Puzzling Picnic

MY LATEST FAVORITE CROSSWORD CLUE

I continue to take great delight in cryptic crossword discoveries.

I had to share this one from yesterday with you.

The clue 

The clue was 7 down:  "Not slowed down by the totally unprepared picnickers?"

Although we looked at this clue early on we could not figure it out and it ended up being almost the last one solved.  We needed the helping letters in place to give us enough clues. 

So what was our thinking?

We knew that we were going to find something unusual (and possibly have a laugh) because of the question mark on the end. That usually indicates something a bit funny or twisted in the thinking. 

Not slowed down

The "not slowed down" had us thinking fast, speedy, etc. 

Un

Eventually we had the n as the second letter and realized we were probably looking for Un something

Not

Then we started to think about the not on the front. 

I got stuck on unimpeded and didn't seem to be able to get it out of my head....

And a touch of inspiration from Trev 

And then suddenly Trev had it  in a burst of inspiration and we laughed till we stopped.

The answer

Of COURSE!   Unhampered!!!

They were surely unprepared picnickers if they had no hamper  :)

I still get such a kick out of solving a clue like this. I love sharing the surprise of the answer together and having a laugh at the simple treasure hidden by the creator of the puzzle..

Transportable food

Individual Sweet potato and spinach frittatas

We need easy transportable food- Frittatas

When we orienteer we come back hungry, and usually tired.
 It's great to have food ready to go and easy to eat.

One of my favorite go to recipes for this situation is individual frittatas. I make them with whatever I have in the fridge or cupboard.

Today we have.... Spinach and Sweet Potato

This week I had some really crisp spinach which was on sale when I was shopping, and some left over sweet potato that I had roasted for a salad the day before. So in they went.

I decided to add some nutmeg as it goes so well with sweet potato and I was pleased with the effect.

No grizzles were received, so I think others thought it worked pretty well too.

The recipe

Ingredients

Half a bunch of spinach
1 1/2 cups cooked sweet potato cubed
8 eggs
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Nutmeg
1 clove minced Garlic
Pepper to taste

Ready to Cook

Method 

Heat oven to 180c
Soak spinach in boiling water 2 min (till just wilting)
Drain and blanch in cold water
Chop spinach roughly.
Combine all ingredients
Spoon into muffin molds.
Bake approx 30 minutes
They should be browned and be set when done. You can use a skewer to check.
Insert into one frittata. If it comes out dry then it's done.
Remove from oven but keep in muffin pan for about 10 min
Then turn onto rack to cool.

Eat and enjoy. 

Cryptic Clown

My latest favorite cryptic clue

Cryptic bonding time

Yes, we've been at it again.
The cryptic puzzle on the weekend is one of our bonding times. It takes our two brains working together as a team to solve it.

We both throw in our thoughts and bounce off of each other's inspiration.

Soggy jester

My favorite cryptic crossword clue from Saturday's puzzle was  12 down.
"Suppression of Spooner's soggy jester"

So what was our thinking?

What is a spoonerism?

Ok so a spoonerism is when you transpose the starts of two words ( like blushing crow instead of crushing blow). We figured we were looking for one of these.

Jester =Clown

Trevor quickly thought of clown as the answer for Jester, but we couldn't seem to stop thinking of wet for soggy.

Soggy = Damp

 It took a visit from Thom to assist us with the last few answers ( including this one). Of course soggy is damp.!!!

Laugh till you stop

The joy of a cryptic puzzle is surely when you find the answer and it makes you laugh with surprise and delight.

I just loved the damp clown turning into clamp down.

If you haven't tried doing cryptic crosswords I highly recommend it...especially if someone else you like will be a part of your team to solve them.

Padlocks on a Bridge

There is something so romantic about padlocks on a bridge.

I just love the idea of visiting a beautiful place with your one special person and marking your relationship in this way. 

Find the spot. Lock on a beautiful padlock. Throw away the key.  

Together forever.

I'd love to see all the padlocks on the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris, but I fear that I will be too late as it is a safety risk due to the weight of them all.

Tonight I went for a walk in Brisbane and finally made it to the South Side of the river to have a brief look around. 

On the way I found these locks on the bridge.
They might be pretty sparse compared to Paris - but I was delighted.

Locks on the Kurilpa Bridge in Brisbane.

I thought that this one was particularly beautiful and worth a photo on its own.

Who uses a combination lock for this purpose?

I could not  help but wonder what Kaz and JB were thinking when they attached this combo lock on the 13th of May...

In this time of permanent tattoos were they reluctant to declare permanent love?
Did they think it a great idea to declare temporary love that could be removed if either of them felt like it?

Somehow that one just seems not such a lovely romantic gesture- but maybe it is more realistic.

I'm now on the lookout for a lovely old lock of my own to take away with me next year.  I will dream of attaching it with my man,  and throwing away the key. If you see a lovely lock somewhere that fits the picture feel free to let me know.

Blaugust is over

Learning to Blog has created an enjoyable learning curve.

Well, Blaugust is over and therefore there is no expectation of daily Blauging any more, although no-one ever put pressure on.

Learning to use a Galaxy Note at the same time has, I suspect, made it a little more complicated, and has certainly raised the need for careful editing, as the interpretive text is a bit of a challenge.

I've found the experience enjoyable , as learning almost always is.

I've discovered that there is a whole other world out there to learn about, and that writing a good blog is one challenge, and getting people to read it is another.

I've also discovered the joy of receiving comments on the blog.

Blogging has helped me to reflect.

The blog has forced me to reflect a little. It reminds me of the months when  I put up a photo a day on Facebook  http://fatmumslim.com.au/category/photo-a-day-2/#
The exercise encouraged me to stop and notice the little things in life.  With the photos it was physical things I was noticing.   With the blog it is more the mental.

Thank you for coming along with me

I would just like to say thanks to those of you who have come along on the journey. I appreciate your encouragement and I've enjoyed your feedback too. 

The future of luvapuzzle

I thought I would struggle to find things to blog about, but I have a growing list of ideas.   Some are concepts that I would like to discuss, some are more practical.  And using the blog to record travel experiences has worked pretty well, so I will probably keep on doing that too, when we have a chance to enjoy that. 

So the future may well hold blogs regarding:

• Travel
• Things people have said that I'd like to explore
• Recipe discoveries
• Orienteering
• Geocaching
• Life skills
• Places that interest me
• Cultural phenomena
• Anything else that takes my fancy.

I hope to keep learning about how to write a good blog, and to continue to improve. 

Thanks for coming along on the journey so far, and I look forward to your company in the future.

How to waste a lot of time orienteering - part 1 (control 1-2 Para Wirra)

How did I mess up control 1-2 yesterday? 

Para Wirra-control 1-2

First let me show you the map. We were at Para Wirra based at the north oval.

Start to control 1, 2 and 3

Now let me show you what I did (taking 37 minutes)

My GPS track from my watch (above) shows that on 3 or 4 occasions I must have been sooooo close, but I continued to waste time there. This cost me about 30 minutes (and the win).

So what did I do wrong?

I think there are at least 4 things I could have done better.

I didn't think about the contours.

I was watching the vegetation and watching for the top of the spur, but didn't picture what the other side of the spur should look like.

As I came across the top of the spur I should have been expecting to see a gentle gully on my left and known that the control would be on rocks to the north of that gully.  

I ran across the top of the gentle gully and started searching on the spur next to it (to the south).

I didn't look up.

When I was so close to the control so many times I should have seen it anyway.  If I had looked up I probably would have.

Noticing other orienteers-1

I should have noticed the lack of other orienteers.  If no one else was near me I must be in the wrong area.  I knew that I had started ahead of many others and that they would be coming along.  The fact that I hadn't seen them close by meant I was in the wrong place.

Noticing other orienteers-2

I did see other orienteers a couple of times in the distance. They were all heading away up the hill,  from my left.  Why didn't I think about where they had been (control 2) and where they were going (control 3)?

So that's my lesson for today. The take away message is:

• Think about the contours
• Look up occasionally
• Notice other orienteers

Unfortunately this was not the only control that I didn't do well yesterday, so more analysis to come.

What's for dinner Mum?

You can't get away from the need to eat. Someone needs to make sure that food happens. Take away is tasty but unhealthy and expensive.

Every day one of my responsibilities is to make sure that there is food to eat.

Early on in my married life this was a big problem.   I grew up at home, where Mum did the meal planning, and usually the cooking. Then I boarded with people who looked after it. Then I lived in the nurses' home while I was training (yeah, I know that makes it sound like sooooo long ago!). During that time I would wander over to the hospital dining room and eat whatever was on the menu that day. I just never had to think about it, so I never learned.

Then I got married.
Many of the lasting  memories from our honeymoon ( in a campervan in Tassie) are around lack of meal planning -eating granita biscuits for breakfast because that was all we had,   not knowing how to cook eggs and bacon, buying an evening meal at the hydro electricity cafe on credit at crazy prices because we had no other option. Neither of us had learnt to plan around food, or to shop for it...and so the learning curve started.

These days I've had a few years of practice and it's not a problem - but it's still something that needs to be done every few days.  If I don't know what the plan is for meals I get stressed and I hate to be heading out the door from work in the evening, and still not knowing what I am going to do for dinner.

My solution is to make myself stay ahead of the game, by planning.  I'm OK if things change later (and they often do - after all , we still need a little spontaneity in our lives) but I need to know that there is a plan. So I sit down and make myself do it, and then make myself shop in order to make things easier for the days to come. I try to plan a week at a time -which means that I shop once (less impulse buying and less time taken) and then just top up on fresh stuff part way through the week.

Over the years I've developed a method which works for me, and as I sat down to plan the week ahead yesterday, the thought struck me that since I have a blog I might be able to help someone else out  by sharing - so here is the Erica method of meal planning. Take it or leave it.  I put together a document showing how I lay out my planning.

This is the basic plan that I use.  First I go through putting in our commitments,  who is coming to share meals with us (including the number) and any special meal needs. If we are eating out I put that in, and I know that I don't need to plan for it. Then I check the weather forecast and put that in, as that will often influence the type of meal that I want to make. I usually start with the big meals where we have guests planned, and then work on the others.

As I go I plan the recipes, write down where to find them again, save them to my pinterest page if they were on the net (so that I can find them easily) and record the KJ per serve if it is available.

Then  it comes down to trying to get a balance of meals with good variety, not too much of the same style or meat type.  Using up what is in the fridge, any produce that has been gained from kind friends who have green thumbs, and planning to buy food on special at the local stores (good old junk mail helps there).

The shopping list is this list on my planner, plus anything that we need which has been written up on to a whiteboard on our fridge (this system works pretty well.)

UPDATE ON THE RECIPE (following on from yesterday's entry)

It worked out really well, and has been promoted to "recipe hits" which means that I will make it again some time.
The blueberries cooked up beautifully and the crunch of the crumble with the cheesecake was very yummy.
I used granita biscuits as I have never found graham crackers in Adelaide
 I also used more butter for the crust and cooked it for a little less time.
I also used 500g of Philly light
Here is what mine looked like.

And here is the recipe (Thanks to Life made Simple)

Blueberry Crumble Cheesecake Bars
Filling ingredients
12 oz. cream cheese ( I  used 500g)
½ c. sour cream
½ c. sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp. salt
1½ tsp. vanilla or vanilla bean paste

Blueberries:
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 c. fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry

Graham cracker crust:
10 graham crackers, finely crushed ( I used 1 packet of granita biscuits)
3 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. (½ stick) butter, melted ( I used more like 8)

Crumble topping:
1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. brown sugar
¼ c. sugar
7 tbsp. butter, cold

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (180) . Line an 8×8 square (30cm) baking pan* with parchment (baking) paper, leaving an overhang on at least 2 sides for easy removal.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl combine crust ingredients, then spread into prepared pan, creating an even layer. I pressed mine flat with the bottom, of a measuring cup. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool while preparing the remaining components.
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine all blueberry ingredients, toss gently to combine, set aside.
4. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for crumble topping. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender until the mixture is coarse, set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together cream cheese, sour cream and sugar until smooth. NOTE: it’s really important that the cream cheese, sour cream and eggs are at room temperature, otherwise you’ll end up with a clumpy batter! With mixing speed on low, add vanilla, salt and one egg. Mix until combined, then add the remaining egg, mixing until incorporated.
6. Pour the cheesecake batter over the baked (and slightly cool) crust. Spread evenly with a spatula. Carefully place blueberry mixture over top, evenly covering the cheesecake. Finally, top with crumble. Place in oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cheesecake has set and the crumble is lightly golden brown in color. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1½ hours or until it reaches room temperature. Place in refrigerator and chill for at least 4 hours before removing, cutting and serving.
NOTE: *The pan will be completely full almost to the top, so make sure it’s 2″ in height! Also, this can be baked in a 9″ round cheesecake pan… although the baking time may vary and the result will be a thinner cheesecake. I have not yet tried this, so I can’t give exact time amounts.
Adapted from Tyler Florence, Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars | Makes approximately 12 bars

Would you like a burger with that?

This morning we walked up the road to the new OTR ( what's with the crazy abbreviation?) And were confronted with bedlam.  Men in fluoro tops were assisting traffic and cars were banked up along the road. It turned out that they were offering unleaded fuel at 99c/l for 2 hours and  it was creating a stir. The station has only just opened,  so this was their way of letting people know I guess. Traffic was banked up for a couple of blocks along Greenhill Rd.

We were offered free burgers with our paper!
Unfortunately we had already had breakfast and were not in need of the extra calories, so turned the offer down.

Today was a time for cleaning up a bit, shopping to restock the cupboards and fridge, and planning for the next couple of days food. We have special friends coming tomorrow for tea, so I've done a bit of prep for that. With the lack of veggies over the last week while we were 8 holidays, and the beautiful Adelaide weather I figure it was time to cook up some veggies, and prepare for some yummy salads. Tomorrow we will have a good Aussies Barbie. 

I've had a dessert recipe sitting in my pinterest file waiting for a chance to use it for quite some time, so tomorrow is the day.  I'm making blueberry crumble cheesecake bars (recipe initially from "lifemadesimple").  Their photo was really enticing, so if mine turns out tasting as good as theirs looks I will be very happy..

Here is their pic

At the moment mine is cooked (I hope) and cooling in its' tin. 

I'm just hoping that when  I cut into it tomorrow afternoon it truly is cooked and not just pretending.  

Well, it will be a full on day tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.  

Home!

Being back in Adelaide is a relief.

It is so great to get in the car and know where we are going, and not to have to battle traffic.
Nothing like going away to help me appreciate what I usually take for granted.

This is the last of the latest travel blog, and with only one day left in Blaugust the posts might become less regular.. just warning you all early.

Today we checked out from our unit , said goodbye to the vicious swooping  bird (still guarding his nest) , and headed towards Brisbane to fly home.

On the way up the highway we noted a load of caches showing up on the map at Mt Gravatt,  and decided to detour from the main road and soak in  just a little more bush before we hit the navigation challenge of getting to the airport without paying tolls.

We searched out a number of excellent caches in thebush .

Mt Gravatt Bushland

and took in the excellent views of the city from the top of the mountain.

Views from Mt Gravatt

On the way back down the mountain we stopped for one last cache and came across an orienteering control in the bush. Looks like the local high school have the right idea.

Orienteering control in the bush

I managed to navigate us past the new HSS office at Wooloongabba so that Trev could peer in the windows and picture it when I talk about it. 

As we boarded the flight home I couldn't help but notice the wall paper on the wall nearby and think that I know people that might like to use some of this. 

Book wallpaper

As we flew in over the new Adelaide Oval I couldn't help but admire our beautiful city and feel glad to be home where I belong in SA again.

Dragons downtown

A day for surprises.

The expected rainy weather still remained only a distant threat, with only some strong winds to show for it,  causing all the beaches along the coast to be closed due to very heavy swells. We weren't planning to swim or surf anyway, so that wasn't a problem.

We decided to let caching show us the coast and used the powers of the Internet and geocaching.com to identify the most favored caches in a south easterly direction from home.  This was a dastardly plan which was sure to pay off for us.

May I please warn any cacher who may be travelling to the Gold Coast that the following paragraphs contain spoilers.

Who would guess that water dragons live near here? 

First step was to do the research. Then we put in the latitude and longitude for the first stop in the car GPS. This stop would have been trickier if we hadn't completed a similar water requiring cache only last week.  On arrival we confirmed what we had thought when we read the cache notes. We came prepared with our milk container full of water in order to float the inner container, while blocking all the holes which had been drilled in the tube to avoid the water from escaping. Reminded me of playing the recorder at school.

The main benefit of this cache was the first glimpses of quite a large wetland area, which gave us a bit of a feel for the way the land might have looked before the suburbs took over.

We then made our way towards Jupiter's, walking back toward the Casino from a local street park nearby.  The cache was still another 50m of so away when our path melted away to nothing, and we were confronted with a high wall. Trevor had all his geosenses working already though and picked the tell tale signs of past travel around the edge of the wall and sure enough, we were confronted with a jungle like slope going down to the canal,  but enough space to walk relatively easily.

Geotrail

Now this cache was called "Water Dragon" because of the many waterdragons that frequent the area, and we were not to be disappointed.  As we neared our goal there was a quick rustling, and there in front of me was a water dragon just sitting there like a statue,  hoping that I hadn't noticed him.  What a treat!

Water Dragon.

He seemed quite happy to allow me to get quite close to him to take a photo.

Now how would we have possibly known that there would be waterdragons so close to the casino, all those fancy houses on the canal, and the upmarket shops nearby if it wasn't for geocaching? (Let alone actually seeing them)

We took a brief walk along the canal past the Convention Centre before heading back to the car for our next adventure. 

Next stop was Burleigh North.  After a leisurely stop for lunch at the local surf club, we ambled around the corner to pick up some clues for the next find.  In a local park we spotted  numbers and words to give us hints as to the next coordinates, then off to a local spot with fantastic views up and down the beach.  Sadly, we didn't quite get the clues all correct, so some guessing was needed before locating the final goal, but in the meantime we enjoyed the views towards Surfers (north) and Coolangatta (south).  

Looking north towards Surfers
Note the stiff wind blowing the sea spray. 

Then off to conquer the final two goals for the day.  

Navigating around unfamiliar places is always a challenge,  and this was no different.  We were delighted to find a park on the steep hill near to our next treasure container. We were blown away by the fact that on the one side of us was the thriving Burleigh heads Community with upmarket high rise apartment blocks,  and right next door was remnant rainforest with lovely tracks to walk on! You just never know what geocaching will show you!!

Having located the first treasure we made for the lookout along the track to admire the incredible beach views and then  down to the beach level to start our final quest. 

Tree hugger

The final cache was an earth cache.  For an earth cache you need to demonstrate that you have learnt a geological fact. In this case the Burleigh heads are formed by basalt lava flow from the Mt Warning/Tweed volcano shield which produced lava, which then cooled into massive hexagonal columns (as it apparently does).  These massive columns have eroded and fallen over time, creating massive boulders,  but you can still see the hexagonal tell tale signs indicating their origins. 

We walked from the base of the headland, back up the zig zag path to estimate the diameter of a huge hexagonal column , then further up again to take a photo next to some boulders as proof of being there.  Then we diverted further up just because we could, to see yet more fantastic views of the coast. 

Views to Coolangatta.

We had had a good workout up and down the Burleigh Head and seen enough of the Gold Coast action for now, and headed home via a road as yet unseen to eat the remains of our pitiful pantry and prepare to vacate the premises in the morning.

Springbrook Mountain and Hinze Dam

We didn't get soaked today!

After a lovely holiday sleep in (again) we hauled ourselves out of bed and through the shower and headed for the Hinze dam (otherwise known as Advancetown Lake).  This is basically a drowned valley where the Nerang river flowed. The Hinze family all lost their homes in the process - hence the name. The dam was created  ( and then the height of the wall increased twice) to create a valuable resource to supply Gold Coast water and feed into the water grid for Qld.

The Queensland water authority kindly supplied a cafe with views over the dam for us to find some breakfast. Included in the price was entertainment provided by two very friendly magpies and a bunch of little kids on a school trip who actually were quiet while they had their recess. (What do those Lutherans do to their kids to get them to be so good?)

Hinze Dam

After walking a few of the paths around here we decided to chance the weather (predicted to turn into thunderstorms) and headed towards Springbrook National Park, and particularly Natural Bridge which has a reputation not to be ignored.
We allowed ourselves to be diverted on the way by many lovely geocaches, a fellow driving a team of oxen beside the road (complete with stock whip in hand) and lunch at what used to be a telephone exchange while we examined the hills  surrounding for dinosaurs (it's a long story).

Oxen through the front windscreen.

By the time we got to Natural  Bridge the GPS was flat and the iPhone was heading that way (a disaster as we were traveling light with no spare batteries or camera).

Natural Bridge was an easier walk than we expected, and quite an impressive phenomena. It would be good to go back at night some time and see the glow worms doing their thing under the arch of the bridge.  Hearing the waterfall thundering in the dark would be pretty cool too. 

Natural Bridge

Since the rain had only threatened , but all we had received was a very light sprinkling, we decided to try our luck and head back further into the Springbrook Park (which meant quite a back track, and then a drive up a winding mountain road).

At one stage we were clinging to the side of the drop on a single lane , at another driving along a ridge with steep drops on either side.   We were quite surprised to find so many driveways on the mountain, showing that many think the winding drive is worth it for the chance to live in this spot.  The reason why might be the views - which are simply spectacular. We stopped at a number of lookouts,  and each one had wonderful vistas available for our enjoyment (some also with caches). The local store didn't hold much, but did have AA batteries which meant we could also resume the hunting as we went. 

We enjoyed the Purling Brook Falls with their long, long drop, and were starting to get used to seeing brush turkeys as they ran about the place in their haphazard way.   If yesterday was kookaburra day, then today was brush turkey day. Are they called Brush Turkey because they sound like a brush in the Bush? 

Purling Brook Falls
Unfortunately the circuit walk is currently closed due to rock slides.

Brush Turkey

Our target was the "Best of all Lookout" which turned out to be worth the journey. Wow! 

We ran in as we were pretty convinced by this stage that the cloud surrounding us was going to let go and let us have it, but we never got too wet.  The rainforest was dripping from a previous fall , but the lookout was still spectacular, with only the far views blocked by clouds.

Best of All lookout

We could see all the way to Tweed Heads (just out of picture to the left) and along the coast to Byron Bay (far right). And it was a VERY long way down. 

We also detoured in search of a decent park map, but instead found another magnificent view - this time of the high rise buildings on the Gold Coast shining up in the afternoon sunshine. 

Views of the Gold Coast high rise.

As we wound our way back down the mountain the sunset was completely blocked by the foliage, and then the trees gave way to evening sky and our headlights picked out the shapes of small hopping creatures which we think were the shy pademelons which can reportedly be seen in the area particularly dining on grass seeds on the road sides at dusk.

And so another day of our holiday has ended.  Once again the weatherman is telling sad stories about tomorrow, but we will wait and see.

Tamborine Mountain

Big trees on Witches falls circuit.

Today was the day to visit Tamborine Mountain.

Although the ground was wet following  overnight rain, we enjoyed sunshine all day and made the most of it.

We found some wonderful walks in the Tamborine area, and admired Rainforest areas and other drier bush areas as we followed some of the walking trails. We also visited the botanic gardens in Tamborine which are pretty good, if small.

We also added 7 or 8 more geocaches to our total,  as we found them while touring around the local spots.  There are certainly some impressive views to be had from a number of the spots along the road,  and from local lookouts, and the Surfers Paradise skyscrapers sure stand out well along the coast.

Love these huge strangler figs

We admired the view from the spot where the local hang gliders take off  -incredible view!

We also enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Polish place, where the parrots come to the tables in search of sugar and dairy froth, and the kookaburras serenade the diners in style.  

A view of scenery and birds at  "The Polish Place"

In fact I don't remember ever hearing so many kookaburras in one day, and seeing so many.

I'm not sure that the kookas take much notice of the signs.
 Near Cedar Creek falls.

We finished up with one last walk in the botanic gardens (complete with lovely lake and bridge) and the MacDonald section of Tamborine National Park, where we completed one last loop walk before heading for home via the steep and winding roads.

Botanic gardens 

The weather man says that we may have thunderstorms tomorrow, so we will wait and see if we can get out and about again or whether it becomes another day for lazing.

Another quiet day

I think Trev and I are both getting a bit restless and in need of exercise.  A trip to the shops today to get food for meals, and one very simple cache find on the way there was a major diversion.  We are still feeling pretty tired too, as we wind down into holiday mode.  Somehow it always seems to take a while to get to a point of really relaxing and enjoying not having to be doing other things.

We were just on the point of going out walking today when the rain came down again and we decided not to, but then it faded away into a lovely afternoon, and I was left regretting the decision not to go walking and exploring.  I made do with exploring the resort a bit and trying to capture the lake reflections while the wind was a bit calmer... so here are a few shots of where we are staying.

Cedar Lake

There is a water bird nesting on the bank of the lake.
Paddle boat seems to be a good option for getting close to it.  

More distant view of Lake from the entrance road

Then I thought I might take a picture of the lovely Grenvillea flower growing on one of the bushes.  I got in one preliminary shot before the local water birds came around the corner getting very cross with me.  I guess I was too close to a hidden nest.  They were very unhappy with my intrusion and kept on flying past me at close range as I retreated to the path again and hot footed it to our unit. It was very like the exciting magpie attacks back home at the moment.  Well, at least I got the heart rate up a little past resting level for a short time.

Here's looking at you, kid

Today my mouse is quietly surveying the lack of action in our holiday household.

How cute is that?

Rellies Rally

We had a wonderful day catching up with relatives yesterday.
I've put the map here in case you are as geographically challenged as I am.
So we are staying at the blue dot.  (Advancetown is the  closest locality)

Bulimba (where Pip, Andy, Mary and Howie live) is just near Brisbane, and Bellmere
(Where Ruth, Charlie and Cooper live) is at the red dot (Bellmere)

It's just as well we are Aussies and a bit of driving doesn't worry us too much, because we planned a few hours worth into our day yesterday.




After waking up at a leisurely pace and admiring the lovely sunshine we hopped into the trusty Pulsar and took the slightly more scenic route to Bulimba (suburb of Brisbane) in order to avoid tolls on the way (something we resist with a vengeance, since we come from a state without any toll roads).

We arrived to find a quieter home than usual at the Carters' place, as Zac, Luke and Ben (the resident triplets) are away on a school trip, so only the beautiful cousin Pip, husband Andy and the oldies (my Aunty Mary and Uncle Howie) were at home.

We had a lovely catch up over tasty lunch on the deck, including a rather special Hollicks (?) Coonawarra Cab Sav Merlot from 1999 which Andy has been waiting to drink.  We had a bit of a laugh when the cork split , had to be pushed into the bottle and Andy was then forced to use a tea strainer when pouring .  We were a bit concerned about the state of the wine (given the cork condition), but it was fine - tasting old , as we expected, but VERY drinkable. If I was better at describing wine I would try that here but maybe I won't embarrass myself by trying.

 Maybe I should have anticipated it, but was surprised by a birthday candle and decorations amongst the dessert specially for my birthday (a day late) and family singing "Happy Birthday"is always a heartwarming experience.

Birthday Girl -  only 1 day late

Delicious  desserts

Anyway, we managed to while away the beautiful afternoon with chat, food, drinks, a bit of reflection and a good few laughs and before we knew we it it was time to be on our way up the coast to our next visit.

One last photo with the crowd before we left.

From left: Howie, Mary, Trev, Pip, Andy.

We headed up to Bellmere, once again on the toll free route and on the way I was able to recognize a couple of our key referring hospitals.  Maybe I am slowly getting to know Qld a bit after all.

We arrived at Ruth and Charlie's in time to admire the work just being packed up on a lovely handcrafted bed, and meet Cooper,  before heading inside to catch up , play with lots of Cooper's toys and have a lovely evening meal getting to know each other a bit.  The problem with spread out rellies is that you don't get to know them well, so this was a great opportunity to spend a little time while we could.  The only problem was the long drive home again - managed admirably by Trev as usual. We took the toll route via the gateway bridge on the way home in order to get back to our beds a little faster. 

I didn't take a photo at Ruth and Charlie's place, but Ruth did, so I will add it if I can.  Hopefully it will show us sharing the bedtime story with Cooper who is a very cute and very bright kid. Thanks Ruth and Charlie for welcoming us into your lovely home. 

It's my birthday

What a lovely lazy birthday I am having.

We drove through teeming rain  yesterday to get to our home for the next week.  We took a brief detour from the freeway to investigate a side road tourist route, but the rain was coming down so hard that it was difficult to see out of the windscreen.  We discovered that that part of the coastline is made up of mangroves,  and that even if you live on the edge of the coast you can't necessarily see the water (so what is the point?). I had great intentions of taking scenic photos on the way,  but the only one I took was from the car (with the window down and the rain pouring in) of the pelicans who looked very unhappy about the situation.  That is an island across the water that you can't really see in the picture.

  Next detour was to shop for enough groceries to get us through the initial couple of days since we had no idea about what cooking resources we would have available to us. As it turns out we could have chosen anything since we have an oven, grill, hotplates,  electric fry pan, sandwich maker  and microwave at our disposal.  

Our unit was ready, so we moved in a little earlier than expected and proceeded to have a nanna nap for the rest of the afternoon (justified by the fact that neither of us had slept much the night before as we had to be at the airport by 5.30 and thus were up at 4.15 am or thereabouts.  Ben kindly dropped us at the airport (he is a great and kind son) after a late night -which was much appreciated. )

Today the weather forecast is just as bad, and we woke to rainy skies. I have enjoyed watching the ducks enjoying the rain as they waddle around outside of our window,  and there was a brief lifting of weather, so we took the chance and walked across to the main admin block so that someone could cook us lunch and we could check out the pool etc. They have canoes and paddle boats which we can take out on the lake if we wish, but it is cold walking next to the lake, so for the moment I'm wimping out and giving that a miss in  favor of reading my book and watching the wetness from a dry spot.  

That is our little apartment at the other end of the lake at the foot of the hill.

That is our kayaks just waiting for us...they can wait for the moment. 

Tomorrow we have plans to catch up with the rellies.   We will head up to Brisbane to see some of my family and then a little further on to share a meal with some of Trev's family.  We are looking forward to that, as they are all people that we like and see too rarely. 

By Monday maybe the weatherman will be kinder and we can start investigating the many geocaches hidden around the area, and the scenic beauties of the Gold Coast hinterland.  If not it won't matter - after all I could happily read and practice my crochet all week.