Somehow 2016 has slipped through our fingers and again we face a New Year. Terry and Meg hope you and your family have had a great year and are looking forward to your plans for 2017. We are travelling less to Melbourne and spending more time doing things around our lovely little town. Somehow the traffic and bustle is just getting too much for us. So this year has seen Terry becoming involved with U3A running a “Tech Savvy” course for seniors. Smart phones, tethering devices, Smart TV, Virtual Reality… have all been eagerly practiced by a determined group of greyheads eager to keep up with their grandchildren. In his spare time he has started taking music lessons again and has completed Music Theory 1 in time for Christmas. Only 7 more books to go! He hopes to start playing the flute again and his music teacher is very enthusiastic too. We volunteered to organise the Benalla Gallery Chamber Music Program earlier in the year when the existing committee ran out of puff. Three very successful concerts were held with sell out audiences featuring well known Chamber groups. We were fortunate to secure sponsorship from the Melbourne Recital Centre and the RACV which helped fund these. We are currently organising 6 concerts for 2017. Meg has continued with her U3A E- book club which moved to a space in our new Library which has branched out with all sorts of community activities. She joined a play reading group and has mastered a lot of funny voices including a wayward goat, snooty Brits and some Carlton ladies of pleasure (Summer of the 17 th Doll). She also started an Opera Appreciation group which we held in our home taking advantage of our Large smart TV and audio gear. Traviata, Rigoletto, Cosi fan Tutti and Carmen all entranced a group of 10 enthusiasts. We have Felicity and Vic Say from Castlemaine to thank for that. They have run monthly Operas in their home for the last two or three decades and we caught up with them again in 2016 and attended most of their monthly Operas. U3A is alive and well in Castlemaine and Benalla. Meg’s gardening ideas are still active. She has planted out a wildflower patch in front of our bedroom with plants from Lambley Nursery near Hepburn Springs. This Spring they were fantastic. See her Facebook page for photos. She has also started on a large research project of ‘Master Printers of the 1920s and 1930s” She started this to support her collecting activities of their works. She hopes to publish it on her e-site when it’s finished. Our big trip in the “Maus Haus” (Our Avan camper), was to the West and East Macdonnell Ranges in July/ August. We love being on the road but notice that our trips are getting shorter. East Macdonnells were best scenery with Trephina Gorge being a fantastic camp site. We travelled into west Queensland from there to try and find the Min Min lights at Bulia. Loved the travel along the Barkly & Boulia-Mt Isa Highways. Sadly the Min Mins didn’t appear at night for us. May just have to return again. Great hot mineral spa at Blackall. Believe it’s one of the best in Oz. Some trip photos on Meg’s Facebook. So, another year whizzes past and we are still cuddling up to each other and enjoying life. Hope you too had as much fun. Love from Terry and Meg

Macdonnell Ranges

We are just back (August 2016) from the Macdonnell Ranges, Alice Springs, Devils Marbles, Boulia (for the Min Min lights) and some of the dinosaur area around Winton and Isisford