The housewarming gift from Brunswick Heads...

In early November last year, DH and I spent a week in the NSW coastal town of Brunswick Heads. During that week, DH played golf in a 3 day competition and I stitched and knitted to my heart's content while he did that.

We normally stay in a cabin in the Ferry Reserve Park on the Brunswick River. This is a beautiful location but unfortunately all the cabins in the place had been booked out for that week. Instead, DH had found us a lovely house to rent closer in to town.

I would sit and stitch at the little table at the front...

The gardens at this complex of houses were beautiful! This was my view as I sat and stitched...

A favourite spot to sit in the late afternoon/evenings...

A closer look at the birdbath...I loved it!

Our friends had secured a van site at Ferry Reserve, so we visited them on our first afternoon...
For a little while I felt a twinge of regret that we were not able to stay there, as it is a beautiful spot...

 But 'our home away from home for 7 days' was pretty special too so the 'twinges of regret' didn't last long! lol

The Ferry Reserve Park is right on the river bank..,

It was lovely catching up with our friends and. as always, we got a lovely welcome from Charleigh, their dog...

On one of the days when DH and his friends were playing golf, my friend Mary and I met Nanette, a fellow blogger, for lunch in Brunswick Heads. We went to Yami's...

The food was wonderful! All three of us had the 'Avo Smash' which was avocado, chopped tomatoes, onion, herbs and a delicious lemon dressing...served on sourdough . Yum!

After lunch, Nanette and I went for a walk along part of the street and decided to have a look in a gift shop. We both fell in love with some measuring cups from Australian designers, MOZI, and we both bought them as gifts...my set I planned to give DsD2 as a housewarming gift when she and her husband moved into the home they had just bought.
Now these aren't your average measuring cups...

We both found out later that MOZI is an Aussie company started by 2 sisters in their father's garage. Needless to say the business has grown somewhat since then, and has outgrown dad's garage. Nanette and I didn't know all this before we bought them...we just knew we loved them!
My DsD2 loves them too!

It's not too late to leave a comment on the 5 Giveaway posts, preceding this one. All 5 Giveaways will be drawn on Monday, January 19, 7pm AEST. 

Thank you for all the lovely comments regarding the items I've chosen to celebrate the 1000 posts' milestone.

Saturday...

Yesterday started off with a visit to this place...Newmarket Hardware...

I wasn't buying hardware though...at the back of this shop is a cute little shop known as Gallery B. This shop has clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery and lots of beautiful knick knacks...and a coffee shop! I was meeting 3 friends for a coffee...

My friend Valerie took this photo of her iced coffee and lemon cake...

After coffee and some catch up chatting, my friends and I headed off on our separate ways, which for me meant heading off to Brunswick Heads with DH. 

Just one stop on the way...Fantazia at Tweed Heads South for some more tablecloth by the metre for my big 3 metre long table. (And 40cm of some Christmas fabric that got my interest)

This year we are not staying in a cabin in the Ferry Reserve Park on the beautiful Brunswick River...the park was booked out months ago for next week. This time we are renting a house closer in to the town...

Our room...

Next Thursday and Friday nights, DH's friend will stay in this room...

And there is a smaller room where I have 'parked' my boxes of craft...

The kitchen...

The lounge and dining area...

All very nice as you can see!

We are staying a bit longer than we normally do when we come to Brunswick Heads so DH can play in the golf comp...a week was only a bit more expensive than the 4 nights we normally do, so DH booked for the week! It will be hard to leave as this area is so lovely and laid back! 

Later in the afternoon we went down to the beach...

And also sat on the rock groyne and enjoyed the view and the breeze...

(We still take terrible selfies!)

Just before bed, I settled down with my knitting to do a few rows...

A pretty good day I reckon :-)

Back to Brunswick Part 2...

Each day I would go for a walk along the river bank and also around the park itself. The area is quite flat so it was perfect for me getting back into exercising.
Looking upstream...

A closer look at that peak in the distance...

Looking straight across the river from near our cabin...

Looking across the river and towards downstream...

Looking towards the mangroves...the birds love this area

 There was a crested pigeon walking around the river bank but the photo is a little blurry as he wouldn't stand still for me! lol

I took the next photo looking straight down at the river's edge. I was so amazed by how clear the water was. You can see the tiny fish...

Another shot from the river bank...this time looking towards the bridge

Now some scenes inside the park...

The sites in the middle of the photo belong to 'permanents' and I loved their little gardens; so many bromeliads!

A view of the grassed area behind one of the amenities blocks; a group of people had marked out a yellow rectangle earlier in the day and had played some sort of game

On Thursday afternoon, the manager of the park came around advising campers to secure any loose items because there was a storm on the way. I took this photo of the sky...

As it turned out, the storm did not arrive but we had some rain...

On Thursday night, DH and I went out to dinner with another friend of DH's who was also playing in the comp. This friend had been told by workmates of a good place to eat in Brunswick Heads...The Fat Belly Kaf, so that's where we went! This restaurant serves Mediterranean style dishes and the idea is to order a number of dishes to share...and we did. The food was delicious! DH's friend ordered Greek custard for dessert; the waiter warned him that it was a big serve...and it was! A dish 15cm square filled with the lightest custard...I don't normally eat desserts but I had 2 spoonfuls, as did DH, just to help Allan out! It wasn't very sweet which was a nice surprise... it was delicious. 

On Friday I had some visitors who came to lunch. Nanette, a fellow blogger and also a member of K4BN, along with her friend Christine, joined Mary and I for lunch. I had made a quiche ( with DH's help) at home which we had frozen and brought with us specifically for this lunch date and Mary cooked one of her special eggplant dishes.

Mary cooking on the little camp stove in their annexe

And Charleigh the dog also came over for lunch. Charleigh couldn't come up on to the veranda where we were lunching (park regulations) but she stayed happily on her lead snoozing under the hedge at the front of our cabin.

After lunch Nanette and I had some Show and Tell, but as we are both working on 'top secret' projects at the moment there wasn't  a lot I can show! lol

It was lovely to finally meet Nanette in person but as she said, because of her reading my blog posts she already knows lots about me and that is the nature of blogging...some great long distance friendships!

Back in Brunswick Heads...

Last week, DH and I spent 4 nights in Brunswick Heads while DH played in a golf competition. The farther south we drove from Brisbane, the more menacing were the clouds...

Our 'home away from home' was one of the very comfortable Starfish cabins in the Ferry Reserve Park...

I packed a number of craft projects to work on while we were away, but spent much of each day visiting my friend Mary, who was also staying in the park with her DH. Both of the men were playing in the golf comp. I would take my craft projects to their campsite but we would talk more than stitch or knit! lol  Mary would make lunch each day and I would make a platter of cheeses and fruit for our afternoon tea. Pretty nice way to continue my recuperation :-)

DH and I went for a little drive on the first afternoon to purchase some groceries at the shopping village at Ocean Shores.
I saw this collection point for the four legged creatures in the community...

Just near the entry to the supermarket was this container for donations of cat food for a shelter at Mullumbimby. 

 On the way back from the shopping expedition, we explored a few areas...

Just near Ocean Shores we saw a sign for a Lookout. We followed the road and ended up at Devine's Lookout. The Devine family used to run the ferry service across the Brunswick River in the days before the bridge. It was raining at the lookout so no photos but I found some photos at this site. As we were coming down the road from the lookout, I saw this interesting Art Deco house... and I just had to take a photo!

As we were heading back to Ferry Reserve Park we saw a well used track leading off to the left just before the bridge...it was a wildlife reserve...

You can see that there had been rain in this area as evidenced by those puddles.

The weather had been so threatening on the drive down but the 'boys' were able to have 3 full days of golf without rain...it just rained each night. It was so lovely to lie in bed and listen to the rain pattering on the roof...more about our stay in another post :-)

Brunswick Heads 'Getaway'....

 

This is our home until Friday...a cabin, a little way out of the township (about 1km) of Brunswick Heads, and on the banks of the Brunswick River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some views from our little front veranda...

The Brunswick River

The busy highway isn't very far away...in the middle of the photo is the road bridge over the river

A lot of trucks use this road but  we don't really notice them...



If DH had have come on his own, he would have stayed with the other 'out of towners' in a motel in the centre of Brunswick Heads, but we're both enjoying staying in the little cabin. (which is surprisingly spacious) The reason why we're staying at this Park is because DH's BFF and golfing buddy of many years is staying here as well. Angelo and Mary are regulars at this park and highly recommend it.

Our friends tent, annexe and 4 wheel drive; they are really IN to camping...

 

 

 

The most important reason our friends keep coming back to this park is this....

 

 

 



 Charley (girl)! It is a pet friendly caravan park so Charley can come on a holiday break too!!! That's her bed behind her, in the annexe :-)