Open fires, grey skies and yellow again

There has always been something very calming about an open fire, watching the flames dancing around and listening to the crackle. 
And although it's messy and labour intensive, we still love lighting our fire when it's freezing cold and bleak outside.
Heaven knows we have plenty of wood to burn!!

( Bill would cart this around all day if he could!)

Open fires seem to be quite rare these days in new builds. One company I know, builds all their new homes with open fires and verandas as their selling features..... in other words, Australian country homesteads.
That's what we would build if we were starting again.

These are the views from our bathroom window..........our first look at the day. 

We are still tossing up about whether or not to grass the area you see that is currently mulched. Only a couple of the trees remain. All the rest was burnt.

The wattles are looking so fresh ....and yellow!
There's that yellow colour again.
This one is along our front fence line. 

We seem to think that this pair of wood ducks are looking around for a place to have their young. They have separated from the pack and spend a lot of time out in the rubble patch.
Let's hope that rubble patch has some activity on it soon, to deter them from choosing it.

Happy birthday James. Lovely lunch, coffee and cake.

Ruth and Ross are travelling through the Pilbara at the moment( lucky ducks).
They called in to meet Kiann and Flynn for the first time. 
Ruth made up a little pack of goodies for Flynn. Complete concentration required here by the look of things!
We miss you little man.