Lilian's Tree

 In 2025, we did an Outback Safari, in a 4WD with our driver/guide. Broken Hill was one of our overnight stops and we didn't see much of the place. We promised ourselves that we would go back and explore and we did. We flew out of Sydney on a wet Monday morning and were in Broken Hill by lunchtime. Broken Hill is on Central Time, so 30mins behind Sydney.  Flying into Broken Hill Picked up the car at the airport and drove into town and the tourist information center for a street map, (the car didn't have SatNav).  Walked around the town looking at the historic buildings. Broken Hill is a Heritage listed town. Found our hotel and checked in. Lovely room and plenty of space in the bathroom, too. I picked a good spot as it is in a very quite spot, with no traffic noise. Tuesday and we had breakfast in town and then drove 23kms to Silverton but continued out to the Mundi Mundi lookout. You can see forever and because of the recent rains, there is a tinge of green as well. Back...

 It has been over a month since I last blogged, and my mojo seems to have gone. I did do two blog posts for the Genealogical Society of Queensland, as a guest blogger. They will be out in May. So, what have I been doing, instead of blogging?  Reading, both on my Kindle and paperback. I made an other quilt top. This one is in flannel and I'm not finished with it yet. Still undecided about the border.  Paul and I had a weekend away at Gosford, when I did a presentation for the Gosford Family History Group. I won a prize in their Easter raffle! I've been looking into my German Ancestors and have found a mystery. It warrants its own post, so watch this space. I played on MyHeritage, and made this fan chart family tree. It shows the countries of birth. I made ANZAC biscuits on Saturday, look strange but taste yum. BUT my big news is that I have a new computer tower, with Windows 11 on it. I'm still in the setting-up stage and this blog is the last thing I have to move, so I'...

 I'm still new to AI and in the past few weeks I've been 'playing' with it more. I used NotebookLM to turn a story into a slide presentation. While it was good, I did have to correct some mistakes but I'm happy with the overall slides.  I like that it asks questions that prompt you to look at other things related to what you gave it. I've also tried an Infographic using a baptismal certificate. What do you think? I've used ChatGPT for some things but today I played with having it turn me into a caricature, here are three results.  I think they look good.

 A February rushes towards March, my blogging is still slow BUT I checked my progress for 2025 and found I was the same. Very slow to get started! February has been a good month with two talks given. The first one to Camden Family History Society, was my new talk, 60 websites in 60 minutes, or there about. It went well and came in under 60 minutes. The next talk was an oldie but one I love giving, You're the Voice, telling your family stories. This time it was to the Botany Bay Chapter of the First Fleet Association. I hope I've inspired people to tell their stories. Both groups are lovely and I have a great time when I present to them. My sister turned 80 and a lunch was organised for the day before. Lots of chat with cousins and a lovely day celebrating such a milestone. I did clean the patio, that had become rather dirty. I borrowed  my son-in-law's pressure cleaner and had a great time blasting away. It looks good! A new office chair was (finally) purchased. It has take...

 I've lost a month, it can't be February already? Well, I haven't really 'lost' January, it is just that I relaxed, had the grandchildren come and stay, went bowling, went out to lunch, had friends over, got little odd jobs done, nothing earth shattering. Genealogy didn't get done, except for a client. Blogging didn't happen. Plenty of reading. So MY year has started now and my calendar is filling up, something I'm going to have to slow down. We did book our next trip. We head to Broken Hill in May. Looking forward to exploring the city.