happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeee…..you get the picture 🙂

yes, I turn another day older today (and celebrated by putting on several kilos, according to those wretched scales. They lie, I tell you. LIE!!)

Anyway, because I fully believe no one should have to work on their birthday (and yeah, blogging isn’t really work, but same principal), here’s some pics instead.

Large gum trees have a habit of dropping branches–so if you ever hear a gum creaking, get the heck away from it. It’s about to drop something on your head. This one fell on a perfectly fine day–no wind at all. Mind you, most of the old trees in Melbourne are severely stressed right now because of the drought. And thanks to water restrictions, there’s not a whole lot anyone can do to save them. Except hope for the rain they keep saying is eventually coming.

another angle of the branch 🙂

the view out the window from my office chair. You can’t see it in this pic, but I actually have a little bird bath near the lavender, and I can sit here and watch all the birds come in for a swim. On a hot day (which we’ve had plenty of) it can get rather crowded.

This was taken at the Crown Casino during Chinese New Years. I just loved the colors in it 🙂