Zillmere Knit and Natter...

The last Tuesday of the month K4BN has a Knit and Natter at the Zillmere Community Centre. Today I took my camera to capture some of the action. As well as the group of women who sit around the long tables, knitting, crocheting and chatting, there is also a constant stream of people who just drop off big bags of donations. I never ceased to be amazed by the amount that is collected from this K&N. Today a large number of donated toiletry bags (filled with toiletry items) were handed in as well as all the knitted and crocheted items.

Here's the entrance to this busy community centre...

Jenny holds up one of the crocheted blankets that came in today...

Some of the many bags of donated items, waiting to be sorted...

Elaine holds up the tartan crocheted blanket that she made....

This is Karen who is the organiser of K4BN. Karen was taken to hospital a few weeks ago after suffering chest pains.  She had a number of tests while an inpatient but is still undergoing a series of tests. She has been warned to 'slow down' and group members are endeavouring to find ways that Karen can delegate!

This member showed us the children's beanies she has made; ranging from premmie size up

This is another one of Elaine's blankets; this one is made up of 9  squares with 24 rounds. Clever Elaine,  less sewing up required with BIG squares!

This is Elizabeth holding up her knitted blanket. Knitted with scraps and odd balls , about 300 stitches on circular needles :-)

These gorgeous crocheted toys were dropped off by a donor this morning

Starting to sort donations; Jenny and Elaine did this today instead of Karen having to do it at home.

A view of the busy room....

Blankets packed into the bags ready for recipients/organisations etc that help the needy

There are a lot of activities for the indigenous community in this centre and today  this didgeridoo player dropped in to our room to give a short recital. he was great and he was so thrilled by our enthusiastic clapping when he'd finished. 

And this is another blanket that I've made from the donated squares.

Today's donations of knitted/crocheted items numbered over 140 with 30 of those being blankets.

The colour brown...

Not my favourite colour even though I do have brown eyes! lol  Once again I'm joining in with Evi over at Sister Sun and selecting photos to share with a theme colour.

In Stratford on Avon

Chocolate coconut slice

Another slice just out of the oven

A potato plant shoots up through the soil; autumn leaves are strewn around too.

Spent potting mix ready to be composted

This was in a pack of washed lettuce leaves that I bought; it's a piece of twig of some sort

Every year DD2 asks me to make her a Black Forest cake for her birthday

Choc-brandy truffles at Christmas

Christmas pudding

The roots of the jade plant that had to be removed when the veranda was extended

Gorgeous brown horses and a little pony who walked beside them. This is a cart ride in Switzerland

On the cart ride we came across these children with alpacas

Grand Canyon

We stopped here in Idaho to take photos of this amazing bridge

Where else but Pier 39 in San Francisco; I could sit and watch these guys for hours :-) and yes they did move every now and then

one of the lovely buildings in Lancaster PA

Death mask of Abraham Lincoln

This area in the city of York (UK) is known as 'The Shambles'. the buildings are very close together

Well I hope you enjoy my brown pics.

How is the garden going...

 This post will be mainly about the vegie garden and this would be the part of the garden where I put the most effort in. This time last month, the new garden bed looked like this...

In the last month we've had over a week of rain and yesterday this is how the bed looked....

Earlier this year, I planted a piece of sweet potato vine that had broken off, into a large pot. It has continued to grow and I've wondered whether any sweet potatoes had developed. It really was a bit of an experiment to see whether a pot was a suitable way to grow the kumara.

I scraped away a little of the soil... and voila!!!

The second planting of potatoes are doing well...

 this photo below is not meant to be in this spot, but Blogger is not cooperating so...this is a succulent which I've had growing in a pot for quite a few years...this is the first time that it has flowered.

Above is one of my new eggplant plants...these are finger sized fruit and the plant is producing well

Another view of my succulent which is flowering. 

We really are fortunate that winter does not adversely affect the gardens here. In fact, the number of garden pests is quite low during winter so the plants tend to thrive. Winter time in the subtropics is traditionally a dry time of year but the last few years have seen significant winter rains which further boost our plants and trees.

We went to the Gold Coast but we didn't go to the beach...

Yesterday DH and I met some relatives who are on a cruise. The ship was in Brisbane just for the day. Now these relatives could be classed as 'ex relatives' because they are in-laws from my former marriage. But luckily for me many of my ex husband's family are still quite comfortable being friends with not only myself, but in Murray and Marlene's case, they have been so welcoming to DH. We've had invitations to family weddings and have stayed with M & M and when my former MIL died, DD2 and I flew to Melbourne and stayed with them then. 

Marlene and I at the Rovers Ball, Melbourne, 1971

So when DH and I were in Victoria in June, we spent time with the extended family which now includes M&Ms grand-daughters. We already knew of the upcoming cruise, so in June we planned what we would do when the ship docked in Brisbane. Marlene's sister and her husband bring a caravan up to Queensland each winter and stay in Coolangatta. The plan was that we would pick up M&M and their youngest son, Terry, drive them to the coast and we would all spend the day with Jack and Carmel who are in the middle of their 2 month stay.

So yesterday morning we set off to the passenger terminal at Hamilton. At midnight the day before, Brisbane's  Airport link tunnel opened to traffic and for a while it is toll free, so naturally we drove through it as it shortened our trip to Hamilton considerably. 

In the new tunnel

Light near the end of the tunnel

Exiting near the airport

We're not actually going to the airport, so we turn towards Nudgee Rd; The overpass we're driving under takes traffic from Sandgate Rd to the airport

Driving alongside one of Brisbane's racecourses, note the trumpet vine growing over the walls in flower

A glimpse of the Dawn Princess in the middle of the photo

Our meeting place

When I went into the terminal our tourists were dressed in summer gear as they expected that Brisbane would be very warm. Luckily they had jackets because it does get quite cool here in July. Then off we went to the coast. 

DH, Jack, Murray and Terry

Terry, Carmel, Marlene

2 of the bowling greens

Back at the van park

We had a little tour of the new caravan and holiday park, lunch at the local bowls' club (which is huge), some more chatting and coffee back at the holiday park. Then it was time to head back towards Brisbane before the traffic got too heavy. 

A little while back I wrote a post about the Gold Coast here and I included photos of the beaches and street scenes. the cruise that the 'rellies' were on, leaves from Sydney and circumnavigates Australia. It stops at a number of places including Geraldton, Broome, Darwin, Port Douglas, Airlie Beach and of course Brisbane. The cruise also stops in Lombok in Indonesia. Tours are arranged at each stop but yesterday DH and I were the tour directors! lol