Rain rain, you can stay as long as you like!

How wonderful it is to hear the rain we are having today. They say this is a welcome relief for lots of farmers across Qld. Over 200mls has falling in some western areas already. Spring will be good for so many! 

Came home from a quick shop and thought I would get my camera out to see what was dripping with water. Then I noticed the wonderful glorious MUD in the back yard. It has been so dry for a long time now and the grass is very thin in patches. We did go over it with the fork during the last week to try and get some holes for the water to sit in and penetrate into the ground.....but it was wonderful to see the mud!! 

I also found some lovely drops of rain hanging from flowers around the place. Looking like sparkling little crystals.

I was trying to get some rain drops hanging on some berries when suddenly a lorikeet fly in for his lunch

A night......the town!

When I heard there was another super moon coming, I thought I would try photographing it. Then I remembered my sons large camera lens. We went and picked it up two days early so I could get a little practise with it. I pretty much know the setting I need on my camera now to take a moon shot. So for practise, I thought maybe a trip to Mt Gravatt lookout to see some city lights, so a friend picked me up and away we went.

Well, do you think I could get anything except a black screen.......fiddled and fiddled with the settings and just kept getting black! My friend suggested we just use the camera on auto so we could at least get a city lights shot of some sort!

Yes, we had a couple of photos! But it really annoyed me that I couldn't get a correct setting on the manual mode. Ah ha!!!! I was previewing the auto photos and noticed the setting....inside.....down the bottom of the preview screen.......ISO 3200!!! Oh wow! That is the one that I just hadn't turned up enough. ISO.......Is the Sun Out!!!!????? 

Anyway, here is a pic of the city lights of Brisbane. I wasted so much time, now I will have to go back again!! 

I will try for the super moon tonight in preparation for tomorrow night, Sunday 10th. Hopefully the clouds will be gone by then.

And the Gateway Bridge from many miles away!!! :)

Photography

The things that have really taken my interest have changed as I have become older. I still have a passion for birds, and think I still would like to do some breeding again, but it would tie me down a little too much at this time of my life. 

I have bought myself a DSLR camera and decided I would like to try and get some really good shots of something!! My wish is that I would like to take a photo that I think is good enough to put on a canvas on my wall. 

Everyone takes close ups of something, sunsets are also a very popular shot, I would like to do something different but not altogether sure what. I enjoy getting those sunset pics and love getting close up shots of birds and flowers as well. Oh well, I will just have to continue using my camera until I see the perfect pic for my canvas.

Sawtell beach and headland

It is very pretty down here, I can understand why Lyn and her brother don't want to sell their late Mum and Dads home. 

I was always going to go for a swim in the rock pool, but when I actually went to the beach to have a swim, it had so much seaweed in it and smelt very much like algae.

So the day after our mountain trip, the morning was lovely and sunny, it was time for the water. It is such a beautiful beach.

The next day, Gretchen and Rachel had to leave to drive back to Brissy. We went down to Coffs and to the jetty we had seen the day we went for lunch. Again it was a rainy day and I've has a bit of fun with my photos since that day.

Underneath the jetty and out of the rain!

Urunga at dusk

So when we drove back to the coast, all very subdued, it was a very pleasant stop at Urunga. This boardwalk must go for at least a kilometre as it goes way out to the headland you see in the distance. 

It was the icing on the cake of the day for me..... A Beach Stone Curlew......an. Endangered species of curlew, especially in NSW. Couldn't believe what I was seeing!. After looking at the photos later that night, I noticed that it had been tagged also, like the curlews at home. There were three of them, probably parents and a young one. So blessed!!!!

The next day

The most horrifying day, when we found out what had happened!!!!!

Lyn took us for a drive to Bellingen and up the Waterfall Way into Dorrigo. Lovely drive in the country, beautiful scenery. The old Butter Factory at Bellingen,

Then we went to the Dangar Falls up at Dorrigo

 

Also stopped at a Sky Walk which looks out over the Ranges, fantastic view. But again, another cloudy day and photos not that good of the mountains behind.

As we drove back down the mountain, we stopped and had a look at the falls that come down under the road. A couple of bends further down the mountain we were stopped by the Police who were chasing cattle up the road, we had to detour into a side road and come out just a little further down the hill. It was then that we realised what had happened. 

Terrible!!!!, a cattle truck that we passed earlier when we were going up the range, it was coming down. It had rolled over! 

 

Sort of put a downer on the whole day! 

Anyway, on the way back, Rachel was impressed with the cattle who have birds following their every footsteps, the egrets

Well, back to it!!!

Its now been a few weeks since we took off to Sawtell. What an eventful time. Gretchen and I had a really good trip down, stopping for coffee and donuts (Gretchen) at Chinderah and then having lunch at Grafton. These photos were taken at a lovely pond next door to Maccas at Grafton

We arrived late afternoon at Sawtell in time for a trip to the headland to check out the sunset.

The next day was a slower day, with a trip into the local hills behind Coffs Harbour to an amazing lookout that juts out from the side of the mountain. I thought I would be nervous walking on it, but it was ok.

Awesome view from up there, but it was a cloudy and slightly rainy day. We stayed close by today as Rachel, G's daughter was flying into Coffs from Sydney.....from USA. 

Rachel's plane coming in over Coffs Harbour.  We settled down to having a lovely lunch at the surf club. 

Sawtell for the week

Well Gretchen and I head off south this morning to catch up with Lyn in Sawtell. Looking forward to some more time away, more lovely scenery and more photos. Rachel, Gretchens daughter, is arriving at Coffs Harbour tomorrow.

ANZAC Day

A day to remember our fallen soldiers. A day to be thankful for the freedom we have as a nation. A day to reflect on people I never knew, Glens pop John Adlington Baker. My husbands namesake.

In the last few years, they have done some lovely work at the Mt Thompson War Memorial at Mt Gravatt.

Now I would really like to see a photo of Daniel in his uniform standing beside the plaque of his great grandfather. Have to work on that. 

I'm not a really good cook, but I thought I would try my hand at some Anzac biscuits today. Apparently our soldiers lived on these type of bikkies way back in the trenches. 

 

Easter!

How fitting to have such a wonderful blood red coloured garden this weekend. The last wonderful flush of buds on the dahlias after the rain.

And what a beautiful little egg was given to me by a friend

Also shared the most wonderful time together at church last night and today. A Passover meal shared together and then this morning remembering  Christs death on the cross. 

Thank you Lord for dying for me!

Home again!

I have just had the most wonderful week away. I am so tired today after returning last evening. I have never seen the Western Downs of Queensland, so when the opportunity arose, I grabbed it with both hands, and both feet as it turned out. 

Brisbane, Toowoomba, Dalby, Childers, Miles, Roma, Injune, Carnarvon Gorge, Emerald, Blackwater, all the way across to Gracemere, The edge of Rockhampton, Agnes Water, Childers, Gympie and home....over 2080 km. Monday to Friday. What a great trip. 

Carnarvon Gorge...what an awesome place, visit if you can. 

I am home now, weary and sore. Still quite tight and tired in the legs. I thought it was all gone yesterday, but I guess it's going to take a while longer to repair. 13 km is a distance I never thought I would walk again. No regrets whatsoever!! 

Having grown up a Queenslander, I really didn't know much about the western towns. Emerald is a much larger town than Roma. I was very surprised to find that when we came into Emerald, there was large shopping centres just down the road from each other. It is a very spread out town. Even McDonalds was the other end of town to these two shopping centres. 

Emerald is also famous for the very large Picasso painting sitting on an easel in the town park.

There was also the most beautiful breeze in town, which was very welcome after arriving after dark after our 8 hour long trek. We all slept very well that night.

I was a little upset that I couldn't see any water at Agnes Water. Except that we were shouted out to dinner at a lovely place right on the water, but it was after dark. The girls took off to the beach so I made a cuppa, rang my sister and sat.

I was a bit afraid that I had really damaged myself, but as the evening went on and I moved a little more walking to and from the car as we went out for dinner, I felt my legs were freeing up a little. By the next morning. I thought, well there you go, back to normal, so I drove from Agnes to Childers. 

Even though, I am almost back to normal again. I think it is going to take a bit longer as whenever walking around today, 3 days after our big walk, I am still tiring very quickly and my feet still feel quite tight. 

I will never regret what I did, walking that 13km, but I don't think my body will ever let me do it again. I felt very fragile and still do a little. But so overwhelmed with the awesomeness of Gods creation out there, I want to tell everyone to go and see it if they can. 

Awesome sunsets are another gift that graced us as we flew along that highway from Carnarvon Gorge to Emerald. Just beautiful countryside. Also the amount of large raptor birds we saw was amazing. I have never in my life seen that many in one week, even when I went to the Healsville sanctuary in Victoria a couple of years back. Unfortunately, there was not the opportunity to photograph them as we needed to be driving a lot of hours each day. 

And this last one is from Agnes Water.

We drove home on Friday, it was about an 8 hour trip. Stopping in Childers near Bundaberg and seeing the helicopter flying around the town, searching for a little lost 3 yr old who went missing from her bed. This is always a very frightening time for everyone involved and locals alike, but I woke this morning and reading the news, saw she had been found, alive, overnight. Not too far from home. So many questions to be asked!!!

Well back to life as we know it. Easter is a week away. Lyn is off south for Easter with Family. Gretchen leaves for USA in a couple of weeks, Tish is back up on the Sunshine Coast for a wedding today, so when she gets home on Monday she will have a week of school holidays left before returning to teaching. This coming week I need to get back in the pool, get back into my routine of swimming, and catch up with my precious sister who will also be going back to work teaching after next week. 

I am at the moment enjoying my precious little Nikki. Who has followed me around the house since getting back. And Marcus, well, he just continues being noisey and hungry!! lol 

Nikkita

Marcus