LOVELY WEATHER, LET'S GO OUT !

Can you guess where we've been today?

We were up and dressed and out of the door by 8:00am today.

The sky was blue and the weather warm as we headed off along the highway.



Peeping out among the dark green leaves along the roadside were lovely wattles bursting into bloom.

First it was breakfast at a little cafe then we met up with.....



Sally and Scout

 

Scout is growing up fast.

She's 5 and a half months old now.

 

We parked at this children's park near the beach where dogs are allowed off leach.

 

The possom was keeping a look out for other pirates.

 

 

The beach beckoned so off over the dunes we went. 

 

 

No surf today and not too many people about as school holidays have just finished.

Plenty of room to run and chase the ball without disturbing anybody.

 

Then back over the dunes to the banks of Currumbin Creek

A few hardy souls were swimming out to this sandbank with their dogs.

Not warm enough for us to join them today though Scout was in and out of the water.



Have I mentioned before that Queensland does Winter well ??????

Cheers.

 

WHALES IN THE NEWS TODAY

In the past I have posted about the whales that travel up the Queensland coast from Antarctica every year to give birth to their calves in the warmer waters of the north.

 

We get quite excited about them and a thriving tourist industry has developed around their visits to Hervey Bay each year.

 We're very protective of these wonderful creatures with many restrictions placed on humans approaching too close to them in their yearly journey.

 

 

The whales we see most often are Humpback whales - huge, harmless creatures some of which we have come to know quite well and even named ( Migaloo for instance - read about him !).

 

This week's news has been about a different type of whale-

the Orca or Killer Whale - a much smaller whale

 

 

 

Now these whales are fearsome predators of the sea that are not usually seen close to shore.

 

This week an Orca and it's young calf became stranded and died in the shallow waters of Hervey Bay.

Worse news was to follow as the rest of the pod were also in grave danger of becoming beached and stranded as they waited for the dead whales to join them on their journey north. 

 

 

Wildlife officers worked desperately to try to drive the pod out to sea

 

 but it looked like the whole pod were doomed as they refused to leave without the dead members

 

 

 

and became stranded on sand banks at low tide.

 

 

Wildlife Rangers worked tirelessly to protect them from the heat of the sun until the tide returned and the whales coud be refloated and guided into deeper water.

 

In desperation the dead calf was towed into deeper waters in the hope that the rest of the pod - numbering 5 - would follow but although they are in deeper water now it is feared they will return to the shallow water and become stranded again.

 

A team of rangers is closely monitoring the whales until they have cleared Hervey Bay and moved on to deeper water.



WINTERY DAY OUT

By Queensland standards last night was cold.

It probably got down to about 5 degrees Celcius.

Of course that was when I was tucked up warmly under my doona ( duvet) and fast asleep but never-the-less it was still quite chilly when I finally forced myself to emerge at about 8:30am this morning.
You see we don't heat our homes and we have large airy rooms for the hot weather and cold tiled floors.
Anyhow 8:30am is a scandlous time to get out of bed here in Queensland.
 As a rule we're early risers but that's one of the joys of being retired.

The sky was blue, blue, blue and the air was crisp and there was an exhibition of old Quilts from the UK on show at the Art Gallery as well as an exhibition of newspaper photography at the Powerhouse Gallery so we rugged up and set off using our usual mode of transport to the city.






Once we were in the city we made our way to the Art Gallery which is right on the river when we  came upon this!



We've never noticed before but we have our own little glass pyramid just likle the Louvre in Paris !!
 

Well yes, I know it's a bit smaller !!!
 

The quilts were very interesting and showed that we are still using  many of the same designs that have been used for centuries.
There was even a quilt that had been made by female convicts on their voyage to the penal colony in Van Dieman's Land ( Tasmania ).

By now the temperature was about 18 degrees and walking along the river was very pleasant indeed.

A few people out exercising were in short sleeves but most Queenslanders were rugged up in jumpers, coats and boots for a cold Queensland day!

 

 We do Winter rather well here in sunny Queensland.

Cheers.

 

ON THE GO

It's been rather quiet on the patchworking front around here.

Definitely time to learn a new skill.

Earlier in the year, as part of my quilting group,  I learnt to do an easy quilt-as-you-go design that cuts out the need to add quilting to your finished article.

Just make a few of these with wadding and backing all sewn in one, then join them together to make a quilt like this.

(Yes, I'm sure you can spot the mistake !!)

I'm fairly new to quilting and not so keen on traditional designs so I've never tried the Log Cabin block.

But when I saw a reversible-quilt-as-you-go-log cabin quilt I thought it was one I would like to learn.

But, oh dear, it has been a bit of a struggle.

All that matching,

Pinning through six layers and trying to sew through the layers without anything moving despite using my walking foot.

I can tell you that there was a pile of cotton at my feet from all the unpicking I had to do!

I'm aiming for a table centre piece consisting of four blocks.

So this is what I have managed so far.

Blue and white on one side to match the blue plates in my dining room....

and red Christmassy colours on the other side for a Christmas table decoration.

How clever is that ??? !!!

All you have to do is flip it over at Christmas time !

It's taken me the best part of today to finish one block !

Good thing I only need four !

And did you notice that bandaged finger?

and all that blood beneath the bandage ??

My those rotary cutters are sharp!

Also on the go, to keep me busy while I'm watching Masterchef  in the  evenings,

.... and keeping me warm on these very cold nights we've been having, is this granny rug.

I'm not at all happy with the colours as we don't have much choice of yarn colours locally.

It was supposed to go with Sally's quilt but the main light pink is too bright and lolly and the green is too green - needs to be a sort of aqua/green - so it looks like it will take up residence in my spare room and I'll have to chase up the right colours for another one for Sally elsewhere.

So there it is. I've got plenty to keep me busy.

I need to have four blocks finished by our September quilting session.

At the rate I manage I'll need all of that time !!

Cheers. 

GOOD THINGS ABOUT WINTER IN QUEENSLAND No 1 -Hey There Humpy

It's whale time all along the Queensland coast.

(Here's a little background information.)

HUMPBACK whales are already being spotted making their winter migration along our coastline with the biggest pods since pre-whaling days expected to pass Byron Bay and the Gold Coast this year.
Southern Cross University marine ecology research centre director Professor Peter Harrison said up to 17,000 humpbacks would make the northern migration this year as the population continued to recover by about 10 per cent a year after nearly being wiped out during the whaling years.
"This year will be very special; there will be more humpback whales along our coastline for the first time since mid last century," he said.
"Some whales have already been spotted along our coastline migrating up to the Great Barrier Reef from mid-April and the peak migration will start in the last two weeks of June.
"The humpback whale population was estimated between 26,000 and 30,000 but then crashed down to possibly a few hundred during the massive whaling in the middle of last century and became economically extinct.
"In the early 1950s, illegal whaling by the Soviet Union in the southern Australian waters killed 25,000 humpbacks in just two summers and virtually wiped them out."
Australia's last whaling station in Albany, Western Australia, closed in 1978.
Prof Harrison said about 1500 extra humpback whales were this year starting their migration from Antarctic waters up the eastern coast of Australia to the Great Barrier Reef where they will spend the winter breeding and calving.
The peak group is due to appear in waters off Byron Bay and the Gold Coast from mid-June.
Travelling between 100-140km a day, it will take the whales about two months to make the 6000-8000km migration north.

A whale breaching off the Gold Coast this week. Picture: Sea World Whale Watch Source: The Courier-Mail

Prof Harrison said the whales did not tend to travel in packs until they reached Byron Bay, with the most easterly point of Australia creating a ``funnelling effect'', grouping the whales together in huge numbers and providing amazing whale-watching opportunities.

Famous albino whale Migaloo is expected to appear late June.

Do you remember I wrote about him here ?

By the time some of the last stragglers make their way to northern Queensland in late July, some of early migrators are already heading back south for the summer."
The above article was written byTanya Westthorp

Around September the whales and their calves rest up for a while in Hervey Bay on their way back to the Antarctic so it is a great place to observe them frolicing in the waters of the bay. As you can imagine they are a great tourist attraction but we are very protective of our whales.
There are many Whale Watching Tours that have to adhere to very strict regulations about how close they are allowed to get to the whales ( 300metres), how many boats are allowed to gather together when whales are spotted and even how high planes must fly above them (2000ft) .

Every year Tony and I say we'd love to take a whale watching tour. Perhaps this year we'll do it!

Cheers.

A HEALTHY WINTER BREAKFAST

Here's a recipe for you to try on those chilly Winter's  mornings ( or when Summer forgets to happen !!) when something warm is what you need to get you moving.

And guess what? It's good for you too!

In fact it's full of healthy goodness and you'll sail through the morning till lunchtime without those mid-morning cravings.

The secret is in the preparation - set it to cook for 3 or 4 hours in your slow cooker on Saturday. Package up and freeze in portions and you're ready for the week ahead.

No more rushing, breakfast will be delicious and  a breeze.

Brown Rice Porridge   (a recipe stolen from Sally !)

1 cup brown rice rinsed

2 cups reduced fat cream

2 ½ cups water

1 cup coconut milk (~1 tin)

1 tablespoon mixed spice

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Handful of desiccated coconut

½ cup raisins

2 tablespoons linseeds

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1 tablespoon goji berries (optional,  but sooo good for you they're worth the effort of finding)

2 tablespoons brown sugar or similar amount of organic maple syrup (to taste)

********************************************

* Cook on high in slow cooker for ~ 3hours until rice is soft and cooked ( mmmm the smell that begins to waft through the house as it cooks !)

* You may need to add more water at the end of cooking if the rice is not quite cooked and has absorbed all the liquid.

* Portion into zip lock bags to freeze – (weigh them out and anything from 100 to 200gms is great per serve, your choice ). Freeze.

* Defrost and warm in the microwave as required – you might like to add a little milk after defrosting.

Perfect !

Cheers.

WINTER IN BRISBANE

Well , Winter has finally come to Brisbane.

For those of you who are not familiar with Australia in general and Queensland in particular Brisbane is the capital of the state that we call the Sunshine State here in OZ.

The Tropic of Capricorn runs right through Queensland right about along the top of the word "QUEENSLAND" on the map above, so you can see that a large amount to our state lies in the tropics.

Brisbane, where I live, is therefore sub tropical in climate

so when it is Winter in Brisbane you know you want to be here !

Blue skies,

cool, crisp mornings of around 12 degrees C

which soon turn to warm, sunny days of around 22 degrees C

and nights when you can snuggle down under your doona to escape the cold night air and 8 degree C temperatures.

No wonder the "grey nomads" fill our highways as they move north looking to escape the cold, wet Winters of the southern states.

Of course we think it's cold !

and wear scarves

and coats

and Ug boots!!!

(Well some of us do !)

It's my favourite time of year in Brissy.

Cheers.