Happy holidays

We are off to Europe for a holiday, and as this may not fit the sustainable theme of Gums and Grass, I am doing a special blog. Click on this link or Circa GMT in the right hand column.
I am also going to explore new ways by emailing the entries and photos from our travel computer whenever we find a wireless connection.
We will have five days in Netherlands before flying to Wales, then exploring UK with Emily for 4 weeks, and a night in Kuala Lumpur on the way home.
It will be our first experience of autumn in the northern hemisphere.

No walk this week

I am missing today's walk as I have caught the bug and am determined to get over it before we leave next Sunday. I also don't want to pass it on.
Last week we walked at Buckamara and the creek was flowing. I have been in this area now for 4 years and rarely seen that. We have walked in many dry creek beds. This one joins Perseverance creek and flows to the dam and local water supply. There was plenty of lantana as well and a bloody sight with some who wore short sleeves.

Tomato crop

This year I have had a very successful and enjoyable tomato crop. I planted out DT Brown Moneymaker seedlings, 'a very reliable variety which produces heavy crops of medium sized tomatoes' in March and despite a cold winter they enjoyed the warmth of the new garden bed at the end of the house. The brick wall faces NNW and captures a lot of heat. As well as giving away a lot of very nice unmarked tomatoes, I have been making sauce with my plentiful crop of spring onions. It goes very well on pizzas as well as with pasta.
This time I followed the instructions on the seed packet and pinched out all the side shoots; a process of care and attention which I enjoyed.

Spring colour.

This year our bluegrass is greatly depleted in many parts of our paddock, although it is doing well on the upper part. We have a lot of Senecio which adds colour but may also compete with the grass.
The paper daisies are doing well again this year. They are mostly self-sown this year, including a nice cottage garden effect on the gravel driveway.

I must admit that the irises are also looking well, although not native, and in future years I hope to have native bulbs flowering as well.

Shopping

One of the nice things about planning a holiday is shopping for special things for the trip. We have had several forays on recent weekends, for shoes and clothes, but none as exciting as today's.
We went out for a new daypack and to order railpasses for Holland, and found a nice little travel computer as well.

A Soldier's Tale

Our last Twilight Recital at USQ for this year, as we will miss the literary seminar in October, was an interesting performance of Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale, by students.
It is a difficult piece and the concentration of the musicians was exciting to watch. There was a large audience and we all shared in the euphoria of the performers when they successfully reached the end.
Once again we enjoyed the wine and nibbles after the show, before heading across to the Bushwalkers' AGM.

A closer walk

On Tuesday we walked on a property north of here, on the ridge between Gowrie Junction and Meringandan. It was nice to see the local vegetation with some large trees, including Wilgas and Kurrajongs. Wonga vines were in flower on the canopies and there were many other plants of interest. The rocks were round solid basalt types on redder soil, whereas our rocks are more flat faced. We had lunch in a nice park at Meringandan West with a delicious Black Forest cake from Gisela.

An interesting excursion.

On Monday afternoon we headed down to Brisbane at 4pm, collected Jim from Coles at New Farm and enjoyed a meal with him.
We watched some Paralympics with him on his big screen then headed out to the International airport at 10 pm to collect Ann and Keith, who have been in Europe for two months.
It was a nice trip back to Toowoomba, hearing about their holiday, and we were home in bed by 1.30 am.
After a good sleep, I headed out for the Tuesday morning walk at 7.30 am.

Mulch

We got a load of mulch last week and have been spreading it around the tank and on other garden beds. Spring has come quickly with weeds growing madly. We also have a bright display of paper daisies and buds and blossums are starting to appear.

The Solar Bonus

Today I received an amended electricity bill which includes the solar bonus. It was paid for 22 of the 92 days of the billing period and we received $20.68 [44 cents per unit supplied to the grid]. Our average daily cost of electricity for this winter period was $1.13. It did take nearly 3 weeks in July to get Ergon organised with it, but it now seems to have been sorted.

Dwyer's Scrub

I led the walk this week to Dwyers Scrub Conservation Park, south east of Toowoomba. Most of the group had never been there although it is only about 35 minutes drive - a steep descent off the range into narrow valleys, then a narrow rough dirt road up again to 500metres.
It is very dry out there but, despite forecast wet weather, we had a fine day with some cloud and breeze and it turned out very well.
We had a scenic circuit drive down Flagstone Creek road, then up Stockyard Creek to Kennedy's road, aforesaid steep narrow dirt. On the way back, we continued up Stockyard Creek on Rockmount road to Preston with lunch at the Colliery on the way home.
More on Dwyer's Scrub.

Virtual travel

I have been busy with travel plans as we leave in four weeks. It is interesting to visit Kuala Lumpur and Holland on the internet and provides another dimension to travel.

The spring is sprung

It was a cold August. We recently had 2 rainfall events of 6 mm each: the first inflows to the new tank. We have been busy tidying up trenches and covering the overflow pipe. Last weekend we enjoyed making a cover for the pump controller and pipes, and also landscaping the paths to the tank top. The new compost bins below the tank are still in progress.
It is nice to be able to water the garden with a hose after 4 years of restrictions.
since the last entry, I walked at White Mountain again with lovely wildflowers. It was a very cold windy morning in Toowoomba but we were sheltered and sunny down in the sandstone creek beds.
The next walk was up Fifteen mile Creek to Red Rock from Murphy's Creek, not far south of the previous walk.
Our last Empire Theatre subscription event was Possum Magic - the musical. It was a kid's show and cheap and it was interesting to go to the theatre with loads of small people, but the actual show was a disappointment. Our kids theatre events in Innisfail were so much better.
We enjoyed another lunch with DPI people at Governor's Choice winery one Sunday and came away again with a dozen red wines.
It has been good to get back to tennis on Fridays after missing most of July as we could not get four people.