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.