Using a gift voucher from Christmas last year...

On Saturday, DH and I travelled north of Brisbane to the Sunshine coast hinterland. We headed for the lovely town of Maleny and specifically to the Terrace Restaurant just a little way out of the town centre.

We've left the Motorway and are on the old north road now with the pine plantations on either side

One of the Glasshouse Mtns, Mt Tibrogargan; as a child I loved this mtn because it reminded me of a giant ape! Shame about the skips at the side of the road.

We've just turned off into the town of Landsborough

lovely old house in Landsborough

more buildings in Landsborough

For a while now I've been giving DH gift vouchers as gifts, as like me, he 'wants for little'. Last Christmas I bought a 'Seafood Indulgence Meal for two' through Red Balloon. It works well; I don't have to go out to the shops and in some cases I get to enjoy the gift as well and the gift does not add to our list of possessions. DH's daughters have previously given him a similar gift of a 'Seafood BBQ cooking class' which also involved some eating.

The weather was glorious, although just a bit cold. The view from our table in the restaurant looked out towards the Sunshine Coast. I had meant to take photos of each course, but as each one arrived, we just 'dived' straight in! lol Firstly we had a small bowl of chowder each which was delicious. The next course was a 'tower' of cold seafood, interspersed with fresh fruit. We had a crab to share, a Moreton Bay Bug (sort of like a small crayfish), huge prawns, mussels,oysters and some wonderful slices of smoked salmon. And then the next course arrived...this was the 'hot' seafood course and it was yum!!! It came with bowls of lovely salad. There was lovely chunks of grilled fish, little crispy fish like whitebait, coconut prawns, some calamari, scallops and some little chat potatoes.

A view from the window of the restaurant

Another view from the restaurant windows

Pauline, the co -owner of the restaurant suggested a sampler plate for dessert but we had had plenty of food, so we just finished off the meal with a cup of coffee each and then 'waddled' back to our car! lol (The 3 courses of seafood were all paid for by the voucher  and we reckon we got good value) When we arrived at noon, there had only been one other table occupied. By the time we were leaving the restaurant had become very busy. A good sign that it's popular!

I'm already thinking of what I can buy DH for Christmas this year...he doesn't like heights so it won't be 'Hot Air Ballooning' or a helicopter ride. The time I bought him a half hour in a flight simulator was a popular one and I sat in the back. Now I knew it wasn't real, (from my seat I could see the bank of computers that 'drove the thing) but when DH was 'landing' the simulator at 'Brisbane airport', I found that my fingernails were digging into the seat...and I'd stopped breathing...

My friend Tricia...

On Friday I went out to lunch with my friend Tricia. We met in 1976 when Tricia was in her last year of Teachers' College. She came to our school that year to do her prac teaching blocks. During one block she spent 4 weeks with my Year 7 class and we became great mates. We discovered that we both went to the same high school, but because I was five years older than her, I'd left by the time she started.
When Tricia graduated she was appointed to my school and completed her probationary year with us before being transferred out of the area.

Cafe Urbano; my steak sandwich

Every year, in at least one set of holidays, we'd meet up for lunch or to share our mutual interest in sewing clothes and patchwork as well as a craze then...Hobbytex! And so the friendship continued with transfers for Tricia (single people always seem to get more far flung transfers) and eventually motherhood for me. Tricia was DD2's godmother too.  Then I started relief teaching for a while. Tricia was so helpful when I did relief teaching as she gathered together a huge pile of resources suitable for year levels that I had never taught...that is 1-4. Tricia sewed for my children and occasionally baby sat as well. She was a great support when my marriage broke down.

At Cafe Urbano; Tricia's BLAT

When DD2 was little, Tricia bought her first home. She made it into a lovely comfortable home and improved the garden areas. Then after a number of years, Tricia bought a brand new home in a new estate. She had to make all the gardens and she again did a great job. But, just as I've found in the last 10 or so years, the job of teaching has become harder than it ever was. We work long days and on most weekends as well to keep up. Tricia had planned that the new house was going to be her home until the 'pine box'. But she has so little time to clean a big house and even less time to keep a garden in order. As she said to me the other day...'I find my priorities have changed...I no longer enjoy my garden'. So the big house is being readied for sale and Tricia will be downsizing...a lowset townhouse with a courtyard is her first preference. The other preference is that she plans to move 'in' from the shire where she lives now...she'll be closer to her mum, sister and of course me! lol  Hmmmm maybe some nice pots for the courtyard would be a nice housewarming gift...but I'm getting ahead of myself!

Cafe Urbano; within 15 minutes of this photo being taken, we experienced a torrential downpour!

On my mind...If you kiss a toad does he turn into a handsome prince?

Today, being Friday, means that I'm joining in with Rhonda Jean's  Down to Earth blog's Friday feature 'On my Mind...". here
 This morning I noticed movement in a garden pot which appeared to have water in it from a recent shower of rain. On closer inspection I found this! Yes a cane toad,  and that means that the weather is definitely warming up.

Cane toads were introduced into a small area in North Queensland  from Hawaii in 1935. The reason for this was to kill a beetle that was causing problems here in the sugarcane industry. Apparently 102 toads were released originally. Authorities didn't expect that they would multiply  at an alarming rate and estimated numbers now are believed to be about 200 million. The toad does not have any real predators in Australia and they have spread all throughout Queensland, have been found in New South Wales and also in the Northern Territory. They are a pest! They are not a protected species and there are various campaigns to lessen their numbers. Children who collect tadpoles after rain are often disappointed when they turn, not into frogs, but into toads! Most Queenslanders are used to toads sitting on pathways and lawns at night and we've become expert at having having to negotiate around them to get from the front or back door to the gate or to the rubbish bin or the clothes line.

This morning though I felt like a real 'squib'. I just couldn't face tipping the water and the toad out of the pot and run the risk of it jumping towards me...because I reckoned if it jumped towards me I'd have screamed! lol So I waited for DH to come home from golf. We both reckoned the toad was trapped and couldn't negotiate the slippery sides. It was like one of those wind up toy frogs that 'swim' for eternity in a bowl! :-) DH tipped the toad and water out and the toad hopped under the side veranda. I never did find out whether it was actually a prince under some sort of curse...

Ouch, still sore!

Yep! my right shoulder and arm are still really sore today after my pruning work on Tuesday. As luck would have it, I already had an appointment with Desley, my 'Bowen Lady' today. She was able to concentrate on the problem areas and now nearly 5 hours after the treatment I can feel an improvement, albeit small. I've promised to not do any more pruning with the long handled loppers until the pain goes. Desley actually recommended that I use a pruning saw for the thicker 'bits' or get DH to cut them.

So no knitting or sewing today, just a bit of reading and internet surfing/trolling for fabric with motor bikes on to make some storybook bags. I realised though that I don't need patchwork fabric necessarily, so next week I'll check out 'East Coast Fabrics' and maybe even Spotlight.

The Census work for DH finished officially yesterday. The trucks collecting the boxes of materials started on that job today but they won't be at our place till next Wednesday. So then the second bedroom can become a guest room again! I've taken over the third bedroom as my sewing room and the 4th bedroom is where the computer and printer reign supreme!

Even the bed is covered with census 'stuff'!

DH is now getting started on his next contract. This time he will be the Returning Officer for the state electorate of Everton. No one has any idea of when the election will be called (except maybe the Premier herself) but ROs have been authorised to rent office premises from October 1 until the end of April next year. That's what DH is looking for now, a suitable office space in the electorate.

Tomorrow will be another relaxing day for me as well. A friend ( we've been friends since the mid 1970s) is coming over in the morning and then we're heading off to a (fairly) local cafe called 'Cafe Urbano' for lunch. Tricia is a teacher but is on 2 weeks long service leave which she is using to help get her house ready for sale. Exciting times for her!

One of the friendly 'faces' at Cafe Urbano

More bits and pieces of knitting...

Today I had great plans to cut out some long hexagons to take along to Sisters of Stitch in the afternoon. Instead I filled up the morning, wandering around Bunnings (a huge hardware store), selecting a pruning saw, some heavy black plastic bags, as well as checking out the plants. I ended up buying some cucumber and zucchini seedlings, a kniphofia (aka red hot poker plant) and 2 gladiola bulbs. But the thing that took up most of the morning was getting 2 prescriptions made up at the chemists...it took ages!!!!

Luckily I still had my 'craft' bag packed since Monday night's Knit and Natter session at Yarn Over so I took that instead. I buttered some slices of cinnamon loaf to take as a contribution to afternoon tea...and left them at home on the kitchen bench. I'll turn those slices into a 'bread and butter pudding' tomorrow, so all is not lost! lol

So today, instead of starting on a long hexagon project, I continued with my 'kite-shaped/quadrilaterals' off and on knitting project. That means I work on them just every now and again. This is the second project I've done with these shapes...the first I started when my girls were very little and I finally finished sewing them all together, about 7 years ago. I started the new throw at the beginning of this year so it could take a while based on my past history!

The first one I made

The pattern was originally published in the Australian Women's Weekly in 1972 and I put it aside then as something that I might do someday. Probably the mid 80s was when I first got around to starting it. I followed the pattern but decided that shapes only just over 3 inches (7.5cm) would take 'forever' to make into a throw/rug. So I added more stitches...30 instead of 24 at the cast-on edge.

When I started knitting the shapes at the beginning of this year I decided to make them bigger again; this time casting on 40 stitches! 

left hand side, the latest size, middle is the previous project's motif size, right hand side, the original sized motif!

There's a long way to go as I've only made 15 motifs at this stage! Guess what colours I'm using? Mmmm...yes that's right...blues, purples, teal greens etc or my favourite colours! :-)

A quiet day today...

Today was a day for working in the garden. Tonight my shoulders and upper arms are aching after an hour or so of pruning shrubs but it was a job that had to be done. Tomorrow I plan to buy a pruning saw as it would make the rest of the pruning work so much easier. I used to have one but somehow, perhaps when I moved house, it got left behind. I used the long handled secateurs as well as the 'normal' size ones today but it was very hard work!

I did some more work in the veggie gardens, weeding, and watering  with the watering can to conserve the tank supplies. I also planted a 'Black Russian' variety of tomato in a large pot, hoping that will keep it relatively disease free. I noticed that there are already flower bracts (?) on the jacaranda tree. I suspect that it won't be long before the tree is covered in mauve flowers. There's a saying here that when the jacarandas flower it is exam time for university students. Sometimes the flowers are a bit early for that!

Tom busily getting rid of lawn weeds

Tom's lovely big backyard as seen from my place

The war on the weeds called bindis still continues. My elderly neighbour Tom, was out weeding his lawn last weekend too. I noticed that he sits on a little folding stool so instead of kneeling on my gardening mat, I have been using a little stool to continue working my way around the yard pulling out the weeds. Certainly it's more comfortable and I'm not getting the aching back like I was before. Bruce's brother noticed that I'd been pulling out bindis and offered to lend us his 'weedkiller unit'.

My BIL's weedkiller unit, powered by a car battery, just out of sight

We were a bit non- committal about borrowing it but when we went out on Thursday afternoon, my BIL came over and left the unit on the verandah. I didn't want to hurt his feelings but I've put so much effort into gardening organically and felt extremely uncomfortable and reluctant about using the poison. DH offered to spray just a small section on the other side of the house away from most of the garden. He suffers from asthma and I was concerned for his health. The weather was on our side...it was windy in gusts on the weekend so we ended up taking the unit back unused as BIL had said he needed it for Sunday. They were out so no explanation was necessary; we just left it out the back :-) .

The croton looking quite colourful a few weeks after the application of liquid potash

A cordyline that 'looks after itself' !

Just another magnificent Monday...

Today, being the first Monday of the month, I headed north to Scarborough for a Knit and Natter group there. It's about a half hour drive and very pleasant as peak hour is well and truly over. Scarborough is part of the Redcliffe Peninsula and I  always love going to this area with it's lovely coastline views. Springtime here is a beautiful time of year.

Today I handed in the 2 throws for K4BN as well as my very modest contribution to the Christmas Challenge which was last weekend. The idea was to make items with a Christmas theme, which charities and community groups could use as small gifts for the needy in the community. We were told that there was no need for little knitted Christmas stockings as there were hundreds left over from a drive last year. Another K4BN member, Laraine, offered to send me a pattern for a simple knitted teddy which I eagerly accepted. The challenge started on Friday night and went through to Sunday night. I procrastinated...'Would the pattern be easy to follow? Would the bear be easy to sew up? Would my bear look like a bear?...Eventually on Sunday I had no option...I had to make a start...actually, I had to finish the bear. Once I got started  I really enjoyed making 'him' and then was sorry that I left it so late otherwise I would have made a few more. The teddy is knitted all in one piece and he is about 5 inches tall. The other ladies at Knit and Natter this morning thought he looked quite ok and Karen even gave him a little cuddle! lol

His Christmas bow is nearly as big as him!

When I arrived home early afternoon, DH said that a parcel had arrived for me. It was from Fiona of 'Designs by Fee' . This is what was in the parcel...

A parcel wrapped in some gorgeous gift paper with dogs on it (so cute), and inside the parcel a novel and a couple of little goodies and a little note from Fee.

And, glued inside the front of the book, is the explanation about this book's journey...

When Fiona finished reading the book, she offered readers the chance to be next in the Pay It Forward Giveaway. I was lucky enough to win the draw so now my task is to firstly read the book...
When I've finished reading the book, I'll offer people who read my blog the chance to be the next person in the Pay It Forward Giveaway. So it's a case of 'Watch this Space'!

A closer view of that lovely paper