K'gari

 

When we were in Brisbane we did a mini-break to K'gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) which is about a three and a half hour drive up the coast and an hour on the ferry. It's a fascinating world heritage site and national park - lots of tourists but very little development. I wasn't sure what to expect; many people love it but they seem to love driving up the beach, camping in the dunes with no amenities, and fishing ... none of which appeal to me at all. But neither of us had been so off we went.

It was absolutely beautiful. We stayed at the resort on the bay side of the island, which had mostly seen better days but we were in a little house up in the bush with a deck and our own kitchen and it was lovely. It might have been warm enough to swim - although neither of us thought to bring our togs - but definitely warm enough to paddle. 

We saw dolphins both ways on the ferry, and lots of amazing birds. The island has roads but they are sand, very windy and very steep - you need to have a 4WD and know what you're doing so you don't get bogged. We have neither a 4WD or any experience so did a full day bus tour (4WD bus, hilarious) to see the main spots.

I took a lot of motion sickness pills and thank heavens I did because it was TERRIBLE. I'd rung beforehand to try and see how bad it would be - fully expecting the usual "you'll be fine" or "most people don't have a problem" - they said it was really rough, expect the worst and they have seasick bags on the bus! So I took all the pills, they worked fine but I felt completely spaced out all day and slept for 17 hours when we got back. 

This is the beautiful inland lake that was our first stop.

Then we did a bushwalk along a gloriously clear river - filtered by sand, lots of sand. Onto the main beach, which is a 120 km of gazetted road with an 80 kmph speed limit, including some 40 km spots where you have to cross creeks or there are camping areas. There was a traffic cop with a speed radar at one, so there you go. 

It was stunning, but you can't really swim in the open ocean, it's too dangerous. Lots of good fishing though, and I'm sure people do swim, but I'd be nervous. And of course dingoes that tend to attack tourists - we saw some (safely through the bus window). And we saw lots of whales breaching just offshore, including some calves, really exciting but my photos just look like ocean although there were three whales in the shot, I swear. 

This is an amazingly clear creek that I wandered down - transclucent water, sandy bottom, feels like a million miles from anywhere (and not like you've just hopped off one of four tour buses, including several minibuses of british backpackers, who were having a lovely time and looked exceptionally sunburnt). 

It was a great day and I'm glad I did it, but I don't know if it's really a holiday destination for me. There are designated camping spots up and down the beach but there's no facilities of any kind (including water) and it gets incredibly busy over the summer. There was a wee plane doing joy rides taking off and landing from the beach.

The next day we did a guided nature walk that was excellent, and my husband did another beach walk in the afternoon while I slept for a couple more hours. The pills had caffeine in them to try and keep you awake ... which works for about two hours while the sleepiness lasts three days. We had a good trip though.

Springtime

It's absolutely bucketing rain here today but the last few days have been gloriously spring-like and warm ... lots of gardening. Or mowing, as we realise just how much grass we have and how quickly it grows.

Most of the trees are still bare but some of the blossom trees are out and very beautiful.

Daffodils are decorating unexpected patches of the yard, and they are all different sorts. My husband said it looks like someone just ordered one of everything from the daffodil catalogue then stood on the front verandah and chucked them in every direction. It does not appeared planned ... but they do seem very healthy and it's fun to see how many different ways you can combine yellow, pale yellow, dark yellow, orangey yellow, pinky yellow and white.

I brought some inside (with wattle and forsythia) which was a very good idea given how grey and miserable it is out there at the moment.

Last week we had a lovely few days when my sister and a friend of hers visited - they had been up with the friend's rellies in Sydney beforehand so took the train down and I picked them up at Tarago railway station. Possibly the smallest station I've ever seen; they were the only ones getting off so had to hop down quick smart. There was nobody else there at all, no-one working or meeting or leaving. Wonderful.

We went down to the beach for a couple of days to see some ocean (sadly no stingrays at the jetty, I think the tide was too low). Super lovely to catch up and have some chill family time .. they had a poke around Braidwood too but there's not that much to see really. 

So now we are back into the swing of whatever it is we do ... although I've had a bad cold the past couple of days which is a bit unfair. It's the first bug since I stopped working - I wouldn't have said I was around enough people to catch germs but maybe someone sneezed on me at the grocery store. I struggled into quilters on Tuesday, and there's garden club on Thursday, and I think I might gather my courage and go to the drawing group on Saturday. They say it's "all levels" but it still requires some level of bravery to draw in a room full of strangers ... although it's at 4 pm and the bar is apparently open. That may help. 

The cat has been very clingy since we got back. I have a lot of photos like this where she is 'helping' me with various household chores.

Brisbane

After Adelaide we had a week or so in Brisbane to catch up with my husband's parents and extended family - unfortunately his mum was in hospital after falling and cracking her head - came home after a couple of days but not much fun for her! But we were pleased to be there and able to help a bit with the cooking and keep his dad company. 

My husband had a birthday so we had pizza and  his sister made him a cake (delicious, we ate it for days). His dad is also a crazy bird man - I was the first one to open the blinds one morning to be greeted by this line up of hungry birds. They are slightly different to ours but still parrots and still demanding to be fed. Bird Man, Son of Bird Man is now his official title. 

We went into town and poked around a bit - the middle of Brisbane is lovely on a good day, especially in winter. Summer can be very hot but a clear twenty degree day in August is amazing. I went to art galleries and shops - my husband went with his dad on a tour of some historic barracks - great day out on both counts.

We hung out with his parents, caught up with extended family (including the great niece that I hadn't met before and who is very cute!) and generally had a lovely chill time. We also did a three-day trip up to K'Gari but I think that will need to be its own post because it was amazing and I took a LOT of photos....

Adelaide

We've been away for two weeks, which it turns out is a little bit too long to leave our country idyll, and we missed it very much. But we did have a lovely time and it's not exactly a bad problem, to enjoy your holidays but be glad to be home.

First we went to Adelaide for a few days for a friend's 60th - I have spent a heap of time in Adelaide over the years and know it reasonably well, but Brad hasn't at all. The last time was when we took the children in 2008 - so ages 3 and 6 - and it was a fiesta of railway museums, chicken nuggets and 5 am starts from memory. This trip was much more pleasant. We went for a lot of walks to orient ourselves, enjoyed the sights and had a lovely day for our friend's birthday - including a wine tasting at a very scenic winery.

The photo looks quite sunny but it was about five degrees and windy so we sat inside and tasted the wines (delicious, and there may be a dozen winging their way to our house as we speak) then had a lunch at a very cool historic pub, then to other friends for a lovely afternoon tea in front of two open fires. Pretty much a perfect day!

We caught up with another friend who had retired to Adelaide (and loving it, the universal cry of the recently retired) then had a day doing the art gallery and museum. I'd remembered that I thought the South Australian State Gallery was pretty good, but couldn't quite remember why, until I went in and realized that this is the gallery that just runs everything together regardless of era, and it's way cool. It's organised by themes, but not so you'd notice, and it's a wonderful viewing experience.

So two thumbs up for Adelaide - we were only there for five days and flew up to Brisbane. Definitely on the list to visit again (perhaps drive over, it's about 1300 km) and explore the countryside around it a bit more. Plenty to see!

Death to cineraria

Here's a before and after for you - a bed entirely full of six-foot high cineraria (probably 'silver dust' looking at the leaves) that was very much living its best life out by the clothesline. They are not meant to be six foot high ... in the interests of accuracy I googled what the plant is and it's been reclassified as Jacobaea maritima, commonly known as silver ragwort, which is all news to me. I am not entirely sure if it's the same plant but it does look a lot like it, and the foliage is very distinctive. And very pretty! But the inside of these plants was not happy; lots of dead twigs and generally lanky and miserable.

Actually on further googling it could even be Centaurea cineraria, the velvet centaurea, which is a completely unrelated plant that looks almost exactly the same. You can tell the difference by the flowers, so now we will NEVER KNOW because I chopped it right back, saw it still looked sad, so pulled it all out by the roots and plan to put it through the chipper. Lost to science.

As you can now see, this is some sort of building foundation turned into a couple of garden beds. There is concrete and rocks and a big wooden post and there has been careful planting and mulching in the past. Brad is thinking hibiscus there, which would be lovely (cold weather hibiscus of course, not the pretty tropical ones), but in the meantime we have discovered another actual part of the garden. Can you tell I read The Secret Garden about fifty times when I was a kid? I now follow the little blue-headed wrens about in case they're going to lead me to a hidden gate. In a big brick wall. Sigh.

Distance to the ground

I called this quilt " Distance to the ground" because it made me think of sky? Air possibly? I made it because another woman at quilters was doing a blue and white quilt, and it is such a lovely classic colour scheme, that I thought I needed one. Another one, I have made blue and white quilts before.

But not this pattern which is a traditional block that's called about fifteen different things. All of my points are chopped off and I had to trim the blocks about half an inch so they would be even remotely square, so it does not look at all the way it should look. Am I bothered? I am not. 

It is quilted in an allover meander. This possibly the laziest quilting pattern you can do other than straight lines (which I am also very fond of) but it looks fine and you wouldn't notice much on this busy piecing. The outer border was meant to have those four-patches floating in the same fabric but I got the maths wrong and didn't have quite enough ... so a recalculation and some unpicking meant two colours. As ever, it looks like that's what I planned all along! Hah!

Hints of spring

There are definitely rumours in the garden that spring is on the way. One camellia bush is in full flower and the other one is covered in buds about to burst out. 

This tree is an early starter with these blossoms thinking about showing - most of the rest of them are still completely bare. It's not any warmer but the days are starting to get longer. 

The daffs are starting to come up, and the jonquils are everywhere. The roses that I pruned so severely have some buds ... although some shoots that are never going to sprout again. Oooops, sorry roses.

We're a bit nervous about spring and things growing ... having barely gained control of some small fraction of the garden, it's an intimidating thought that everything is going to start fighting back. And because it will be our first spring we have no idea what exists underground or what half these plants are. Is it dead or is it deciduous? We're about to find out.

Melbourne again

We went down to Melbourne for a few days to see some more alternative theatre ... off to the Melbourne Theatre Company again where number two was in a reading of a new play. It was described as a "reckless, erotic and audacious ode to reconnection" so we weren't 100% sure what to expect but we really enjoyed it. The main character was read by a single actor but number two did the three secondary characters including sensible best friend and British love interest ... god listen to me "love interest" it was definitely a fuckboy situation ... so yeah, our child reading sex scenes. We coped with that and just about burst with pride all the other times - so talented and smart!!!! And can do an accent!!!! Completely unbiased opinion of course.

Number two also had a ticket to some re-telling of Pride and Prejudice and persuaded us to get tickets to come too... then BAILED (admittedly, did have a bad cold) leaving us to go and enjoy a play where Mr Bennet was played by a literal pot plant (I think a monstera?) and Mary murdered Mr Collins with a shotgun. Sounds dreadful, was actually very funny and we laughed a lot. Very high energy and entertaining. 

The weather was a lot better than the last trip - clear and cold - we saw these hot air balloons very early on the last morning just as the sun was coming up. It would have been freezing up there, but very still. Our airbnb was a nice townhouse that had bedroom/bathroom downstairs and a big kitchen/living space upstairs. Kind of strange but you did get a bit of a view from upstairs.

Other than the theatrical experiences we hung out with number two a little bit, wandered round the alternative streets of Brunswick ... I accidentally walked into the Victorian headquarters of the Spinners and Weavers which was AWESOME. A shop, but also full of volunteer ladies who wanted to tell you all about everything you were looking at and ask you questions about what you did and point you to the library and suggest you join the guild? I enjoyed it very much and one of the ladies had a small crusty white dog for my husband to bond with.

We also went to a historic house and gardens - Como House, which was kind of cool but also impossible to see how you could live there, even though it wasn't that grand. Sometimes we go to these places for decor inspiration but I think I prefer the ikea touches of my cosy cottage. The gardens were nice.

One afternoon we drove into the burbs to what is allegedly the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere ... I don't know if that's true but we had a lovely couple of hours shopping - it was all very clean and shiny and peaceful which sometimes is just what you need. We enjoyed it but were glad to get back home again to the countryside.

Log cabin

I finished the log cabin that I started at the quilter's Saturday Sew Along - I do like a log cabin and this is nice and small and pretty. I was the only very scrappy one - most people had a more curated selection :) - but it turned out OK. It was going to be far too small for anything so I put on the border and brought it up to a reasonable size. And less long and skinny.

It's just quilted in straight lines because of all the seams. I wasn't going to get swirly and creative with that much going on.

We finally have a new sofa and it is surprisingly comforting. It feels like the living room has finally got its proper shape, and we are very much enjoying having somewhere to loll. Once again, despite swearing I wouldn't fill my house with shit from Ikea, we bought it from Ikea - exactly the same as the one at the last house except smaller. It was super comfy then, and it's super comfy now, and the colour is good, and the price was right, and it only took three hours to put together, most of which was putting the cushions in the covers ... like putting a duvet cover on but ten times as hard. Here is an action shot...

So I think that was the last house thing we had to do? We have lots and lots of more elaborate plans (if we ever sell the Canberra house and have two cents to rub together) but that was it for immediate things. No outdoor furniture yet but we have camping chairs... And finally we have my husband at a eight-hour lunch last weekend (Christmas in July [August], which is why the Santa headband) bonding with the house dachshund. It was a flighty little thing but followed him round like a sausage missile the whole time.

Chaos at the sheep pen

One of the 'features' of our new place is a small sheep run, with broken down fences and a concrete ramp up to where they would have loaded sheep onto some form of transport. It is old and cute and planted with roses and some other garden beds. Cupboard guy reckoned that the concrete was made with stones from the local river, and it certainly looks rocky and rustic.

Like everything else it is wildly overgrown and we've had to dig and clear to even see what's there. We know that it's been lovely because these are photos from when it was sold in 2017.

And this is what it looked like last week! Some of it is just because of winter but mostly it is an absolute morass of weeds, grass, roses that have been left to their own devices and dead sad lavender. So I've dealt to the roses, sprayed them down, chopped them back and we are in the process of clearing and mulching the beds.

It could be a long time before it gets back to the picture postcard glory days. The fence is falling down too, and we don't really want to 'fix' it, but we don't want it crushing passersby either. 

And of course Chonky needed a second burrow so dug one out in the least convenient spot. It's the dark bit to the right of the little rock, which we rolled into the hollow to see what he would do .... dig around it? roll it away? ignore it? We have noticed he's started dropping turds on the wooden chopping stump, so is that a sign of protest? or just lizard-brain cairn-building? Wombats are mysterious.