The sun is shining and the puddles are drying. A week has flown by since we were in the throes of flooding in our region again. How lucky I feel that we did not experience the heartbreaking floods felt by the people of Laidley, Gympie, Bundaberg, Mundubbera, and Gayndah. My heart reaches out to the families who are once again cleaning up after devastating flood waters have destroyed their homes.
As happened in January 2011, the heavy downpour of over 400mm of rain in two days left a rather muddy mess in our pool. The pool overflowed twice despite the Old Grey One releasing water on four occasions during 24 hours, and our poor little goldfish had fun swimming in a larger pond than normal - how that little guy continues to survive amazes me!
In 2011 the
waters lapped the back door and I watched with dread as the water
continued to build up around the laundry door, but thanks to some fast
thinking by my Hero no water entered the house - 3" running over the
patio and a river running down the road but nothing in the house.
The winds reached over 100kph and tore the roof cover off the gazebo beside the pool, but it's replaceable. Several trees are down in the garden and Mr R. has a great deal of work ahead of him to remove a very large branch from our beautiful gum tree as well as a number of smaller trees that were destroyed by the winds. But we stayed safe and dry.
In other areas of Queensland family members and friends in Brisbane lost power for several hours, and Mrs K. lost phone and internet connection for a couple of days - but all were safe.
A plus side to the terrible weather was that there were three perfect "no-guilt" days for staying indoors and stitching - and I thoroughly enjoyed that idea, especially as it gave me incentive to start working on one of my New Year Goals. I no longer make NY "resolutions" - they only get broken and forgotten. In 2012 I made a concerted effort to set myself GOALS. Last year one major goal, amongst smaller ones, was to set up a travel blog - ACHIEVED successfully I believe (although I was, on occasion, very slack in updating it).
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In 2013 I have two specific goals - the main one is to complete at least FOUR UFOs in the box in my workroom - I counted them before I set the goal and found at least FORTY unfinished projects which include cross-stitch projects, quilts, and scrapbooking projects. Within the first month I am well on target having already completed two small cot quilts - both started over 18 months ago. One of my cross-stitch projects is also on its way to completion with the help of some fellow stitchers in a Round Robin - what better way to finish a UFO than with the assistance of like-minded crafters.
Weather-wise it may have been a bad start to 2013 but the year ahead is looking great for the Rambling Retirees with a great deal of adventures on the planning board (more about that in the next blog entry), and later in the year the arrival of our son and family from the UK.
Until next time - stay safe everyone - enjoy the sunshine when you can - and remember, there is always someone worse off than you may think you are.
Oh, by the way -- feel free to leave your comments on the blog so I know you have visited us along the way.
Keep smiling.
Here it is already the end of January and this is my first entry for 2013. Wow! They say that as you get older the time seems to go faster - how right that feels at the moment.
Life was certainly very busy over Christmas and New Year - despite a very quiet Christmas Day. Too hot to even swim in the pool, we stayed in the air-con and enjoyed a fabulous seafood lunch of lobster, prawns, Tassie oysters, smoked trout, and Moreton Bay bugs, all washed down with a bottle of Moet. Who said Christmas was just for children?!
Boxing Day was shared with Mr & Mrs K, visiting from Sarina for ten days - with the exchange of some wonderful gifts followed by a three course meal. But NYE was a quiet event with a lovely meal at the Glenvale and an early night for everyone.
Whilst Mr K was testing out his new gyrocopter at Dalby, Mrs K and the Oldies went to the movies and thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit in 3D - even bought Maltesers and popcorn!
Two days at the Brisbane International tennis event was an anniversary gift from the Old Grey One to Mrs R back in September. So on 3rd and 4th Jan. we enjoyed some fantastic matches with some of the great players on court on both days. It was extremely hot and drinks and food were priced over the top but we had wonderful court-side seats and enjoyed a couple of those thirst-quenching Pimms one must always try at the tennis. Oh, and I forgot - those luscious ice-creams. YumO.
A one-day quilt-as-you-go workshop was the next event for Mrs R. A technique I had long wanted to learn. It was very interesting (although hot and tiring for me) and I think I did eventually get the hang of it - no doubt will find out when I put my next big quilt together.
Prior to 2012 visitors were few and far between for the Raywards. But over the past 12 months we have played host to a number of overseas visitors. We were delighted this month to have our American family/friends, John and Sue Mitchell, visit us from the US for ten days. The Mitchells were host parents to our daughter Heidi, when she was on an AFS student exchange program back in 1993. So it was lovely to be their hosts for 10 days and showcase some of the wonderful parts of our region.
Over the ten day period our local temperatures during the day did not fall below 35 degrees celsius so we interspersed sight-seeing days with days relaxing at home so that Mrs R could enjoy the days out as well.
We plied our visitors with local wines and cheese and filled them with all sorts of local information.
We even went to the movies to see Les Miserables - what a wonderful movie. We all needed tissues by the end of it.
Our day trips included the Toowoomba gardens; Crows Nest Falls NP; Bunya Mountains NP; Jondaryan Woolshed (for Sunday brunch and a shearing demo); Nobby to visit Rudd's Pub; and Preston Peak Wines (for lunch and tastings of course). On our last day together we travelled to Brisbane via Mt Glorious and Mt Nebo, with a picnic lunch at the Brisbane Forest Park...... AND......... the rains stayed away until the following day!!!!
We hope they enjoyed their time here as much as we enjoyed their company, and we wish them a safe journey travelling around NZ, Malaysia, and Thailand on their way home to the States. And we wish them a wonderful 50th wedding anniversary celebration in June.
Wow, two posts in one day. But I am only trying to save face and playing catch-up really.
We did factor in some quiet time for Auntie to recover from jet-lag, but it really wasn't needed as she had no problems adjusting to our time zone, but we did ease her into a couple of local trips.
Toowoomba is renowned for it's gardens, and the annual Carnival of Flowers is held in September, so the first trip to introduce Auntie to our beautiful region was off to the Japanese Gardens, and Laurel Bank Gardens (my favourite as this is where we were married 31 years ago). The gardens didn't disappoint, although not fully in bloom until the second week of September they still put on a good early show of beauty.
As many of you may know, Mr R. and I are 'bushies' at heart and we love the bush and its peace and tranquillity, so it was only natural that during the first four weeks of Auntie's visit that we would head for the local national parks for short day trips. 
Our first was to Crows Nest Falls, just 35 minutes from Toowoomba. A lovely quiet park mid-week - not a soul to be seen. The only set back here is the track gets a bit rough and steep in parts before reaching the Falls lookout (exceptionally rough in some parts after last year's horrendous floods). Unfortunately, Auntie was a bit lame the day we decided to do this walk and struggled a little with a painful hip. She was very brave though and completed the walk, but did need to rest for the next few days.
Our second NP visit was a little more successful - Ravensbourne. A lovely short walk of 1km taking in some beautiful rainforest and natural lookouts over the range.
As the Carnival period approached our garden blossomed even more, Mr R. and I also had a few commitments with the info centre and quilt group. Undeterred at being left on her own for a few hours Auntie seemed to enjoy sitting in one of my rockers whilst she read books from my collection of Catherine Cookson, or spent time knitting dolls clothes with the umpteen balls of wool stored in my craft cupboard. We didn't however, neglect her, and she and I had a lovely "girlie" day out to Highfields, just 15 minutes from home, wandering through antique, jewellery, and crafty shops, with a lovely lunch to finish.
O
ut next "event" was a trip to Lake Broadwater, about an hour's drive from home, SW of Dalby. Here Auntie experienced our wild life 'up close and personal'. With an abundance of wallabies and kangaroos around the lake we enjoyed watching young joeys trying to get back in the pouch and had some wonderful photo opportunities. LB has a wonderful variety of birdlife and we were delighted to see a very large flock of spoonbills wading in the lake as well as two black swans with their young. Our journey home from LB gave us the opportunity to show Auntie some of the rich cotton fields and locally grown crops.
Already more than half way through Auntie's visit downunder and I am yet to put pen to paper - shame on me! However, I shall now try my best to right such a terrible wrong and give you a little insight to the first four weeks of her historic visit.
No-one could say that this visit was going to be anything but eventful - and I mean full of events. The morning of Auntie's arrival was certainly not straightforward. But first let me regress to the day before - that being the day we travelled from Toowoomba to Boronia Heights to stay the night with Bro and wife to ease the travel to the airport since Auntie's ETA was 6.40 am and it's a two and half hour journey from home to the airport. And a jolly good thing we did make the trip the day before because when we arrived at Bro's the speedy sporty Astra just died on the front lawn. RACQ assistance was extremely quick in responding to my cry for help but only to tell us he couldn't really help as the alternator had given up the ghost and we had only been running of battery power for most of our trip from home! Great - 4.45pm the day before going to the airport - thank goodness for a kind-hearted Bro who knew a mechanic was only five minutes walk away - and lo and behold he actually had an alternator for our model Astra. Of course, wouldn't be fixed until midday the next day but at least we could borrow Nellie's motor to collect Auntie at 6.40am.
Rising bright (well not so bright really) and early (yes, very, very, early) we headed off to the airport at 5.50am to avoid the start of the peak hour traffic, only to find we were driving into early morning fog!! Wonderful start to the day. Very pleased with ourselves we arrived at the airport at 6.35am only to discover - yep you guessed it - flight delayed. But not just delayed for 30 or 40 minutes - delayed FOUR HOURS!!!!! As we all know, airport parking fees are astronomical and four hours was not long enough for us to return to Bro's but too damn long to stay parked, so we headed off to DFO to get some breakfast and free parking (must mention here though, DFO car park does not open its gates until 9am, so we parked at the Village and stretched our breakfast time). Asking the question re the delay, information provided - "an elderly lady was taken ill and the aircraft diverted to allow her to be taken off" - are we now more than anxious? - darn right we are, especially as it approached 11.30am and still no sign of Auntie through customs. Then she appeared and Mrs R. cried with relief.
Although that first day was full of anxiety, it was also full of love and hugs with a short reunion at Bro's house with Mr and Mrs G. and part of their family making a short trip from their holiday site on the Gold Coast. The car was ready by 1pm, and after a lovely lunch, short reunion, and fond good-byes we took Auntie away from the city and planted her in the beautiful rural surrounds of the 'Rayward Resort'. So endeth the first day of a ten week visit. EVENTFUL or EVENT FULL, not quite sure.
Since departing Nairana at the end of July life for the Rambling Retirees has been extremely busy.
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| Beach waves |
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| Rock pool exploring |
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| On the Beach 4WD |
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| Sea Eagle |
We left Nairana and travelled across country to Sarina to spend a couple of days with Mr and Mrs K. - the couple of days extended into eight days before we headed home. For the first time in this area we did a few "touristy" things - a tour of the local sugar factory, complete with tastings; the botanic gardens; Cape Hillsborough; Mackay shopping; shell collecting on the local beaches; We also took a little bit of time out to see some of the spectacular rainforest and coastal areas - including a trip to Cape Palmerston where we experienced our first 4WD trip across the sand! Ever in the 'bird-watch' mode we espied some beautiful sea-eagles and Steve once again wished for a bigger lens!
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| Finch Hatton Gorge |
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| Finch Hatton Approach |
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| Cascades |
A day out with Mrs K. driving gave Mr. R. a few more grey hairs but we certainly enjoyed a beautiful day at Cape Hillsborough walking on the beach and exploring the rock pools.
On our trip to Finch Hatton Gorge we were lucky enough to see a loaded sugar-cane train crossing the river. As we had been to the local miniature sugar factory in Sarina it was interesting to see the associated machinery cutting and transporting the cane from local farms.
A short trip into Mackay and we enjoyed a lovely day wandering through the small but interesting botanic gardens - it really is a lovely area in the North.
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| Cania Gorge walks |
Leaving Sarina on the Sunday morning before we were due back in Toowoomba we decided to drive as far as Cania Gorge to make a stopover. That was a wonderful choice as we had never been to Cania Gorge and with just a one night there we have decided to make a mid-week camping trip back there either later this year or March next year.
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| Cania Gorge Cabin |
Time as slipped by very quickly since our return and as always, when one gets older, one starts to lose track of days, then weeks between events! We are now at the end of September, actually TWO months since our return and it has been hectic.
Not long after our return from the wilderness our lovely Auntie arrived from the UK to spend ten weeks with us. Being her first, and no doubt only, trip to Australia we do, of course, want to show her as much as we can during her visit. Luckily for us September is our local Carnival of Flowers time and the gardens all around our beautiful city are just splendidly full of colour. There are lots of private gardens open to the public following the judging of the garden competition and our public parks are just brimming with floral displays. So plenty to see locally during September and October.
Although I am only now updating our blog, we thought you might like to share in our excursions with Auntie during her visit - so -
More to come.
As happened in January 2011, the heavy downpour of over 400mm of rain in two days left a rather muddy mess in our pool. The pool overflowed twice despite the Old Grey One releasing water on four occasions during 24 hours, and our poor little goldfish had fun swimming in a larger pond than normal - how that little guy continues to survive amazes me! 
In 2011 the
waters lapped the back door and I watched with dread as the water
continued to build up around the laundry door, but thanks to some fast
thinking by my Hero no water entered the house - 3" running over the
patio and a river running down the road but nothing in the house. 
The winds reached over 100kph and tore the roof cover off the gazebo beside the pool, but it's replaceable. Several trees are down in the garden and Mr R. has a great deal of work ahead of him to remove a very large branch from our beautiful gum tree as well as a number of smaller trees that were destroyed by the winds. But we stayed safe and dry..jpg)
In 2013 I have two specific goals - the main one is to complete at least FOUR UFOs in the box in my workroom - I counted them before I set the goal and found at least FORTY unfinished projects which include cross-stitch projects, quilts, and scrapbooking projects. Within the first month I am well on target having already completed two small cot quilts - both started over 18 months ago. One of my cross-stitch projects is also on its way to completion with the help of some fellow stitchers in a Round Robin - what better way to finish a UFO than with the assistance of like-minded crafters.
