Vereeniging Leiden 1886

A year ago we went to Leiden to celebrate the relief of their seige. I could do with a freshly smoked haring today, and someone please open the dykes and release a flood on Toowoomba!
Today is windy with dust again. In fact the air has not really cleared since the big dust days a week and 10 days ago.

Dianellas

The flax lilies or Dianellas are flowering in our garden this year. It is interesting to see the variety in leaf colour and form. Some send their flowers above the foliage, while others hide it among the leaves. The flowers vary in size and colour from pale blue to deep purple. Some leaves are dark and stiffly erect, while others are yellow green with red edges, or soft and bluish-green.
I have collected various plant genera in the past - crotons, caladiums, hippeastrums, lilies, bromeliads, etc.
So I have decided to collect Dianellas.
Today I surveyed my plants - there are more than 30 as I have split a couple of clumps in past years and spread them around. I am still working it out but I think I have -
Dianella brevipedunculata with yellow-green leaves and inflorescence amongst the foliage.
Dianella caerulea Paroo lily
Dianella congesta with inflorescence amongst the foliage, smooth leaf margins and smooth midrib
Dianella revoluta with inflorescences mostly held above the foliage and grey-green leaves. I wonder if this is the one I collected seed from in Gilgandra in November 2007? I now have three impressive plants on the driveway.
Dianella tasmanica which I bought at the Wilsonton market soon after we moved here in 2004. I split the clump in 2006 and it is doing well around the garden with tiny blue flowers in among its yellow-green conduplicate leaves. However I can't find any prickles on the leaf margins!

Spring in the vegie garden

This spring I have completed the landscaping around the tank, which has now been in for a year. It took a while to be motivated to move all those rocks, but now it is looking great and is mostly planted for the coming months. I have been looking at rotational plantings to keep the soil healthy over time.
We have had a long supply of lettuce, endive and rocket this year and some are now going to seed, but we also have some newer plants coming on.
The two clumps of ruby chard are still looking good and there whenever we want them.
We also have plenty of leeks and spring onions available.
After a long wait, the broad beans are now producing meals for us. It was a worry that such a good looking stand might not yield any fruit.
The self-sown scarlet runner beans are just ready to start picking and I have more seedlings coming up on the bean screen for summer.
The tomatoes on the bean screen are also covered in green trusses and will start to ripen soon.
We also have a new planting of tomatoes near the tank, as well as purple king beans and two corn crops sown recently. we also have potatoes and sweet potatoes planted.
The parsnips I sowed in winter are also looking well and we hope to harvest these soon.

Franke Scrub days

We have had two working bees this month, due to people not all being available at one time. The first was on our very dusty Wednesday, but it was fine down in the scrub. When I went back up to the cars for smoko, it was most unpleasant so I headed home to get ready for my lunchtime Lieder recital.
Last Wednesday, we again had a small gathering but I enjoyed being there again. We have made great progress since we started clearing asparagus vine a couple of years ago. It is very dry but we are seeing a lot of interesting small plants coming on. Let's hope the cattle are not put in there again.

Energy efficiency and sustainability

We are half way down on our big tank now with watering each evening. There is still 2/3 in the top tank, so we are moving to another electricity efficiency measure - changing over from town water to our tank supply late afternoon to 8 am. This way we have rainwater showers and can water the garden, but not use the pump during our peak generating hours when we sell into the grid at a premium price.
We recently had a free home sustainability assessment - part of the Federal government's Green Loans initiative. I had hoped for a rating, but it was more about saving cents than dollars.
No mention was made of window drapes, areas of glass and shading of walls, or aspect. Incandescent bulbs were noted and loss of heat into the roof cavity through our extract fans in the bathrooms - which also keep our bathrooms free of steam, although we have never used the fans themselves.
We could get a loan to replace our 10 year old fridge to save a star or so of electricity, likewise with the 10 year old washing machine which also works very well, and being a top loader suits us for reusing bath water.
So I suspect it is another stimulus package to encourage people to spend more money to reduce their excessive power bills. It will be interesting to see the report. Will they lend us interest-free money to get more photovoltaic panels? We can only fit two more with our inverter anyway.
I am still in favour of it as it provides jobs for assessors - money from Canberra to Toowoomba. And we did get something out of it so far - we put a timer on our beer fridge so it turns off during peak generating hours, when it is usually not opened anyway. Ten days on we seem to have an automatic defrosting beer fridge, working better than ever.
With our new off-peak water pump program we may be saving a couple of units a day to sell to the grid.

Navigating in a circle

This Tuesday we walked off Sebastopol road, north of Cressbrook Dam. The plan was to walk in a circle for about 7 km on gazetted roads. We headed north on a dirt road, then turned NE along a farm type track until we came to some cattle yards and flowering silky oaks beside a creek - dry as usual - where we enjoyed our morning smoko. From there we needed to move clockwise towards the East then back south to our cars, but for a while it looked like we might be doing an extended circuit along exposed cleared ridges. Fortunately we struck back to a track to the south and after a while we came upon a landowner in a ute with friendly dogs who advised us to head back north to pick up a pleasant road reserve which took us west to our original road, along which we returned to the cars which were parked overlooking the rather empty dam.
By this time it was 1.30 as we had started late due to indecision as to our intended walk. We must have done around 11-12 km.
The good news was that Francis produced a Bakewell Tart for his birthday and it was very good.

Concerts at St Luke's

We are very lucky in Toowoomba to have access to excellent music. Recently St Luke's has had several concerts. On Friday 11th September we went to an international organ recital where Frantisek Vanicek from Czechoslovakia showed us the range of our Norman and Beard Organ. Then we went to two of the concerts put on during the Carnival of Flowers, the first being Phillip Gearing playing Mendelsohn and Bach on the organ, then 3 days later, we enjoyed a lunchtime of German Lieder with bass-baritone Arthur Johnson accompanied on piano by Phillip Gearing. The church was full of floral arrangements and people wandering through which gave it an added atmosphere.

Brewing

September has been a brewing month. I have made ginger beer for Melbourne Cup day, followed by two brews of beer for the summer. It all promises to be a lot of fun.

Salad days

I have lettuce, endive, rocket, radishes and various fresh herbs in the garden. Add some fetta cheese, and perhaps some tomato or cucumber and I am finding this a very satisfying meal.
Outdoor grazing these days includes sugar snap peas, radishes straight out of the ground [while hosing] and strawberries.
We have not had rain since late June so hosing is needed often.

The third age

July has been a month of change and renewal for me. Early in the month we had a cousins get-together in Sydney which was most enjoyable. It prompted me to do more photo scanning and distribution and I am looking forward to receiving more photos as a result of it.
I also enjoyed swimming laps with Andrew and realised that I was over the Thursday morning coffee thing after Tai chi.
I had started Energise fitball classes on Thursdays after Tai chi and found myself really energised.
So I revisited the issue of lap swimming which had been in abeyance for several years - unused swim passes which I finally accepted were out of date.
Despite a full year membership of U3A for less than six months, I decided to join friends at Thursday morning aqua aerobics at Harristown High indoor 25m pool. I am able to do about 20 laps before the class begins at 8 am then another lot in the 15 minutes following the class. This is a solid 1 hour workout which I am really enjoying. It may get more crowded as summer approaches.
I guess I did not have to give up Tai chi but I realised that I needed a break as we are no longer being taught.
I then found the gap between swimming and fitball was too long, so I have started Scottish Country Dancing. This is quite energetic and fun. It also uses the mind and fills a gap in my life since we left Mareeba.
I am quite tired on Thursday afternoons and have been reading a novel since I let go of daily Sudoku puzzles.
We have a new player at Friday morning tennis and she does this dancing class and also Chamber Singers on Friday after tennis.
This was another activity on my wish-list, so I have joined that too. It really uses the mind and I am enjoying the challenge of reading manuscript, watching the conductor and trying to sing. The piano has been dusted off to assist, so I also get back to this activity which has also gnawed at me in recent years.
Dick is busy with golf so it is a good time to dive in at the deep end.

A local novel

I have just read The White Earth by Andrew McGahan who was born in Dalby. It is set on Jimbour Station and tackled a lot of interesting ideas - land ownership, history and native title.
This is the second contemporary novel I have read this year. The previous one was Sole Survivor by Derek Hansen, set on Great Barrier Island, which I enjoyed reading not long after my visit there.
It is interesting that both novels included characters who had survived the Burma railway.

Brain training

It seems like a good idea to keep the mind working well in the latter years of one's life, so I decided that I would like to be able to do the Sudoku puzzle in the Weekend Australian each week.
This was easier said than done.
I started the exercise in May and found easy versions at Sudoku.com but I still needed help. By early June I was doing these and moving to moderate level and once more I got stuck and sought advice from another offspring.
My brain was starting to work in new ways as I awoke one morning to a mental reorganisation of the shed which went well, and I also continued to make progress with Sudoku.
It was also starting to concern me that this activity seemed rather addictive. I was printing out a puzzle each day and spending a lot of time on it. It was however relaxing.
I thought I had made it to my goal of the Weekend Australian by early July but I was still not there. I had moved on to hard level with the online ones. I was pleased to see that I had worked out some recommended strategies for myself - fine pencil with attached eraser and pen.
By August I was finding hard level a bit boring and tried to do tough level and I admit I cannot do these. I am also sick of spending time on them each day, but the good news is that I have done the Australian ones on the last two Saturdays.
I think I have reached my goal and I have also enjoyed reading a novel in the time slot which was previously taken up.

Artichokes

Lee brought up more Jerusalem artichokes from Mullum and I found a nice Jamie Oliver recipe where they were fried lightly and served with smoked salmon.

A wet walk

Tuesday mornings are not supposed to be wet but we still walked along the road north of Cooby Dam.
It did not bode well for the extra working bee at Franke Scrub next day but the next morning turned out fine and I returned to the site of my previous endeavours and found myself creating a cubby house with north (sunny) aspect, beneath a large tree, as I hauled out a great deal of asparagus vine. It was a lot of fun and I could see the progress.

Marmalade

Don has supplied us with a large number of Seville Oranges for marmalade. I looked at them for quite a while before tackling the task. The solution was to combine a couple of methods - grate and chop skin finely, juice and slice fruit thinly - and make up the lot. Then it would not fit in one pot so the mix was divided and the second batch had whisky added.

Varnishing

Back to the shed and on with the coats of Estapol on the bookshelf in the main room and the CD shelf in the front room. Both tasks had been waiting since early 2008. I also had Dick's new workshop stool made from cypress pine, to finish.

Uncle Jim

My last remaining uncle died today. He was 93 and still active and alert. It is 12 years since my father died and we did enjoy spending time with Jim and he always had time for us. He played a great role as the senior Patterson and we will miss him. It is nice that I have two (of his) cousins living close by.

Rockmount area

The Sunday walk was in the Rockmount area and I found myself driving. It was supposed to be a short day but it ended up with a long scenic drive past Little Egypt and down to MaMa Creek before climbing a peak on Silver Pinch Road then heading home into the setting sun. I like this area close to Toowoomba but I felt somewhat victimised by poor planning. I was shattered for the next day or so by all the driving. We did however find a nice pair of creeks to walk - kindly offered by a passing landowner while we were having morning tea beside a road.

June week two

Lee came up to visit for a few days. It was too cold to get outside so all the weeding I had saved was still there when she left. We did however enjoy the Tuesday walk with flowering silver wattles and sandstone cliffs east of Cabarlah, and the choral concert at USQ on Wednesday evening, and some useful mending was done.

A winter's tale

Yes autumn has gone although the cold nights are not due for a few days more. Blogging has been neglected while autumn plantings were done and I am watching the emergence of vegie seedlings in anticipation. Meanwhile we continue to gather regular meals from our patch. At present it is spinach, spring onions, sweet potato and herbs, with a supply of pumpkins handed over the fence. The lime crop is also bountiful this year and I have been busy making marmalade and lime butter.
This week we celebrated our leader Bill's 85th birthday with a walk at Drayton and up Mt Peel followed by a shared party. He has been leading the group for 18 years and says it is still made up of the same sort of people although over 100 regulars [3+years] have passed through the group over the years. So I guess he can tell if a newcomer is likely to last.
This week I have also returned to varnishing in the shed. Dick has made a stool from cypress pine for his workbench and there are a couple of shelves and small things waiting as well. Let's hope I can keep the run going and make gains on the backlog - squatter's chairs are the next target.

Navigation

We had our annual navigation day on Sunday. Jim came up for some golf but we dragged him along as this is non-negotiable. This year we were on a farm close to Preston, but sheltered from the cold SE winds. As well as compass and map-reading with clues, we had a list of items to collect which enhanced our appreciation of our surroundings. Our team included Naomi, a software engineer, who has just moved here to work at Oakey and her French workmate Claude who was just visiting. So Jim fitted in nicely.
On Saturday, I had a busy and productive day cleaning up the house - much needed - while they played golf, both in the morning early, and again in the afternoon following the competition. Meanwhile I had made a campfire to cook the evening meal - chicken and vegies, plus whole apples in the smaller campoven.
I also made a nice spinach and fetta slice with filo pastry on Friday night.

Theatre in May

Our subscriptions have had two events at both the Empire Theatre and at USQ in mid-May. The Queensland Ballet's Midsummer Night's Dream was very good in all aspects - choreography, music, dancers, sets and lighting. The artisans were particularly good.
I could not say the same for the La Boite play 10 days later. Walking by Apple Tree Creek was a Travelling North sort of play with two ageing actors and just did not work for me. The naive audience also did not help it.
At USQ we had Sunwrae Ensemble which somehow did not work out well either. I think that we felt they lacked theatricality and that as musicians they could have played something else better.
The following week we had an Archaeology Talk by two staff from the university. It was surprisingly well-attended - nil cost to us as we have a full subscription at a good price - but not the sort of thing I would expect to pay $17 for. But the refreshments were good although the venue at the concert hall is not as good as the usual theatre foyer. And we did learn something.

Retirement preparation

Although I retired 4 years ago, I accompanied Dick to the QSuper retirement preparation seminar to see what we might find out. Most of the speakers were good and it was an opportunity to focus on these things. We then sat down to the Federal budget with focussed attention and discovered that our middle class welfare had been identified and remedied, which is probably a good thing.
Since then Dick has joined the golf club and otherwise we are getting on with life as usual, but well prepared when the day arrives, whenever that may be.
I enjoyed walking around the course with him and helping him get his gear in order, but have so far avoided getting out my clubs. I fear the bug might bite me once more.

Long weekends

We did not go away on the May Day long weekend. These days, every weekend is a long weekend. I suspect the reason the house is in a mess is due to this, as Mondays are usually the days when I am most likely to get around to housework. It is probably also due to the lovely Autumn weather we have had. It is so nice to be outdoors here and I have put quite a lot of effort into weeding, and consequently making compost and spreading it.
We did get away the following weekend to Mullum for a night. After the rain it was very nice around the Tweed area and we drove back over the Burringbar range to Murwillumbah and over the Numinbah Valley to Canungra, then north through amazing new suburban areas on the Mt Lindesay Highway, until we reached the familiar Logan motorway and the faster route home.
We brought back plenty of grapefruit for a good supply of marmalade. These days I seem to have worked out how to get it to set, after many unsuccessful years. Was it too much water, not enough sugar, or not enough heat?

Canberra

We flew to Canberra for Easter with Lee, in her new apartment. It was a nice break with autumn in various stages around the capital.
On Thursday I cooked fruit buns and a cake for dinner at the Tavs. It was Toby's birthday but they did not get down from Sydney until just as we were leaving.
On Friday there was some rain about so we did not head out on the push bikes until mid afternoon. We rode around the lake, returning by the main bridge - not too many people but nice to see others out and about on a nice day.
On Saturday we drove south towards Cooma then decided to explore a road to the east, heading back towards Queanbeyan. We got to the water reservoir and enjoyed a walk to a limestone arch formation over the creek, then continued on to the old homestead which has been restored, and is visible from behind a protective fence.
Lee smelt smoke and we noticed a fire on a nearby hill so we set out to investigate. It was interesting climbing over fences and trying to put a smouldering log out. With stormy weather about and the risk of it flaring up, we were lucky to find a ranger to report it to while driving back past the dam.
We climbed Mt Ainslie and enjoyed walking around Lee's neighbourhood.
On Sunday afternoon, we went to a free ABC piano recital at Llewellyn Hall, then called in to a nice pub for house-brewed ales. We managed to get back there later in the week for a meal as well. It is nice to be able to walk to these things in Canberra.
During the week we visited the War Memorial library for some research on the Burma railway and nursing, and also watched an interesting film on the Burley Griffins and Canberra at the National Archives. We also went to a talk on Joseph Banks at the National Portrait Gallery where they had a portrait of him on loan from London. More time needs to be spent there. A highlight was a portrait by Florence Fuller. There are not many around, but we think she may have painted the portraits of Ebenezer Davies and his father. We think her connection with the family was through Ebenezer's second wife, Jane Vines.

Tuesday walk

Barbara led our Tuesday walk over the hills at Mt Prosper. It is a lovely remote sort of place but not far south of Toowoomba on the edge of the Main Range. We are lucky that the owner allows us to walk there.

Basket Swamp

We camped at Basket Swamp with Em on Saturday and Sunday nights. After having the place to ourselves on May Day weekend last year, we were surprised to find it full of white Subaru Foresters [as well as people and tents and a couple of other vehicles]. We discovered the group was the Second Wind bushwalkers from Brisbane - all about our age.
It was also quite wet and we initially chose a site in long grass at the rear but soon decided that the leeches were energetic, and moved back to the more open area near the road, which is very quiet. Fortunately we had taken a supply of dry wood so we were able to enjoy the campfire and felt that perhaps the leeches were not so keen on that.
On Sunday we walked around the firetrail, deciding that the side road south, although visible on Google Earth, was too overgrown. We will wait until after fires to explore it. The steep descent to the creek was a bit easier with the damp road and the water was quite high below the falls so we did not swim, but had smoko on top of them before walking back along the road for a later lunch.
In the afternoon we did have a couple of quick dips in the creek which was probably not as cold as last year.
On Monday morning we drove across to Wellington Rock, then back to Timbarra Trig where the low clouds had lifted to reveal the lovely views towards Tenterfield as well as north and east of there.
We drove back through Cullendore Gate to Warwick, stopping for an icecream at Allora.

Singing in the Rain

Our first Empire Theatre outing for the year was their production of Singing in the Rain which we both enjoyed. Although not really a fan of tap dancing, they did a great job of it - Gene Kelly was really great in the movie - and the sets, lighting, acting and singing were all very good.

Bunya Mountains

On Monday we headed out quite early to the Bunya Mountains where we had a nice walk followed by a picnic lunch, and another short walk after dozing in the sun for a while.

Burton's Well

Looking SW to Dalby from Mt Kiangaro

Lost in a Novel

We walked near Grapetree Creek last week, south of Perseverance Dam. It is an old forestry area with nice ridges and dry creeks running into Perseverance Creek. On Wednesday I drove down to Mullum to spend the night with Mum as Dick was away for 2 nights. He collected Em from the airport early on Friday and brought her back to Tba.
Meanwhile Mum had lent me a novel Sole Survivor set on Great Barrier Island. I really enjoyed it as it had a nice feel as well as being a fun yarn.
On Saturday we visited Dad's workmate and collected hay for our fruit trees.
Saturday night was Earth Hour so we had a campfire at our place with Ann and Keith. Ann made a vegetable frittata in her camp oven and I made a zucchini stuffed with pork mince with Asian flavours. To fill the pot I surrounded it with potatoes, sweet potatoes and onion and it all turned out very well.
We celebrated another 60th with our friends on Sunday.

Walks

Last week we walked at Mt Neale, south of Preston. The Cobbler's pegs and other weeds have grown up a lot since we were there around August last year, and the weather was fresh but the rain held off for us. We saw a pair of wedge-tailed eagles while we sat on a ridge for smoko.
This week we walked at Cressbrook Dam. I had not done the 5km circuit there and really enjoyed it, with some very large kangaroos, a sea eagle and wedgies. The water is very low, almost back to being a creek but the campground looked most attractive - midweek and empty although a long long way above the water.

I'm back - sort of

I had a great time in New Zealand with Nancy and her family. My trip all went to plan or better. It was a perfect morning for the ferry across the Hauraki Gulf, and after a good range of weathers on the island, another fine morning to fly back to the airport for my trip home. Apparently it is not always so easy to travel to and from Great Barrier Island.
The only glitch was when I managed to flatten the camera battery on the first day, so I do not have many photos.
Nancy's house above Schooner Bay
I came back with the other side of my brain very stimulated and have been somewhat lost in my scrapbags, starting a new patchwork.
The garden is also ready to be planted with trees, herbs and things from the shadehouse, now that it is March and there has been some suggestion of rain.

Off to NZ

I am off to Great Barrier Island to visit Nancy and her family this week. I am including it in this blog as I hope it will become part of my sustainable lifestyle. I am getting quite excited about it.

Watermelons

As mentioned in last week's blog, we enjoyed a watermelon after last Tuesday's walk. That meant Dick could bring home the next one from his office. On Saturday I made a watermelon salad with melon balls, red onion soaked in fresh lime juice, feta cheese, black olives and fresh mint. This had olive oil drizzled over it and turned out to be quite delicious. I served it in the melon case.
With the rest of the flesh, I made a lovely non-alcoholic drink, using the food processor, then straining out the pulp and pips. I added a mix of grated fresh ginger, lime juice and sugar and served it with some floating melon balls and soda water.
We had a dinner with Dick's work group on Saturday evening with a combined feast, then on Sunday evening we went out to Palm Tree for a lovely outdoor dining experience with our friends. This meal featured home-grown walnuts in a pasta sauce, homegrown pumpkin soup and homegrown apple crumble.

George in the garden

In the first week of February, I saw George, our water dragon, each day for 5 days. We now think we have two dragons, as one is smaller than the other. They move around the garden a lot and we see them in different places. After an interval of nearly a week, we have once again been seeing them of successive days. Perhaps we need to just look more often?

Walks

Tuesday walks started again in February with our traditional easy walk around Prince Henry Heights. We hope to get rain on this walk each year, as an insurance against wet Tuesdays for the rest of the year. It did not quite eventuate, but it was nice to see everyone again after the break.
Last week we walked around Mt Perseverance, again quite a short walk. We also had a look at the mill site at the end of the tramway before enjoying our lunch and Sam's birthday cake on Rosalie's verandah.
This week we had more birthdays to celebrate - Elina and Graham - and I also had a large watermelon [from Vicki] which was very nice. We walked on the ridge above Grapetree creek and visited our sandstone caves looking north to Perseverance Heights, then had lunch at Hampton. Meanwhile it had rained just south of us, as we drove back to Toowoomba on wet roads.

Sicilian lunch

Have I been too busy to blog or just have too much to tell?
On the first weekend in February, we went to a Sicilian harvest event at Golden Grove winery near Ballandean. We went with a couple, Angelo and Mary, that Ann and Keith met on a tour in Switzerland last August.
Our day started early, driving down with another friend of Ann's of Italian origin and having morning tea with figs and Italian biscuits at their farm at The Summit. It reminded me a lot of Gina and her home in Mareeba.

The lunch started with a wine tasting and the music was provided all afternoon by Tre Amici - Angelo and his two friends who were not actually Italian but did a great impersonation.

There were 198 people there for the lunch, on long tables. The food was very good and came out over several hours.

Before dessert, the harvest was brought in from the field by the young men, then crushed by the young women to the accompaniment of the Tarantella.
We had a great time and headed home after 5.

February campfires

Ann and I had a campfire while we were batching in the first week of February. It was quite a hot afternoon and we collected things from her vegie garden, then walked around Mt Peel.
I made rhubarb and ginger jam with the stalks from the crowns that she gave me.
Full moon in the second week was at our place with overcast sky and some drizzle. It was nice sitting under the shed awning with the noise on the roof and it eased for us to sit around the fire for a while after dinner. We managed to cook chops on the fire and we did get a glimpse of moonlight later.
Unfortunately we did not go camping on the weekend as the weather was quite wild on Friday night and Saturday. On Sunday we replaced the dining room shadecloth system with a new method which is impressively firm.

Sharing plants

I have been given a lot of plants recently by friends. I enjoy potting them into tubes and pots and the green house is filling up in expectation of a big planting when I get back from New Zealand in March.
I will have an interesting lot of herbs, thanks to Ann and two Margarets, and quite a few local natives as well to spread around, thanks to Ann and Judy.
I guess I will also have to look at sowing seeds when I get back.
Let's hope that we get some rain in March and April.

Weeding

The bluegrass is coming back on the paddock and I have done a lot of weeding of various things which seem to be competing with it. This resulted in a rather large pile which Dick dealt with, using the mower for some of it and putting some through the mulcher. Instead of compost bins full of dry fibrous matter, we filled two with green fine stuff and left the third bay empty for more.
Unfortunately the weeded paddock is not getting the rain we had hoped for.
Our new strategy to encourage blue grass is to mow more regularly. Dick has been doing this while I weed.

Tennis and sewing

After spending a day at the Brisbane International with Lee, I have enjoyed the summer of tennis on TV. It made up for a disappointing effort by the Australians in the cricket, although I enjoyed the visiting New Zealand and South African teams who showed great spirit.
I was slow to get into sewing but I completed some mending then made a nice long-sleeved shirt from light Indian muslin.

The long weekend

January has long gone but we are having a good summer, while floods and fires rage elsewhere. The lack of rain means that we spend a bit of time watering and we are enjoying the lawn and sprinklers. We have also had a lot of beans and small tomatoes to pick regularly.
We enjoyed the Australia Day long weekend with lunch at Scarborough with Margaret, then across the Gateway Bridge with our new e-tag, arriving at Mullum in time for evening drinks and a meal outdoors as it was very hot and humid.
On Sunday morning we had a swim at Brunswick Heads. Strong sideways currents and bluebottles at the surf beach so it was a quick dip there, then we walked along the beach to the river where we enjoyed a nice cool swim.
We drove across the hills through Federal to Lismore for lunch with Margaret and her friends. A storm preceded us so the narrow overhanging roads were littered with debris in places and very green and fresh. It was interesting to reflect on the changes to this landscape since we first came in 1980. Margaret's friends had come from Sydney around that time, to grow macadamias and have recently retired to town. I came back with a nice collection of plants from Margaret's garden.
We headed home on Monday morning, taking the old road north from Mullum to the new highway. It had also been a hot weekend in Toowoomba.

More fruit

The Christmas fig tree is going well - protected from fierce winds by a large enclosure (with guy ropes). The birthday hoop pines are also doing well.
Today we got two passion fruit vines from the market - a golden one and a grafted black one, and also a small olive tree, to plant below, and provide shade for, the tank.

Virtual travel

Nancy called from NZ last Saturday and I got onto my bookings for the long talked of trip to Great Barrier Island. It turned out to be a bit tricky getting flights that left late enough in the day but which arrived early enough, and on the right day to get a ferry, but not the early one, to the island. I was lucky to get a good quote from a chance enquiry online to YHA Travel and it was soon all sorted. Once locked in to Air NZ each way, I booked the hostel overnight in Auckland on 25 February, ferry next morning, and flight back to Auckland airport on 8 March.
Yesterday I made a shoulder bag with zip compartments for travel.

Some hot weather

It has been a pleasant mild summer but it is very dry yet again. It's a good thing we put in the tank as this is when we need it. The level is dropping steadily. Sunny Boy made a record the other day when there was some cloud.
Meanwhile I have been enjoying tennis from Brisbane, then Sydney, and Kooyong, as well as cricket.
We used to do a lot of sewing during the summer of sport on TV but alas, college days with boat cruises and balls are over and there is just a bit of mending to do.
Outside, there is daily harvesting of beans to be done and these are being distributed to work, Tai Chi and tennis.
It was good to be back at tennis on Friday.

Full moon in 2009

The full moon continues this year with a campfire at Mt Peel. I made a Don Dunstan Arabian moussaka with eggplant, chick peas, onion and tomato on top - cooked indoors in the camp oven before we went. It is a nice combination. I also made an upside down cake with brown sugar, butter, dried apricots, prunes and flaked almonds, as a late birthday cake.
It was quite a cool night with some cloud and a nice drive home via Wellcamp.

Summer of sport

I enjoyed the NZ cricket tests in November and have also watched some golf. The recent test series against South Africa has been really exciting, and now we are moving into tennis. Last Monday, Lee and I went to the Brisbane International. We had a ground pass which was quite cheap, especially as it provided free public transport, but I was quite exhausted from the day outdoors and will look at a day session in the centre court next year.
In the evening I joined Jim's trivia team at the Brunswick Hotel and on Tuesday, Lee and I had a Malaysian lunch at St Lucia then went to the Art Galleries and State Library, before I headed back to Tba at 4 pm on the bus.

Now we are six Oh!

Despite an attack of cold feet a few weeks ago, we proceeded with plans for lunch last Sunday to celebrate my imminent birthday, and invitations were issued. The responses trickled in, mainly at the last moment, and we found that we had 19 people to cater for, but we were favoured with the weather and the team planning and execution were a great success. It was really nice to have a gathering of good friends to commence the year.

December 2008

Blogging in December was replaced by Christmas correspondence and as usual I did not manage to send as many cards as I had hoped, but I did have assistance which was a nice change. Now that January is settling down, I may get some more done. Meanwhile I hope Christmas and New Year went well for others as it did for us. We stayed at home for Christmas Day - last time was in 2004 - and I enjoyed a couple of days of cooking before Jim and Lee arrived.
We also enjoyed going to a couple of evening parties in the lead up to Christmas and drove down to Mullum and Boonah for lunch between then and New Year.
Apart from a couple of very hot days, the weather has been mild with some rain events to keep things growing well. The region is looking better this season than it has for quite a while.
While Lee was here we did quite a lot of pruning and mulching. A second crop of corn has been sown and the lettuce seedlings planted out. We are producing plenty of beans, tomatoes, rocket, strawberries, limes and cheery plums. I got a Brown Turkey fig tree for Christmas.