APOLIGIES

Apologies to those of you who haven't heard from me regularly .
Sometimes I can comment, sometimes I can't!
It seems to be quite random.
I've tried Anonymous and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.
Be assured I'm still looking and reading and TRYING to comment.
Hope it sorts itself out soon !
Cheers

JUNE PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT

This month I found it hard to get motivated so I left it to the last moment to try to collect these photos.

The last couple had me really  searching for inspiration.

So here they are , my photos for June in no particular order.

1. a farm animal

A close encounter while out walking in Shropshire in May this year.

2. Architectural detail

A very pretty window in Cambridge - taken in 2008.

3.  Cheese

Where else but France of course - Paris to be exact, May 2010

4. Night

Lynton, Devon 2011

5.  Tree branches

An ancient oak

6. An elephant

Well, elephants really. They belonged to my grandmother.

Trunks pointing to the front door for good luck !

 7. Cutlery

In my kitchen

8. Wheel trim

Vroom, vroom

9. The view right outside your door

Suburbia. Not very inspiring. We used to be able to see the skyscape of the city in the distance!

10. Something with your town's name on it.

Can't see it? Here's a closeup!

Brisbane (Queensland  Australia ) CityCat river ferry

11. Something beginning with z

Zero key on my computer

12. A childhood memory

There was once a little girl who liked to dress up as a fairy.

That's the lot for June 2011.

Cheers.

HAVE YOU READ THIS ONE ?

I've just been reading this book.

I liked it very much.

I decided that I would like to see the movie, but when I looked to see session times it is not showing any longer.

This happened to me with The Lincoln Lawyer too.

It seems the only movies that stay around for ages are kids movies!!!!

At the moment that's all that's available because it's school holidays.

I think they lose a lot when you watch them at home on DVD but I guess that's the only alternative

unless .....

perhaps they are showing on the inflight movies on long haul flights .....

to  Paris ... or   Zurich .... or   Rome   for instance.

I'd better start my research.

Cheers.

SATURDAY LUNCH

We had this for lunch on Saturday.

Yummmmmmmmm !

I made a mince mixture with diced onion, a tin of tomato soup and a tin of corn.

then scooped out the doughy insides of a breadstick ( baguette ?) leaving just the crust behind.

 I filled the crust with the cooked mince mixture and placed slices of cheese on the top then into the oven (180C / 350F ) it went till the cheese was melted and the crust was crunchy.

I managed to snap this photo of Tony's last one before he bit into it.

This was all that was left of mine !!

Cheers.

FAVOURITE THINGS FRIDAY

I'm proud of myself today.

I'm ready and on time with Favourite Things Friday !

It's an easy one to day.

Click on the Favourite Things Friday link on my side bar if you'd like to join in.

I'm not really one to spend a lot of time on souvenirs when I'm travelling but a while ago I decided it is nice to have a momento of some sort  - something that I can look at use and remember what a lovely place it came from, what a lovely time we had.

So I decided I would collect mugs - a mug from each trip which would symbolise the country and the places we had visited.

So here is my new mug.

And here are some of the cottages we saw.

 

I think they are a pretty good match, don't you?

 

Inside the mug there are pretty little details.

and here is the artist's name on the bottom.

Now it will join the others from my collection.

Scotland, Canada, England and France

 

So there you have it, my favourite thing for this week.

Cheers.

TUESDAY OUTING - Part 2

After we collected the dogs' beds from Sally's place and stowed them into the boot of the car we set off for the Broadwater.

This is an area of calm water behind the surf beach where the Nerang River empties itself into the Pacific Ocean.

(photo from the internet)

The large area of calm water here creates a huge water playground for all those who love boats and boating.

(photo from the internet)

The high rise accommodation of Surfers' Paradise tower in the distance.

We crossed the bridge over the river mouth ( you can see it in the second photo ) and headed over to the area called Marina Mirage to have a look at the boats.

This resort area has up-market shopping for the wealthy in a very ritzy shopping centre with lots of lovely cafes and restaurants .....

and outside were the boats moored in the marina.

And oh what boats they were! This one is for sale ...

... for $6 million !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The whole area was jam packed with sleek , shiny boats of all descriptions.

Nearby there was plenty of expensive accommodation

Not really our style ( or in our price range for that matter !)

so we headed off for lunch at this more modest little cafe...

then headed off home.

Cheers.

TUESDAY OUTING - Part 1

As you can see we have glorious weather here at the moment.

Blue, blue skies with not a cloud in sight,

cool nights - down to 4-6C

and lovely warm days of around 20C for most of the day.

A trip to the coast was the order of the day as the dogs' big beds had to be retrieved from Sally's place.

At least she has a little colour in her Winter garden.

Now here is where I show you some of the differences I was talking about between England and Queensland

1. Driving on the M roads

The road from Brisbane to the Gold Coast is a huge highway -

 4 sometimes 5 lanes going either way.

Look! The slow lane is the one directly in front of us.

The lane on the far right ( where all the trucks are ) is SUPPOSED to be the fast lane for cars traveling fast and overtaking.

This huge semitrailer (lorry? ) with its second trailer behind it was tearing along in the fast(er) lane

 and no, it wasn't overtaking unless you mean overtaking everyone !!

They are not supposed to go any faster than 100kph (60mph ).

It was not the only one.

A huge truck with a double load of gravel thundered past us.

Often there was a huge space in the left hand lanes with all the fast lanes containing trucks.

We have a lot to learn.

2. Trees 

Though our gum trees are lovely in their own right they are not a lovely lush green

 and the leaves are quite sparse.

They do often have lovely silvery white trunks though but are quite dangerous planted close to houses like this one as in high winds and storms they often come down or lose large branches on houses and roofs (rooves ??)

Like this !!

(photo from the web )

I'll show you more photos of our day out tomorrow.

Cheers.