Friday 16 January 2015

Going up?

While I was up north last month we had lots of rain here and when I came home all I seemed to hear around the neighbourhood were lawn mowers as everyone was trying to mow the jungle their lawn had turned into before the next rainy day. One day it was particularly noisy with the sound of chain saws and mulchers making a racket and I took a stroll outside to investigate and saw some very adventurous men lopping a massively high Gum tree so grabbed my camera to take some photos.

Our Northern Hemisphere friends may not know that gum trees are quite dangerous during our frequent storms here in Australia and many homes have been damaged by them. They really aren't good trees to have growing near houses at all.

 

I had never seen one being lopped before and was quite intrigued by the process.  


This was one very brave man and he was so agile.


I started feeling a bit silly by this stage in case he saw me so only took a couple more photos.


 

I left it at this stage and a couple of hours later all was quiet again. 


What a way to earn a living! I hope he got paid danger money.


 I had a quick walk around the garden today as I have been waiting for the tamarillos to ripen and have been keeping an eye on them in case the flying foxes started having them for dessert. They are just about ready to be made into some chutney. I might make this Tamarillo Chutney recipe in the coming days as it is a little different from the one I made last time. We also have some red tamarillos coming on which the CEO prefers.



 There is a glut of cucumbers at the moment and I have made eight bottles of Bread and Butter Cucumbers in the past fortnight and have no desire to make any more as I burnt my hand in the process yesterday but after suffering a very painful burn for an hour or so suddenly remembered the Aloe Vera growing near the door in case of burns (Duh!) and after rubbing the gel on every five minutes for an hour or so the pain decreased rapidly. It is a great plant for burns especially if you have little children. 



That said, I am very excited to see my Chuzzle plants growing. What is a Chuzzle I hear you say? Watch this space as I will tell you all about them in the coming week! 



Here is the 'Before' photo of my untidy pantry as I have joined Rhonda's Pantry Challenge. I procrastinated about tidying it up until this morning when I heard some wildlife (a mouse) in there chewing away happily at something. It was very cute but escaped the clutches of the CEO who perhaps isn't as quick as he once was. Bunnings had run out of the mouse traps we buy when we were there the other day so there may be a mouse plague at the moment. Anyway, I still have a couple of shelves to clean up before the deadline on Monday.


A friend and I visited a new Paleo cafe in town called Primal Pantry. We both ordered Lemon Curd Tart which was very nice. The cafe is across the road from Grand Central in Hill Street if anyone is coming to Toowoomba and wants to check it out.

I hope everyone has a very relaxing weekend wherever you are in the world. Many of our driest areas are having some good rainfalls including Mt.Isa so we are thankful for that. I hope that everyone who needs the rain is getting some and those who live in the Northern Hemisphere have a respite from the bitter cold of winter. 








18 comments:

  1. yes, those lumberjacks are quite impressive how they get around up the trees, shame they took the whole tree away though, lots of birds need stumps, i left my 2 trunks in my yard & they have naturally formed hollows in them now which some birds love.
    pantry challenge, ohhh dear, i took that too & now not sure i want to do it, lol, i just don't know where to start, i know it needs cleaning but .... i just close the doors on it!
    great post! have a great weekend!

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  2. Selina, they quite possibly left some. It was quite a distance away and I couldn't see the back yard. Most people these days would leave the stump for the wildlife. Just do your pantry shelf by shelf. I still have two to do but it is 33C here today and muggy as well so it is not pantry cleaning weather. I don't cope once it gets over 30C :-)

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  3. I'm not coping either Chel, it has just hit 39C here. The "Tamarillo Cooler" recipe tastes great with the red tamarillo when they ripen. I'm with the CEO - I like the red ones better.

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    1. I just had another look at your Tamarillo Cooler recipe, Sandi. It would be nice in this weather.

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  4. Was in Toowoomba at my brothers over Christmas so know about the rain you got. We got home to Hervey Bay to find our garden brown and crunchy. Rain is so needed. If you have too much please send some our way.

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    1. Jane, that is a shame you have missed out on the rain. It was so very dry here before that nice lot of rain. Now we need some more :-)

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  5. I did not know what a gum tree looked like! I have seen them in pics but didn't know the name, cool. We had a high of 33 here today as well but it was Fahrenheit, suspect yours was Celsius! Good luck on the pantry challenge - I don't have a pantry so thought I would do a couple of cupboards, they need it. Stay cool! (sorry it just struck me funny)

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    1. Kathy, my pantry is just a cupboard really. I still haven't finished the two top shelves. Hopefully I will get some motivation when it cools down.

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  6. I don't think I would like that job too much. He can have it all to himself!

    It appears I was a bit early on the pantry clean up. Yours already looks tidy Nanna Chel lol.

    The weather has been cooler down this way which is a bit of relief as we had horrible humidity for quite a few days. We did get a soaking rain, but it didn't take long to dry up. I have had to water things again...

    xTania



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    1. Tania, I have been trying to find some more of that wire shelving that gives another level in the pantry but none of the shops seem to have it anymore. Most of the dollar stores seem to stock the same products at the same time...at least here in Queensland it seems to be that way. Hopefully they will come back in and I want to buy another couple.

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  7. Late to the party. Trees are certainly what we dont have here. We are on the Werribee Flat on the run out to the see and it is flat clay pan with only a few trees. The rest is suburbia. Its rare to see a tree thats not a shrub. No one is planting them, i guess they take up too much room on small blocks. The only goods things about Eastern Melbourne is the trees and hills but its too expensive to build over there. Oh well, i go for drives to look at trees. How funny is that. Today its off to the surf (about 40 minutes away) as im in the bay which doesnt quite have the same affect. I love looking at the sea.

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  8. Enjoy looking at the ocean, Lynda. That is one of my favourite things to do when we holiday at the beach. I prefer to just sit and take in the beauty of the ocean rather than sight-see which we always did when the children were little.

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  9. Well if that is your pantry BEFORE the challenge......I hide my head in shame, I had hoped this is what mine would look like afterwards :-/

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  10. Phil, photos can be deceiving :-) I couldn't quite get a photo of the pantry moths flying around.

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  11. Mmmmmm! If that's the before photo, I'm with Phil! I don't think I'll be game enough to post my before photo either!

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  12. Ha ha, I had a HUGE clean up a while back when Rhonda had a pantry challenge. I won't tell you how long it was before I had cleaned it out before that. It took me absolutely days to go through everything. Now I try not to buy as much of the items that go off fairly quickly although I did have to throw out some flour. I have lots of Moccona jars which are coming in handy too. That way I can see if there is any wildlife moving around behind the glass. :-)

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  13. Nanna Chel,
    The lawn mowers have been going around this neck of the woods too. Hope you have been keeping cool too. And looks like your pantry cleaning came just in time. Ick mice.
    -Shiralee.

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  14. Shiralee, we still haven't caught that mouse. I guess it doesn't help that none of the mouse traps have been set again since it ate all the peanut paste off them :-)

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