South East Queensland Floods....Local Pictures!!!

I Should....

I should be writing this blog post on happy things.....the holiday that we just had in Maroochydore (pictures waiting to be posted!), the New Year's Punch Party, the new camera that I bought, a few exciting new pieces of furniture that the post Christmas sales just forced me to buy!!!

I should also be writing about the not-so-nice mundane things in our lives....the Superteen being rather sick and having a blood test for Glandular Fever (fingers crossed for a negative result!), husband's middle ear infection that got him an extra albeit painful day extra on his holidays, etc etc!

However, as it sit and write this I can still hear the rain falling outside and my mind has turned to thoughts of the many, many families who tonight are homeless while their houses fill with water. I am also thinking about the people in Toowoomba who were going about their usual business in the centre of town when a wall of water roared in and swept them away. I am thinking of the Queensland farmers who, once again, bear the brunt of mother's nature's brute force by watching their income wash away.

While we are high and almost dry, we have had a few flooded pergola/drainage issues through all of this. But our lot seems so trivial in comparison to the huge devastation across our state.

So, if you can spare just a few cents, I encourage you to make a donation. I'm sure that every little bit would be appreciated by all of those stoic people who are truly in desperate need. Official donation links are here:

Queensland Government:
http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

St Vincent De Paul:
https://vinnies.org.au/appeals-processor-national

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

Merry Christmas

This year, I decided to make my nanna's Christmas pudding. A recipe that she used to make all of the time and that she gave me before she passed away. It's one of those ones that you make in calico and was always my very favourite as a young child! She used to put coins in it, so we all lined up for a piece in the hopes to find a tooth crunching silver treasure that she'd swap for new coins (we had to give back the old style ones so that she could reuse them the following year).

Unfortunately, I had no coins, but as you can see, the final results were still brilliant!
And eating it, along with her special brandy sauce (not pictured cause I forgot!) was a treat!
And we also had a visitor on Christmas Day...someone who was making sure that he wasn't on the dinner plate!!!!
Hope that your Christmas was excellent!

Retro Fabbo

Being on holidays means that I get the enviable (ha, ha!) opportunity of cleaning through hoarded boxes that have been shifted from our previous storage space/new study nook!

Although this is not a particularly fun job, there were some exciting moments when I opened boxes that held little treasures. Note the retro anodised canister set that was salvaged from my mother-in-law's house before she went into a nursing home (and consequently passed away....so the memory is a tad bittersweet!). We saved these canisters along with the cup sets, from the second hand dealer who came to take away most of her stuff. I have now washed them and have them on display, but as you can see from the picture, the black lids have a discolouration to them. Hopefully, someone can tell me how to fix this!
I also rediscovered these anodised cup sets...retro from probably the 50s or 60s. Once again, there is some staining that haven't come out with a simple soapy wash but it's probably more obvious in the photo than in the real!
And then there was this funky leopard belt that, back in the late 80s/early 90s, I thought was the absolute ultimate in fab!
And then I came across this little treasure! No idea how old it is and no idea if it is still good to drink, but it was a treasure anyway!!!

U2???? Me, too!!!!

Jay Z warms the crowd!
U2 appeared on stage!
Bono gets into it!
Singing up a storm in front of 50 000 people!
One lucky viewer got pulled out of the crowd!
The stage effects were amazing!
The crowd was packed in!
We bought cheap seats (at over $170!) but when we got there, they told us that our section had been closed and we were being reseated.....into corporate!!!! We took a millisecond to think about it before doing a happy dance!
Lights out and mobile phones on made a magnificent effect!
After a couple of hours of energy, entertainment and enthusiasm........
......they waved us goodbye!

I Love

I love my new Freedom Aiken cushions. But I think that I need a black one behind it instead of the beige. What do you think??

Btw, this lounge is looking way more yellowy than it is in real life. Weird photo colour thing!

Renovation Revamp!

When your children suddenly become so large that they can touch the ceiling with barely a stretch, you know that it's time to look for more room!

For a long time, we have ho-hummed over the best way to gain more room in our little house...not an easy task when you are on a budget of a pittance!

At the back end of our garage we had a space. On the house plan, it was marked as just a part of the garage and probably a work area but for years, we've used it as a storage spot. The corner had no window, one bare brick skin wall and one plastered wall, one power point and a whole lot of open shelves. The shelves were a total embarrassment and a certain someone (who shall remain nameless!) got into the habit of dumping any old thing on the floor in front of the shelves. You could see this mini dumping ground from the kitchen area and it always disturbed me!

So, after going mad with a measuring tape one day, we decided that that area would actually make a great little study nook. We knocked down the shelves (goodbye storage!) bought a window and employed a fantastic builder to come and install it, along with a wall along half of the garage opening (can't put a door in cause of a cupboard in the way, but meh, I can live with that.) He also lined the brick skin wall and organised for a plasterer to complete the job!

I have taken a pic of the semi-renovation. Stupidly, I did not actually get a 'before' shot. Don't know what I was thinking! You can see that the window now looks out to my clothesline so I might have to consider that one but it does let in an amazing amount of light. The room is now taking shape. The plasterer came last week but I haven't had a chance to photograph that yet. Now, all that is left is a light (electrician organised and waiting on fittings!), paint (us!) and floor coverings (not sure yet!).

I'll keep you posted on progress!