And so it’s time for an update for 2007..

..the picture above is a snapshot of the year. From the top (left to right):

3 Sisters in NSW
Dandenong ranges
Restaurant tram
Wilsons Promontory beach at sunset
BBQ for the German visitors
Paddy(melon) in Christmas attire
Over a bridge in Tassie
The vines, Leongatha
Comet McNaught
Cradle Mountain
The ring (to rule them all)
Us on top of the world, at the Prom

Our year began with visitors from afar; friends from Scotland and Germany. Our adventures included tram rides and a trip on the puffing Billy steam train, Yarra Valley winery tours and BBQ's in the courtyard, a whirlwind tour of country Victoria and plenty of good, mostly veg food - well, besides the BBQ. And not to mention the rubber duck race down the yarra on Australia day! (Thanks to ‘Dan the duck retrieving man’, we now have Bob the duck in our bathroom :-)

We also both headed to Cooinda Camp over the summer, in which Phil was busy program directing and kaz busy helping out the cooks!

This year included a transition to (almost) full time work. Kaz has been working for CRS Australia all year and early on took a change to 9 day fortnight to help manage her headaches (and her sanity). This is working very satisfactorily so far. Phil is now working for Melbourne Water, doing corrosion pipeline work, managing 3 days ‘work’ a week amongst the other things he used to fill five days with!

Trips this year have included a train trip to Sydney with Phil on a detour to Parkes to collect an astrophotography award from David Malin. We then stayed with friends in Paddington (yeah – loved it!) and attended a fabulous 21st (with excellent cake!). We then headed into the Blue Mountains (they aren't called blue for nothing) and saw lots of lovely scenery and a waterfall that was half frozen (it was quite cold!). Stayed in a mud brick hut and Kaz attempted to light a wood stove for 3 hours until Phil arrived back and did the job in under 3 minutes. Sigh.

During most months this year we have been heading regularly to Leongatha (in south east gippsland) to visit friends who have a vineyard (with plenty of overgrown vines to prune!). We have some fond memories of the year, spent at the vines, with some hard work (Phil) and plenty of good food, wine and chats (kaz). Also plenty of music making has been enjoyed. It’s been a fun time, thanks guys!

Star gazing has also been getting serious, as Phil has headed regularly to Heathcote for 'new moon' weekends and hoping for clear weather (ok, no hoping involved, but a lot of prior gazing at the weather charts) with plenty of starry clear nights and photos to process as evidence. The award mentioned earlier speaks for itself – check out the gallery for more: www.philhart.com/gallery/Astrophotography

Phil has also been busy getting submerged in peak oil education (of others) and plenty of talks around the country. Promising feedback and increased coverage in the media is all pointing to getting the message out there. Some peak oil presentations also cemented our plans to travel to Tassie late in the year – which was a fabulous trip of sightseeing and meeting lots of friendly folk with the same ideas.

Well, you may ask what Kaz has been doing whilst Phil has been busy doing these things. Mostly she stays home and was playing her Bodhran drum (until the neighbour called the police for making such a racket!) Outrageous, but true. We will overlook the fact that Kaz is a little stubborn and thought that playing at 7.30 pm was not unreasonable. Oh, how wrong she was.. :)

Kaz also dragged Phil to Wilson’s Promontory for some relaxing and walking (ok not much walking, I'm working up to it) with her family and she did actually manage a walk around Cradle Mountain Dove Lake track during the Tassie trip (a bit of an achievement - she survived the 2 hour walk in 3 hours, just). She also met some very nice Pademelons (like wallabies) while we were there too. And we even glimpsed the wee cottage home of Bob Brown (leader of the Australian Greens) in remote Liffey (we are not stalkers, honest). Oh, and we saw a Platypus in Lake St. Claire – now that was special. We love TASSIE!

Recent activities have included greens related work leading up the election. We did some leafleting around our area and headed down to Leongatha to hand out ‘how to vote cards’ on election day. Phil happily spent his birthday doing this and then scrutineered the vote count afterwards – and was pleased to wave John Howard goodbye by the end of the night.

Kaz spent a lovely birthday celebrating with only half day at work, lunch with the grandparents and afternoon in the sun. Phil took Kaz out for a surprise dinner – on the Restaurant tram (which she loved - is there any doubt there??) especially when she could eat the whole five courses! (even if two courses were fruit salad, but one had a candle in it as a b'day cake!!).

Phil then proposed as the tram turned the corner into St Kilda esplanade, and Kaz was so surprised and excited and overcome that she wasn't sure if she'd given Phil a definitive answer (oops). It was very special and romantic and trams will never be the same. And now, we have plenty of ideas and plans to make about how to celebrate accordingly!

So now we head into the silly season, and hope we can catch up with you all soon (one way or another). For the year to come – firstly Cooinda winds up again, and Kaz has had a warm up for cooking at the leader training weekend recently. (She hasn't cooked dinner since). But we are both looking forward to another camp this summer and good times to be had with new and returning campers.

Wedding plans – well they could be a while off yet – so many ideas, so many decisions to make. Expect something more like ‘tea in the park’ than ‘my greek wedding’!

But Kaz does know what she wants for Christmas..a Pademelon! However, Phil assures her they are a protected native species (always the spoilsport).

That’s it for another year; hope you have a great festive season. Looking forward to a catch up soon in 2008.

Lots of Love
Kaz and Phil
xoxoxo