It's been a good week.  We've made the most of any free time we've had and have been out wandering. We spent one night at our host’s house by the beach at Aldinga. We were able to indulge in some more serious paddling.

This was the view over the sea when we went to get fish and chips for our tea.

The following day we drove to Victor Harbour and walked across the causeway to Granite Island - it was another gloriously hot day. Not bad for the start of winter! We'd been told that this can be a great place to see whales but unfortunately we were a few weeks early and they haven't arrived yet.

Other wanderings have taken us out visiting the wine region of the Barossa Valley - despite the warnings about large red backed spiders and snakes all was well. We've been back to the Adelaide City Market for some serious vegetable and bread shopping. In the market Graham somehow got into a conversation about football with a stall holder who turned out to be an Aussie Manchester United supporter and his son who is a Liverpool supporter (so much so that he has a YNWA tattoo on his arm!) A long discussion about Kenny Dalglish's departure ensued and Graham ended up with a free bag of oranges! We got taken to the market by Dierdre, one of the assisting priests here. So, we had insider knowledge of a) where to park and b) where to eat.  We had lunch the food hall (which we  previously missed) where you can chose from the most amazing selection of  Asian food

We've also visited  Adelaide Cathedral - St Peters - they too are selling crosses made out of slate from their roof - but rather than 5 pounds, they are charging up to 40 dollars! I think we may have missed a trick there!!

Parish life continues to be very similar to back home - except its done in warmer weather and to the sound of parrots! 

I've found myself becoming very interested in Aboriginal spirituality  - I am only just beginning to read about it there is a tradition  of a rainbow spirit creator,  often depicted as a rainbow snake who lived deep beneath the earth and was the eternal source of life and spiritual power.  Long before the European missionaries arrived the Aboriginal people had faith in Yiirmal who created them and would save them. The missionaries assumed the rainbow snake to be Satan (as per the Garden of Eden) and condemn it as pagan and evil - yet the Aboriginal people now see that much of what they learnt from the missionaries about the Old and New Testament was very similar to what they knew from their own culture and that there are many connections between their culture and Christian faith.  Rainbow spirit theology assumes that God the creator spirit has been speaking through Aboriginal culture from the beginning of time. I am looking forward to learning more. 

I have been pleased to hear from home that the installations of St Philip's new Loo and St Cuthbert's new kitchen are both coming on well.  I've had some more lovely friendship messages from Pips and Cuths children to pass on - thank you everyone for doing that.