjoyed listening to the drumming circle while eating divine ice cream with my girls. I share with you images from more organised individuals ~

Image by Joggly taken from Byron Bay, NSW- Tue 21st Dec '10 (8:00pm) magicseaweed

 Image from Byron Dayz

As I sit in our dry safe house complaining about the seemingly ceaseless rain I do feel pretty guiltly: the northern end of Australia has had far more than its fair share of rain in the last month; major flooding and devastation is daily news, sometimes more frequent than that. Emergency crews are stretched to their limits and towns are being declared natural disaster areas.
Queensland has been hit particularly badly and now the overflow from their swollen rivers is heading south ~ we came home two nights ago, the area we were staying is now bracing for even more flooding.

In the next few days I will share with you some really beautiful images from our part of the world ~ in the links above you will see that mother nature has her flip side.