The "big" Christmas fish!!!

I have just received some photos from my cousin Nalda (she lived behind us down in Batemans Bay) to show off her husband (Ross) , son (Matt), and son-in-law (Rod)'s great catches last weekend. Nal, her daughter Tanya, and daughter-in-law Belinda, had organised this trip for their 3 blokes as a Christmas present last year, but for one reason or other they only got to do it last week - and with great success. They boarded the craft at the Batemans Bay Bridge and mozied on up the Clyde River - famous for its Oysters, but I had no idea it housed these huge creatures as well. Of course Ross was the first to land a monster 12 kg Jewish (sometimes called Mulloway) number - within the first hour, and I think he and son Matt are holding this below.

Then of course came No. 2, not sure who caught it, but it was a whopping 14kg poisson!!

Four good sized flathead were also landed, before this very merry bunch returned home to show off their score to their thoughtful maidens and the 2 grand daughter's, Katie and Molly. I believe the freezers are full of their catch, and I know the Christmas (late or early) cheer would've been flowing well into the night to celebrate.

One year ago!

Today was a very quiet day, it has been exactly one year since we lost Mum. Frank and I met up with Mum's youngest sister and my cousin Ashley's wife, Sue, at a lovely cafe overlooking a small lake in Robina, the Jacarandas were blooming and the birdlife were enjoying themselves, the food was very tasty, Mum would've enjoyed it. It was very peaceful. In rummaging through a few photos (most are in storage) I actually found this one of Mum taken in 1981 , in Townsville, Queensland, where she was adjudicating the Townsville Highland Premiership. The young girls with her were the top performers at this event, and the smile on Mum's face showed how happy she was in the dance environment. I received some really thoughtful emails and calls, and it was once again lovely to be amongst family today.

The Dawn Treader is incredible

Yesterday, the filming of the next portion of the Narnia movie was completed at Cleveland Point, just north of Brisbane near Redcliffe. This magnificent piece of work - the Dawn Treader is 45 metres long, and 12 metres high.

The photo below is it's "butt", me thinks!

Below I believe is Oz's Gary Sweet, who plays Casdrinian, the Dawn Treader's Captain!

And this young lady below, is Georgie Henly, from Ilkley, Yorkshire, she plays Lucy in the movie, and I have read has been enjoying the southern Queensland weather!!

The locals have really enjoyed the last few weeks at Cleveland Point, as some arrangements were made for people to visit and watch a little - apparently an incredible treat for the younger generations. There will still be more filming on the Gold Coast, shall keep the ole ear to the ground.

Before the dust!!!

The day prior to our red dust invasion, young James Mitchell from the Gold Coast, who is the World Paddle Board Champion, was out filming for his new movie off Tweed Heads on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, when a small pod of migrating Humpback Whales surprised him. Apparently at first James was quite nervous, but then settled down to enjoying their company, actually when he moved away, they followed him, breaching and playing. We listened to his story this morning on breakfast TV.

What an incredible experience!!

Note: We are presently having bifolds and a new front door put in as I type this, I have escaped to the computer, far more pleasant for moi!

Where is the sun?

Well just a few photos taken by others up here yesterday afternoon. The dust certainly reached us, we were driving around picking up plants, and it was pretty bad - guess the car cleaners will be the only ones making anything on this in the long run. The state of Queensland has had its water restrictions lifted for a short period so people can wash their cars and houses. The photo below shows 3 shots of the same place across the Brisbane River taken within a few minutes of each other.

The Brisbane River

King George at Brisbane City Hall took his fair share.

Right now we are being warned of a repeat on Saturday, so will just have to wait and see what happens.

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.