John and Mark in Blue Mountains National Park (near Glenbrook, NSW)

Mark and John have recently been with us in NSW, having spent the previous three weeks in New Zealand.

The first couple of pictures were taken on the day when we visited the Blue Mountains National Park, which is less than 10km from our house in Mount Riverview.  We went to Euroka Clearing, hoping to see kangaroos in the wild, but they weren’t there (apparently this clearing is becoming too busy with tourists camping overnight there, and they are not as commonly seen as they once were).

Mind you, M&J had seen the wallaby which comes to visit our garden sometimes in the early morning, so at least they saw some native fauna in the wild.

This picture, taken by John, is in our front courtyard.  Mark is the shortest Coulshed,  Nick (188cm) is the tallest.

John and Mark had to go to some StPaul’s activities.  This is Andrew playing the trumpet for the school group at a local shopping centre.

This is Nick, receiving the award for the top academic pupil in his (final) year at the school.

The fully-restored NSW Garratt at Canberra Railway Station

We also visited Canberra – Mark, John and myself.  Being train enthusiasts, we went to the  NSW train museum on the way down (at Thirlmere) and then visited the Canberra Railway station, where they have restored to working order a standard-gauge 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt.  A truly gigantic angine, which will be such a magnificent sight when pulling trains once more.  Actually it is magnificent just standing there ….