THE VIEW FROM MY KITCHEN WINDOW

Just quickly dropping in today as it's Sunday.
Jeanne over at Tales from a Cottage Garden invitied fellow bloggers to join in " views from my kitchen window" so I thought I'd quickly take a photo.
Here it is.

Looks a bit like a prison doesn't it looking out (through the security and fly screen on the window) onto the outdoor room ?

For once we have a gloomy day - showery and breezy and not so hot.

For a change we have this in the sky instead of our usual blue skies.

It's late afternoon now but all day we've had showers of rain then fine bits and a respite from the heat.

It's been LOVELY.

So rarely do we have rainy days .

Usually our rain comes in the form of storms - thunder and lightning, an inch of rain in half an hour then bright sunshine again.

And when the hot sun hits the wet grass -oh the humidity just saps your strength !

So we welcome a rainy, relaxing Sunday now and then.

We don't need to think of the beach EVERY weekend !!

Cheers

DOWN BY THE BAY

The hot weather continues relentlessly so we dragged ourselves off to the hairdresser today in a bid to at least look better! My hairdresser lives at Wynnum, an outer suburb about an hour's drive away. ( hairdresser moved -  I followed her )
Brisbane lies on the Brisbane River a little inland from Moreton Bay where the river empties into the sea and Wynnum is what we call a Bayside Suburb.
And because it is on the Bay it is soooo much cooler.
So while I sat in the hairdresser and had the works Tony did a bit of a photo gathering tour for you.

Because it is the Bay, the beaches are not good or almost non existant except at low tide and NO-ONE ever swims there.(shallow, muddy, YUK !)

Instead there is a large tidal wading pool for the littlies.

The foreshore is lined with parks and trees and a walking/ cycling track and the whole area is very popular for picnics.

There are also lots of cafes and outdoor eating places.

In short a nice place to go to cool off with lovely sea breezes without going for a swim.

BUT if you are into boats this is the place for you.

There's a fantastic marina to safely moor your boat

and many people enjoy the cool relaxed lifestyle of the Bay.

So that was our day.

The house was hot and stuffy when we got home after the cooler breezes of Wynnum and a thunder storm built up in the west then fizzled out before it got here so no relief from the heat today but the possibility of a storm again tomorrow and some relief for the 35+ C temperatures soon.

Cheers

IT''S AUSTRALIA DAY

A little history lesson:-

On the 26th of January 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip went ashore at Port Jackson in Sydney Harbour.
He had navigated halfway round the world with a fleet of 13 ships to make a penal settlement in a spot recommended to the British Government by Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks, the botanist.

He ( Capt Phillip ) and a handful of men claimed this new land for England and raised the British flag to signify it was now a British possession.

Just in the nick of time as French ships were sighted soon after !

Captain Philip went on to establish the colony firstly as a penal colony and soon open to free settlers in the land now known as Australia.

So now every year on the 26th January, we celebrate Australia Day .

The day of the first white settlement of Australia 222 years ago.


Of course it is a public holiday.

A day we celebrate our great country .

A day we go to the beach.

A day we meet friends for a BBQ where we cook sausages, steak, prawns and lamb.

A day we eat lamingtons.

We wear

thongs ( on our feet !!!),

togs (to swim in ),

budgie smugglers

(!! togs for men also called DTs otherwise known as speedos),

zinc cream on our noses to stop the sunburn,

and 

bare feet !

We drink our beer icy cold from a stubbie and keep it cold with a stubby holder

 

love a cuppa

and vegemite on toast.

A day we celebrate being  Australian.

Cheers

PS. All pictures today from the internet! ( no that isn't me in the bikini !!!!!!!)

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO

Just a quick post today as it is Sunday and we are just back from a quick visit to the shops.
Our trip to France is only about 9 weeks away and with visitors from Wales expected, as well as four more family birthdays, our weekends till we leave are rather busy.

Today I bought a very compact folding umbrella to take to France - you have to be prepared for any sort of weather in Spring !
It is to be a gift from Mum and Dad for my birthday. ( more about THAT soon !) .

We also looked around for some Wintery clothing. Difficult to find here in the depths of Summer but starting to come into the shops now and seeing that the Spring in France is probably colder than any of our Winter weather we need to be prepared ! ( oh how I'm pining for some COLD weather ! )

It is all very exciting.

Now for a small ta dah !

My quilt goes off to be machine quilted this week so when that task is completed all that's left is the binding - a feat in itself I'm sure.
As it is my first quilt I will need instruction from my experienced quilting pals on the finer points of how to go round the corners and then the big job of hand sewing the binding can be undertaken - will definitely have to have the aircon on to tackle this one . ( our electricity bill will be sky high in all this heat ).

Sorry I'm beginning to waffle on a bit here. : )    ( have wanted to do that little smiley thing for ages !!!)

Down to the  ta dah!

I am in the throes of making pillow covers to match the quilt. Just decorative pillows that sit on the bed and are replaced with the real ones at night time to sleep on. You know !

And as I have said before I'm a bit of a beginner at this sewing game. 

I have just been experimenting.
Fitting.
Standing back and thinking.
Adding a trim here and a bit more there till it looked right .....

.....and then taking the plunge and sewing it all together.

 And so

" Voila " ( in French )

or

"Ta Dah "( in English )

the back

the front !

One down, one more to go.

I'm rather pleased with it.

Cheers

OLD QUEENSLANDERS

On my way home from visiting Mum and Dad I drove through the town of Maryborough and as I looked at the houses it set me thinking. ( Dangerous, I know !!!)

There is a particular style of house in Queensland called "Old Queenslander" and they aren't found in any other part of Australia.

These houses are built on " stilts" - wooden posts anywhere from 6 to 9 feet off the ground.
The idea was to get up high and catch the breezes - any breeze you could in this hot, muggy climate.
I guess you were also up out of the reach of flood waters too as this is the land of the cyclone and rain depressions which can bring enormous amounts of rain in a very short amount of time.

Old Queenslanders are built of wood and always have a big verandah on the front and usually on the back too.
Most started off with the verandah all the way round, then the owners often built it in to provide a bathroom and extra berdooms for children as they came along. They were called "sleepouts"

Like this one.

Often the kitchen is also on this back verandah or even a whole separate room is built with a separate roof at the back of the house so that the kitchen does not heat the house up with its wood stove and in case of fire- always a danger in wooden houses with wood burning stoves.
Of course these days the wood stoves have been removed and the kitchens modernised.

You can see the separate kitchen on the back of this one.

There are lots of different styles of decoration on these verandahs which , I think, make the houses very pretty.

Now Queensland has only been settled by white people for a little more than 150 years so some of these houses may be quite old by Australian standards - maybe 60 to 100 years old.

Of course not too many have survived intact.

There is the problem of roofing material.

TIN  -  which of course rusts like this ...

 

.....but modern tin rooves don't rust like this anymore.

Then there is the problem of Termites or "White Ants" as we call them.

Devilish little white "ants" which burrow underground till they find wood .

Then they tunnel up through the wood eating it all the way till all that is left is the paint on the surface!

They do enormous damage and are a constant problem in building wooden houses.

In the "Old Queenslanders" they blocked them by placing a tin "plate" over the top of the support posts then built the floor on top of that hoping the horrible little varmits could not get through as you can see here.

This lovely old style of house remains popular still.

Many have been purchased and saved from ruin by being lovingly restored and are very comfortable to live in while retaining heaps of character.

This is possibly the most beautiful one I have ever seen.

It is in Maryborough and it is ENORMOUS

I just love them don't you?

Cheers

GETTING INTO BIG NUMBERS NOW !

Well hello my Blogland friends. I've been away for a few days WITHOUT a computer and how I've missed you all.
Since I've been home I've done a very quick flying visit to all your blogs to catch up with all your news and I will return over the weekend to have a chat with you all when I have more time.

And where was I and what was I up to ?


It was all on account of this fellow.

My dear old DAD !

It was his birthday.

88 years young !

The family gathered for a birthday BBQ at Hervey Bay where Mum and Dad live in a lovely retirement village.

 

  Then there was a birthday cake.

 Rocky Road Ice-Cream Cake !

 

Happy 88th Birthday DAD

A COOL SATURDAY NIGHT

Hope you all have had a fun weekend and that the weather has been kind. It has been fine and hot ( 35 C ) here today and I have not ventured far from the air-con.

Can you guess what's in this bag?

Or in this one?

Those brown seats are the waiting area here .

Yes, you're quite right we are off on another excursion on the Citycat.

And in those bags? Why our picnic and drinks of course.

First we'll have to look on the map to see where we are going.

At the start of our journey we are at the bottom left hand end of the river - at the Queensland University - and we are travelling to the top right hand end of the river ( in Zone 2 ) to Newfarm Park.

We're off to the Moonlight Movies !

Our tickets were a Christmas gift from our son and his partner.

We'd never heard of them before.

You take a picnic tea,

Set yourself up with hired beanbags for comfort....

and when it's dark enough ( around 7:30 ) the movie starts!

So off we set along the river .

We love to travel on these fantastic catamarans as they speed along the river towards the city.

Our river is about 300m wide and it  snakes it's way toward the city.

After about 20 minutes we arrived at Newfarm Park and walked to the corner of the park that is fenced off for the movies.

The "screen" is hung on the side of a building !

Everyone was getting organised on their rugs. There was some sort of special "seating " in the middle.

It didn't take us long to get settled . See the beanbag things you hire to rest against while you watch the movie?

Can you spot Tony?

Here he is !

We quickly started our picnic as the light was beginning to fade.

Everyone settled down to watch the movie. A pleasant breeze kept the mozzies away.

The movie was 2012 - about how the world was supposed to end in December 2012.

Quite entertaining without being great .

Then when it all finished we packed up and walked back to the ferry.

Our city looks lovely from the river at night so the ferry ride home was delightful.

Thanks Brett and Sarah we had a lovely night .

Cheers