This tiny bird is a hummingbird in Chatsworth Georgia in the garden of David Wimberley. They are the tiniest little birds ever and they move so quickly it is impossible to get a good shot. This one was taken, thanks to David.

Would you believe it if I told you that these cows are actually MI5 undercover?!! Well we had an unusual experience with them. We were walking up the hill to the radar dish, when turning a corner these cows were standing near the fence line. When they saw us approaching they quickly turned and scurried up a small mound or ridge and stood there watching us. We kept walking and turned a corner and for a while we were hidden by a huge barn. Well, the cows became curious and ran ahead of us, went down another slope and up another ridge, and were actually peering around the barn to see our approach. I tell you it was the weirest experience ever. Young Natasha who had a vivid imagination, said, "I think they're MI5!! I never known cows to pay attention to humans. These cows actually followed our every move. They never took their eyes off us.

In all my travelling around the world twice, I don't believe I have flown in a Boeing 747 400. I couldn't have, or else I would have known. When getting to our seats, I looked up and down the aisle and it seemed as if I was in the corridor of a building. I quietly panicked! But in all my days of flying, the take off and landing of this monster was perfect. I actually didn't know when we were airborne as there was no window in our view. There was an upper level

so I am positive this was first for me.

This is taken just af ter we returned from church. Gregg took us to the first Baptist Church

(sorry lost the name just then) where people were friendly and very welcoming. It was so kind of Gregg to do this for us. We did appreciate it so much.

We went to see the Reynolds Mansion. These are the folk who made their millions from tobacco. We did a tour of the mansion which was too amazing for words. Sadly, the father died before the mansion was finished. And his young widow (42) married again and despite the warnings not to have any more children, went ahead and bore her second husband a son but she died 3 days later. Such a sad story. The lesson - money can't buy health or peace of mind.

Gregg and Helen outside their lovely house.

We were so comfortable and well cared for in

this place. There's bushland behind the house which creates a lovely look while sitting out on the back deck. Gregg has a green thumb and the garden looked lovely.

Of course with Andy gone and all, this is the new Sheriff of Mayberry.

We visited Mt Airy to the town of Mayberry. For those who enjoyed the Andy Griffiths show in the 70's should know that this is where the whole show was filmed. The town is as it was then. THe barber shop, the snack bar, the Sheriff's car. Here I got myself into trouble and dear old Barney wasted no time in putting me in jail.

A typical Moravian home. An electric candle burns in every window. They have their own College on this street and folk are so friendly, kind and charming.

Gregg took us to Old Salem which is a Moravian town. These folk came from Czechoslavakia after much persecution. The Gospel was in their hearts and they settled here in North Carolina. The street remains exactly as it was then. This bakery is the oldest of its kind and is a wood fire oven. Thousands of loaves of bread are baked here daily. It is called Winklers Bakery. They also wafer biscuits that are as thin as tissue paper, light and crisp and totally delicious.

We don't see humming birds in our part of the world. And while I knew what they looked like, I had no clue about how little they were. They are the size of our big grasshoppers. I fell head over heels in love with them. They moved so quickly that it almost impossible to get a shot. There are two feeders and late in the afternoon they flutter in. I was spell bound!

The Wimberley men - Anthony, Vernon and David. Anthony has been away in Afghanistan for a couple of years. Good that he is home safe

and well.

Here they are three generations. This is David's daughter Kristen. The timing was wonderful. Kristen is studying art and design across the country on the west coast. It was good that the holidays brought her home so we could meet.

Kristen is 21.

This is David's mum, Hazel. It was so good to meet her, finally. She has changed little since I first saw her photo when young David at 16, placed it on the dresser. The very first thing he took out of the box.

Doesn't he look proud of his Corvette? Yeah that's Vernon, David's dad. And get this, the car will pass from Vernon to young Austin. Now how did that happen David?

Young Austin catches a fish. He was showing signs of annoyance at one stage until he caught a fish. And then he caught three! Good on ya Austin.

Here we are at the lake where Austin caught some fish. I am sure that some of you who knew David would be surprised to see the "middle" he is carrying. It is too easy to put on weight in the Deep South believe me. There are endless food outlets and the temptation is great.

David is a great dad as I said before and we were thrilled to see him again and to meet his family. I know he was too was thrilled to see us after all that time.

From Niagara we flew down to visit David, Tammy, Vernon and Austin. David was 16 when he lived with us in 1983 through Youth For Understanding. He attended Wavell with our girls. He's come a long way from being that young boy. However, he has turned out to be a great dad to his girl Kristin (21) and young Austin (8).
Chatsworth being a dot on the map has very little to offer. But over the borden in Chattanooga David took us to the most amazing Under water World I have ever seen. And also into the mountains where he got his training to be a "mountain goat" as I used to call him. They also invited all their family to meet us and it was so special to finally meet Hazel his mum after 26 years. His father Vernon who lives with him is a dear, dear man and we enjoyed his company. Well, they have promised to visit us 5 years from now and also to allow young Austin to spend a year in Australia. Let's see how life pans out.

From Madrid it was on to Niagara Falls where we arrived at 11:30pm at our hotel. The next morning we were up bright and early and it took us 2 mins to walk down the road and this is what we saw. We were starving but there was no one in sight. Only one other man on the street besides us. So we took some shots and walked past beautiful gardens and into the city itself and had breakfast at 8:30am at Starbucks. Nothing opens here until 10am.

We took a 2 hour train ride up north to Valledolid to visit Gemma Barrio and her family. They came to our place when in Brisbane in 2007 so they were overjoyed that we would take the time to visit them. Valledolid is famous for its universities. In this photo Gemma and are in her little home town surrounded by farmlands. This particular place now has only 100 folk living there. It also has a small castle and walking through it was like going through a ghost town. On the side of the mountain was this amazing garden, small but filled with gorgeous blooms of all kinds. Gemma and her family visit her during the summer to enjoy some quiet times in this totally beautiful spot.

Behind us the Crystal Palace in the heart of the Madrid Botanical Gardens. The garden itself is twice the size of our Brisbane gardens. In the centre is a lake and on this end of it is the palace. The other side has row boats where families can be seen picnicking on the side. There are buskers of all kinds throughout these gardens. Mostly trees and shrubs rather than flowers. But also many many statues of famous Spanish folk and impressive entries with kings and queens can be seen throughout this park.

Pictured here is Cecilia, Jeff and Cristina in another one of those amazing church halls in Toledo. The art on these walls is stone with ivory intricately molded together.

Near here we visited an art exhi bition of the famous Greek artist El Greco. We were gifted a print of his best work by Ignatio which we hope to frame. I say hope because we still have prints from our world tour of 1999 waiting to be hung! But as they say, there is always a right time for everything.

We arrived in Madrid in the home of Ignatio and Cecilia Arange du Juan to a warm and wonderful reception. They had organised our whole week. The next day they took us to Toledo, a historical town that was once the capital of Spain. A quaint and fascinating place where we once again walked narrow cobbled streets, filled with eating places and shops. In this photo with Cristina we were in one of the smaller city squares