Fort Lytton...

A few Sundays ago, DH didn't play golf as usual and he suggested that it was a perfect opportunity for us to visit Fort Lytton. This is a historical site on the southern side of the Brisbane river about 18km from the centre of the city and therefore, quite close to the mouth of the river. It is now a National Park and is usually only opened to the public on Sundays only. There are some 'special days' when the park is opened and people dress up in old uniforms and re-enact how the fortress was operated.

Colonial soldier's helmet and army issue eating utensils...

A mannikin wearing an old colonial uniform, sitting in front of a replica army tent

Some of the remaining buildings of the quarantine station; the chimney is part of the giant incinerator which burned immigrants belongings if disease was found...

One of the old military buildings

The site contains a fortress (built in 1881, in response to the fear that the Russians could attack :-/), complete with a moat, and a quarantine  station which was meant to protect the then colony from infectious diseases being brought in by immigrants. The Russians did not ever invade any of the Australian colonies but the fort was designed to 'support underwater river mines and prevent attacks on Brisbane's port facilities by enemy ships'.

Replica mines of the type used to protect the mouth of the river

Fort Lytton became an important military training establishment and by the time WW1 broke out, it had a number of heavy guns, including 2 machine guns with which to defend Brisbane. No shots were ever fired in 'anger' as no invaders came. After WW2, the army no longer used the site and in 1963, the land was acquired by the oil company Ampol for a refinery.In 1988 the State government took over ownership of the actual fort and it has now been added to the Queensland Parks and wildlife Service. The quarantine station was closed in 1982 but the buildings are closed to the public.

Our guide, Joe, showing us the moat which originally encircled the fortress. The actual fort is nestled into the hill behind that building in the photo.

We've walked around the mound of earth and are now walking towards the fort buildings...

The signals and radio room...

This was originally where mines were stored before being laid in the river...a very dangerous job apparently!

The view looking towards the mouth of the Brisbane River

A fellow Brisbane blogger Foto Fantastic, who blogs about the history of this city has also written a post about Fort Lytton here.
It was a very interesting couple of hours for DH and I. Guides are volunteers and many of them, including Joe, our guide, are ex soldiers. I'll probably do another post on Fort Lytton as we took lots of photos. lol

That was a lovely surprise...

A few weeks ago I wrote a comment on Cheryll's blog without really taking much notice that there was a 'Giveaway' being run. A few days later I got an email saying that that my name had been chosen and that a package of goodies would be on its way to me. What a surprise!

And then, the following Tuesday my parcel arrived. The 'Giveaway' was in honour of Cheryll's birthday but when I opened that parcel, I honestly thought that it was my birthday all over again!

All the goodies are safely inside the cardboard...

Firstly, a sweet little sewing kit and a great magnet! I love that saying :-)

 Then some quilt labels....

Next, a Natalie Ross Journal Cover pattern...

Two lovely fat quarters....

And a great idea for a Christmas ornament/decoration...

So how lucky was I? Thank you for the great Giveaway Cheryll. I feel like I had a second birthday this year :-)

The sad tale of my swift...a story with a happy ending :-)

A few Christmases ago, DH gave me a 'swift' and a wool winder.  For those who don't know, a swift is like a  wooden umbrella minus any covering. Skeins of yarn are placed on the spokes and the wool is wound into a ball with the wool winder, as the spokes spin around.

 Except, my swift kept collapsing so winding the yarn was quite difficult. I thought 'that it must be me' and persevered in quite trying circumstances. In fact I started to revert to placing the skein over the back of a chair and wind from there...

 Then one day at the little yarn shop where I'd bought my swift, I watched as a customer's skeins were wound into balls on the shop's swift. I watched as 'Rell put the skein on the spokes and then I noticed her adjusting the spokes so that the yarn was outstretched. I saw her tighten 'something' and then she started to wind....

This was the 'something' that she tightened.... a wooden peg with a screw...I had never seen this on my swift....

 This is where that screw should have been on my swift...empty hole...

 That day I could stand it no more and blurted out...'My swift doesn't have that screw/peg thing'...do they all have that?' The answer was that apparently they all do and I was asked how I was managing to wind wool without it. I replied that I had found it very difficult but thought that it must have been something that I was doing wrong! lol
Dear Gaby, the owner of the shop took the part out of a box in stock so I could have it straight away. (that 'screwless swift' was then going to be returned as incomplete) So when I got home I set up my swift, complete with the tightening screw...

It stays up now even when laden with a skein of yarn...(the yarn is the lovely TeAwa mohair yarn from New Zealand, now no longer available)

 Just the novelty of it staying up in place....I love it :-)

So I'm so glad that I decided to watch 'Rell winding balls of yarn that Saturday morning.

What's been happening in my little corner...

Last Friday, as the afternoon wore on, it was obvious that our part of Brisbane was also affected by outbreaks of grass and bushfires....luckily all put out pretty quickly.

We've also had heavy clouds and eventually we did get some very welcome rain on Saturday night...this photo shows the dark clouds gathering in the afternoon.

On Sunday morning DH and I attended a service at one of the churches that makes up our parish. The foundation stone for the then new church was laid on this date 50 years ago. Among the guests were the first person baptised in the new church and the first couple to be married in the church. Bishop Richard came from Newcastle to be part of the service as well. 

Then after the service DH headed off to golf and I headed for Newmarket's 'Gloria Jean's' for my monthly coffee meet up with the group 'The Newmarket Mums'. Next month is our Christmas Luncheon and this year it is at my place! So we organised the menu on Sunday...who is bringing what etc.

My notes for organising the Christmas Luncheon...

 This photo is of our last year's lunch which was at my friend Carmel's.

Then last night, the family went off to the iconic Breakfast Creek Hotel to celebrate DsD3's 26th birthday 

:-)... DsD2 baked a birthday cake too. It was the first 'paleo' cake I've ever eaten. (don't know about the 'paleo' diet?? Google it! DsD3 is following this diet.) 

FNSI...

A week later this month; joining in with Heidi's regular monthly feature.

On Friday night I finished crocheting around a baby blanket for K4BN. I had noticed a number of softer pastel coloured squares among the squares that had been donated to the charity for sewing up. I started putting them aside and eventually I had a pile of 13. So I used 12 of these to make a cot sized blanket.

The little stocking still needs to be sewn up...

Then one more task before bedtime...I knitted a mini Christmas stocking, also for K4BN. We've had requests for several hundred of these as many groups who help the needy give these away with a small gift popped inside. The one I knitted on Friday night is the first of many I hope that I'll get done :-)

Photographic Scavenger Hunt; Something crooked...

Once again I'm joining with Deb and others in this weekly feature. My DH responded in a similar way to Deb's 'Bearded Wonder' in regards to this topic. When I commented that I needed some photos for this topic, DH responded with 'So is Campbell coming over to get his photo taken is he?' Campbell is the premier and there is yet another scandal involving this government, unfolding at the moment here.... sigh...

No,... no photos of politicians just some items in the environment that are not perfectly perpendicular and which could be viewed as a bit highly haphazard! lol

The trunk and branches of the crepe myrtles down the side of the house...

Oops! Where the 'old' part of the house joins a 1990s extension

The path of pavers to the front gate...

A tree near the front fence. This tree is often trimmed by contractors working for the electricity provider...

Electricity pole a little way up the street from our place...

This tree grows on the footpath across the road from our place

A house on the other side of the road from us. When I first moved here 10 years ago this was a charming picket fence...but the termites and rot have kind of spoiled it's appearance lol! Even the gate is now hanging crookedly :-(

Talking of fences...this is our next door neighbour's front fence

One crooked batten around the downstairs part of our house...

A jungle of crepe myrtles which are self sown near our back gate

The bend in this part of the back boundary fence of our yard...

What happens when you buy an arch from Sam's Warehouse and let a vine grow over it lol!

 The last photos are really 'out there'...the first is a sheet of film from some scans of  some of 'my plumbing'...The second is a close up of one of the scans, showing the lower part of my spine...which has a curve (and another one higher up). My mother couldn't stand to look at my back and had all sorts of hypotheses as to why I had scoliosis (I slumped; didn't sit up straight etc)  She was later found to have scoliosis too, as was her mother :-) So I think some genetics might have been at work.

So there's my view/take on crookedness....

Tomatoes and more tomatoes!

During winter this year I planted a number of tomato plants in large tubs instead of in the vegie garden beds. These tomatoes have done extremely well and are very productive. I have to admit though, that in the last month, the insect pests have been visiting, and this, together with some very windy days, have made the plants look not at their best. But I'm still picking lots of tomatoes each day.

Two plants that I potted on earlier, came up in my home made compost. One is a cherry tomato and the other is a 'truss' type. 

This truss type tomato came up in the compost....the plants is covered in small fist sized fruit..

This is one of the Tommy Toe variety tomato plants that I got free at the Exhibition this year

These are some of the crop...note the 'damaged' one near the front. That one ended up in the bin as there was at least one grub inside it.

Our friends, family and neighbours have been given paper bags of tomatoes, DH and I have something made with tomatoes each day, there are containers of homemade tomato puree in the freezer...there has been more than enough to share around. I'll probably make some more puree but part of me is pondering about making some oven dried tomatoes...??? My dad had a wonderful and productive vegie garden but he would be amazed to see what I'm growing in potting mix!