Two Sweeties!

My two grandchildren live far away so it's wonderful when their mum sends me a photo of them. There are 2 more grandchildren due next year.

Their ages 5 and 3.

In The City

Several times of late I have been in our small city, if the lights are with you can be there in 10 minutes, then to find a parking place well!!  A certain unnamed person is so tinny that he always finds one very close to the city if not right in it!  If I was driving no such luck for me...no I am not a defeatist it's just the way it works mostly.

Today we had lunch in the city at a Pub, I had Smoked Salmon salad with chips.  Yes, I am going to cook dinner tonight after I finish this post.  We are hungry now :) at 7.15pm

All the visits to the city I ask where are all the people, this year there are not many yet.

I took 2 photos with my phone whilst there during the week and of course they are below.

 The Mall without a lot of people during the week.

This tree is the only decoration that I have seen in the Mall.

Something I Made!

I enjoy making Graphics during my spare time.  I often do some graphics in the evening at my dads as I can talk and do at the same time.

I found this Koala free photo on the net and made remainder.  

We don't have snow at Christmas and wonder why we don't have our own Christmas Cards with the beach, sun and sun umbrellas on the front of the cards...guess it's not viable.

  

From A Far

I have two lovely internet friends from Canada, such beautiful people with wonderful 'hearts'.  

I met both Ladies about the same time and have been corresponding with both of them via email.  They are 'B' and 'G'.

Now 'B' was looking for garden information all those years ago and came across 'our business homepage' as it was called in those days, wishing to know information 'B' sent an email & that started our long relationship.

When 'B's' mother passed on a few years later all that 'B' wanted to do was travel to Australia to be with me :) her husband being a commercial Pilot at that time was thinking of flying in a small plane to Australia but decided against it without a co-Pilot, just too many hours and many days.  So 'B' and I emailed just about everyday, I was her therapy & I suspect that my medical degrees came into being at that time.

'B' from the 2nd Christmas of our meeting sent me a small Christmas Cake wrapped in a cloth soaked in Rum, wrapped in cellophane and pipe cleaners to tie, then put in a box and posted.  This happened every year & I must say I never expected a cake each year.

Last year 'B' wrote that, that was the last year a Christmas Cake would be sent to me due to the cost of the postage plus I totally agreed.

Today, I just happened to be home for about 15 minutes around lunch time and the postman came in his van with a parcel.  There were tears of joy from me, for it was as always a surprise but this year more of one - it was my Christmas Cake from Canada with a Christmas Card saying:  "I just could NOT send you one this year"...:)

God Bless You, my friend from afar, & Thank You.

How's your Washing Hanging?

 

Towels not paired.

Have you ever thought about washing on a clothes line.

Are socks in pairs of the same kind!

Are underpants  of the male persons all together!

Are the women/children of the house's knickers all neatly put in place!

Are handkerchiefs if used all pegged together!

Are your white's snow white!

All of these things I was taught to be placed towards the inside of the clothes line.

Are all the towels put in pairs!

So you get my drift...thicker clothes on the outside of the clothes line and smaller items towards the middle.

I was also taught to hang the wet clothes in a tidy manner, plus your washing reflects upon your cleanliness and tidiness of inside your house and yourself. Being taught this when I went to school years ago I still try and carry out what I was taught regardless how strapped for time I am, and I am appalled at some women's plus men's clothes lines. 

I wonder what their houses look like inside.

A house inside I was taught should be clean and tidy but looked lived in.

How many women know how to iron a table cloth correctly these days!  Though not used often many of these items these days are geared towards easiness which is good :)

We don't iron much at all, if at all only when necessarily.

Thinking back I remember taking great pride in ironing, which included sheets, towels, table clothes, shirts with the seam at the back ironed, the serviettes white ones crisp and spotless.  Even to this day my 87 year old father has white crisp serviettes, of course I am refereeing to cloth ones.  Who does this for him, ME :)  At my home I use paper ones.

Sometimes The Colour Doesn't Work!

The Pink Iceberg Rose is what I call a delicate colour.  I recall when this rose was first sold and it was unbelievable that it had pink in it, it was bred to have that colour.  However many people believed it wasn't pink after being planted for 1 year.  Each year I take a photo of it and it's always got pink in it.  Iceberg Roses are known for blooming and blooming.

Will They Brighten Your Day!

Some flowers from my garden, some have finished blooming.  I hope the blooms brighten your day.  I took these photos over a period of 1 month.

Plus the dishwasher decided to leak, so gone only a day with new sealers all is going well.

 Freesia Floribunda Rose.

Waratah.  Shady Lady.

 White Iris

 Purple Iris

 Yellow Iris

Yellow Iris.

Blue Iris. 

Still blooming is the Spanish Lavender, also known by other names.

I managed to get a close up of the bee!

It's Exciting!

For me it's exciting to receive the products I ordered online.  I am not really an internet shopper, but I was told about being able to purchase makeup at the link above for a much lesser price than in the stores. Many brands are available,  but not all products are available all of the time, however I kept an eye on this site watching and procrastinating, finally I took the plunge for me and bought some eye shadow.

I received 2 free gifts.

I ordered and products arrived today = 3 working days, free freight and delivered to the door.  What more could one ask for!

The Eye Makeup Case.

 

Lime colour Eye Shadow which I will use to lighten and open my eyes.

The darker colour Eye Shadow for the outer corners.

My free gift, I chose the colour plus there was eye shadow to choose from.

 

Last but not least is the Strawberrynet carry bag.

Amazon Kindle

For nearly 2 years I have been thinking of buying an Amazon Kindle e book reader but always put it off.  Now they are sold locally I had a peek and after several weeks decided I would like one, more importantly I would use it. 

I had my father in mind as well because the Kindle has 'text to speech', so if I had a book he might like to 'hear' it read to him whilst I was staying at his house each week. Great idea, we can choose a male of female voice, slow, medium or faster...great.  He can put his earphone on and plug that in as well so my husband and I can't hear.

It's easy on the eyes is the text, and yes, I can read my books outside, no glare just can't praise the Kindle enough.  

I don't have to have paper to hold onto when I read and it's a great place to store books.

They can be removed onto your computer very easily and new ones put back on if necessary.  I can connect to my Wi-Fi if I want to, it also comes with 3G.

Due to my life style it's easier for me and good for me to share with my father. 

My husband!  He doesn't read novels only on a rare occasion.

The Amazon Kindle e reader in it's box.

The users guide.

The Dunny!

Wonder how many people can remember 'The Dunny', 'Out house' or what ever you like to call it these days.  Few people have them now thank goodness but I have come to realize through my father 'the smell and acceptance of the inside toilet/lavertory'.

For those who are old enough and perhaps those that are not might recall if they visited their grandparents in the country more so on an isolated farm, there wasn't an inside toilet/lavertory, you had to go outside often a long way from the house to the toilet....

I myself can remember this :) oh, yes my age but my grandparents were old and lived till very old age and wouldn't have a toilet/lavertory inside, so as an early adult I remember the smell of the 'Dunny'. Dreadful! 

Now my grandmother would have white tissue papers on Sunday's off the bed in the Dunny, all other days was newspaper cut up into the right sized squares, a hole placed towards the top corner with a piece of string through it then hung on a nail, and it was these pieces of paper that we used to wipe our 'bum' :)

Well I mean you just have to laugh!

Now the newspaper was ok, for one would start to read what was written, tore off the next bit and hope it fitted like a jigsaw so one could read on, good it worked.  Sometimes reading a good story the jigsaw was not there and one was always left wondering.

I can only imagine what it must have been like, the fights, quarrels of having the dunny inside and the unkown of having a nice smelling dunny inside - today the toilet/lavetory.

Can You Believe it!

I downloaded some Nursery Rhymes recently and I was rather intrigued by a lot of them.

A lot of them are rather harmful, many are violent.  I suppose I had never really thought about that before until I started reading what I expect are the original versions.  These are free on the Internet to download. No Copyright.

The Old Women Who Lived in a Shoe.

I found out why 'The Old Women Who Lived in a Shoe' was living in a shoe..as I did with many of these Nursery Rhymes...it's no wonder many of these have been shortened to a 'nice version' in the Rhymes that I knew.

However, as an adult it good to read the full version of many of these Rhymes/Tales/Stories.

Feeding of a Crocodile

A man feeding a Crocodile.

Not a bad View!

The city that father lives in has a new children's playground, skateboard area, barbecues, plus surf club with steps to the small beach.

This has cut the carpark greatly where before one could park looking at the sea, now away from the sea.

Finally these works are just about completed and it looks lovely and clean, kind of wonder how long it will be like that.

I drive past this area every week several times even though I live in another city.

When my children were little we would all spend time at weekends in this area.

There is also a bike/walking path which goes from the swimming pool then back down along the beach, past where the Spirit of Tasmania is berthed (when not sailing) over a bridge and down the other side of the river - lots of kms.  

My husband, myself and our children would ride most of this area every second weekend when they were small when we used to go and stay with my parents.

 One of the new barbecues, there are 2 more before this one.

 The skate area, there is also a smaller one on left. (not in the photo)

 Part of the play area plus the path to the beach.

It's a Good Thing!

A computer to me is extremely useful, it permits all of us to do many things on it and the internet.  One of my favourite things is making 'graphics' from scratch or from a photo.

These Freesias are now out in bloom in the garden so I photographed it, feathered what I wanted to keep and made a Frame for them, all of this does take several hours.

Self satisfaction to me and is relaxing....plus if I get interrupted it doesn't matter :)

Japonica 'Margaret Davis' Camellia

The 'Margaret Davis' Japonica Camellia originated by A. M Davis in N.S.W Australia .

There is information and a photo of Margaret Davis at http://humecamellia.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/850/

Japonica, 'Margaret Davis' Camellia which grows in our garden.

Cooking today!

It's a good thing I don't mind cooking sometimes, but I am not a cook.

I made my father some rissoles, then I make a jelly slice which has my mouth watering.

The rissoles I pre-cooked have frozen them and will take to my dads next week, he can manage to make some gravy and give them a bit of a cook in the microwave - he has this special magnifier that he puts up to the numbers on the microwave and off he goes...for he who helps himself will get on ok :)

This week I spent over 1-1/2 hour reading the mail to my father. (paper & emails)

I replied to 8 emails for him.

I took him grocery shopping and I bought what I thought he would like to eat, and what he can manage to cook.  Of course I let him give me some input.

Everything has to be separated, wrapped in wrap for freezing it's easy access for my dad.

He has to remember where I put things in the fridge & freezer downstairs plus where I put things in his cupboards.

I did his washing, 3 loads.

He had messed up his TV which is nothing unusual, he does a wonderful job of using the remotes with his special magnifier.  So I fixed the TV again!

I helped him make the bed.

Took him and I paid some accounts for him. 

We went to the Chemist.

Simple for most of us a big effort for my dad, and when I am on my dads phone talking to someone it's Murphy's Law that my mobile will ring.  My father listens to where the ring is coming from as I watch him and then he somehow manages to pick it up, bring it to me, I slide the 'thing' to answer the call and I put the ear piece to my father's ear so he can hear who is phoning me whilst I keep talking on his house phone.

When my father & I go shopping etc. he has his white stick which is only given to those who are legally blind plus my dad hangs onto my arm in a special way to steady himself.....next February he will be 88 years of age.  God has been kind to him thus far.

Whilst I was away my husband on that day took one of his friends who is recovering from an operation on a long drive....5 hours about, it worked out they averaged 56km an hour with only a few short stops along the way.  They drove to part of the north east coast of Tasmania and back.  

One can see how so many people that live not on this island can not imagine traveling as so far without getting too far.  If that makes sense.

                  My Jelly Slices I made and I am sure most women have made these.                                                                                                  

Back to the Holiday

The Sunshine Coast for me is not warm enough in winter. I was amazed and amused that several nights the weather was warmer where I live in Tasmania, Australia than on the Sunshine Coast.

Jessica Watson lives on the Sunshine Coast, she is the young teenager who sailed solo around the world a few years ago. 

  

A photo of part of the Mooloolabar Jetty/old Marina.

A town we passed through was Moree, as above.

Narrabri on the north side of Dubbo, NSW

A Murray Cod at Tocuwal. NSW

We were talking to a local man and the bank behind the fish was man made, behind that is the Murray River which at the time of passing through was swollen, a sign nearly covered over.  There was once a port & jetty when the steamships sailed up the Murray.

At Tocumwal NSW.

 The Pier in Melbourne, Victoria. It's here we go through Quarantine and drive around and wait in the que until it's time to drive on board to sail home.

Don't You just love it!

There was an update for one of the software programs, how cool it that as it often happens to one of my 'special software programs. So today I installed the normal update, and then the software wouldn't work as before, couldn't do this, couldn't do that! 

Dilemma, can't find the original disk which is not like me, must be my age showing.

I could find the item on the net and download the software and drivers - looked at that option but of course it's the same download as caused the problem.

Well not being that stupid for a blonde :) I thought about 'Restore System', never used or had to use that before.  How easy that was, and how lucky am I after doing a 'Restore System' for everything is back to normal with my software, so that made me happy.

Back in Business

Wasn't connected at 7am this morning.

I made another phone call to the company about lunch time, and about 1 hour later a 'linesman' came from the phone company, apparently there was a 'join' in the phone wire outside and over time water had ruined this line, so he replaced it with a totally new one and also came inside and checked out the speed of my Broadband which was satisfactory seeing as I am very near the end of the line regarding the exchange.

So I am back in business, so to speak and happy about that.

No Landline!

Amazing is Technology when it breaks down.

Here am I with no Landline Phone so therefore no Internet.

The phone is dead, no dial tone and it's rather eerie.

This happened - the dead phone - mid morning without warning. It's supposed to be repaired by 7 am Tuesday morning, but I do think that will be so over my dead body :)

So what have I been doing?

A little normal house work, playing games and reading...used my iPhone to ring my father, so now he knows not to phone me on the house phone, important for a blind man, & important for me.

Thank goodness I have iPad2 with Wi-Fi + 3G, it's with the 3G that I upload this post.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all dads...which is Celebrated in Australia on the 1st Sunday of September.

Sunshine Coast, Australia_2

We are confined to the Apartment due to the  virus we have.  Friends up here have it too and their Dr. told them to stay away from anyone till Monday, as the virus is very contagious. We are slowly on the mend but feel rather weak due to the fever, coughing and cold.  So it's been starve a fever, feed a cold. We haven't been to the Dr. because virus's take their natural course and you treat the symptoms as they come.  I remember being taught this in my early days of training.

So fortunate we were to visit some of the lovely areas around the Sunshine Coast when not with family.

The glass house mountains are several this is just one of them.  Near this area the Authorities are searching for a boys remains, he has been missing since 2003 when he was aged 13.  He went to the bus stop to catch a bus to go Christmas shopping and was never seen getting on the bus and hasn't been seen since.  The alleged offender has only been discovered this past week.  What a nightmare for the boys parents.

A view in the opposite direction.

This is our view across the road. Most of which can be seen from the apartment.

Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Australia

Our two grandchildren, aged 5 & 3 using my iPad.

The 3 year old wanted me to take her helmut off, so hence the look on her face.

Things often can go wrong when you are on holidays. My hair dryer died, the GPS died then half came back to life. Now we each have the same virus, so we are keeing to ourselves for a few days. They say things come in threes!

On The Way!

On the way up to the Sunshine Coast we came through Coonabarabran, have the best chips in that town.

Then onto Moonie which has been cleaned up since our first visit

then onto Black Butt in Queensland. A photo of the Pub, also we had lunch at the Bakery, a good old Aussie meat pie which we hadn't had for a long time.

What a glorious Saturday!

Alexandria Heads on the Sunshine Coast the surf is sweet, the sun shinning, the sun is warm, warming bones, Good Vitamin D about today. Plenty of people sun baking on the sand across to my left as I sit on the balcony and watch.

Having guests for dinner thus I have made everything and put in the fridge for safe keeping till we eat this evening.
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What is Present!

Arrived at our destination on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia some 1,800km approx. from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia a few days ago.

We passed many types of terrain, farmland, canola growing, cotton bales, wheat to name a few..also land that will not grow anything. Towns are sometimes over 220km apart.
Coming up inland mainly on the Newell Highway.

Nagambie Lake where the Olympic Rowing was held in 2000.

 Having a rest in a rest area before the town of Dubbo NSW.

An Australian Gumtree.
 

We stayed in Motels at night, had breakfast in motel, lunch at a cafe along the way and dinner in the evening at RSL Club or Service Club.

Now we are settled in the apartment with a dishwasher, hotplates, oven, microwave, washing machine, clothes dryer, ironing board plus much more. Including all of the linen that we will need.

The apartment will be serviced 2 times a week! So not a lot of house work for me giving me more time with my 2 little grandchildren.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad