No vampires, just a late afternoon walk.
Author: Snoskred
Orion Beach, Vincentia
Now that we have finished the new path above Orion Beach, why don’t we head down and take a look at the beach itself? Above you see it from the new path we have been exploring recently, you can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Heads up – this is one of the steepest sets of beach stairs in the Shoalhaven – at least that I have experienced. This photo is looking back up towards the new path. Important to note, I have not been down every set of beach stairs in the Shoalhaven myself. :) One day!
There is a section which is flat, like a bridge.
More stairs down to the beach. But don’t worry..
The trip will have been worth it, once you get there.
As far as Shoalhaven beaches go, this one has a big benefit – you do not have to walk across a lot of soft sand to get to the water. Of course that means you do not have as much space to put down your beach towels and belongings. And you need to be aware at high tide there is very little beach to be found here. So you might want to be careful about where you put your stuff.
On the day we visited, it seemed to be one of the cleanest beaches I have seen. There was not much seaweed or seashells to be found here.
Now, you just have to climb back up those stairs when it is time to leave.. ;)
Just linking all these posts together –
There Is A New Vincentia Path
New Vincentia Path One
New Vincentia Path Two
New Vincentia Path Three
Orion Beach
IKEA Haul 2016 – Part 1
When we dropped the parents off for their flight to Vancouver back in July, we made a visit to IKEA Tempe. The restaurant there is perfectly situated for plane geeks like us if the wind is right – planes fly right past the large picture windows on their way to land on the big runway.
When the planes aren’t landing, you can enjoy the hilarity of people trying to load things into their cars, in the carpark. It rarely goes well. Somehow people think their cars are a LOT bigger than they actually are. :)
This IKEA now has a cafe where you can get proper coffee, sandwiches, muffins, cakes and slices. I’m not sure if this is present at all IKEAs yet.
Of course the Swedish meatballs are always awesome. So what did we buy?
Candles are always going to end up in the trolley.
We needed some more KALAS cups. They hold 250ml, are microwave and dishwasher safe, and are plastic, thus Safe For Snoskred Use. We also got some more of the plastic bag sealers. These things are super handy!
Here you see some ziploc bags, tealight candles, a cake tin, and some LED light globes.
Chopping boards and glass containers that we use for lunches for The Other Half. He handles them for the most part, as I tend to break glass.
And finally, some very large mugs. My favourite IKEA mug (scroll down to the bottom of that post) is getting on in years and it gets used every single day. So we bought these ones, which are just as large, to give that poor mug a break from the constant daily use.
Coming up next Monday – we bought two cabinets and a trolley thing. :)
FriYAY FriBay!
This tree on a rock is very photogenic, you may remember seeing it here before. We keep going back there to try and capture it in different lighting conditions, so you will probably see it again!
New Vincentia Path Part 3
We start off today just past the new Orion Beach stairs. More bridge!
If you are wondering how these bridges are fastened to the cliff face, wonder no more.
The bridge leads to another section of concrete path. You can see they did some planting of native grasses along the path. There are tiny little birds known as the Superb Fairy Wren who fly to these grasses. They are so tiny, blend in with the shrubs and bushes, and move so fast, blink and you may miss them. However there are so many of them, during this walk you are bound to spot at least one.
The male has some bright blue feathers making him easier to spot..
More bridge. This is kind of a theme, with this path.
In some places they have done no planting at all, and in others –
there is both planting of native grasses, and a small section of turf has been laid next to the path here. I am not sure how well the turf is doing. We have not had much rain lately and some parts of it are looking rather brown instead of green.
Sometimes you will spot larger birds than the fairy wrens. They are quite often very well camouflaged and the only way you notice them is because they flew to a spot and perched there.
This is a yellow robin. You can also see many other birds along this path. Here is a good site with many of the birds you might find here.
We are nearly at the end! You can now see the yellow bollards which signify the end of this path.
This is where the path meets Twyford St. From here you walk along Twyford St until the path begins again at the other end of Twyford St.
And here is the spot where the new path can be found on Google Maps, so you can find the start of the path easily. It is Twyford St x Minerva Ave.
Just linking all these posts together –
There Is A New Vincentia Path
New Vincentia Path One
New Vincentia Path Two
New Vincentia Path Three
Orion Beach
It Cost Me $$
A few weeks ago, one of the buttons on our Foxtel remote stopped working. The up button. On reflection it is not a surprise to me as that happens to be the most used button on our remote. I used it constantly it to flick through the channel guide without changing the channel.
When it stopped working, I had to switch to the down button. Unfortunately this means you miss out on all the channels above the one you are watching. So I have been typing in channel 176 and then flicking downwards.
Channel 176 is the TV Shopping Network. I’ve mentioned on the blog before that it is sometimes very entertaining to me to watch these people try and sell things. They do sometimes have deals worth buying, and I have mentioned those too. If you happen to own one of the products they are selling, sometimes you can learn an awful lot by tuning in, as I once did re Laura Star.
I do keep an eye on their website because there are sometimes excellent clearance deals but in general I do not visit the channel itself very often. For weeks now, I have ended up there several times a day, and the channel stays on while I continue my flick through.
One day I happened upon a Travelon show. Travelon is a brand of travel bags. They contain some pretty awesome security features. I wanted to get a new handbag for our upcoming trip and I love the lobster clasps, the carabiner, the cut proof straps.
First I did some googling and searching to see what deals were around on Travelon. I could not find anything around the prices TVSN had, nor could I find the items they had. I could find them on the main travelon website where they were priced higher than TVSN were offering them but in USD. Our dollar is so bad right now, it is not very cost effective to buy from the US at this time.
In my experience, sometimes TVSN sell out older stock, sometimes they do a deal with a company for exclusives, sometimes they just buy everything of an item so it cannot be found elsewhere. So I put in an order.
The shipping time on this was frankly UNBELIEVABLE. I ordered this on a Friday night. It arrived 2pm Monday. Someone posted it on Saturday morning! TVSN service is pretty amazing. The Travelon I ordered is brilliant. I am switching to cash free as much as possible and carrying as little as possible but that is a tale for another post. :)
Some of the items they sell are incredibly ridiculous. For example –
Do not get me wrong, I deeply love this kaftan, the colours are gorgeous and it has sparkles. It is everything about me wrapped into one kaftan package.
I’m sure in the world of Silk Kaftans this might be reasonably priced. A Camilla will set you back more $$ than this and will likely be less sparkly. There is no way I would ever pay this kind of money for one outfit, unless I was going to wear it everywhere forever, until it disintegrated. ;) If I wore it for 479 days, that would be $1 a day. Plus, silk is a fabric I would kill very quickly.
However someone is buying them, because I never see these on clearance at all. I often see Kelly’s Kloset kaftans on clearance, but never the Silk Islands. If you ever saw The Bold and The Beautiful, Katherine Kelly Lang plays Brooke on the show.
The shows with shoes always crack me up, because the shoe modeling is hilarious to watch. Overall, the channel is entertaining with occasional moments of usefulness. I’m loving my new little bag, it is super cute.
FriYAY FriBay
Moona Moona Creek, Jervis Bay
Whoops!
Sorry guys, I ran out of time this week. Way too much going on here. We will return to the Vincentia path next week!
Aldi Buys
Many of you know I am a huge Aldi fan. I thought I would share with you some of my recent favourite purchases – some of which were special buys so if there are any left at your local store, they might be found for a discounted price.
First up, some regular items found on the shelves – the flavoured rice cakes. I love the Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar flavour, they do have another one which I think might be sour cream and chives. They are cheap and my go-to replacement for potato chips. Australian made, too!
The reed diffusers smell fantastic – they are not too overpowering which I sometimes find with the more “expensive” brands.
They also have candles in the same flavours from the same brand. And now, some special buys.
These pots are brilliant. Super light, beautiful to cook in, and we bought two of the smaller ones so I can make us separate casseroles now and still fit them both in the oven. I like mushrooms in my casseroles. The Other Half believes mushrooms are evil.
The rainboots I got are black and shiny and just gorgeous. My two older pairs are five years old and best saved for the truly grotty chook jobs now. Plus one of those pairs got stabbed by a cactus and I am always worried that water is going to leak through, if and when it does I will not have to go hunting the Shoalhaven for a new pair – for some reason gumboots are either very difficult to find here, or HUGELY up money. Like $30 for a pair!
And now a sad story of a fail on my part. I bought one set of these socks because I wanted to wash them, try them out and see if I liked them before buying more pairs. When I discovered that I loved them, I went back and they were all gone. I am not surprised because they were a great price and very comfortable.
I do not use very much sugar anymore, just in my coffee. I prefer the darker kinds of sugar as they have better flavour. I got three different flavours – rapadura, moscovado and panela. I already had coconut sugar, so I did not get that one.
I cannot resist a lip balm. I bought one blueberry flavoured one and found it to be fantastic, so on our next visit I got the pineapple one, and the visit after that I got the remaining two flavours – honey peach and mint.
These were $2.49 each and worth every cent. They will last me a long while.
FriYAY FriBay Beauty
Taken in the middle of our Australian Winter. :)