Volendam

This morning we drove up to Brisbane Portside Cruise Terminal, to catch up with 2 of our "farming" friends from Mittagong. Sue and Don owned, and still do, the farm directly opposite our "Vermont".

They cruised out of Sydney Harbour on Sunday on the Holland Americas - Volendam

They are cruising up through the Whitsundays and Barrier Reef, via Hamilton Island and Cairns, then onto Darwin. They are hoping to get a flight over Kakadu National Park from Darwin - should be brilliant after the wet, Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls will be incredible from the air.

Then on to ports in and between Bali, Jakarta and finishing in Singapore We had a 4 hour lunch at Wilsons Boathouse on the Wharf A lot more talking than eating *****

It was so great to catch up with them again., boy did we cover a lot of territory in that 4 hours!.

Forboding Sunday Sky

Sunday morning, and the weather looked relatively fine at Robina, so we took off for a long early walk at Burleigh. By the time our feet hit the sand, the colours in the sky started to change.

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Do love the "cloud reflections" in the sand below - where these two canines are cavorting.

Down near the south headland, some teenage Lifesavers were being put through a "marching" drill - and the sky was darkening.

then she really turned a brilliant dark grey

I love this sudden contrast when the sea is backdropped by an intimidating sky - it seems to create light and sharpens the overall scene - well to my ole eyes!!!.

Quicksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks

Loads of people turned up to watch the finals of this championship at Rainbow Bay and Snapper Rocks yesterday, parking was a tremendous pleasure!.

There was some delay in starting this event - with a few days of absent surf, but eventually the boys, girls and their boards hit the waves, and Board Champions from around the world competed

however, there is one who continues to perform, and is a great pleasure to watch,

even without any indepth "board" knowledge, let alone one minute of personal board experience

Kelly Slater from Hawaii - 10 times world champion

who homed in nicely to win this 2011 Quicksilver Pro yesterday, with Taj Burrow of Western Australia coming in close second.

Eyam and Edale

Trev and Kev, this is for you. Trevor re your write up and photos on your blog about your walk through Eyam, Derbyshire, last week, I saw the mention of Peter FURNESS, known in his time as "The Peak Poet", this sort've caught my interest!

By coincidence, when were in the Peak District in December 2007, we specifically paid St. Lawrence Church in Eyam a visit.

There were 3 reasons for this sojourn, we wanted to see this Church - inside (and we spent some time in there - it was gorgeous and far warmer than the cold air outside) AND

outside looking at the 8th Century Celtic Cross, many other outstanding aged gravestones, and of course the wonderful Sun Dial over the south door. The other reason was to search for the graves of my Cousin-in-law's relatives - YES, the surname we were looking for was FURNESS.

We found 3 "Furness" headstones, and believe there are definitely more, but unfortunately those Peak Winter winds were starting to really chill, so our seeking came to an end, before our search was fully complete.

These 2 "Furness" headstones are on the side path near front door of the Church

David is away right now, so can't check a lot out with him, but I do remember him telling me that none of his relos - the 'Furnesses" were lost to the plague. I will see what more I can find out when he is back from his hols.

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On the same trip we had a peek, which then called for a walk around Edale, absolutely delightful.

Had to pay the Old Nags Head pub a visit! The Parsonage was spectacular even in winter And back to another stunning Peak District Church I have had to put this on my blog, as although I have no problems with uploading photos on to here, for some reason I cannot get them out on email - a slight technical "set up" hitch I would say.

"Trenta sei" anni fa!

"36 years ago" the Brig and I drove to Italy from England for a very short holiday. Started off well, until the boy decided to consume "steak tartare" for lunch on the Belgium Car Ferry during our Channel crossing - do you mind raw Belgium horse meat on a car ferry???? Four hours later he was deep into "food poisening". Fortunately for me, the German motorways were superb to drive on, we went into Austria and stayed (which he doesn't remember) then into Venice for 2 nights (this he doesn't remember either) and eventually we arrived at Porto San Giorgio. By this time his food poisening had completed its course, and we were happy and well again, ready to relax and holiday. I have no idea why we chose Porto San Giorgio, it looked nice I guess, it was early May, so well before the peak summer season, and this huge 4 kilometer beach was just empty. It had a great little camping ground right next to the beach, the only thing separating us from the actual beach was a honeysuckle hedge. Below is a post card of how it looked 36 years ago in peak season.

It was a truly lovely simple week, we, in a tiny little "pup tent" with a camping stove and a couple of sleeping bags. We walked to the markets, chose our rather yellow looking "free range"pollo to cook each evening , enjoyed some local "rossa" and the whole week in this campground cost us UK7 Pounds total - food, vino and camping fees. We travelled home via Florence - longish stop then a quick dash along the toll roads in France to the Channel Ferry

I had to laugh when I found this photo of our abode and dining room - yes even my Denby pottery pepper shaker and the Brig's HP sauce accompanied us on this little sojourn.

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It was always our plan to go back to Italy, have been talking about it forever, and fantastic - now we are - mid April for 4 weeks, have all kinds of things planned, more on that later - and it will be a fun way to celebrate our 35th Wedding Anniversary in Amalfi. It will be Pasta and Pizza this trip, my man has never entertained eating steak tartare again, he totally ignored it during our trips to France. A lesson well learned.

The "Green" Centre.

I have just received the following "before and after" photos from Lisa, - she, Daz and Mikie have just returned to the Alice from Adelaide. Lois, you should enjoy these - you've been there!

Lisa's comments are: "The land is looking amazing after the rain a couple of weeks ago from Cyclone Yasi. It is green as far as the eye can see around the Marla Bore and Coober Pedy areas, there is still a lot of water lying around. As the cyclone circled the area from Sunday 13th Feb. the temperatures plummeted from 40 c down to 17 c and dumped record breaking rain - Marla 142.2 mm, Mt. Dare 102 mm, Oodnadatta 100.6 mm and Coober Pedy 73.8 mm.

Cyclone Yasi caused so much damage, yet created so much beauty in the Red Centre and its deserts."

Our Dog Fence, the longest fence in the world - it stretches 5,614 km from Jimbour on the Darling Downs in Queensland (near Toowoomba) through thousands of kilometres of arid land ending west of the Eyre Peninsular, South Australia on cliffs of the Nullarbor Plain above the Great Australian Bight. It winds through national parks, rocket ranges, past salt lakes, over mountain ranges and several of the nation's harshest deserts. This Dog and Dingo fence is a pest exclusion barrier that was built in Australia during the 1880s, to keep dingoes and wild dogs out of the relatively fertile south east part of the continent (where dingoes had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland and of huge sheep grazing properties on the south east of Australia - purple line on the map below.

It is still used today, although the fence maintenance is large, 'specially with wild camels pushing through it. This fence is checked by teams from 3 states for damage and repair needs. Parts of the Dingo fence are lit at night by 86 mm cold cathode fluorescent lamps which are alternately red and white, powered by long life batteries which are charged by photovoltaic cells during the day. The fence is held together by Gripples. A series of gates allow vehicles to pass through the fence.

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We have driven through the gates of this fence - just where this photo above was taken, on a few occasions in South Australia, and have never seen this "green lawn" look before.

The Bay of Islands

A truly gorgeous part of the world

Daniel Frank, the little "shell collector" enjoying his new discoveries this year at Ohawini Bay in the Bay of Islands - looks ever so smart in his new shirt. He will be a whole year old on March 28th. How time flies!.

Miss windswept Immy sailing across the Bay on the Russell to Paihia Ferry, her little jade number works well with the flow of the day - Immy's 4 cousins from Northern Ireland were also on board.

The eldest of the kiwi team - Ethan in the red of things on the Rocks at Ohawini Bay.

The Kiwis and Irish at Ohawini Bay. (L to R) Sarah, Ian, Sarah's brother from Belfast, Jonny, and his wife Sarah PLUS the 7 ruggies!

When Ethan turned 1, in November 2006,

the Brig and I rented a Bach on the water at Tapeka Point near Russell in the Bay of Islands for a week, - Ethan, Sarah and Ian joined us up there.

Great views from the deck of this Bach

The beach at the front of the bach

Superb sunsets as well

Russell is a wonderful little town, it actually was the first Capital of New Zealand. Lovely timber buildings and stunning gardens everywhere.

"The Duke of Marlborough" Hotel, the first Pub to get a license in New Zealand in 1840.

In 1968 I made a rather silly decision to sail in a 30ft. Trimaran from Auckland to Russell for the New Year. Why was it silly, or really very stupid - the prior sailing experience of all involved in the open sea was extremely limited!! Anyway we made it, and spent the evening dancing on the lawn in front of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel.

On New Years Day morning I discovered I had lost my wallet, or maybe it had been stolen - so rowed the dinghy ashore from the precarious Tri. and went to the Police Station (below - photo of it now - still looks the same), only to find out that my wallet had been handed in, everything including cash was still there, and the finder did not leave a contact number so I could thank them. Russell has had a soft spot in my memory ever since - forty plus years. So we made the most of it in 2006 - the Brig really enjoyed Russell and it's history.

Frank and I took time out and travelled right to the top of the Northland, 90 Mile Beach

and Cape Reinga - truly spectacular scenery.

Autumn's first day

It's the first day of Autumn, and our first trip to the beach for awhile - lovely early morning walk, before a "scorcher" of a day - 35 degrees plus, however only 50% humidity and the sun is shining, so who can complain?

A couple of director's chairs set up early - no directors in sight though!.

Hardly anyone on the beach yet

Except for this couple having fun with their little boy

I took the 2 photos above into the early morning sun - hence their shadowy figures.

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The Oscars - just thrilled that the King's Speech won Best Film, Original Screenplay, Actor and Director.

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We were delighted to hear the Best Director - Tom Hooper, dedicate his Oscar to his Aussie Mum - Meredith (below), an accomplished author.

The story goes - Meredith, was invited in late 2007 as part of a make up token Australian audience to a fringe-theatre reading of an unproduced play called "The King's Speech." The play was about an Australian Therapist and an English King. She came home, rang me up, and said "I think I found your next film"!

Tom says, "I happen to be half English, half Australian, living in London - and bringing a little Ozzie exhuberance to the English drawing room was bred into me by my Mum".

Tom Hooper honored his mother (above) and finished his Oscar winning speech with "so the moral of the story is, listen to your mother". (I always love a good Mum story).

A truly magic film.