What is about looking through this window that appeals to me so much? When I took these photos, I didn't feel particularly inspired, but now that I'm going through them, and editing, I'm a bit captivated.
I think if I was rich and perhaps living some alternate life (maybe in my retirement when my kids are grown), I would love to buy broken down old Queenslanders and restore them. It might only last for one house, but I would like to do it just once!
I just loved this one. The more I look at it, the more that I see.
This beautiful fella sat a posed nicely for me, right before he jumped up on me and I squealed like a proper girl!
Aren't their eyes so beautiful!!
Over the xmas and new year period, we were lucky enough to catch a few storms and the light show each night was pretty cool. This was a time lapse of some of the action.
Hard to believe it's been over a month since my last post, I never know where the time goes!
We busted our chops to get everything done in the lead up to xmas, so that we could relax and have a much needed break.
As soon as Grandma arrived, work stopped and the food fest began! I made some sleepy santas, but I'm afraid my oven is far to hot for meringue baking. Might have to use my microwave in future.
Chicken wings with blue cheese sauce!
Now we live in the land of the cypress pine, I thought we should grab one for a xmas tree! I forgot to get a photo of it decorated.
When my husband come into the kitchen while I'm baking.
Took mum for a small tour of the place, as she hasn't really had a look around since we've been here.
We stopped for a picnic by the swamp.
Our traditional gingerbread house. It managed to stay together this year, which is an improvement on last year.
The food continues and I can understand why my jeans don't fit!
Oh look, there's the tree decorated! I'm hoping by this time next year, we might have a patio to sit on.... maybe!!
All set for santa to come!! Look at Kaka's face, she found some makeup and looks like an oompa loompa!
We were blessed this year to have Uncle Wes join us for xmas and the kids absolutely loved it!
Santa enjoyed eating the house I think.
Cheers with Splash for xmas!
This pair!
Kids got some kayaks for xmas and we took them out xmas afternoon to try them out. I think they loved them.
Cocktails with my mummies.
The light was so pretty with the storm in the background, but the photo doesn't really do justice to the colours.
Horses were carrying on but I couldn't get them to run in the right spot for my photo.
I'd love to see what little creature is living in this tree!
Matilda and Freda have been doing a good job on our babies.
We were supposed to go out on new years eve to a 40th birthday party, but we had been fencing all day, cutting fallen trees off the fences from a storm that came through the night before. With us only getting home around 5pm and having worked in the heat all day, I was exhausted. So I opted to stay home with kaka while the boys ventured out. They left about 6:45 and I think they were back by 7:30. They drove into a huge storm and decided that going to a party in the rain and in the dark to a destination they weren't particularly familiar probably wasn't a great idea. So they returned to us.
This was mine and kaka's new years party! By the time the boys got home it had been devoured lol.
I've been trying to make notes of what all the trees are around the place. This one looks a bit like what we call a cocky apple, but it's a bit different.
Looook at THAT cream!!! OMG! I dunno why we got so much on that particular day, but we usually only get less than half that.
The Alpha cricket day was only last weekend and while the boys went to play (I better mention here that they won all of their games or I will be in trouble), Mango and I and the kids stayed here, so we went and did some crafting. Above is G mans and below Kakas.
Sourdough was another thing that I wanted to tick off my list, for making this place a home and this was my first one.
Oh and THIS happened!! I finally managed to get on the big fella! I won't say that I didn't have myself worked up into a bit of a state about it. Had myself a bit mentally blocked, thinking that something was going to go wrong. Justin came to my aid though, helping me through it. He built me a round yard and helped get me started which I was very grateful for. Sometimes, you just need someone there as a reassuring voice in your head, so you're not listening to the voice that's telling you you're gonna die!
I'm pleased to say that he's going fairly well and I've given him a few rides in the yards now. He's getting a bit of a spell at the moment with this rain about, as I don't need to be riding him when it's slippery, but hopefully when it dries out, he will still have retained what I taught him. He actually seems like a big softy, I think maybe because he took so long initially to get his trust that I'm a bit scared to progress!
Stripe had some puppies. So there's a little girl who isa bit smitten! The little chocolate one died for some reason, so we are down to 5 now.
Oh and someone lost their front two teeth.... well she got dad to pull them out with dental floss! Brave little critter, I couldn't stand to watch!
Made some Green Valley Halloumi from Matilda, it's very nice! I've also done a couple of batches of feta which turned out ok too.
Gremlins!
I told the kids that they could have a day each with mum, and they decided to team up and have a town day and a home day. So for our town day, we all ventured to Emerald to watch a movie. I randomly picked "Wish" as it was the only kids movies apart from Willy Wonka. Justin didn't much care about what it was, as long as there wasn't lots of singing...... well..... I lost count but I think it was about 9 songs throughout the movie LOL! Totally worth it to sit there and giggle at him every time they started singing again.
Aaaand School's back! This was our first day back at school. Grade 1 and Grade 3
I feel as though these guys might make it into the classroom a bit.
I read this the other day and it really hit me. So true!
Kids had cluster in their first week too, so Tuesday afternoon we drove to Rocky and they got to see their classmates and teachers for two days.
Had to get a photo post haircut for g man.
The end of the week was Australia Day. I'm so tired of all the political BS that goes with it, and it disappoints me terribly the way this country is going with all of the segregation, can't we all just move forward as one people? Even Woolworths doesn't sell Australia Day stuff, but they can still stock Easter and Halloween paraphernalia. A friend of mine said that his kid (only year older than mine), did absolutely nothing at their school for Australia day, yet any other holiday they would always do something to commemorate it. I'm sick of the fighting, change the date, who cares, those people who are up in arms about the date will just find something else to be disgruntled about! I mean "sorry day" was meant to make amends for all the past travesties that occurred, let's move on! Grrr anyhow, just having a little winge!
Since we've moved, we don't get the pleasure of seeing Grandpa George as regularly as we used to, so we make a point of seeing him when we do come to town! He joined us for our traditional lammingtons on Australia Day smoko before the kids and I ventured back home.
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| Doesn't it look like a dragon head?? |
We got home to unpack and repack to go to a surprise 40th for 'uncle Dave' at Rutland. So having spent the weekend away catching up with friends, I'm now back home, procrastinating, doing my blog when I should be preparing for the week. We had 38mm overnight, which was absolutely lovely and the Bureau seems to think we are in line for some more which won't got astray!
Hope everyone else is getting under some rain, but not too much to excess.
I recently read a book called "Stabbed Ego", by Luke Kennedy which I really enjoyed. Not the typical genre that I read but I couldn't put it down. I had actually been to a motivational speech by the author, and I thought it was a great storey, very inspiring.
Hope you are all healthy and happy!
With Love x
