Happy 21st!

Another busy week here with a funeral and prepping our 200 or so kids for Confirmation on Saturday afternoon. On top of all that, we celebrated a couple of birthdays…on Saturday, too! I don't have photos of the 50th that took place in the evening. But one of our youth leaders, Rachel, had a 21st birthday "high tea" party at a place called Gunner's Barracks in Mossman, on the water, across from Sydney.

This site is typical of other locations I've discoverd in Sydney where an old army barracks and shooting range is converted into a public park. It's really a lovely idea and gives the space back to the people.

Gunner's Barracks sits atop a cliff, offering beautiful views of the bay (1) and the city, that you can see on the far right in this photo (2). Unfortunately, the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge are just too far behind the bluffs to be seen.

Rachel and her family rented a private room, but anyone can come and eat here at the wonderful restaurant. Here is our room full of birthday guests (3). All of the tables were decorated with lovely bouquets of fresh flowers (4-6). Very pretty! God is so wonderful giving us such beauty!

These are my table mates, some of whom you already know as they volunteer with our youth group: Anastasia and Christine (7) and here is one of myself, with Anastasia's boyfriend Andrew (both Lebanese by the way) with Anastasia (8). Here's one of Anastasia and Rachel (the birthday girl) outside behind the restaurant (9).

Each table was given several bone china tea pots full of different kinds of teas. And then there were layered trays of sweets and "savories" (10-12). Here's a detail atop an expresso dessert (13).

Rachel, the birthday girl (or is she now a birthday woman?), loves tea settings and has been collecting a set for years. Her sister made this lovely cake herself (14). She is a few years younger than Rachel and goes to high school, so she's no professional. If you look back on the blogs, she made me an R2D2 cake for my own birthday, earleir this year. I think there's a budding cake decorator in the making…either that or a sculptor!

Here I am eating my scone with jam and cream (15). Cream isn't like cream we put in coffee, but more of a whipped cream without any sugar. I've not seen anything like this "cream" in the States as it is like a thick spread, though lighter than mayonnaise. While not having much taste, it makes scones less dry.

After filling ourselves, we wandered outside and took in the views (16). As I shared, this used to be a barracks and here you can see an old wall behind me (17). Taking the steps down, I took this shot out of one of the holes in the wall for rifles (18). In the foregorund of this picture, you can see the restaurant's rooftop with the bay behind (19). In the same picture, you can see the city on the far right in the distance, but here is a close up taken from the same spot (20).

This path lead to a part of the cliff that jutted out (21). Here's a panorama of the area (22). See that big tree on the left at the end of the circular walk? A kookaburra flew up into its branches as I was walking and took my breath away (23). I love these guys! They always seem so happy. I was able to take a detail of his pretty feathers (24); it was all an accident, you realize, just a point and shoot and an oooh! And finally another closeup of Sydney (25).

Back on the home front, Br. Dominic sent some pictures of my namesake, "Alejandro" the rooster, who was born on Christmas Day, 2015 (26). Apparently neighbors are telling him to show the fowl at the local fair or something. Recently, these twin, female goats were born (27). Aren't they the cutest? I have named them "Geraldine" and "Gabrielle" (after Frs. Gerard and Gabriel)!