Beautiful rain!!

It is so refreshing to get some rain. Many places in Qld are drought stricken, cattle are dying and farmers are at their wits end. Living on the coast we are so fortunate to have more regular rainfall. The grass has been very thin and patchy as we have not had much rain, but lately we have seen some lovely falls and this past week we have had around two inches of rain. This has been a welcome change after having very hot temperatures the week before. Still quite muggy, but nice to have cooler temps when a little bit housebound.

Noses are for smelling

Well, I feel like I've been punched in the nose today after have a small surgery on my nose. I'm grateful that I didn't need a skin graft, only a few stitches. The Qld sun has rather a nasty bite to it, and as youngsters, hats and sunscreens were something that were overlooked. Today we have lots of advertising about our strong Qld sun and the damage it can cause.

Looking on the bright side......my nose is still working the way it should be. The sweet scent of my Murraya (mock orange) hedge in flower, has reached my nose!!

Cockatoo in my yard

He came back, finally!!! He stood there and ate all the seed while I was able to take some photos. 

Very special!!!!

A Butcher bird tried to get rid of him, but it didn't work!!!!!

Grass mowing!

This is a continuous job in Qld Australia in summer. The dog wees on the grass and you have to mow it! Well almost!! 

I am extremely greatful to my neighbour who, every time he mows his front yard, he just continues on and mows mine as well. It takes such a burden off me just knowing that I only have my back yard to mow! Even though the back yard is quite a bit larger than the front, just knowing that my work stops at the gate which separates the two is a very welcome thought. Thanks again Bill, you are a very generous man! 

The grass is mowed again for another week!

Cockatoos!

A cockatoo just screeched at me as I was playing with the dog in the back yard! I immediately looked up, and there he was hanging upside down, staring at me! This was definately meant to gain my attention. We chatted for a minute.....well, I chatted and he screeched at me, then eventually flew away.  So I immediately went to the shed, got a tray, put some birdseed in it and sat it on top of the greenhouse. Let's see what happens tomorrow. I remember a few years back, cockatoos trashed my sunflowers I was growing for my aviary birds. 

Special little happenings!

We are so often blessed and don't even realise it. So many special little happenings in life. A bird, struggling to get the height needed to fly up over the bus that was going down the road. The dog, coming to my room when I was lying down, just to find out where I am. A cat, just knowing, everytime I lie down and coming to lie beside me, just close enough so I can rub her tummy while we relax. Then, my boy cat, oh what a cat, also realising he needed to be in my room, with his pushy attitude and noisy meow, and just has to be closer than anyone else............

Yes so blessed by the little things today! 

The boy!

The girl!

The dog!

This time next week!

Well I suppose by this time next week I will have a very sore nose! All I hope is that by getting this bcc taken off my nose, the doctor will also remove the fly that has been crawling on it for the last few months. Lol. It is an awful feeling to have an irritating nerve problem in the tip of your nose. :)

Oh and I will probably miss a weeks swimming,  just after getting started again!

Gardening

I'm really enjoying my garden this summer! A couple a months ago when the gardens were so dry and there was nothing but dry dirt blowing around the yard, I decided it was time for mulch! So we moved a truck load of mulch onto them and now I wander in the yard with a sense of fulfilment and thank the Lord for helping me move all that mulch.

This past week we moved some roses that had become very shaded by the macadamia tree, and now hopefully I will get some nice blooms......that is if I can keep the grasshoppers away from them.

Well I must go and get the hose out and fill up the bird baths for yet another hot summers day.....glad it's not going to be a scorcher though!

You've made your bed!!!

Now lie in it, AND BE HAPPY!!!!!!

Sunday again!

Sundays are one of the greatest highlights of my week! I get to see my 'other' family! My church family means the world to me and they keep me going when all things around me seem too hard! 

My cousin, Robert, passed away about 15 yrs ago, his children still quite young at the time, and now one of his daughters has a little girl of her own! Scarlett comes to church with her grandma every week and she is a beautiful little light in my life! Love you to bits Scarlett! 

Swimming again!

It was so nice to get back to the pool yesterday. I didn't realise how much I missed it. I also realised that I didn't lose condition like I thought I would. Oh yes, I lost a little, I only did 30 laps instead of my usual 50 laps. But I thought if I kept going, I may not be able to do too much for the rest of the day. :)

So back into the pool I go again this afternoon to see if I can get 40 laps done. I really do enjoy my swimming and I should have kept it up years ago, I may not have put all this weight on!

Lost trees!!

Yes, I am still going on about the loss of the trees next door. A beautiful Silky Oak, near on 100 yrs old, which was still standing, with no limb shedding, even after the cyclone that wasn't called a cyclone, a year or so back. Trees that protected and shaded my aviary, gone, forever! I never realised the protection trees gave, not just shade, but protection from winds and rain.....yes rain! I can't believe how flooded the avairy became with no protection from the trees, even though I have two layers of green and black shade cloth on wire frames which gives shade.

Very sad and disappointed!!!

A black afternoon

Storms!! I love Brisbanes afternoon storms! They are invigorating, really make me feel alive after a hot muggy day. Very refreshing! 

This afternoon was the blackest sky I ever remember! I was watching the BOM radar and it really looked as though the storms where splitting yet again, this happens frequently here in our suburb. Then the sky seemed to change. It was only 4pm and another 2-3hrs until sunset. It was very eerie!

I have a series of photos which I took within about 5 minutes.

Stradbroke Island

Well the smell of smoke seems to be such a constant thing at the moment but I'm sure glad I don't live on the Island!! The things they have had to put up with in the last week must have been such a frightening time. No electricity, conserving water for fighting fires, and not just the smell of smoke, but living in a cloud of smoke. There has been no property loss and no loss of life. Human life that is, I cannot even imagine the amount of loss of wildlife. This would have been absolutely horrific. 

The fires are still burning. QFES, SES, QPS, congratulations to all of you for such a terrific job. Storms are forecast for today, some severe ones we are told, let's hope the rain gets to Stradbroke Is. and puts all the fires out!! 

View from the mainland is usually lovely and clear with Straddie stretching full length of the photo.

(Borrowed photo)

Sunday!

I am thankful today for friends.....I don't tell them as often as I should. There is a friend who picks up old ladies for church every week, never a complaint to be heard!!!!! I've been doing this while my friend is away, and today I also had to do my usual setting up the laptop and things that go with that, and I needed to return them back home again afterwards. I am very grateful that I don't do this all the time. Even though there was no panic, as I get older these things tend to play on the mind which likes to add to the little stresses of life.

THANK YOU....my dear friends for the hidden little things that you do!!!!

Sunday....2

I am in desperate need to be able to LOVE! Love the unlovely, the nasty, the critical.......enough, enough!!! How can I love if I keep thinking all the negatives? I can't!

Lord help me to love!!!

Another day in "Paradise"??

To the sun lovers I guess these temperatures are fantastic, but to those.....on the slightly large side....I'm putting up my hand.....IT IS VERY HOT 34C TODAY!!!!!! I have never seen my husband stress about the heat, but then again he also has too much weight on at the moment. 

NEXT FRIDAY....YES!!!!!!! The pool opens again. I chose to start my 'get fit' exercise by swimming in a private swim school. It is a covered pool and heated, when needed! I thought this a fantastic choice as I am a little allergic to the sun on me in summer! lol. Well being a private pool they shut for 3weeks over Christmas and New Year. So now I can't wait to get back into the pool and I'm sure I have put weight on me over the festive season. 

I was trying to keep up my regular swim of 1km four times a week. I think I will probably have to work back up to that again. 

A cooler southeasterly change is expected this arv, let's hope it comes early. Not too early though before the fire fighters finish their back burning around the towns on Straddie, as a southerly will push fire directly to the towns.

Living near the coast

Well with the forecast 34C temperature today, I have found the coolest place. My front patio has a beautiful breeze and only 31C out here. 

The heat of summer in Brisbane

I live in a bayside suburb, for which I am very grateful. We had temps of 30C today and tomorrow it will be 34C. The western suburbs will be having temps of up to 41C. 

I love trees, trees create shade, also help with the breeze. Until a couple of weeks ago there were two large trees in the neighbours back yard, these trees gave us lovely afternoon shade in our back yard. There was a very large Silky Oak which shaded most of the back yard, and a Eucalyptus, or Gum tree as we call them here, which gave shade to my aviary. 

The neighbours decided to remove the trees!!!!! The heat has increased in my yard so much. I have had to create artificial shade for the aviary, and now I am told that the people at the back on the other side are going to remove another Silky Oak and two more Gums. It has upset me so much. We used to wake with the sounds of Lorikeets, sometimes very loud sounds, but now we have none in the morning. We occasionally still get some in the other trees in the afternoon, but those trees are coming down very soon. 

Here is a lovely sunset photo, taken through the trees. That beautiful Silky Oak doesn't exist anymore!

Timber, lovely timber!

My husband is blessed with many many talents. He can do, make, complete, fix anything he puts his mind and hands to. If I were to start writing about the things he has done, this page would never end. This is not unusual you might say, no its not, building cabinets, removing motors and gearboxes from cars, climbing over trucks to remove and fix electrics, these are not unusual for a lot of men, but my husband is confined to a wheelchair......confined not being a good word because during his life he has been out of his chair, sitting on or beside whatever he had fixed, or built. 

Today he is making a display case to hang on the wall. This case, when finished, will display some other items he has made. He has made a full size Long Sword and Katana, and a Gladiator type sword. All these swords are made from timber and crafted to look exactly like the real thing.

The smell of timber is something that is quite common place around our house. These items are just some of the many things he has made. Furniture including, TV cabinets, beds, fish tank stands and dolls furniture. Then there are the smaller items like many different types of jewellery boxes, children's table and chairs, and little wheelbarrows. 

The cabinet during building.

God given talents are things we should never abuse or take for granted, they are given to us so we can show Gods goodness to us by sharing them with others. We don't have too many of the items that have been made, mostly they have been given as gifts. These we will keep and be on display!

Bush Stone Curlews

I started this blog by mentioning my interest in birds, and all things of nature. I saw a pair of curlews one day as I was driving down to the local point. Victoria Point is in Moreton Bay. 

Ever since I was a child I had an interest in these birds, as I lay in bed at night they would cry and cry down near the creek that passed by our property at The Gap. I had never seen a curlew in my childhood, and not unless very recently did I know what one looked like. 

I saw this pair by accident, as I walked past, and incredibly eerie hissing noise frightened the day lights out of me. It was then I realised that I had almost stepped on a bird sitting on eggs. I didn't know how many eggs or how long she (maybe he, as they share the duty) had been sitting on these eggs. So, my almost daily visits started!

Not long later, and not knowing what baby curlews looked like, whether they hatch with a down on them or not, and taking many photos each time I visited, I spotted the first tiny hatchling. If you look closely at the birds chest, you will see. 

Unfortunately, this little one disappeared. I guessed it had died. It was quite a while later, a couple of weeks almost, I visited on a Sunday after church, oh what a beautiful site, then I realised that the earlier hatchling was premature. 

There was two of these absolutely beautiful little creatures......Gods wonderful creation!!!

I have been following their growth for around 3-4 months, and the male has finally left home, (I think it's the male). I will post a few pics of their growth.

 This is one of my last photos of the young pair. I have been told these parents, which are a tagged pair who flew over from Coochiemuddlo Island in Moreton Bay, have been watched for quite a few years, and have had many young. I am going to enjoy watching now!

Fires on Straddie!

We often hear that fires are started by arsonists, but our local fire on Stradbroke Island the last couple of days was started by nature...a lightning strike started this one!

This morning when down at the water, there was a southerly breeze and the smoke was all out to sea.

This afternoon we have an easterly wind change and now the smell of smoke has filled the air. 

Over 900 campers have had to be evacuated from the island today. Stay safe everybody

The sun has almost disappeared. The smell of smoke is now very strong! I am so glad there is Moreton Bay between us and this blaze!

The New Year 2014

The new year has brought a rather slow and quiet start, not even too many cars rushing past this morning. Oh Maccas is open, my husband says, sort of mentioning that a coffee out would be nice. Yes!!!!........ Maccas coffees are always had down at the water, never inside in the restaurant.
A must when going to the water is the camera. Even though I am a real bird lover and been watching Bush Stone Curlews breed, hatch and grow up over the last few months, today is a lovely high tide and I'm sure other things may take my interest! And He didn't disappoint!!!