Hidden Gems Close to Home...

For a few years now, I have been receiving emails from a site called Weekend Notes. This site publishes articles by members of the public who have submitted articles about local places to visit and events and things to do. Originally I thought that it was only for Brisbane/SE Queensland, but I soon discovered that there are local versions in many parts of the world.
DH and I have visited a few cafes based on articles and enjoyed excellent coffee in some very quaint places; and often with beautiful views.

Late last year I told DH about a couple of picnic spots in the north of Brisbane, that I'd read about in Weekend Notes. Places within half an hour's drive of our place, yet I'd never heard of them!
One was a spot named Deep Water Bend on the Pine River ( adjacent to  the Tinchi Tamba wetlands, another place I had never heard of! 🤔)   and the other place was Harold Kielly Park on Bald Hills Creek.

We decided to venture to these spots on a Thursday because as retirees we do try to avoid possible weekend crowds...
Deep Water Bend on the beautiful Pine River.

As we wandered along the walkway I regaled DH with tales from my childhood. You see we had had an elderly neighbour who loved to go fishing at the Pine River...in those days the surrounding area was bush, bush and more bush! Mr Robson would show his catch to us...catfish and mud crabs. He would boil the crabs in the old copper and usually give neighbours one or two crabs.

People still fish in this river and I wonder if the catfish are still there?

Upstream from where we strolled we could see the freeway bridge...that wasn't there when I was a child! 😉

Then we headed for Harold Kielly Park where we were going to have the picnic lunch that I'd packed.  The first thing I noticed about this park was the abundant birdlife!

There was a huge area of ibis...

And I walked around taking photos of the geese and ducks...gorgeous! (and those ibis!)

A very pretty suburban creek...

And there was also a wonderful children's playground.

The shed on the right where we sat at a picnic table to eat our lunch...

The aerial in the next photo is for Radio 4BH...it's been a landmark in the Bald Hills area for as long as I can remember. You could see it from the old road going north and of course the freeway goes past it too. This was the first time I'd seen it from the eastern side.

It had been a great day out...inexpensive too! Lol
If you would like to check out Weekend Notes here is a link. Many Australian and UK cities have articles but the US appears to just have NY articles. But if you click on the 'show all towns and cities' link on the bottom left-hand screen, lots of countries and cities come up. Have fun!!