Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

'A', you're Adorable, 'B' but you're beautiful, 'C' you're a cutie, full of charms'. .. It's hard not to hop around the place feeling pleased with yourself after finishing the  2016  Blogging from A to Z April Challenge .  We've been asked to write a post to tell about our A to Z experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and the stats show that I had a 325% increase in my readership during April which I am pretty happy about. Unlike more seasoned participants, I was not organised with every post planned and penned ahead of schedule, but then you probably guessed that of me, didn't you?!  Indeed, my whole thought about participation was relatively last minute. I started at Blogger number 1600-and-something on the challenge sign-up but by the end of April, I was in a final  position of 1184th out of 1344 Bloggers who completed the challenge. Yes, that's a massive amount of other bloggers out there, so there was ...

Giveaway announcement Where did April go? I seemed to lose it somewhere between the avocados , the  Bolin, Bolin Billabong and the Yea Valley and zip-a-dee-doo-dah! Not only was I whizzing around all over Victoria I also had a quick trip to New Zealand in April Oh the wonders of modern technology unless you saw a few sneaky pics on Instagram you would have hardly noticed! All the comments were added up, one entry for every comment on Facebook or the blog Thank you to everyone who has joined me on the April A to Z Challenge and for all your encouragement along the way. I am delighted that you have enjoyed Wandering Victoria with me. As promised all your comments have been entered into the Giveaway Names in the hat! I did make a little video of the Crazy Poodle helping me with the draw but I am having a few technical difficulties which I hope will be resolved later to enable me to add to this post later in the week. But in...

Well here we have it, we have reached Z  on my April A to Z Wandering Victoria * challenge. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah**, Zip-a-dee-Yea!   My, oh, my ....what a wonderful day... here in Victoria! Blairgowrie dog beach, Mornington Peninsula Plenty of sunshine headin' my way  Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Zip-a-dee-Yea  (Yay!) Queenscliff - Sorrento Ferry Hey Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder  It's the truth, it's actual...  everything is satisfactual Crazy Poodle with bird on shoulder, admires the route and giveaways! Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Zip-a-dee-Yea  (Yay!) Wonderful feeling, wonderful day Map: Google maps and Travellerspoint  You can find my full-size interactive map here at  Travel Map  at  Travellerspoint . Above you will see our month of travels. Together we covered 2009 km / 1248 miles.  We look like we took some crazy penguin route! As you can see, if you click on the Travel...

It's 'O is for Monday' and today I'm taking you to the scenic North-East of Victoria, as part of my Wander Victoria* April A to Z challenge. We're a three-hour drive from Melbourne in the semi-rural community of Oxley, with a population of just over 500 inhabitants. Come with me, I can't wait to show you around, we're going to meet some really nice locals. Oxley Post Box Let's be honest, not many people are going to drive three hours just to go to Oxley, but it is my pleasure to take you off the beaten track. And whilst you are here you can always pop into Brown Brothers winery, or indeed if you have your own aircraft you can land it at their private airstrip.  Brown Brothers is one of Australia's most renown and respected wine businesses, and I know from the comments already made, how many of you love our Aussie wines! We will start our day at Brown Brothers, Milawa and if you look very carefully you will see lots of litt...

... a small town city, rich in history Okay after two days getting to know each other, I think we're ready for our first road trip together. I've had to order a bigger bus as we welcome today Neesie, Gosia, Terra and Nancy who are joining us. I've chosen the cute town well, it's actually a small city, of Castlemaine  125 km North West from Melbourne in central Victoria.  I think it will be a great introduction to country Victoria.  It has a rich history founded on gold, I knew that you'd like that. You see Australia was really just an outpost for convicts until in a gentle wooded valley, gold was found and then boy did the world take note. It wasn't just for rough cut blokes, sheilas and convicts, this faraway corner of the world suddenly had pulling power.  From 1851 onwards the population of Victoria exploded.  Diggers came from all over the world. Fossicking and prospecting became the order of the day and they were rewarded...