erilyn | this post contains giant peen

my livejournal has been pretty devoid of any sort of substantive content ~~ever~~ for a while, so there might be a few random posts coming of semi-recentish things that I didn't get around to posting about in a more timely fashion. or not, if my inability to write lj entries continues.

Last month, my sister and I spent a long weekend in Victoria with our parents. It was so nice and relaxing, we went wine-tasting (and buying!), ate lots of good food, saw lots of pretty places and cool stuff. We went through the Yarra Valley, some of the Dandenongs (where we stayed) and spent a day on the Mornington Peninsula. Also, visited the fantastic Healesville Sanctuary and saw many critters, including some platypus. They're one of only two places that has successfully bred them in captivity. We stayed in this very cute B&B, where my sister and shared a loft room with sloping ceiling that you couldn't stand up straight in, not even in the middle of the room, and couldn't sit up fully in bed without being careful.

At Healesville Sanctuary - I love his expression.

At Heronswood in Dromana, on the Mornington Peninsula.

Things you don't necessarily need to see when at a picturesque garden with your parents :)

It was not without its sobering moments. The Yarra Valley was on the frontlines of the awful bushfires that killed so many in February, and while we didn't go near areas like Kinglake, we did see bushfire damaged areas, you can't not around there. And there were constant reminders - local relief centres, Salvations Army depots for dropping off gear with instructions on what to leave, signs directing us to towns that have become horribly familiar to all Australians for all the wrong reasons, back burning when we were at Healesville, the burnt out section of vines at one vineyard we went to from a spot-fire, and much more. But we'd had it all planned and booked well before those terrible events, and while we thought about changing things around, the area relies heavily on tourism.