A Red Dawn

Well, this posting is for all those friends and family who live outside of New South Wales and now Queensland, who have been here at one time or another. Yesterday and this morning the state of New South Wales was completely covered in red dust, most in Sydney say it was the worst ever. The photos below are a few that I have pinched, just to show what those in Sydney and many other areas woke up to this morning.

Spot the Bridge!

Looking across to the Opera House on a normal morning and then this morning (from the same spot) !!

Someone lost at the Opera House

Martin Place

Anzac Bridge

The Beaches -Manly Bondi this morning

Exercising at Collaroy!

The Kookaburras were confused!

Looking across the harbour from the same place on a normal morning, and this morning!!!

Ferry creeping around to Cremorne, just before all services were cancelled.

And today it has well and truly covered Queensland, and after that they say it is heading across the Tasman to New Zealand.

The very sad situation is that this red dirt has depleted great farming areas, and with it have come some incredibly bad storms, two country places we love (Goulburn and Crookwell) suffered by being smothered with "cricket ball" sized hail storms, right in the middle of their lambing and calving season. So much damage across both States, land, agriculture, animals, people's health, and of course businesses and futures in many cases!

Our past week

The past week has been really busy, this "reno" stuff does take its time, but we are getting there - sort of!! This week we were greeted by some of our neighbours, on Wednesday we arrived home after a very busy day of shopping for - "should we buy that tap, or this one", and so on, to find a very nice bottle of red wine and letter from a group of neighbours in the adjoining street, Frank called one of them and had a long chat - he finished the conversation with sooh much local knowledge. Then on Friday evening, Carol, our next door neighbour held a delightful cocktail party for us to introduce us to some more neighbours - a truly fun evening to say the least. This morning we went for a long walk, however on leaving the house I looked up and there were the Hot Air balloons - I took a couple of not so good shots (palm tree is on our place) and put the camera back in the house, had I taken it with me on our walk then I would have been able to get some beauties, as they came in very close. About those taps, the Brig made a decision this afternoon that he could change the old taps for the new ones, a plumber was definitely not needed!!!!. Well, he had an excellent start, and changed some, then whilst typing this there was this horrendous noise - a damn waterfall had hit the bathroom, anyway water went everywhere - something went wrong, and I am not asking what, but I am sure that after the clean up, there will be a phone call to the plumber!!. SUCH FUN!!

Riverfire

Last night Brisbane lit up once again for the RIVERFIRE. More than 600,000 people lined the Brisbane River, and many thousands more watched from Brisbane's hilly suburbs, and we watched from the comfort of our partially furnished lounge area.

The showpiece spectacle was centred on the iconic Story Bridge, and the river was alive with all types of craft.

Southbank was absolutely packed

Tw0 F-111's blasted through the night sky for the last time, entertaining all. The fireworks were launched from 3 bridges, 6 barges and nine rooftops.

The Grande Finale - a cascading yellow waterfall of fireworks spilling into the river below. We really enjoyed the whole spectacle including the outstanding piloting of the F-111's, the weather was perfect, it started at dusk (my hour), and Brisbane is pretty proud of this event.

Grandkids holiday in Cushendall, Northern Ireland

The KIWI grandkids (Ethan and Immy) have just had a trip back to Northern Ireland, except for their maternal grandmother (Anne) this was Immy's first introduction to her Mum's family. From the photos it looks like the kids and their irish relos had a lovely time together.

Ethan and Immy with their grandmother Anne in County Antrim This lovely day was finished with some great fish and chips and a super steak and guinness pie. What else would you need??.

Lovely lunch out!

Today was super - a group of us had a great lunch on the Gold Coast, my 2 Aunts, cousin Ailsa and her Libran husband - Rod (I could be a bit biased towards this astrology star! ), their eldest daughter Jo (my God daughter) and her partner from England and of course the Brig!. The food and conversation was excellent as always, time just went far far too quickly.

3 Gals with the same name.

My God daughter - Joanna Elizabeth (Jo has been based in London for the last 10 years), my Aunt and God Mother - Nalda Elizabeth, and moi, Elizabeth Nalda.

Whitby in Summer

Whitby, England was where our grand neice (Emms) and grand nephew (Jack) spent a week's holiday last week with their grandparents (Frank's sister and brother in-law - Marg and Kev). Apparently the english sun performed well for the whole week and they were able to enjoy the northern beaches each day. Whitby of course is where Captain Phillip Cook was born in October 1728 there, lovely town I believe situated at the mouth of the Esk River, and it has a wharf named "The Endeavour!. Yep another place to visit when we are in the north of England again.

Jack eyeing the sea

******

Emms partaking in her favourite treat!

and Jack hits those northern waters!!!!!

Summer in the Colorado Rockies

Well we are heavy into refurbishing this house, not much in the way of photographs yet, but in a few weeks things should start to "blossom". Good news too, the fires are presently under control, and the highways have been opened - time to keep the fingers crossed. In the slack times, I have really been enjoying eyeing some photos from friends in the USA. Our very close friends, the Bostons, just sent these photos of their daughter Mary's recent family trip in an R.V. through Colorado Rockies etc, the first lot I picked out were from their days around the Grand Canyon. (Mary and her brother Jeff, spent quite a bit of time with us in OZ when their parents lived out here. ) Frank and I flew to the Grand Canyon with his 2 sons, David and Ian, in the early 80's, but think it is time to go back via land, and spend more time in the area.

Nice touch at Happy Hour

Dana, Mary's husband, high above the canyon with his constant companion!

(Above - Mary, sits quietly contemplating the view - with 3 kids in an R.V. so would I)

They tried, but no one took a dive

A mule ride to the valley and back up again. David and I did this in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park in the early 80's, Frank and Ian took the easy route and biked around the bottom. Those bikes were a lot easier than our mules!!!

Ryan, Dana, the twins, Kyle and Haley, backed by the Bison.

Bushfires already!

Bushfires have hit the south coast of New South Wales this weekend after a week of horrendous winds. The Princes Highway has been closed just south of Ulladulla at Lake Burrill, closing off traffic moving south to Batemans Bay. The weather all over the south of the country has been quite outrageous this week, windy and freezing in some parts, and really overwarm in many other areas, breaking all kinds of late winter records!. The fire below is the one presently at Lake Burrill.

The Gold Coast has been superb, but rain is being forecasted for the early part of this week.

Ethan also climbs high in Auckland

Grandson, Ethan enjoyed his high climb as well at a friends birthday party in Auckland a few weeks ago!!

Where do the grandsons go from here??

Jack climbs high on his birthday.

Grandson Jack and 13 of his friends had a great time climbing the wall on his 9th Birthday at "Vertical Endeavours" in Minnesota this week.

2 hours of fun, reaching for the sky The Birthday Boy takes a bow!

Narnia casts it's spell on the Gold Coast

The Gold Coast is hosting 600 crew members from the set of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Images of a strange other world have sprung up on the Spit. This week part of the Gold Coast Seaway was transformed into a medieval wharf. Photo belows shows the set being built on the Spit at Main Beach. Friday marked the crew's final cut of a three day shoot at the Seaway set that took 8 weeks to assemble.

The weather has been absolutely spectactular for filming

Young actor, Will Poulter in action

David Vallon who plays Gumpas

I am particularly excited about this event and movie, as good friend Sandy and her husband Tom (the mountain man) have been involved with the costume design for this film.

One could be forgiven for mistaking this actor for the Mountain Man!!

****

Can't wait to see their designs, which will only happen after the film is released.

Meanwhile the building of the 35 meter Dawn Treader is near completion, and awaits the crew (85% Australian) at Cleveland Point, where they will resume filming.

Camped but not cramped!

A quick update on the house thing, we moved quite a few things out of the caravan into the new abode and put the van into storage on 7th August. Things are very basic, but I am lovin' the space. Tired as the house may look, it has a nice feeling to it, so hopefully once the "tarting" is complete and we have our furniture, it will have an even better feeling. This week has been filled with getting quotes for all the different jobs and trades, response has been excellent, and hopefully by the end of next week it will be a matter of sifting through the different quotes and making some decisions. The bright blue and mustard rooms are no more, and the neutralising of the lilac, olive green and oranges walls is scheduled for early next week!!. The Brig has his barbeque, I have my space, and the weather has been incredible. Have met a couple of the neighbours and have had time out with both Aunts and a couple of my cousins as well this week - things are truckin' well for us.

Sad news - Sam has died

This 4 year old koala became well known around the world after she accepted help and a drink from a country firemen during the terrible bushfires which devastated Victoria earlier this year. Sam was severely burned and has been recuperating at the Southern Ash Wildlife Centre for the last 6 months, along with many other severely affected wildlife. This morning she underwent an operation to remove cysts to try and save her from a disease "chlamydia" which has ravaged Victoria's female koala population, but unfortunately she did not make it through the operation.

Rest in Peace - Sam

Making the most of our last few days on the Broadwater

It seems our days on the Broadwater are coming to an end, with settlement on the house due for this coming Wednesday, then we will be straight into the painting and renovating!!!. So, this weekend we have done quite a bit of walking - yesterday we strolled north up Marine Parade on the west side of the Broadwater to the Cafe strip, lagoons, parks etc. Always so much activity on this part of the coast, certainly never boring.

We arrived in time to see the daily feeding of some 47 pelicans by a staff member from the Seafood Market (yep, the Brig counted them while I watched and took photos).

Such gentle souls, happy with one fish/skeleton each Those big eyes match those big beaks!

This morning we walked south down to the bridge, and were really impressed with the waterfront development the Gold Coast Council has near completed. Lovely boardwalks and walkways, urban wetlands, play and picnic areas for families, swimming pools, small beaches, a jetty, and large area for entertainment/concerts etc. The landscaping is actually complete, sooh many trees and gardens- it will be lovely when it is finished in a few weeks time.