Floriade 2011

Weather was not great!  From warm Spring temperatures a few days before, it had zoomed backward to winter - cold - windy - rainy. Still we ventured out into it, after all this is what we'd come for - to experience Floriade 2011, an annual Spring event in our Capital, Canberra.

We had  been fortunate indeed to secure an overnight accommodation booking so our first port of call on arrival in Canberra was to check the whereabouts and get keys and address of our apartment.  We were surprised and delighted to find it was in a security block, and very new.  Beautifully appointed close to all tourist attractions Canberra offers, it was all we could have hoped for.  After surfing the net for over an hour and almost giving up hope of finding anything under $400 per night available, this was amazing!

Wrapped up in winter woollies and armed with camera we joined the thousands of people all heading for Commonwealth Park.  It didn't disappoint.  The colours, sights, smells were all we'd imagined.  For the most part we stayed dry - the one huge downpour struck just as we entered a huge marquee where we sat and enjoyed a cooking demonstration for the time it took for the rain to stop. Fortuitous indeed!

So many photos taken, which to choose?  Just a few of the amazing colours we saw!

Blessings!

Why is it?

Why is it that simply days can go by and I can't think of a single thing to write - despite all that, life has been busy.  Take these past few days for instance - grandson E7 started off the week with a cough which has gradually gotten worse. No school but mum still had to get off to work - grandma to the rescue - sitting with the little fella while he coughed his tummy sore!  Friday came and another doctor appt plus Xray - possible pneumonia!  Second doctor appt on Friday revealed Xray results not pneumonia but chest infection.  Prescribed anti-biotic and hopefully might be well enough for school on Monday.

Easter is not far away - daughter pleads "can you make E7  an Easter hat for the school parade?"  Oh boy I think - what next?  "Mum, you know you could do it so much better than me" - oh well, what's one more thing to line up?  Made a start on it this morning but will reserve the photo till it's finished.

Hasn't rained for weeks - since beginning of January - did the washing this morning to hang on the  line - including bed linen etc - now pouring with rain! Oh well - have hung some on the clothes airer - the rest can stay in the laundry basket until tomorrow to see if the weather takes a turn for the better. 

Garden is looking OK and carrots and mini cabbage are doing well.  I've erected a little netting cage over the top of them trying to keep the butterflies from laying their little eggs and caterpillars chomping the beautifully tender green leaves.  It seems to be working so far.  Put in some more purple runner beans a couple of weeks ago and they're up about 6 feet so far with flower buds just appearing.  I hope the weather stays warm enough for them to fruit.  The 'winter' tomatoes are all doing well - the Giant Tree Tomato has its first flowers open - boy are they big for tomatoes!  Can't wait to see the fruit once it starts. Have taken 7 pumpkins from the vine and one still left hanging. They're looking good too so shouldn't have to buy any for a while.  Cut the first one when I cooked roast lamb the other night.  They could take a  little more ripening but nice and sweet. 

Picked up a poor specimen of a begonia at the plant nursery a few weeks ago - reduced down in price. It seemed to have had far too much water. Let it dry right out and now blooming a beautiful red!

Had a visit yesterday from a baby kookaburra.  We hear them occasionally in our many trees around the yard but don't often see them.  This cutie perched himself in the old dead wattle tree over the back fence - he didn't seem in the least perturbed when I got as close as I could to take a shot at him - photo that is of course!

A couple of birthdays in the family in the past two weeks and a wedding anniversary - made cards to give and was pleased with the frangipani theme I used for E19.

Booked our flights to go see Mum at Easter time.  She's still in the hospital and hopefully is rehabilitating reasonably.  For a couple of weeks after her surgery we were extremely concerned about her condition but she did 'turn the corner' and is now back in the 'older people's ward' recuperating.  Hoping that there will be some kind of assessment by Easter regarding her ability to go back to her apartment and live independently.  If not, then assisted  living may need to be an option.

Have had contact from another second cousin in the United Kingdom who we'd never heard of before  - I am amazed that in the last few months no less than four distant rellies have made contact.  Genealogy is certainly a very popular pastime.  It is so good hearing from these people and being able to link extended families together. 

All for now - blessings!

Baby Kookaburra



Pretty red begonia




Birthday card for E19




Giant tree tomato plant with basil seedlings



Feeling a bit sorry for myself!

Oh my goodness -  have just come in from the library where I fell up the steps!  What a silly old moo I am!  My watch took the  brunt of the fall and I've cracked the glass and belted it up a little - grazed knee, took a bit of skin off my hand and a sore forehead where I landed. Thank goodness I didn't damage my specs apart from a little scratch on the side!  A dear old lady came rushing over to me and helped me up - she was so kind - one of God's angels there for me.  I'll really have to watch my step (no pun intended) - must be my advancing age I think and not picking my feet up properly.  I guess I'll know tomorrow if bruises emerge where else I might have landed.

My mum's back in hospital. My brother phoned me from NZ to let me know she has been in a week. He was not supposed to let me know (orders from her) however he felt I should be told.  I've spoken to her a couple of times on the phone and she doesn't sound too good.  The problem is pain in her lower back, hip and knee but especially down her right thigh.  I feel strongly that she may have a pinched nerve in the lower spine as I've had similar pain in the past myself.  There is not much that seems to relieve it.   Anyway she is having all manner of tests carried out and I just hope that before long a diagnosis will be made.  It's not good being so far away at a time like this.

We've just had 7 days of heatwave!  A record has been broken for Sydney - 5 days was previously the longest over 30C (86F). For most of those 7 days, it reached 40/42C (107F) and has been most uncomfortable - especially sleeping at night.  For those of you northerners reading this, we 'downunder' as a general rule don't have air conditioning/heating built into our homes although having said that, more and more people building new homes these days are certainly doing just that.  We mostly have brick homes too and once those bricks heat up after a number of hot days, it takes a while for them to cool down, even with insulation etc.  Yesterday we got a predicted cool change mid afternoon which brought the temperature down by about 15 degrees in quite a short time.  What a blessed relief.

Australia has certainly had dramatic weather conditions in the past few weeks.  Floods in Queensland, Northern NSW and Victoria, Cyclone Yasi has devastated many towns on the northern Qld coast and a few hundred miles inland and in the last few days, Western Australia around Perth has been battling dreadful bush fires.  It's all happening here folks!  All we in Sydney have had to cope with has been the heat. We consider ourselves more fortunate than our neighbours in other parts of the country.

Recently I've been feeding the Rainbow Lorikeets sunflower seeds instead of grain bread.  I was really being a bit aggravated by the brown Indian Mynah birds which are so aggressive, even to their own. The seeds are working out much better as the 'brown bombers' are not seed eaters.  I am putting out 3 trays each afternoon with the seeds and the birds come down and really get 'stuck in' to it.  I took a couple of pics of them with their heads down, tails up feeding - they look so comical!

Youngest grandson L5 1/2 started school this morning.  I am anxious to know how it all went for him.  His daddy was planning to take pics of him and big brother E7 before they left.  I'll post them here if he manages to send them on to me.

Well that's about it for now.  Hope you are all doing OK and thanks for popping in.

Blessings!



sunrise during the heatwave



scrambling for best position

 

heads down, tails up!




and a drink afterwards!



Inspiration?

Yes I need some!  I pop in to read so many but at present I just can't seem to get any enthusiasm or inspiration to write even though there seems to be lots going on in my life.

The Christmas lights look great now they are all operating as they should, but alas, lack of sunshine at times has meant that the solar panel ones are not twinkling as brightly as they should.  Whoever heard of a December morning being only 12C outside?  I don't remember it in Sydney anyway. Maybe that's a reflection of our northern cousins who are experiencing chilling  weather at present.  The photos I took of the lights didn't turn out too well so I'm not going to embarrass myself further by posting them.  Suffice to say I just love looking at them out the windows in the evenings  when they start to 'do their thing'!

As I write this at least the sun is shining but there's a cold wind.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours doing some more stitching on my WIP. I've used all of one colour thread so will need to replenish supply.  I will get to post another progress pic on this soon but at present I'm off to do my Monday volunteer at the Information Centre.  I'll take it with me and hope that I have a chance to do a few more stitches on it. 

Blessings!

Christmas craft chit chat

For the past couple of weeks I've been slowly getting my Christmas cards made. This year I've used a Cuttlebug Christmas tree embossing folder and a cute little Magnolia stamp.  Now for the best part - writing inside them and sending them off. 

Has been a hot day here in old Sydney town.  Got to 32 degrees with brilliant sun. Not even a sign of storm clouds in the sky - but I won't hold my breath as they are predicted for Monday.

As long as it cools off a little, I will bake my Christmas cake though so I'm really hoping for another few days of clouds and rain.  I'm really late in making it this year as normally it would be baked in October however being away then, it didn't get done.

With the sunshine predicted for the next couple of days, I got out into the garden this morning with the spray bottle of weed killer and spent a couple of hours finding those that had sprung up in the past few weeks.  The past two Saturday's DH has done a great job and pulled out heaps of them which had grown down one side of our boundary.  I just followed up today to try to avoid them springing up again too quickly. 

Tomorrow the two littlest grandies are coming for lunch. They have swimming lessons in the morning so their mum will bring them here when they've finished.  They love to get here especially when 'Grumps' is home from work.

Till next time - blessings! 

It did go away - the rain I mean

It was a very shaky start to the day - from my kitchen window all I could see was fog - thick fog - not usual for early November - but I guess I felt I couldn't lose anything by pinning the washing out on the line. (For those 'northern' friends, if you didn't know, we 'down under' peg out wet clothes out on a clothes line to dry in the sun and breeze, not in the clothes dryer).  I'd managed to get some washing almost dry yesterday by hanging it over the airing rack inside, but there's nothing like bringing it in off the line smelling so - kind of 'sunny'!

So I trudged out over the very wet grass and in the coolness of 13 degrees, put it on the line.  I guess I was hoping that when the fog lifted, there'd be a bit of a flapping breeze enough to dry it.  We set off for church - the weather still not looking hopeful, but by the time we left again for home, the sun had come out and it was looking really good - in fact, brilliant. 

A light lunch over, I took my WIP with me and sank into our lovely outdoor chair and breathed in the beautiful sunny afternoon.  I could almost feel my skin taking in big gulps of the warmth.  So many days of dull, cool, damp! It was great to feel that Spring might almost have decided to visit.  It's less than a month till our 'down under' Summer officially begins, but I'm not holding my breath even though today is forecast to be warm and dry, as the weather people are predicting rain and even storms before the end of the week again.  Perhaps the long range forecaster was correct after all and we'll be still 'soaking it up' until at least December.

Anyway I'm grateful for the sunny afternoon I spent working on my Daisy Girl - I might even do it again today - it's looking promising!

Blessings!



Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (brunsfelsia) in bloom at present



Rain, rain, go away

A rainy, foggy Sunday morning. Everything feels damp. I'd like to think that soon we will dry out and get a little sunshine here, but the forecast says more to come!

My vegies are getting waterlogged and won't grow without sunshine so things aren't looking good in my little garden.  The potatoes are just coming in to flower but with no sunshine or bees I fear we may lose the lot after about 10 weeks of growing!

A load of washing finished and I thought I'd be tempted to pin it on the line and just 'hope for the best' with a few possible dry spells during the day enough to dry it but it's not looking positive.

Despite the 'big wet,' the birds begin their early morning twittering and busy themselves seeking out tidbits for their young.  The butcher bird family I've discovered to now be six.  In the bottle brush tree close to the house yesterday, four young sat waiting for parents to bring food.  They are amazing! Baby spied a (rather large) grasshopper and flew down and grabbed it. Back on the branch it tried to shovel it into it's mouth sideways. 'No, no, baby - that's not the way to do it!' I sensed mother saying.  She neatly took the bug, 'mangled' it in her beak and neatly turned it around so that head first, it fitted right into baby's open mouth.  After a couple of huge gulps, it was gone!  Amazing to watch these small creatures who, despite the patience they show, are also quick to admonish when babies step out of line!

Thank you God for this your day, and for the freedom we have to worship you! I'm off to do that right now.

Blessings!


Rainbow Lorikeets feeding after the rain



Dawn, Sunrise and Twilight

Earlier this year DH was the highest bidder at a fund raising fun auction. He won a weekend away at a wonderful place on Sydney's eastern coast called Collaroy. The booking was made and we looked forward for months to our 'weekend away' however little did we know that it would be cut short by my flying out to Auckland on the Sunday afternoon.

However it worked out well and we had a beautifully relaxing time.  Our 1st story room had a balcony which overlooked the ocean - an amazing spot to view the dawn, sunrise and twilight.  We were blessed!



Dawn



Sunrise



Twilight



WIP and Halloween

Have been battling some king of flu bug for the past week and feeling rather under the weather. Sore throat, aches and pains etc etc. Went to the doctor Friday just to get it checked out - came home with a script for an antibiotic in case it turned into some kind of bacterial infection. Feeling still poorly, and it being such a beautiful day in Sydney town yesterday I sat outdoors and took my current cross stitch piece.  I had taken it with me to NZ hoping while mum was in hospital I'd have 'plenty' of time to get some done - little did I know I'd be well occupied with other activities!

Anyway, had taken another photo of the piece prior to continuing with it yesterday so I've included it here to show where I'm up to.

Today has dawned warmer than normal but we are heading for rain by midday and this will continue for the rest of the week.  Whoever the long range forecaster was who told us a couple of months ago that we'd have rain right until Christmas is proving to be correct.  Normally at this time of the year we have quite dry weather but not at present.

October 31 today - doubt if we'll be having any little trick or treating visitors tonight.  There has been a certain reluctance on the part of Ozzie's to get too involved in this kind of activity however there is certainly a huge amount of stuff in the shops egging people on to buy, decorate, and go all out for Halloween this year. 

The two littlest grandies had a school Halloween disco and bbq last Friday night.  Apparently it was a good night for the kids but all eldest E7 got from it was a good head cold!  Boo-ey!

For all of you who do celebrate Halloween - have an exciting one!

Blessings!



THE WEEK THAT WAS

A busy week - daughter's birthday, chimney swept, naval oranges ready to pick, rainbow on the road to Canberra, ducks visited on a rainy day, August 1 - Wattle Day, camellia's blooming, first Daphne flower burst open, beautiful sunrise this morning  ... God's blessings!

Sunset Over the Blue Mountains

Yesterday was a brilliantly sunny and very windy day - a great day for getting the washing dry on the clothes line outside. Although the sun shone until late afternoon, there was little warmth in it - unless you happened to be having a nap on the bed where it was streaming in through the window - which L4 (soon to be 5) was.

On my way home from child-minding duty I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some photos of sunset. Here down-under they say if the wind is coming from the north-west it's a good time to take photos as it blows the smoggy filth away out to sea. So armed with camera and about 4.45pm I drove to a spot quite close to where I live to await the disappearing of the sun behind the Blue Mountains situated directly to our west. These photos are the result. I was disappointed to see so much cloud which prevented a clear picture of the sunset. Still some of the formations were quite interesting and the light certainly showed why this low mountain range is named. When taking the time to view this daily miracle, I cannot help but still be amazed at the wonders of God's creation.

ANOTHER FOGGY WINTERS DAY

I've been trying to think of something brilliantly intelligent to write here but nothing comes to mind. Although I enjoy winter more than summer usually, I find it's less inspiring for taking photos and doing interesting things. Yesterday I did my 2 weekly stint at the information centre and boy, was it slow! The day was dull and cold so guess nobody much was interested in making a visit - afterwards I went to the library and chose more books including another couple by Sue Grafton. I've been enjoying her 'adventures' of Kinsey Milhone as a private investigator recently - she writes descriptively with intrigue and mystery wound into her stories. I'm also enjoying the fact that each of her books revolve around the same character and place that she lives, getting to know other characters like her neighbour and the local 'eat in' owner.

I've been working on a scrapbook over the past week and am now up to page 4. It's been a struggle to get it going as I seem to constantly find I don't have something I need to complete the page. Yesterday after IC, I popped down to the local hobby shop and picked up some chipboard alphabet packs - it's working out a fairly expensive exercise as sometimes I only use a few of what's in the large pack. Oh well - that's scrapbooking I guess. I am improvising a lot though by stamping (which I'm not all that fond of) and printing out text from the computer so it's not all bad.

Did a little more work on my family history over the weekend too. In the past few months I've had another couple of people make contact with me and it is so interesting finding out a little bit more about families and putting more pieces together in the jigsaw puzzle. I get really excited when another link is put in place.

Bible study is in recess for the school holidays but I'm planning to get ahead on some of the lessons this morning. There's a thick 'pea soup' fog which is due to lift later on so I might get outside if the sun comes out. Meantime I'm just planning to mooch around and see what happens. Have plenty to do - even some housework if I'm that bored - but I doubt that will happen!

SUN'S OUT!

It's been a wet, wet week. A tornado passed through Lennox Head - much further north from here, but it has devastated homes and property in it's wake. Film of it coming was rather awesome - seeing pieces of homes, roofs and debris being swirled around and coming towards you in that mighty tunnel must have been totally scary - but although so much damage has been caused, thank God, nobody was killed. Many however were injured and carry their wounds as they clean up.

Today here the sun is shining - as I walked out to take the washing to the clothes line I literally squelched my way there. We've had a week of torrential rain and storms. But it won't take long to dry out. DH even says it may be dry enough to mow the lawn this afternoon. I've also been out clipping back shrubs and a big lemon tree. I only clipped it in March before we went on holiday but when we got back home three weeks later, the leaf miner had devastated all the new growth. It looks so ugly. Well hopefully with this close shave and a bit of fertilizer, it may produce a few lemons next season. I'm hoping so.

My little blueberry bushes are covered with flowers and buds. I heard on the radio gardening session last week that I should be taking all of those off for the first three years. I'm hopeless at doing that. I am always anxious for fruit. Last year it did have a little but it has grown so much since then. I'm tempted to just let it fruit and see how it goes.

I've finished stitching a little Angel cross stitch piece this past week but haven't taken any pics yet. Also did a couple of very quick pieces which fit into a key ring - little souvenirs from Scotland. Will have to get the camera out and show you next time what they look like. Quite cute - especially the Scottish Coo!

Blessings!

MISTY RAINY SATURDAY

I could say we were warned - the weather office has been known to be wrong before however it seems this time they were not - although yesterday was grey and overcast I did manage to get two loads of washing dry on the line. Saturday is normally my big washing day so with the weather forecast in mind, I tried to get it out of the way. It was a good feeling last night to know there wasn't too much more to be done. That said, and with the prospect of more rain for the next week, I did a load more this morning and have had to resort to putting it through the dryer. (Here in Australia - and New Zealand, we use outdoor clothes lines most of the time).

The reason weather is on my mind is because tomorrow I'll be out volunteering for The Salvation Army annual Red Shield Door Knock. DH and I usually do a few hours walking miles (it seems) asking for donations which go towards running all the programs which the Salvo's operate for those less fortunate.

The city of Perth in Western Australia has had a very bad cyclone through it during the week causing huge amounts of damage to roofs, houses and trees. The weather office are predicting that same cyclone to reach us here on the eastern coast tomorrow! I'd say we could be in for wet tails as we trail around from door to door.

Oh well, I'm off to have lunch - not burned this time - just yummy chicken vegetable soup freshly made this morning. Yum!

Blessings!

IPSWICH

The beautiful countryside passed by quickly and after a couple of hours we arrived in Henley, a hamlet just outside Ipswich, West Suffolk, at the home of our second cousins. It was lovely to see them again after nearly 20 years. We were quickly given lunch and headed off to spend a litte time at the Abbey of St Edmund ruins at Bury.

Abbey Ruins

Abbey Gardens

About a half hours drive from Henley, the market town of St Edmundsbury had a village atmosphere with the cathedral just outside a large shopping centre. The cathedral was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England. The cathedral is surrounded by the Abbey Gardens where the gardens were a vivid mass of colour. While meandering through the park-like gardens, a squirrel caught our eye climbing down a tree trunk quite close to the ground. We stopped to photograph it and it hopped down to the path and sat quite close to Fiona (cousin’s daughter) who had come with us. It was quite tame and fascinating to us as we don’t have them living in the southern hemisphere. Inside the cathedral we were able to see the beautiful ceiling of the new spire. The addition commenced in 2000, and has only recently been completed. Our day finished with a lovely meal and an evening spent with the family catching up with family news.

Next morning after breakfast we headed off to the university town of Cambridge which was north west about 71 kilometres (44 miles)from Ipswich. With little parking available in the township, large ‘park and ride’ areas are available for all day parking on the outskirts. We rode into town on a double decker bus taking in all the sights en route.

Views of Cambridge

This ancient town of colleges, museums, market street stalls, provides contrasting historic buildings with modern shopping venues. The town was crowded, with an obvious predominance of students and bicycles as well as large tourist coaches, visitors spilling out all along Kings Parade. As with many of these historic places, tour company employees bustled amongst the crowds touting their own special tours as being ‘the best’ or ‘the cheapest’. We were happy to continue our way through the narrow streets - we had an excellent guide showing us the magnificent buildings. Trinity and Kings Colleges, the Fitzwilliam Museum, ancient houses all had their appeal, and a wander along the River Cam was also a highlight with the beautiful cherry trees blooming right alongside.

We stopped for lunch at a little ’church’ café tucked along from the museum, where organic food was served at very reasonable rates. A short meal stop was an ideal way in which to rest our weary feet. We were soon ready to move on again and browsed the market stalls before heading for the ’park and ride’ again to pick up the car and head back to Henley.

A quick change and we were ready to be taken out for a delicious meal at an Ipswich Italian restaurant. We were helping Margaret and Magnus with their family, celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. What a lovely occasion to be sharing with them. We did enjoy the evening. Our time with these lovely people was all too short - in the morning we had another fairly early start to the coach station. Only one more day in England before we left to fly to Texas to meet with our son, daughter in law and two grandchildren.

We were ready to meet the coach when it arrived and we boarded and commenced our journey from Ipswich to Heathrow Airport. It was a miserable day so we were pleased we weren’t on a sight-seeing mission. After one stop half way to change coaches, we arrived at Heathrow about 1.30pm. We had booked a hotel room as we had a very early flight check in. This would ensure an early night and a short distance to the airport tomorrow.

ABERDEEN

On the way to Balmoral

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny which was rather nice for our drive to Balmoral castle a couple of hours away. We were still ‘rugged up’ though despite the warmth in the lovely car. The scenery once we were away from the Aberdeen township was just as I imagined it to be. Small villages, mainly grey granite houses with people bustling about their everyday lives. Passing miles of fields we were rather fascinated by the number of mole holes with farmers apparently trying to get rid of the offending animals. We don’t have moles in our part of the world so this was something quite new for us. Tiny stone cottages dotted the countryside along the way with forest trees lining both sides of the roadway for much of the way. Close to Balmoral we caught glimpses of mountains still with the snowline quite low. Apparently the week before our arrival, Aberdeen and its surroundings had suffered quite a nasty blizzard.

DH and our Scottish host at the bridge

The entrance to the castle was across a bridge over the River Dee and down a short walk to the gates all hidden from the main road. A quick ride behind a tractor brought us up to the back part of the castle where we were let out to roam in the various display rooms. Examples of birds and animals were on show as well as carriages which had been used in bygone days by the royal family. Inside one area of the castle itself was a large room where many items were displayed including different dresses the Queen had worn on many important occasions, china, photographs, all manner of memorabilia which was most interesting.

DH and I outside the main Castle gates

Balmoral Castle

A small amount of snow lay on the ground and DH took great delight in rolling himself a small snowball and throwing it at me. It missed, but I caught it on camera - for posterity’s sake of course, you understand! We roamed around the gift shop and had a beautiful lunch in the little café. The drive back to Aberdeen seemed quicker - doesn’t it always on the return journey? We had time though to change and have a refreshing ‘cuppa’ before heading out to a lovely Chinese restaurant for an early dinner before we attended the stage show “Sound of Music”. Talk about being treated like royalty! We certainly were - we were so grateful to our new friends for their generosity!

Our time in Aberdeen seemed so short and the next morning we were away again towards the airport by 7.15am to fly back to London where we were being met by more friends. How fortunate are we?