Back from the beach

 Recently one of my classmates and I ventured to the beach for 10 days and during our stay we had a mini class reunion once again. As most of us are 77 or 78 it is becoming more of an effort to make the trip especially since it is becoming so busy on the Sunshine Coast as a lot of people have moved there. However, this time it was very quiet where we stayed and I was concerned for the small businesses there who must be doing it tough. The caravan park was quite full so there must be a few grey nomads still heading north from the southern states. 

The last few winter days

 Here in Australia Winter is coming to an end as Spring begins on the 1st September. It has been a cold winter not unlike those we shivered through back in the early 1970s when I first moved here and it was often miserably cold and wet. We have become used to the warmer winters since then but this year I made good use of my coat, jackets and scarves. 

A week of rain

 Here in SE Queensland we have had a week of constant rain and have really missed seeing the sun but finally it made an appearance a couple of days ago and followed by some warm days before the rain starts up again but this time it won't be as heavy thankfully. I tipped over 10 inches of rain out of the rain gauge during this latest rain event which was nothing compared to what fell in other areas which were badly flooded AGAIN. 

This and That

 I just haven't been taking part in the blogging world for a few weeks so sorry to my blogging friends that I haven't left a comment on your recent posts. Sometimes I just can't be bothered resizing photos and making the effort to be lucid enough to write a blog post when I can just bury my head in a book :-)

A little rain

It has been getting really dry here once again so it was lovely when the skies opened yesterday and we had about an inch of rain. Today it is clear once again after a foggy morning so we are back to coolish nights and warm days this week.

A week of challenges

It has been a challenging week with one thing or another and was finished off with me being locked out of my Google account which meant I couldn't write a blog post but I have just discovered I could get into Blogger by using a different browser. Technology!!!

Rain!

Well, we have been hoping and praying for it for years and finally we have had some good falls of rain which have cheered up our farmers ever so much although I have heard that some have missed out. It has been rather dismal though with the grey skies so when I was at the market on Saturday I bought some sunflowers from a lady from Clifton to cheer me up. However, she said at the time they hadn't had a lot of rain where she lives so hopefully she has had some more during the week as some places are now flooding and residents are being told they may have to evacuate. Typical Australia! Fires one month and floods the next. LOL!

It's lawn mowing time again!

As most Queenslanders would know it has been a muggy and rainy week in parts and it has been wonderful to see that there were some decent falls out west which would have perked up our farmers but it was patchy and unfortunately some missed out. We had just over 50mm but other areas of town got a lot more but it was enough to start greening up the lawns and I have heard lawnmovers going the last few days which have been silent for quite a while as our lawns had turned brown and crunchy.

Rain for Christmas!

We have been hearing the weather forecasters say that SE Queensland would have a wet Christmas this year but I have heard forecasts about rain before and often it just bypasses us. However we have had a couple of storms move through tonight and we got a little rain. I see on the radar that heavier rain is moving east at the moment so hopefully some of our farmers will get good falls. It certainly will be an answer to prayer.

Back to the old laptop

The painters left on Wednesday after working on the dining room and now we have to wait till Monday for the carpet to be laid before I can move the furniture plus the PC back so I am back on my son's old laptop once again as I can't write a blog post on my iPad since the Blogger App was closed down or whatever you say about an App that is no longer available.

A little rain and and a Blogger problem

We had a little rain overnight and I am sure nobody is complaining. We heard thunder yesterday for the first time in many months and hopefully some areas received helpful downfalls in the storms that passed through. We had mainly light rain where we live but I am not sure if it was heavier on the other side of town which is often the case. Still a little rain is better than no rain as it is extremely dry in many parts of Queensland and some towns are almost out of water.

Full steam ahead!

Finally we have a date for when the kitchen and bathroom renos will start so I need to have packed up the kitchen and bathroom items by the 1st November. No more procrastinating! Well, just a little as I had to take some photos of some of the roses that are flowering at the moment as I am quite chuffed seeing as this is the first time I have grown roses.

Goodbye summer!

Well...aren't all of us in Australia happy to say goodbye to summer! We have had such a mixed bag of weather this month in Queensland with a dreadful prolonged heatwave, followed by a sudden drop of about 20 degrees in the temperature, then there was the fog and the recent downpour of nearly four inches of rain here which caused some flooding around the area. Currently Townsville, which is normally called 'Brownsville' by the locals due to the lack of rain, is coping with some seriously high rain totals causing flooding in low lying areas and there is more to come.

After the rain...

This past week has been a wet one for many areas of Queensland and while we didn't receive anything like the rainfall totals experienced by those on the coast etc. we did manage to pick up some decent totals. Some areas of the garden are like a jungle which gets me down as I can't dig out all the weeds as some have just grown so tall and thick so I took a break from attacking it all to see how the flowers and veggies have benefited from the recent rain.

Macadamia Soap

I wasn't terribly happy with my last batch of soap in which I used madder root for the first time so I thought I would try another new to me recipe using macadamia oil which I hadn't used before. I knew there was rain on the way but didn't realise we would have 99% humidity for days on end which isn't good for soapmaking so thankfully I had decided to only make a small batch.

How things change.

After being housebound for a number of days I ventured out the front to the mailbox midweek and thought I had stepped out into the African jungle. I knew we had had a few storms and possibly a few inches of rain but I didn't realise how quickly the garden would change after the downpours.

Any weeds at your place?

We have had a fair bit of rain during winter which we keep being told was very unusual although it did remind me of the winters we used to have but perhaps not as cold. So now we have weeds everywhere which are very hard to keep under control when you have 1/2 acre and are getting a bit long in the tooth!

The sun is shining again...and all is well.

We have had a number of dismal foggy days and I missed the sunshine terribly. We really are a nation of people who love the outdoors and find it difficult to have to stay indoors for any length of time so it was just so wonderful to see the sun shining once again today. I don't know how our Northern Hemisphere friends survive those long freezing winters. I take my hat off to them.

The Miracle of Rain

Well...at last the rain came! It has been so very dry here for so long and it was nice to have a couple of rainy days even though the storms were a bit scary after seeing the destruction caused by the super cell that hit our capital city of Brisbane just over a week ago. Thankfully there hasn't been any damage in our area apart from flash flooding. Isn't it wonderful though what a difference rain makes to the garden?