No 11 - 2014 Back on Mainland

27^th  It is an uneventful trip to Oxley where we stop for lunch before setting up in Porepunkah for the next few days. You can see why it would be special in Autumn with all the deciduous trees.

28^th  Bright is just another touristy town and quite expensive so we head out to find some lookouts. At there is a view of forest clearing down the side of one mountain but it is quite picturesque in the other direction.

We find another lookout that gives us a different view of forest clearing so head to Mt Buffalo. It is strewn with granite boulders and very steep but the clouds stayed away long enough for us to see for miles at the Horn. You can walk from car park to summit but it was very steep and path slippery so I didn’t tempt it.

Arriving back at the caravan we had a yellow Robin join our superb fairy wrens, so we had a cup of tea and watched him catching dinner.

29^th   Jacqui & Dean’s wedding day dawned lovely and sunny so we went into Bright and had coffee with Ian & Kaye before meeting up with Muzz, Cassie & June for lunch in their motel room. It was like Queen street at peak hour with various family members calling in to say hello. Bree and the girls came in in their oneseys after they had had their hair and makeup done and looked so cute.

 Soon it was time for us to leave and go home to get changed and meet up again at the chapel. It was an Ecumenical chapel but is now privately owned and in lovely rustic surrounds.

 We meet up with Dean and he is a bit nervous but ‘cool’ – he seems a very nice guy. All too soon Bree and the girls arrive and look lovely as does Jacqui. She is a very attractive girl and was very happy though they both had tears during the service. 

The reception was held at a Deer and Emu farm. They had 1 big stag blowing his trumpet and several ostriches who towered over the emus.

 The food was very nice – don’t know how much it cost though Ian was complaining about the $15,000 bill – but it ran rings around some of the restaurant meals we have had of late. Loved their wedding cake – Jacqui had a lovely tiered cake with trailing spray of roses down one side – Dean had a truck coming down a mudslide on the other. Of course J couldn’t take all the people and noise so we had to leave before the bride.

30^th    Morning tea with June, Murray & Cassie involved talking over the nights events. Then we had afternoon tea with Kaye & Ian before having a quick trip to an antique shop that was closing down to buy an aboriginal carving that Cassie had seen and wasn’t allowed to buy.

31^st   After a very early start – for us – we have morning tea & lunch with Maudie & Bazz and meet Maudie’s brother Greg and arrange to meet him on Anzac Day as he is a Nasho Vietnam Vet as well. They seem a very nice couple and it will be lovely staying here in their garden. They have 20 odd stud Angus cows and calves, 2 bulls and 12 Dorper ewes and 10 lambs that will need to be fed some hay. With all the green grass it seems strange but hey! J can master the tractor and 4 wheel bike and I’ll look after the chooks. Then it was time to head west and we make it to Mooroopna for the night.

^{1st April}    Left Mooroopna early at 152 metres above sea level and stayed there all day just about. After leaving Echuca it is flat farming country through Boort and to Wycheproof, where Mt Wycheproof makes the altimeter go up to 186 m but it soon falls back down to 152 as we wend our way to Sea Lake and into Manangatang for our overnight stop. The whole day was spend passing through wheat country and nearly every paddock had last years stubble poking up through the ground and looking very barren and desolate. There were a few irrigation ditches closer to Echuca but after it was very dry. I believe that they plant in April/May and harvest in Nov/Dec, but only 1 or 2 paddocks had been ploughed up and quite a few had been burnt off, which was odd because I didn’t think they did that any more. We ended up going to hotel for barramundi and salad for dinner and it was lovely; then chatted to some Newsouthwelshmen who were here carting grain from farms to silos and silos to ports. Evidently there are a lot who follow the harvesters around the country. A local bikie had been in Mildura ‘shaking sultana’ racks provided the local news. After the grapes are put out on racks to dry into sultanas you go along shaking them to get the dry ones to fall off so you can collect them.

Wednesday sees us continue west at 152m for the morning. To break the monotony we stop in Ouyen for a vanilla slice (Vanilla slice capital of Aust) but it wasn’t as good as I remember from 2 years ago. Loved their salt and pepper shakers  - would love a set. Walking into the main street we stop at a mural that has been painted along wall of a building next to park when an elderly lady comes up for a chat and tells us all about the mural and the town and herself. She is 91 and as spritely and ‘with it’ as you could get. I would love to be like that at 70 let alone 90.

 Back on the road we have to stop near the quarantine station at Pinnaroo to cook up all our vegetables, plus the tomatoes and apples as you can’t take anything into SA, and we had forgotten. Our overnight stop at Sherlock had us eating lots of veggies. Peake, Sherlock and Geranium have all made overnight stop areas opposite their halls so that travellers can use their toilets, but with a small general store and not much else there isn’t anything to keep you in the area.

After a late start on Thursday, we hit the hills between Strathalbyn and McLaren vale and it is strange! However we set up camp and have a rest from driving. There were lots of vineyards along the road so we should have a good time tasting the local produce. We ring Murray to wish him a Happy Birthday and find him driving home from Melbourne so we have a long chat to fill in the miles, and look forward to seeing him and Cassie at Rocklands in 14 days.

We have to do some grocery shopping on Friday or diet so check out one of the local bakeries, which had won a lot of awards for their exotic pies. They had run out of many but I had a chicken, leek and voigner pie which was very tasty. We spent the night watching the Broncos lose to Eels!!! which wasn’t helped when the Lions lost to Suns on Saturday afternoon. The Cats did the best, beating Collingwood on Saturday night. We had not been able to get a printer cartridge here so had gone over to Seaford late morning and found a Big W which not only had printer ink but some larger sized long sleeved tee shirts and jeans so I have a few more clothes to wear now the weather is cooling down. I had seen Blessed Cheese café in town here so we came back to McLaren Vale to check it out and had a gastronomic meal. We ordered the cheese platter for 1 and figs Fluerier. There were 3 (blue, camembert and cheddar) cheeses, heaps of crackers, quince paste, almonds and dried apricots and more than enough for the two of us. Then our bowl of figs (6) with a crunchy crumble topping with a blue cheese sauce and rocket salad on top and it was truly divine. We washed it down with a bottle of ‘Battle of Bosworth’ sav blanc – we will go to their vineyard and try some more as it was very nice too. Having to walk around to wear it off we checked out the Yummy Nut store and bought chilli pasta and some more herbal teas – chocolate, coconut, caramel and hazelnut chai (what else would you buy in a nut shop)? Then it was off to Olive shop where we tried 4 different olives and 3 oils. We came away with a bag of chilli olives and one herb one, to go with the Roquefort ‘Papillon’ and a goat and sheep milk cheese which sounds very interesting. We are gathering a collection of things to share at Rocklands – just wish I could make them last till we get back to Qld.

McLaren Vale holds a ‘Vintage & Classic’ car rally every year and it is on Sunday so we get to stand in main street for 2 hours watching 400 cars go past. They had everything (just about) from a T model ford to current day Jags and Mercs. There must have been 60 Jags, lots of cadillacs, chevys, mustangs, minis, Buick, Studebacker, a Bentley and many more. There was even one build in 1954. After the parade each brand of vehicle went to a particular winery where you could go to inspect them further.

As we couldn’t get in to some of them there were so many people queued up we headed to Willunga for lunch and did a wine tasting at Minko where we ended up buying 6 bottles shiraz and 6 chardonnays. There were 2 other cellar doors nearby but one was busy and the other didn’t want to serve us so we ended up coming home and ringing Jayden and Zahra to wish them a happy birthday.

Monday 7^th  is spent doing housework and writing up some more of this blog before we head out to check out ‘Angove’ and ‘Ekhidna’ which both have lovely spots to enjoy lunch with your wine. ‘Angove' had some lovely wines (Alternatus Vermentino was a new variety to us which we liked along with their Family Crest Chardy and Vineyard select shiraz) but were a bit pricey, so we will have to pick them up from Dan Murphy’s when on special. Maximus wasn’t open despite the sign saying that they were so we went on to ‘Ekhidna’ and tried all their whites, (sparkling chardy, 2012 Sav Blanc)’ Linchpin’ shiraz and sparkling shiraz ‘She Viper’ both of which came home with us. It is a pity that we didn’t get a cold bottle of sparkling because we had smoked barbeque brisket with sauce for dinner and they would have gone down together wonderfully. We don’t normally shop at Coles but as it is the only grocery store in town we had no choice, but might go back for another one of these.

Tuesday sees us head out to Maxwell where their Spiced Mead & Mead Liqueur competed with ‘Ellen street’ shiraz & ‘Where’s Molly’ Rose but eventually all 4 came home with us. Where’s Molly was a saying learnt by all owners babies as they would hear their parents calling the for the old dog who was getting blind and deaf. Nowdays they email all wine club members for dog photos each year and put them all together on label with Molly in centre. Great idea I thought. Next port of call was Tapestry who have a large ‘old English scene’ tapestry hanging on wall and some nice wines too so we bought a case of shiraz and one of sav blanc for me. The people in caravan next to us had recommended Lloyd Bros and had bought a few cases so they were next on our list and didn’t disappoint. We had lots of fun chatting to Karl and trying too many wines but the Caesar Sav Blanc, Dare Devil Grenache Rose and Spartacus Shiraz seemed to find their way into ute.

By Wednesday we were out of bread for lunch so decided to treat ourselves and go out for lunch. We had seen Salopian Inn a very old building on highway so went there. First impression was very nice surroundings – not too classy, but not too casual either. Waitress brings drinks menu – 20 pages of it – find a Kangaroo Island Gin which is served with a slice of lime and 6 pink peppercorns (& tonic) so I opt for that and J has a Pilsener. Eventually the 1 page food menu arrives and it is very pricey but we order 2 red curry seafood only to be told that they only have 1 left, so J orders a steak. I know that J likes his steak so rare that it is practically running around the plate but they must have had to muster it before cooking it took so long and when it did arrive it was just the steak with a sauce in middle of big plate!! No veggies or salad and it was $34.00. As my red curry sauce was fairly firey and too much for me he polished it off. Needless to say we didn’t stay for desert or coffee. I had ordered a water to dilute the effects of G & T and they charged $8 for that – think the bill was nearly $100!!! Down in that area was Dowie Doole wines so we visited them and would have had a much nicer cheese platter washed down with their wines. We came away with 3 chenin blanc, 6 x 2012 shiraz and 3 sparkling shiraz. After getting lost a few times we found Pirramimma and tried a few but weren’t overly impressed. As their Gilded Lily Petit Rose was on special for $10 we bought 2 bottles to add to the collection. This is the home of Grey Nomad but the saleswoman wasn’t too keen on discussing them so we left. We did enjoy Lowe's wines especially the Tinja (chardonnay/Verdelho) Louee Nullo Mountain Grigio, Bobby Lowe Sparkling Merlot and Lowe Mudgee Blue (Shiraz Cabernet) which was suggested to cellar for 3+ years.

We have to visit Kangarilla wines on Thursday as Jim recommended them – another very nice building with lovely views over grapevines to distant rain covered mountains, and a young girl from Cairns who we chatted to about the OTC which she has done twice as well as Creb and Bloomfield tracks. After much talk and wine tasting we came away with a case of Elegant Ocker Shiraz and 2 bottles of Charlies Blend Chardy.  Heading up another side road we find Gemtree, with an English man doing the talking. He has been here since 1998 with 2 backpacking holidays to NQ and NZ and keeps being asked back to Gemtree, so we figure he must know something about their wines. We tried the whites and came away with 2 bottles Moonstone Savagnin – a French grape that I haven’t tasted before. Further up the road we find Hugos with a lovely new (old style) cellar door. Pam is in great spirits so we have a long chat about caravanning etc while tasting their products. An Oaked Chardy & 2014 unwooded sweet sav blanc  to have with spicy dishes come home with us along with a bottle of their olive oil, which smells of fresh mown green grass, and somehow has the taste too. I don’t normally eat bread dipped in olive oil so will have to find another way to eat this drop.

Friday and J finds Doctor Pilkington’s miracle cider somewhere so we are off to check it out then Chapel Hill Wines are nearby as is Alpha Box & Dice. We liked The Vicar and Chosen Gorge Chardy but the Verdelho won the prize. Once again the sign is out for Maximus saying they have tapas, chocolate & cheese for tasting but again there is no one home. After refuelling we stop off at Oxenbury Farm and find more cider. Grappa Red is made with 60% gramay grapes & 40% pink lady apples and is wonderful, while white grappa is 60% chardonnay grapes & 40% apples. They had some nice sparkles so we came home with a mixed box of bubbles and box of red grappa.

Saturday is market day at Willungra so we wander around there but as I am wary of what we can take into Vic on Tuesday we don’t buy any fresh fruit or veggies, but do get a 2 litre flagon of olive oil from a guy who tells us we have to give our olive tree a no 1 hair cut and do it every 2 years to get decent fruit so we might do that when we get back to Downs. 'Battle of Bosworth' is on way back so we stop off in case they are open and they were. Tried their whites and despite some great labels we only bought a bottle of sav blanc that we had tried last weekend. We were told that if we liked sparkling shiraz we should try ‘Black Bubbles’ at Shingleback so we head there and yes we came away with a bottle as well as a bottle of ‘Kiss me Kate’ Chardonnay. I had read about the barn so we stopped there for lunch. After a minor heart attack at the prices we settled on 3 entrees – Hervey Bay scallops with a divine wakame lemon myrtle butter, a duck rillette with endive tomato & pear chutney and the charuterie which is a selection of cured meats, pickled onions and some oil smeared toast. The duck was like a pate only made with duck meat and exquisite. To top it off we had desert – of course J had sticky date pudding but I had a brownie parfait with rhubarb & chocolate flake. The parfait was really icecream and the rhubarb was cooked without sugar so it went down very well. The whole meal had lots of interesting flavours and textures and thoroughly enjoyable. We washed it down with a bottle of Geoff Hardy Hand Crafted Chardonnay which was so good it went on list for us to visit next time we are in SA. We asked why they bring scallops from Qld and were told that at this time of year they are the best in country – so much for being a Qld’er I didn’t know we had scallops in our waters. After all this it was time to go home to watch the Lions get mauled by Port, fortunately Tony didn’t want to talk to us – neither did Yvonne but will try to wish her a Happy Birthday later, as we have to pack up van now.

After high church with lots of incense, on Sunday we wind our way through farming country to Murray Bridge where Heather had told Peter & Val that we were coming so had a catch up with them too. They have just returned from a trip along Great Ocean Road and won’t be coming to Rocklands this year. Jim & Heather’s 2 grandsons Oscar & Courtney arrive at 6pm and are very hyped up. Evidentally they are always like this after they have spent the weekend with their father. Courtney who is 5 went wandering off with a 12 year old girl, so he could tell us all about the church they went into! We join them to watch ‘Captain America’ after dinner – hope I don’t have to watch it again with Tyler & Liam or Jayden & girls.

Monday sees us join Heather at the bridge over Murray river where the boys are going kayaking. Of course John offered to take them out and managed to tip all 3 of them into the drink when the boys both reached out to catch a frisbie. They had a good long paddle up and down the river with games thrown in to keep 8 kids amused. Lisa arrived for dinner and then took the boys back to Adelaide and we went to home group where they have been discussing ‘Crazy Love’ as Lenten study. As this was the last one we have a copy of the film to study at a later date. We spoke to the group about making sure there is a big sign with times of service at the church and place and times displayed at the info centre/caravan park. 

We are back at 152m on Tuesday as we head to Narracorte before turning east to cross the border with no quarantine point in sight! The countryside is lovely with lots of grey barked gum trees along the road and sheep and cattle grazing in green paddocks. At Apsley we turn south and spend the night at Bailey Rocks, another lovely spot among the trees and big granite boulders. We tried to play Majong with our new set but had trouble deciphering the rules so will have to find someone in the know to teach us.

Stopping in Casterton to fill up fuel, fruit and veggies and have lunch, we learn that this is where the Kelpie was first bred. Coleraine is a short drive away and another lovely little town, smaller than Casterton but with a chocolate shop which I am not allowed to stop at? We wind our way through some hilly country to Harrow which will need further exploring without the caravan on behind and then onto Rocklands where we meet Simon the caretaker. We invite him down for ‘happy hour’ and he turns up 3 minutes later with 3 VB tallies and only goes away to get more beer. We haven’t set up but at around 8.30pm J is drunk so goes to bed and finally Simon goes off too. Hope this is not a sign of things to come!

We do manage to set up before Jim & Heather arrive late Thursday morning and Murray, Cassie and Marie get there shortly after lunch. Then it is light the camp fire and sit around talking and drinking and sharing food. This continues for the whole weekend and is only interspersed with a trip to Balmoral for the ‘Stations of Cross’ on Good Friday and another trip on Saturday morning to check out the markets, church Saturday night and Sunday morning and sleeping late at night. The combined churches in Balmoral hold their walk around town each Good Friday with various members doing a reading and carrying the old wooden cross. It is a moving and thought provoking experience and is followed by hot cross buns in Anglican church hall. Unfortunately the Uniting church is being decommissioned in mid May because they have so few members. Lisa and the boys arrive early afternoon and everyone else goes off to get firewood while I have a scan. (senior citizen's afternoon nap)

Cassie & Marie are at the markets at 8.45am to get the best bargains but we turn up with Murray at 10.30am and have a look around. J buys a steak sandwich and I get some bread, apples scrowls and a 2kg box of figs for $4 – in the shops they are $8 kg and then go back to car and read my book. Back home Simon comes and goes with his dogs sharing a drink with quite a few regular campers. John & I go to the Anglican church service on Saturday night and chat to many of the locals who were going over to hotel for dinner. As we had already had some stew we returned to the campsite and dessert and drinks. At the front gate of caravan park is an old hut which was the original stockman's home on Rocklands station - talk about living in splendour!

We spend time with chatting to Murray while everyone else goes off to the Catholic service, then it is time for more eating and drinking. This time we include chocolate pancakes as well as chocolates galore. By 4pm Monday there is just Jim & Heather and the two of us left to relax around the fire and most of the park is also empty. Simon’s old dog Edward has been going back and forwards all afternoon and crying when he gets to us, so J goes off to make sure Simon is ok – can’t find him but a woman with 5 kids walking around the park says he is drunk and had been at their camp 30 minutes ago so we assume he is alright. He eventually staggers in much to Edwards delight and we shoo them all off to bed. While driving around Balmoral with Cassie trying to steal figs, I find a house built in under the ground - would have loved to see inside it.

Leaving Rocklands we head north through more gently undulating country to lunch at Natimuk, then eastward to St Arnaud. Unfortunately Ellen & Jean are only opening on Friday & Saturdays now so we couldn’t go through the Bible Museum but had a look over the fence at the butterflies. The garden has grown well in last 2 years and is looking good. Our overnight stop is beside Koreeh Hall in another lovely treed spot beside the creek. It is a little noisy till late in evening when everyone had gone home to bed, but the trucks were back on the road by 7am. We wandered through to Major Creek Reserve which is south west of Ngambie not far from Mitcheltown Winery. There were only 2 other campers so it was nice and quiet along the creek until the council workers arrived at 7am to do bridge repairs. Leaving there late next morning we go over to Euroa to Bazz & Maudie’s to settle in. Maudie has invited some of the neighbours and some of her op shop co-workers to happy hour at 5pm so we can meet some locals, and then we are to have dinner with Noela at the Chinese restaurant. Happy Hour is fun and I get to chat to Sharon our next door neighbour who walks her wire haired terriers several times a day. We opt for the chinese banquet and have a spring roll and steamed dumpling for entrée and 4 different main meals with fried rice. Far too much food but Noela is lots of fun and is coming to watch the football on Sunday afternoon and will stay and have dinner with us. Don’t know how I will cope with 2 mad Cat supporters?

It is freezing cold at the dawn service, but Greg finds J; and Bazz & Maudie leave for Kunanarra; and we have a leisurely day watching the Galipoli and Villiers Brettenoux dawn services, then the football came on and the Lions beat St Kilda in Wellington, but Broncos went down to Rabbits.

Saturday morning brings a call from Noela advising us of an Open Garden in Strathbogie and as it is a lovely sunny day we go for a look. It is very unusual with Aztec and Peruvian statues, and lots of brick walls, but was not up to par with Open gardens in Qld. Some of garden beds needed weeding, lots of areas needed tidying up and there were bits of baling twine hanging off eaves.

 One of garden rooms had a 15 foot holly hedge around a circular lawn with 4 openings – 1 to an urn. Can’t think of any reason why you would go there? Another the Moonlight room had a lovely black & white garden inside circular rock walls but no seat to sit and enjoy it and no way to see it unless you go there specifically. 

There were lots of pink or white dwarf cyclamens planted as ground covers under trees and they looked lovely with their tiny flowers. There was only one peony rose flower that I could see but he had a few deciduous maples that were a lovely red colour.

 Some of the hedges around the sunken garden in front of house had ‘windows’ cut in which we thought we copy with the hedge along walkway at Wyreema. While having tea and a passionfruit merangue tart the temperature drops 10* and the wind howls so we head home through Violet Town instead of going back to Polly McQuinn’s and Mt Wombat.

I manage to sit next to Greg at church and don’t recognise him, but we are made welcome and chat to several people over morning tea. John does his rounds of the cows to check feed and water and all is well. Noela arrives just as football is about to start and probably wishes she hadn’t as the Cats play ok for first half and then go to sleep. It ends up being a drubbing so Tony will be happy. I try out the Tuscan chicken recipe in one of Maudies’ magazines and it is very nice with lemon and rosemary flavouring. 

On Monday I wait on line for 30 minutes to talk to Centrelink about why they have stopped my carers’ payments and find out that I don’t have to do enough for him so no longer qualify. It isn’t going to be easy losing $14,000 a year but I guess I will have to make do with $7,000 rent from Woodbine Avenue.

Wednesday sees us having fun starting the tractor and putting out hay; apart from a mishap losing some hydraulic fluid in gateway; all gets done eventually. After a very early start on Thursday we drop off the caravan with a list of things to be fixed and head off to Malcolm and Jane’s at Steeles Creek and have a lovely day chatting to them. They are very well and fill their days with lots of activities – Jane was at felting and quilting and Malcolm went off in the afternoon to teach painting. Yea is a lovely town on the way home that we will have to explore further. Coming through Creightons Creek we pass an enormous horse farm, with paddock after paddock of white wooden fences and horses everywhere. At the impressive entrance we find a sign for ‘Lindsay Park’ – the home of David Hayes. It is nearly dark, cold and wet when we arrive home and after we have 22mls of rain on Friday, it is not looking too good for the church fete tomorrow. John helps Greg collect garage sale items and clean out the hall and then they go off to the pub. Seems the wives take their husbands to the pub at 5pm and collect them at 7pm – wives not welcome at hotel. J learns that one of his old army mates has died and another one is organising the funeral here on Wednesday so it seems he is off to a funeral. Hope I can get some sewing done but goodness knows what condition he will be in when he comes home – am getting tired of the alcohol abuse. We watch a good game of league where the Kangaroos prevail over the All Blacks in the second half of Anzac test. Prayers do get answered when we woke to a dry, sometimes sunny day on Saturday and went off to see what their fete was about. Lots of junk, plants, kids toys, plants, bacon and egg sandwiches, Devonshire teas and not much in way of books or food. I did buy a plate of coconut biscuits and peppermint slice and Ruth Cracknell’s autobiography along with 2 craft books that I may be able to use in the future. John bought 2 B & E sangas even though he had had B & E for breakfast an hour earlier!! John goes back later to help pack up and then we watch the Lions get thrashed by Swans in a disgraceful performance. After church John goes off to help take trestles and tables back to show grounds and I go home to do the housework. We are to go over to Noela’s to watch the Cats v Tigers match and find a lovely new home with a wonderful garden of roses and dahlias. Unfortunately it is a close game and J ends up screaming at her to ‘shut up’. It was a disgraceful display but she keeps her cool and we finish watching the game and then have roast beef for dinner.

Monday sees sunshine until I get the washing on the line and then the rain comes over so I am not impressed. We spend the day waiting for Regal to ring and say that the van is ready – but they don’t so we have the day in front of fire reading.

6^th    The caravan is ready so we take the back road to Kilmore where we stop for lunch at Wallder’s café because the Pancake Pan is no longer open. They have pancakes on the menu so all is good – we think. After ordering our tea and coffee arrives and we enjoy them while checking out the lovely pressed metal ceiling and chandelier. Other patrons come in and we chat and wait and wait. J has another cup of coffee while people who came in after us get their meals. 50 minutes after we arrived we ask the waitress where is our dinner? The owner comes out to apologise and says it will be here shortly. My spinach and ricotta one is lovely as is John’s Mexican beef, but it doesn’t overtake the fact that we were there for 70 minutes and people who arrived after us had eaten and gone by the time we got our food! We wander around town in the freezing wind trying to find the public conveniences and are glad when we get underway. At Regal John checks out the repairs and is given a few pointers, so we come home with a new invertor, and a very smelly caravan. The glue they use stinks!!. I don’t know what they were doing under the bed or even in bedroom but there is silicone on bedspread, things on floor that were under the bed, and a mess everywhere.

7^th    To have a day away we try Plunkett Fowles Wines and have a great girl tell us about their white wines – and they have some great ones. Some wonderful names too – “Are you Game’ is the base brand, then ‘Stone Dwellers’ (chardonnay has a lovely butterscotch aftertaste), and ‘Ladies who shoot their lunch’ (another great chardonnay). We take a bottle of it to their café for lunch with John’s pork and fennel sausages and my mushrooms and semolina gnocci and both dishes are wonderful. We will have to come back here and try their red wines and several other items on the menu which sounded very moreish.

8^th     I spend the morning washing the van floor and all the mats and give it all a good airing, but the smell remains. J has mastered the tractor and can go and feed hay out by himself though it is nice if I walk up and open all the gates so he doesn’t have to keep getting on and off!

9^th   We have to go over to Shepparton to find the ‘chocolate apple’ shop to get one for June for Mother’s Day and what a great shop. It is a shed on an orchard where they are value adding and have a big array of apples with chocolate coatings, chocolates, fudge, jams, relishes, muesli, juices all of which are made in local area and much in their own shed. The young girl was very happy, helpful and a pleasure to do business with. On a high we head to Campbells soup factory where we had more great service. While walking around eating a cup of chorizo, chicken and black bean soup we picked out several ‘fully loaded soups’ to bring home with us, along with some stock and a box of ‘CCBB’. All of them were less than half retail price, so we will have to come back before we head north. At the information centre we found a map with the ‘moooving art’ directions and head down to riverbank to check out 20 cows in various colours. There are 50 painted cows around the district in tribute to the dairy industry. 

 After lunch we go to SPC Ardmona’s warehouse and what a disappointment – huge shed packed with stuff and not a lot made in Australia. Cans of pineapple from the Phillipines, tomatoes from Italy and the list goes on. After all the television ads pleading with us to buy Aussie products they don’t even sell them! By then my legs were killing me so we wound our way home through Murchison where we found more cows beside the river and a wonderful old hotel – not in use unfortunately.

10^th and we head off down Drysdale road to Longwood and Heathcote on our way to Geelong. It is raining most of the way to Ballan and there are some sizeable puddles along the roadsides. Coming into Redesdale there were large signs advising of size limits on a bridge, then there were U turn signs and turning bays so we were wondering what was ahead – and then we came down a hill around a 90* bend and whaa-la the cutest bridge I have ever seen. It is steel and over 100 years old and still in very good repair. 

We stop in Kyneton for lunch at a café and have a very nice meal served quickly and cheaply which the Wallder’s in Kilmore could learn from. John’s lamb curry was very nice – the oomph came after first taste. I liked Kyneton when we were here several years ago – lovely clean, well-kept town with a great wall of tiles made by locals as theraphy in the aftermath of a bushfire. Nearing Trentham we find a zoo with a difference – all animals are statues but quite lifelike. We loved the pig in boots checking out truck engine.

 The sun comes out when we head down Pretty Sally hill and we have a pleasant drive into Geelong. The afternoon is spent talking to June and Murray & Cassie when they arrive for a shared dinner.

11^th Mother’s day sees Cassie join us at St Stephen’s and then we adjourn to Roslyn road for bacon and eggs, June leaves at 11am  to be picked up by Sandy for their MD lunch and we stay chatting to M & C till 12.30pm when we leave and head through Bacchus Marsh and Gisborne on our way home. It is a very pleasant drive through the green fields around Monegeeta and Romsey, where we find some emus in the main street.

Tossing the coin at Tooborac we head through Seymour to home. I ring Barb to see how she is doing and have a lovely chat. After a tearful start going past Mt Ommaney on her way to Jamie’s she has a wonderful brunch with him before going over to Shannon’s for the afternoon. I have been feeling down all day and I guess it will be worse tomorrow but that is life – It can only get easier over time. I will have to be with Barb on 18^th December, I can see that being a bad day for her.

14^th and after several days at home sewing etc we head south to Merton and through Alexandra a quite large town, to Lake Eildon. It is a small place on narrow lake – think they dammed the river and here at least it is still river width. Looking across the water to trees with their autumn leaves was very picturesque. 

Not knowing what to do next we continue south through angus cattle country around Taggerty and Buxton before going into Marysville for lunch. A very pretty area enclosed by hills (mountains) with all the coloured leaves. The town has been rebuilt since the 2009 bushfires and looks very neat and tidy. There is a nice little park along the river. John nearly had a fit at the price of lunch - $28 for a burger & chips, veggie focaccia, cup of tea and coffee. After looking in some arts and crafts shops we decide that they are ripping off the tourists who come in to try to help them get back onto their feet, and leave. After retracing our steps back to Merton we head east to Bonnie Doon which was moved in 1952 when they expanded Lake Eildon and flooded the original town. It is now a holiday place and very popular judging by all the new houses. We head north from here to Benalla and watch our speed as John was booked doing 160kph when he was last here 40 years ago! There are more angus cattle around Baddaginnie as we make our way through Violet Town to home.

15^th John installs the new invertor we bought from Regal and is very impressed with it – let’s hope it does the trick and keeps batteries fully charged. We get a photo from Narelle showing us the twins first day at Preschool! Oh how they are growing!
  

16^th sees us head back over to Mitcheltown Winery for some tastings and lunch. Our first taste was ‘Black Caviar’ sparkling which was also on special for $120 carton, so it came home with us.  Their museum pieces of Shiraz, Riesling and chardonnay were very nice also. Going down the reds J liked ‘The Bend’ shiraz until I read the blurb about ‘Heathcote Shiraz’ and decided I might like to sample it and it was lovely! It would be great with a winter barbeque or some heavy beef dish – wonders will never cease. After placing our orders for lunch we were brought some lovely sourdough bread to keep worms at bay till our mains arrived. J had a huge eye fillet with the bone still attached, and I ordered trout with potatoes and a radiccio salad, which arrived wrapped in paper. Unfortunately my eyesight is so bad that I thought it was filo pastry! We washed it down with the Mitcheltown chardonnay and it was all very tasty but not worth $100. The original owners have built a tower which has a viewing deck above a former coffee shop. You get a great view of the vineyard from above.

 You cannot get a meal under $100 in vic. Travelling the back way to Strathbogie – the horse capital of Australia – we only pass 1 horse farm, next door to a llama stud. Our first stopoff was Gooram falls which was quite pretty – another one of those little streams that doesn’t look like it is flowing until it hits some rocks and wham – waterfalls and rapids. 

There was 1 very old tree that had been hit by lightning and then burnt in a bushfire but it was still massive and would have been very shady when in full leaf. Lots of southern rosellas were flying along the roadsides on our journey into ‘Polly McQuinns’. Legend has it that Polly went to town to get supplies and while there the river rose so that when she returned home she was washed away and never found. But every 7 years on a moonlit night she returns to her waterhole. It is a lovely spot with lots of rocks and shady trees.

 As it was now after 4pm we didn’t go into Mt Wombat or the Furlong memorial so will have to do them another day. The chooks were waiting for us to let them out for a scratch, and the guinea fowl were wanting to get into the chooks feed when we arrived back – happens every day. Because we are getting southern television I have to stay up till midnight to see the Broncos beat Titans.

We check out the Euroa markets on Saturday morning where they close off part of street behind main drag and have a band and 4 different eating food stalls along with several fresh fruit and veggies, 2 wineries, and plants, cheese, olive products, bread, nuts and quite a few clothing and jewellery places. We pick up some veggies and try some cheeses on way out and end up buying a blue and a soft brie style. Noela wasn’t at Op shop so we bought some groceries and came home. J watched Melbourne play Richmond while I did some sewing, waiting for the Lions v Roos match to be followed  by Cats and Dockers. Shouldn't have waited for either as both our teams got flogged, then to make matters worse the reds were beaten by Rebels for the first time ever.

Sunday has us leaving for a trip to Eynesbury to join the other Calders’ for a family lunch. We have a private room in an old bluestone homestead (built between 1872 and 1885) which is now part of a golf club. There is no menu and no table service but otherwise the meal is superb and very filling. We don’t need dessert but as they had put aside brownies and cream for us we have that. Then they bring out jelly slice to have with coffee! We have a wander around the gardens and check out some of old outbuildings before heading home through a Grey Box Forest. It is dark by the time we make it to Melbourne so we have a long drive home in the drizzle.

Tuesday 20^th sees us in Mansfield on our way to Mt Buller. This is hilly? country with beef cattle and merinos. One thing I did notice was that a lot of the ewes had twin lambs – odd for merinos. There were several signs from High Country Cattlemen advocating ‘grazing to prevent blazing’ and after seeing the devastation around Marysville to wonder why they don’t allow it. On the climb up the mountain we see a roadsign for gnomes crossing - what is going on? Bit further on we find a gnome treehouse, complete with chimney, window, door and letterbox - some victorians have a sense of humour!

 Clouds lift as we approach Mt Buller resort and at 1960m we reach the car park at the summit.  

They have cleared ski trails down the side of mountain and under all the chairlifts but it still seemed weird to me. There must have been 10 ski lifts going off in all directions and visible from the interestingly designed lodges clinging to hillsides. At the top is a man made lake with snow making facilities - how fake can you get?

 For all the ranges you wind around getting in to the place we crossed one little creek and saw 1 waterfall so I don’t know where all the water gets away.

 Back in Mansfield we have lunch and checkout some stores around town, where I found a lovely poncho which I am detailing here so that I can figure out how to knit it when I have some free time. (Done in 2 pieces with polo neck and stocking stitch with 4 cables) As it was done with Alpaca fleece and $220 I couldn’t buy it. I saw some 200gm balls alpaca yarn at the markets last Saturday for $75 so probably won’t be using it. Then it was off through the bush and over another range at 1200m to Harry Power’s lookout which was above the cloud line. Harry born Henry Thompson took up bushranging but didn’t hurt anyone and was said to have been very polite to any women he happened across and if he thought that the people were poor he didn’t rob them. But in jail he met up with 2 of Ned Kelly’s uncles and then took young Ned on as an ‘apprentice’ bushranger. He used to camp near the spot as you had a grand view of the King Valley – we didn’t see it though.

 Meandering home via Moyhu, Katrina got lost in Molyullah and went around in circles so we ended up going back to Benalla and home from there.

We had a slow leak in front tyre and when J went to put some air in it he discovered that the outside had been chopped out badly so went in to see one of his drinking mates who owns a tyre shop. We take Maudies’ car in so we can come home and not wait around for an hour for them to fit 2 tyres!! When stopping at the letterbox on way home, the window came off its runners so now we will have to try to fix that. It will be fun going back in for our car in the rain with window down.

Friday and our day to lunch at a local winery has us at Tahbilk which has Murray’s favourite shiraz and some other very nice wines. Their Rousanne-Marsanne-Viogner and Coueslant Chardonnay-Pinot Noir got three ticks, Museum Release Marsanne, Verdelho, Chardonnay, Shiraz and Shiraz Viogner all got two ticks. We share a bottle of chardonnay with our cheese plate and a meat tray. They had some very tasty proscuito and a creamy camembert with all the trimmings. It is a very old winery and has buildings with character even if we couldn’t explore them because of the rain, but had a lovely view over the wetlands from the restaurant. We will have to bring Murray and Cassie here for lunch. We wound our way home through the mist in time for fish and chips with Noela before watching the Cats beat Roos. At least they are both happy again – don’t know if it will be the same next Thursday when they play the swans.

We had tried to book into Longleat winery’s seafood lunch on Sunday but they were fully booked so we decided to head out through Murchison to Rushworth where we stopped at the bakery for lunch, along with 20 bikers from a Christian Light Group. Rushworth is a lovely old ‘Ned Kelly’ town that is listed with National Trust. It seemed rather pleasant and well cared for. West of Colbinabbin we turned north to Rochester which has a huge dairy factory and is another very nice town. Then we wound our way through Stanhope and Tatura to Longleat, where we are made very welcome and tried their wines before having coffee and Hummingbird cake. We decided to take 2 bottles of Granmere and were chatting to Guido and Sandy about their lunch and selling wines, when we learnt that they had had a cancellation for lunch tomorrow so we booked in. Another lady also having coffee with a friend wanted my ‘Owl’ bag so I am really going to have to get sewing. After arriving home we get a call from Jenny telling us that Baz and Maudie will be home on Monday night and would we like to come for dinner on Sunday night instead of Monday. This bit of news gets me thinking that if we leave on Tuesday and head straight to Qld we could go to Bill’s farewell service in Brisbane on Sunday morning.

We bid farewell to everyone at church and head off to Longleat for a lovely lunch – fresh prawns with special sauce, fresh and Kilpatrick oysters, Trout with a fennel and orange salad, Salt and Pepper Calamari, Fish Curry and Seafood Pasta with green salad. I didn’t finish all the pasta but it was a great meal for $45 and we washed it down with a chardy and decided to buy a carton of it as it was on special. Guido also gave us 2 bottles of chardy for Bruce to try. We weren’t looking to eat anything more but by the time we got to Jenny & Pat’s we could fit in some lovely roast chicken and veggies, and then a slice of rhubarb upside down cake. They have a lovely new colonial style home with lots of walk in store rooms. Jenny does lots of work with the Op Shop and had a lovely old carved broach she was trying to value on the internet. We enjoy comparing our travels and head home after 11pm.  

After emptying the house of our food, and giving it a clean on Monday morning we wish goodbye to Nola and have a quick pie (mine was Lamb & Rosemary and very nice) we finish our local touring with a visit to Furlong memorial. Eliza and her sister-in-law Janet were honoured for bringing the first Saxon merinos into Victoria in 1832. It is obviously well maintained and has some lovely roses blooming. 

Travelling down some interesting ? roads we find the Old Jug at and a memorial to the family who were early settlers. We wound our way home to put the caravan in order before we could get into bed.

Tuesday 27^th   Baz and Maudie arrive home in rain at 9am and we spend the next 2 hours chatting about their trip and where we’ve been to around the area and trying to finish packing up but we eventually get away and have a wet trip into NSW. After stopping at the Big Strawberry at Tocumwal for lunch we turn off Newell Highway just north of Jerilderie and take Kidman way to Griffith where we refuel and head north to Rankins Springs for the night. It is farming country through Condobolin with a few cotton paddocks – didn’t know cotton grew so far south! We stopped beside Lake Cargelligo for a cuppa and J checked his emails as we didn’t have any reception last night. The broadacre farming continues through Bogan Gate and Trundle to Narromine where we stop the night in a caravan park as it is State of Origin and we want power for the tv. It was a good game for the 100^th even if we came second.

Thursday 29^th   We hit the Newell again at Eumungerie and leave it at Gilgandra when we take the Castlereagh H'way to Gulargambone which is our lunch stop. Then through Coonamble to Pilliga bore where we get to have a hot bath in the artesian pool. We chatted to another couple from Shepharton who come here every year – plan their trips around the baths – and were staying here for 2 weeks. When it was too hot to stay in pool we tried to set up satellite dish to watch the swans/cats match and for some reason could not find the satellite, so we listened to it on the radio and played backgammon. John won most of the games but it didn’t help when the cats went down by 100+ points. They really didn’t come out to play tonight and Sydney played brilliantly.

Friday 30^th     After an early start we see Wee Waa before rejoining the Newell again at Narrabri and then it is all fairly familiar grain country through Moree and Gundy to Millmerran where we call on Beris at 4.30pm for a cuppa and chat. It is always great to catch up with her and we spend so long talking it is too late to go on to Pittsworth so we have dinner at the new café and then a nightcap cuppa back in Charlotte street before heading to bed down in Walpole park.

Saturday 31^st    Wendy and Ken are at the shed when we call so we have a coffee with them and Graham (gardener) another of their staff members and Jim Keefer before Wendy takes us to the house and shows us around. Sue has a lovely garden and it is a great spot beside the golf course – hope we don’t get hit with too many stray balls. Ken’s sister is Christine the chef from Bowls club who we have met at Lions dinners and she arrives to tell us that there is a Drought Relief market on at the AOG Church grounds and the Lions club has 3 stalls, so we hurredly throw some clothes into a bag, have a quick shower and get up there before 1pm. They seem to be busy which is good and end up making over $800 profit which is going to Aussie Helpers to help farmers in north west of state. I think it is Lions in Townsville that are hopeing to make $1,000,000 for this drought appeal.

 At the top of range we meet with a bank up of cars trying to go down the range so we turn around and head down Flagstone creek road which has a few red lights at roadworks but we make it to Shannon’s to surprise them in 2 ¼ hours. Liam has Hand, Foot & Mouth disease which is blisters all over his palms, soles of feet and in and around his mouth – poor little bloke but he wasn’t cranky. Tyler was very busy playing computer games on the tv but we sat and chatted to S & D until time to find our way to the motel. Of course we missed it on way past and had to come back but all was ok. We are on top floor – up 4 small flights of stairs but I get a rest while we watch the Lions beat Carlton in a cliffhanger. Then it was downstairs and a 500m walk up the street to the 3^rd restaurant we went to Noodle Box for some takeways. The first place wasn’t open – on a Saturday night - and 2^nd was fully booked! My Singapore Noodle salad was very tasty and John enjoyed his beef curry too.

Sunday 1^st June    Without breakfast we have to go about a kilometre towards town before we can turn right into Butterfield street and get back onto Lutwyche road to head outbound to Zillmere – don’t know how road designers expect people to use motels when you can’t get in or out of them easily. But we get to the church and surprise both Bill & Yvonne. They have a lovely farewell service and invite David and Penny to do the readings, which I thought was a lovely touch. I guess they have done them in many of the churches Bill was rector in during their school days. Bishop Johnathan Holland is there to pass on the Diocese’s wishes for a happy retirement after his 39 years as a priest. It will be interesting to see how he handles full time retirement.

            The Ross clan -Deegan, Logan, Penny, Piper, Lily, David,Napier, Bill, Yvonne

Amcor actually stopped the factory last Friday so all 300 staff members could attend a farewell morning tea for him. Bill has been a counsellor there for 30 years so I guess they will all miss him too. After chatting to Bob Blackburn, Graham & Jenny Johnson and Ray Clifton along with various members of St Mathias’ parish, over morning tea we make our way over to Camira to meet up with Barb and see what has happened to her face. It didn’t look too bad – pale and tight but I guess that is what it is supposed to. There was some blood on right hand side near her eye but it should come good – whether by next Friday will be another matter.

 She can’t go near anything infectious so won’t be able to look after Liam as he can’t go to Daycare so Shannon will have to have another week off work. Once again the café in Camira isn’t open, the tavern at Springfield Lakes has a 40 minute wait for a table so we go into Coffee Club at Orion. There is a major traffic jam in the car park – don’t know what was on but everyone is painted in rainbow colours. We are told we will have a wait for food but they take our order and bring drinks so we sit and chat for a couple of hours before hitting the highway again and turning off at Amberley to go through Rosewood and Laidley and then up Ma Ma Creek road to Cambooya where we call in and chat to Tracey for a few hours, about all the fun they have been having with Centrelink, Child Support and the building of their new home and hope to call in on Thursday when Frosty is at home.

Monday 2^nd sees us washing clothes, putting up the awning and all sorts of odd jobs before having a relaxing afternoon and then going to Wilma and Lindsay’s for a lovely dinner. A WW2 pilot gave Lindsay a curry recipe and it was very nice as was the whole evening comparing places we have visited to some that they have been to.

Wednesday and it is very foggy early and then the rain comes in – so much for getting yesterday’s washing dry. We have not had any rent from Nicole for 2 weeks so when she still doesn't return any of our calls we decide to drive down to Wyreema and speak to her. Guess what - there is no furniture in the house and it is a pig sty. Talking to Jim & Ruth next door they tell us that they moved out last saturday!! Now we have fun cleaning the place from top to bottom inside and out. They wiped the walls from a foot from floor up about 4 feet, and that was it. Skirtings are filthy as are windows, flyscreens, ceiling vents, lights, fans, shower and oven and cooktop. The yard is also full of plastic bags, icecream and lolly packets, soft drink bottles and cans, and a million cigarette butts. It isn't a very happy start to the Lions Chinese dinner in aid of Miss P Quest entrant. The food was great, atmosphere good and we sat opposite Brian May and Steve Johnson and had a few laughs. We will have to come bake here for a meal.
Thursday has a getting a sms from Nicole telling us that we should have received her notice to quit!! we haven't so have a quick phone call to Barb to get the mail from box - Nicole's note was post marked 29th May so she hasn't given 2 weeks notice. Now we have to wait till 9th to get into house so will have a few days rest, before helping Lions with their sausage sizzle on saturday morning.
Sunday after church at St Matthews' (because it is our 5th wedding anniversary) we have breakfast at Subway and head down to Laidley for lunch with Bill and Yvonne. They are settling in and looking forward to some spare time. Since we went down through Preston we came home via Murphy's Creek and Meringandan.
Monday sees John in town replacing the taps and shower at Obst street when Jim rings to say the the mob have arrived back next door so he calls around to confront them. They give him the run around and promise to return the keys at 9am on Wednesday so we arrange to meet John Nothdurf there at 10am. Of course she doesn't turn up and the place is filthy which doesn't impress us. John ends up signing a Rental Contract with Young's Real Estate so hopefully they will prevent this from happening again.

Friday has me joining Beris at St Andrew's for the MU Friendship day. They have a lovely service where 3 ladies receive badges for 50, 40 and 30 years membership. Kathy & Jack Hamer give a talk on Bible Hardware and then we head off to hall for lunch where I join Tom Bower and the ladies from Dalby, before talking to Elinor Higgins from Bush Connection and Pearl Siebenhaussen.
We meet up with Pearl again at St Peter's church where we get to chat to John Pryce-Davies the locum.
We come home from Wyreema early on Monday so John can go to RSL Meeting - not much seemed to happen and they didn't have any drinks or eats afterwards.
Wednesday 18th and disaster - not only are my feet, legs, back and neck killing me but we lost the State of Origin series. I get the day off on friday too and have a lovely lunch and chat with Beris and MaryAnn, and then we have dinner with Dave & Jenny. We have a lovely meal and great chat with them - Jenny has a new job and travels around the southern part of state being Chaplin to Blue Nurses. When he can Dave accompanys her to do the driving. While cleaning the shower recess we discover that the base has been broken and call a bathroom renovator who gives us a quote for $5500!! John remembers Kev is a builder and gives him a call. He will do it for $40 hour if we buy the parts and should take 3 days. Disaster also happens on Saturday when Gold Coast beats Geelong.
Kev turns up on Tuesday morning and all things seem to go smoothly. Clifton Lions join us on Tuesday night so we get to catch up with Bob, Tom, Dick and Vaughan. I hand over the bannerette we got from Deloraine. Chris Nunn has been around and replaced the kitchen sinkmixer and done his waterwise bit, and Alastair has cleaned and repaired the curtains so we only need the guy to come and fix the leadlight panels in door and we will be ready.

23^rd Frosty came to cut up steel, while I had day off to mend curtains etc. The two men bought the load of steel back to Pittsworth and then went to the pub as Steve had had bad news regarding his Child Support Appeal.  While there Trace rang about a lump she had found in her breast so they two of them hit the panic button and I had a fast drive back to Cambooya where Trace informed us that she had had one before and it was nothing to worry about. With both men drunk it upset Benjamen so he and Steve stayed behind talking while Trace and Thomas joined us for Barramunday. Told Bruce about the wines from Murchison so will have to find them and bring them over next week.

Spend the rest of week carrying on at Wyreema and we are eventually getting near the end – I think!

Geelong beats Essendon in a cliffhanger and Lions beat Kangaroos but Broncos go down - I'd hate to be in a tipping competition at the moment. Steve and Trace come over for dinner and we have a great chat which carries over to lunch on sunday.
 30^th    We go over to Cambooya to collect Steve’s lawnmower to tidy up the yard but there is still a lot of long grass around when J has finished – don’t know why we can’t do the job properly the first time. I shift all the rocks around the old fish pond in block and try to tidy up that area. Then clean out the rubbish bins – how you can get so much gunk stuck in them I don’t know.

1^st July still tidying up yard at Wyreema and after a trip to Greenmount tip we called in to the new place where we found Steve and boys checking out everything. After agreeing to meet for 2 for 1 t-Bone we took some more dirt to fill in holes and then went into town to Cahoes’ to get keys cut. Unfortunately they couldn’t cut one for shed door so we ended up buying a new door lock - $72 we spent there.

2^nd and a celebration after changing shed lock and putting keys in house windows and shutting door. Beris and MaryAnn are on way back from Brisbane when they call in and have a quick look. They have made their marmalade for the great marmalade cookoff so I will have to get finger out when we get back from Sydney. Then it was over to South street to drop off curtain man’s carry bag, onto Young’s Real Estate to drop off keys and a reunion with Brent. As I got in early to see him I was out early so decided to walk down to Repco where he said he would be – no sign of the car so decided I’d better walk back up hill to Barham’s when he drove straight past me. Don’t know why men can’t look around when driving they might actually see signs etc. Heading home we decide to stop in and see Bill & Jan and have a lovely chat to them. They had to go back to T’mba Holden to pick up new car that was having some warranty work done on it so we went down to new shopping centre to get a few groceries and then went up to St Matthew’s to watch sunset before joining them at Downs Hotel for dinner. It was amazing looking out over Drayton Harbour and trying to figure out where everything was. The number of times I have seen that sight and couldn’t find lights of Westbrook or figure out which mountains were visible.









 The Downs has had a total refurbishment and looks great, but so different. Food was good too so we had a very enjoyable evening. The pineapple on my chicken schnitzel was real too. Pity that you can't get the same size and price meal in Vic or WA. I get a great haircut from Kaycee on Thursday and then it is home to do paperwork and housework and have a rest from the physical stuff.

3^rd was a stay at home day to get washing done and clean out van and repack it and was a lovely sunny day which didn’t hold up on Friday when I washed the sheets and towels and they got wet.

Saturday 5^th we were up early to take trailer down to IGA for Lions sausage sizzle and did very little till 9.30am when I decided to go and get the groceries. John had had enough by 10am so we gave trailer to Tom M and left, which was good as we were on road by 11.30am. After stopping for lunch at Dalveen we had an uneventful trip to Glen Innes where we stopped for the night. It was so cold refuelling and buying strawberries we pulled into the caravan park on southside of town for the night so we could have the heater going. Don’t know what the temperature was on Sunday morning but there was a good frost. Same thing in Singleton – stopped for fuel and decided to go to caravan park to use heater. Wyland park was not opened on weekends so we ended up back in town at showgrounds. Caretaker didn’t want to answer phone so we hooked up to power and left next morning. It was a lovely trip through to Grey Gums Café where we had coffee and cake before continuing on to Marsden Park. The new business complex had roadworks everywhere so we missed the turn and ended up going down to Glendenning to turn around – and he goes into a small shopping centre with only one entrance and having to do a 50 point turn with caravan on to get back out – why we couldn’t have gone down the side street and turned left into Golding drive and then left back onto Richmond drive at lights I don’t know! Office was closed for lunch when we got there so we had lunch and then booked in where we were told that new owners were converting it into an over 50’s retirement village so now we have to find somewhere else to stay. Then it was over to Grandies where they seemed happy to see us. David got home at 5.30pm and Narelle left for work so we talked and joined in till 8.30pm when it was obvious we weren’t getting any dinner so we left. Grabbed the most horrid Red Rooster roll for dinner and went home to the heater. The chicken was nice as was mayo and stuffing but the roll was so hot it had sweated and was wet.

Tuesday was gymnastics day so we met up at Rouse Hill centre which is amazing. The kids have a vast array of climbing/aerobic equipment to negotiate and Jayden was so good. Narelle took Zahra around the course and Kellie had Jayden and he was so agile it was incredible.

 David came home at 5.30pm and said that we could start knocking down the fence down the drive – of course on Thursday when we went to start Narelle said no she didn’t want the kids loose for so long – don’t know why they can’t communicate with each other, so we spent 2 hours dismantling the front gates, and watching kids on trampoline and making mudcakes. Zahra keeps calling me Nana Pat so will have to let Pat know she made a hit with her last Christmas. Maybe they can have a relationship, as Lilly doesn't seem interested in anyone but Grandma.

Wednesday saw us head up to Epping to spend the day with Vic & Heather and it was so much nicer than the other place. They talked to you! And offered morning and afternoon tea as well as lunch! Vic was the perfect gentleman even cleaning the chairs for us to sit on.

Had a very enjoyable day catching up with all their news and then went up to Richmond on way home to check out a caravan park and find the church. Caravan park is a section of Richmond Club car park cordoned off, but would suffice for a day or two. Not far away is St Peter’s church with a service at 9am and 10am so hopefully we will make it to one and find out if Humphrey was the minister there. David was a bit upset that we weren’t going there to watch the S of O but I wanted some dinner and it was pretty cold to be heading back out at 10.30pm.

Thursday and the kids had had a good time roller blading and didn’t fall over which is amazing, They went shopping till 1.30pm so we went off to find a U-Bolt for level rides and then got subway for lunch and ate it with the twins on back porch. After David came home we just chatted outside till it was too cold and they put a chicken dish in slow cooker so we waited till after 8pm for dinner. Still nothing done on the fence! But it did arrive on the back of truck.

We didn’t rush around on Friday so they had pulled palings off driveway fence by the time we got there. It was good to catch up with Ronnie and Saab. John got chain saw out and cut up all railings and fence posts but the rest was left lying in heaps around the back yard – don’t know how long it is likely to be there – years I would have thought. Peter arrived later and marked out the holes for corner posts. Then they were dug and posts lined up and cemented in so they could set overnight. Narelle did manage to dole out ham and cheese rolls after I told John to hurry up and cut Ronnies’ palm tree down so we could go and get some lunch. He also cut some limbs off a gum tree on Saab’s fence line.

Saturday saw Scott and Tim join in so things really moved along and by the end of day all posts and rails were in and cemented. Lindy bought her mum over and we sat outside chatting and were joined by Lindy, Kellie and Narelle. Then Scott’s partner Bec arrived with her 2 girls and baby Trae so there were women in a circle, kids everywhere and men digging holes and lining posts up – just as it should have been. Saab put on his Tikka chicken pieces for lunch and they were lovely. Narelle left to go to a friends 24^th birthday party? And then Lindy took the kids to her place for a sleepover so we ended up having Big Rooster roast dinner with David and watching the Swans demolish Carlton (love it when Mick Malthouse loses).

Sunday saw us driving around the area to 5 nurseries to buy David a lime tree, as well as a mandarin for the kids. I was still planting it when Narelle arrived home and David obviously hadn’t told her that he wanted one as I had the cold shoulder for the rest of day – so I just sat outside reading my kindle, until it was too cold and was going to car when David offered to put the Geelong match on tv so I went inside but wasn’t spoken to. He cooked a steak, with fried rice, cheese and onion rings for dinner and as the kids were crying and carrying on we left. Ronnie had done his version of spicy chicken for lunch which was great too so we could compare the two.

Monday saw us stop at Grey Gums for pumpkin soup and a hamburger for lunch before continuing on to Wallabadah where we stopped for night. Rang Murray to get Cassie’s ancestors name so we could photograph them for her and had a long chat while eating all the cheese we had bought at Muswelbrook.

We had stopped at Hunter Belle at Muswellbrook to taste some cheese and bought a 5 piece platter which we ate for dinner. We chose the cheddar, camembert, bluebelle, herbed feta and swiss style which came with packet of biscuits and a fig paste – very moreish.

It was a long drive from Tamworth through Manilla to Barrabah where we stopped for cup of tea and a break, then to lunch at Warialda. Then we knew it was the home straight to Texas and Inglewood. By the time we turned at Karara it was getting dimmer and could still see around Leyburn but when we turned off T-K road onto P-Clifton road it was dark and hard to see the kangaroos that kept hopping across in front of us. Arrived back at Sue & John’s at 5.45pm and left the car hooked up. It was lovely to have a long hot shower and climb into bed.

Wednesday 16^th and the dark clouds that followed us all yesterday are producing some showers but nothing heavy – just enough to keep you inside so the car is still hitched up till after lunch and we have an easy day doing the banking and checking emails. We have received the $1440 back from Rental Tenancies Authority for Nicole’s bond so can pay off J’s credit card, and with some extra payments from Centrelink we might even get mine back into black.

17th Just put first load of washing on line when J informs me that Bill & Yvonne were going to T’mba and would we like to have lunch, so dropped everything and headed off. We did manage to collect some mail from Post Office – Gold card from Muzz and my Bendigo card as well as other junk. Whilst waiting for B & Y we wandered into Bathroom shop that has taken over Dick Smith’s with a view to seeing what is available. I will have to talk to Craig & Megan about having a shower and or bath, as they had a lovely diamond shape that would fit nicely. Chutney Mary’s was not open despite the signs saying it was so we wandered over the road to Sportsman’s club and after some fun getting in (Wyreema is supposedly within 15 klms of T’mba) we settled in for a good chat and few laughs. The other 3 had barramundi and I had chicken, bacon and leek casserole and all met with approval. Bill takes J off to the urinal and I have to wait for a photo to see what all the fuss is about – someone has a sense of humour.

  The Lions are playing Suns at 4.30pm next Saturday so we have arranged to go together - hope this flu has gone by then. Then it was off to Spotlight to get some cubby house curtain material with love hearts on – it also has umbrellas on – and then Clifford Gardens to close J & Pat’s joint Bendigo and Heritage Bank Accounts, and into Medicare to change bank account details there. It is never ending!! After getting the groceries and meat in Pittsworth we enjoyed a cup of tea at home in the warm.
19^th   Lions Changeover night saw us down at Bowls Club where Brian May took over from Wilma as President, and most of other positions stayed the same. Bill Keeley was awarded the ‘Melvin Jones Fellowship’ in a moving tribute to all his work over the last 40 years. We were sitting at the table with Graham Cook of soft drink fame who was given a community citizenship award and the piano player and his wife. Talking to Rita revealed that Barry Holmes, my taxi driver at Top of Range, whom I knew came in from Brookstead, was married to Rita’s sister Mary O’Shea my grade 3 and 4 teacher - talk about a small world. Also at our table was Clarrie & Val Pfeefer from Pampas who knew Uncle Marshall & Kevin very well. Unfortunately he is quite deaf and there was a lot of noise so I didn’t get to talk to him much but John was able to.

20^th   and we ventured back to St Peter’s to church where we were joined by Adrienne & Paul Markey so it was good to catch up with them again. It's Jumpers n Jazz in Warwick so we wander down one side of Palmerin street looking at all the decorated trees before lunching in hotel and wandering up the other side of street. Their were jazz bands playing in the street and in park and it is a really good atmosphere.

The rest of week was spent around the van doing odd jobs.

26^th   Left at 10am for Preston Boundary road and down flagstone creek to Laidley where we enjoyed lunch with Bill & Yvonne before heading over to Rosewood to catch train to Ipswich where we had to change for Roma Street but only had 5 minutes wait. It was a very pleasant trip in and easier enough to walk out and straight onto a bus for the Gabba. Think we left at 1.15pm caught first train at 2pm and got to football just after 4pm. It was a great game as we started brilliantly and outscored Suns by 6 goals at quarter time. Midway through first quarter the heavens opened and it poured for 30 minutes. Fortunately we had heard the weather forecast for storms so I made J & Y pick some seats under cover and we stayed relatively dry, but everyone in front of us had to move. Of course some idiots decided to put up an umbrella and blocked our view but they soon got told where to go. It was a very enjoyable night and after reversing our travel route got home to Laidley around 111pm. We had 30 minutes wait in Ipswich and walked out of station to find something to eat only to find the city deserted. A few drunks turned up just before train arrived but otherwise it was very quiet.

27^th   Church with Bob as Preacher was thought provoking but he is strange – at morning tea he sat down next to his wife and chatted to her - didn’t bother to talk to us or anyone else. Couldn’t he have spoken to Val at home? Since he wasn’t talking we left and Yvonne took us on a drive around area where there were some great views across the hills but it was very dry. We stopped for lunch at Lockyer Hotel in Forest Hill and it was great. Food was lovely and atmosphere lovely and a warm sunny day to boot. Someone took corner too sharply and wiped out their verandah posts so the road is half closed while they repair the damage. Coming back into Laidley we stop at the Baptist church which is for sale for $500,000. It includes 3 blocks of land – one with church, one with hall and other has a garage in middle of it. It has a wonderful bell tower and would be great to restore and turn into a home. Then it was time to leave before the sun got too low in sky and we came home via Flagstone Creek again.

^29th   Heard on news that the range road is finally finished so it will be interesting to see what it is like. After getting stuck in Choe street in a traffic jam some time ago we haven’t been back down the range road and have gone along Flagstone creek, Ma Ma Creek or Preston roads.
30 th has us meeting up with Janet at Angelos for a lovely lunch and then it was off to see her new unit which is lovely. She is only going out to Bridge so hope she will be very happy there.

2^nd  Lions sausage sizzle was very pleasant in sunshine - not too busy - I think Yvonne said they took about $400 - we are used to the rush of Bunnings sausage days. After lunch we called in on Billie and collected some craft books and knitting needles and had a lovely chat to her. Dinner with Darren & Aimee was very nice. Jess was sick so we didn’t get to see her but Josh and Ashleigh have grown. It was interesting to compare Ashleigh and Tyler as she sat at the table and ate her dinner without stuffing about or talking a lot. Darren did the talking and told us about his new job and race cars – he is now into go-carts. Aimee is still driving back and forth to T’mba after the kids. They are hoping Jess will be able to go to Centenary Heights next year – it’s amazing she will be in high school! And is still the shortest kid in class and also school captain. Evidently Wyreema is a feeder school to Harristown so she can get a free bus there but then has to pay to go over to Centenary Heights. We get home after 11pm and don’t muck about getting under the covers.

3^rd    Bitterley cold day so stayed in van watching replay of Cats versus Roos match and then listened to Lions match as it wasn’t telecast.

4^th  Finished sewing Michelle’s bag and cubby curtains so now can start planning the dolls.

6^th   Eventually got all housework done and posted off the parcels to Hobart & Sydney so we could go for a drive. Off past abbatoir to Long road which ended at a fence so would our way around various paddocks and then gave up and went back to Copps Hill and out along Felton road to Southbrook road. Turned around in southbrook and went back to Weimers road which I thought came out next to Burwood, but it didn’t – was other side of Purcells. It seems the road is now called Leifels road so will go down it one day. As it was only 3.30pm we went down to Wyreema and looked at the house before checking out Frosties’ new home – has most of roof and walls up. Then it was into Drayton for afternoon tea and a carton of cider before heading back into sun.

8th Into T’mba to see Wagner’s about headstone and then dinner with Dave & Jenny. Seemed hard to believe we spent 2 hours talking about headstones and granite bench tops and then it was too late to go to Milne Bay Museum to drop off medals to get mounted. We have a lovely meal with them and J takes Dave out to shed to do the male thing, as Dave is very stressed about Michael's heart operation. It is his 3rd or 4th open heart surgery and will be risky. On top of that Catharine is expecting a baby in February, as she has had 2 miscarriages we can only pray that both will have successful outcomes.

After church today we go for a drive past 'Spring Valley' where the dairy is still standing, to Scrubby and I do find the paddocks but it has all changed dramatically – there is a new brick house in middle of top paddock.

We then wander around the northern side of Yarranlea before going through some green paddocks near Irongate to Mt Tyson and home via Mt Wyangapinni.

Tuesday 12^th  was Brian’s first Lions meeting as president and it took a long time to write down the names of people who were doing Leyburn sprints, Pulse and Pain BBQ, P’worth sprints and IGA BBQ. They also nominated 28^th March for 50^th anniversary dinner and 6^th December for Christmas Party. Brian wants to have a guest speaker from ‘Beyond Blue’ at the last October meeting. 2^nd VDG is coming to 25^th Nov meeting and markets will be on 16^th Nov.

Thursday and we go back to T’mba and drop the medals off to get mounted and order 3 for the Sydney grandies and order the headstone.

Friday 15^th and John goes off to dinner with AMS at Tatts and I get to watch Cats v Carlton because I can’t tape one show and watch another. He has a good time which is what it was all about.

Saturday 16^th and not too keen  on watching Lions v Collingwood but they came out to play and thrashed them by 100 points. They are just too inconsistent but guess it will take time to become match fit and savvy.

Sunday church saw Garth & Jan back from their holidays and after an early lunch John went off to Cambooya to help Steve move the cars – couldn’t do it because of wet ground, while I went to Guide Huts’ 50^th anniversary. Saw Denise Manktelow & Judy Gillam from my time and Wendy & Christine but didn’t know anyone else. It was good to see the Guides going well, and the great display of memorabillia.The walk home was good but my ankles swelled up and ached for days afterwards.

John went off to RSL meeting on Monday afternoon and came home with details on a plan to give students the name of WW1 soldier who didn’t come home and get them to research the person for a competition, and also an invitation to dinner on 18^th November.

Tuesday had an early start for the trip to Janis and it only took 2.3 hours which was amazing. It will be very good when all the roadworks have finished. Then we turned around and came straight back to drop off table mats to be laminated and he bought a glass oil bottle – 5 days after we had bought a plastic one!!? I had had a call from Council wanting me to fill in another form re Mother’s ashes so it was another visit to them and then home. Bill & Yvonne arrived for dinner so we had a walk around the yard and then went for a drive around town. We spent a lovely night chatting to them over dinner – but I must have mixed a grapefruit in with the lemon juice as my lemon delicious pudding wasn’t very tangy.

We sat chatting to them over breakfast and then went to check out the goats which meant weeding a few garden beds to feed them before Barb, Shannon & Liam arrived. After we fed the fish Liam spent his time with head in water checking them out.

Barb bought up my mail so I have a new warm jacket and some blouses to add to the wardrobe. Shannon and boys gave me a big wine glass with 60 plastered all over it and a 50 ring to go on it so I can pretend if I want to. Then it was off to cemetery to finally put Mother to rest with Dad. Beris was there with us which was lovely and bought a copy of Lyndsay’s last email which wasn’t good as Clare has to go to London for radiation treatment. She gets to celebrate her 50^th birthday first so hope she can have a very enjoyable day on 31^st. Garth & Jan joined us all at the ‘brick’ for lunch and afterwards we went up to Billie’s for afternoon tea. Unfortunately we had had a big lunch so couldn’t eat too many biscuits.

21^st dawned warm and sunny and I had a leisurely breakfast answering calls before we headed into T’mba for lunch at Thai restaurant which was very nice.  John gave me a very nice silver bracelet so I wore it with my new jacket. I had garlic pepper prawns so smelled good all afternoon. As there were only 2 other people in cinema it probably didn’t matter. We saw “Freedom” the story about John Newton who wrote ‘Amazing Grace’. It was a good movie but a bit disjointed with jumping back and forth over 100 years. Then it was a quick trip over to pick up the table tops before calling in on Janet for a cuppa and chat and then off to Federal Hotel for dinner with Steve & Trace. My veal scallopini was divine and had lots of fresh mushrooms in the sauce. It was a big meal and I shouldn’t have had desert but did and it was dreadful. The waffles were cold and rock hard and rather spoilt the dinner. The mail produced a lovely blue necklace from June and a jewellery roll from Muzz and Cassie which was lovely. On the down side the rates notice was over $1000 for the 6 months, and Public Trustee said that they were out of money and couldn’t pay for anything else so were transferring it into our names.

 

  

                                                                                     Friday 22^nd and we were to go to Merv’s funeral but as Doug was coming over to court we went with him for some moral support. We got to court at 10.45am for 11am court and eventually got in at 12.45pm. His solicitor was hopeless and hadn’t done any homework and couldn’t answer any of judge’s questions so he has to come back on 26^th September. We went over to brick again for lunch where I had a chicken BLT which had heaps of bacon some lettuce and the thinnest slice of tomato you could imagine – you would think that tomatoes would be cheaper than bacon. The rain came down in buckets during lunch and we came home in a drizzle but only measured 8mls.

John left early to go over to Leyburn sprints and I had Saturday to myself. It didn’t rain there which was good but the crowd was down so they are hoping for a fine day tomorrow.

Sunday 24^th was Pulse and Pain fun run so we were down at the park at 6.30am to cook breakfast for everyone. I don’t know how they kept a flame going under the barbeque as the wind was howling from the south and it was COLD. Evidently the numbers were down but times were up – they ran quicker to get out of wind.

Tuesday 26^th John went to Tara with Steve to fix up their kitchen cabinets and then did a pub crawl coming home so I was not impressed when J turned up sizzled. He was sent over to Cambooya with Steve to have 2 for 1 T-bones and stay the night while I went to Lions meeting. We had an interesting talk from a local who had made over 200 donations to Blood Bank – I can’t donate blood as I am on blood pressure tablets and they are a nono.

After collecting J on Wednesday morning we called in at Wyreema to drop off stuff to container and J met new tenant who was still unpacking. Then it was a trip to T’mba to collect medals which look impressive and then we did the shopping I have been trying to do for 3 months. As it was raining and cold we decide to miss the Bush Connection meeting and go home to the warm.

Thursday saw another very early start to go to Nindigully for a ‘road train’ burger with Jim & Heather. We had a cuppa beside the river while waiting for them to arrive and then it was into the beer garden to wait for our MEAL. 

It arrived on a huge platter and could have done without all the chips. The onions were crumbed lightly and would have been great in the burger or on their own, but they got cold while we were eating the massive rissole. After carving each a reasonable sized piece, all except  Heather had a second piece so we ate all of it but left most of chips.

Friday was pack up day and then off to Rep Theatre for a disappointing play. It was about a group of actors putting on a play about a murder – but they were actually trying to get the murderer to confess. They didn’t know lines as we could hear the cues and were sitting near the back. Then it was straight home to get under the blankets.

Saturday saw us heading over a very rough road to Cecil Plains where we were able to set up beside the garden and join Doug for some long talks and a buggy tour of his property. He has 600 acres with 80 odd cattle mainly heifers and 5 old cows. Sam has some young steers here as well.

Sunday sees a Redding family get together to celebrate Col’s 90^th birthday so Doug collects people from the airport and brings them up to T’mba. Warren comes out for the night so we have a good chat to him. Doug had house sitters here some time ago who did a lot of damage (drilled holes in tractor tyres) and stole various pieces of equipment and ammunition. They returned a few weeks back and took a high powered gun out of the safe – must have copied the safe key because they didn’t do any damage this time, though he cannot find the keys to quad bike. Consequently he is a bit paranoid as can well be expected. We have since discovered that they filled the lawn mower and quad bike fuel tanks with sugar - you have to wonder about their brain capacity.

Wed 3^rd  We decide to go to Moonie to get a loaf of bread and some bread and butter for Doug. Just as we arrived in Moonie the phone rang and it was Kaye & Ian who are on their way home after holidaying in Maroochydore. We arrange to meet them in Goondiwindi and head down the Barwon highway. The countryside from Doug’s has been much the same the whole way – heavily timbered with patches of cultivation. Occasionally we saw some cattle but it was mainly bush to the outskirts of Gundy. We had time to walk around town and found a ‘Beatles’ clock for Doug’s kitchen, before having coffee and cake with Kaye & Ian and catching up with all their news. It was very nice except for the piece of cake J bought me – worst food I’ve ever eaten. All too soon they had to get on the road so we bought our bread & butter and headed home to Dixie.

Warren comes back on Wednesday and we swap phone numbers so next time we are in Cairns we can catch up. Sam bought 3 friends out to muster up his cattle and draft off the steers to take over to Heath’s feed lot to fatten up. Rhonda from Warra, calls in on Sunday and we have a long chat. She seems very nice and is positive and outgoing.

After spending most of the week sewing the Gollywogs for Michelle, and sharing dinner with Doug when he was at home, on Wednesday 10^th  We venture into Dalby to do the shopping and then find a shady tree to stop under so we can make some phone calls. Ros seems to be handling her radiotheraphy treatment very well and was very cheery. Then I rang Beris, Rhonda and Barb to confer the Gordon reunion is to be on 20^th at Chocolate Cottage. Val rang Barb and chattered for 3 hours and said she wanted to have lunch with everyone before she dies, so of course Barb rang me to organise it. Amazing she can have lunch with anyone else but can't be bothered to have lunch with me. On the road home we saw some very healthy wheat crops around St Ruth where there is an irrigator 1 klm long – we know we measured it – wonder how much water it puts out per hour?

Mark bought Val and his youngest son Jack out on Sunday and it was great to chat to them before the men all went off down the paddock with an assortment of guns to fire. I believe Jack had 3 shots and then a very sore shoulder from firing the 303.

Tuesday 16^th saw a trip to Pittsworth to get a haircut and buy Sandie a photo frame for her birthday on Saturday. While having lunch we chatted to Wendy who was sprucing up Sue & John’s for their return on Friday. We drove over through St Helen’s which was completely different to this country – it is all cultivation though there aren’t many crops in. Around Brookstead several farmers were ploughing so they must be getting ready to plant sorghum &/or cotton. Sam calls in with Joe’s son Harry who is on holidays from Concordia so we get to chat to them before they head into Dalby for the night.

Sat 20^th had an early start to drop rubbish off at tip before collecting Beris and heading through countryside to Oakey to pick up Val and wander over to Highfields. We have a table out in garden of Chocolate Cottage and enjoy a lovely meal – I had Thai chicken salad – before J bought us all a ginger chocolate. Then it was a wander through the shops where we found some divine shoes – none in my size of course – and some lovely quilts and craft items. You could spend hours window shopping here but alas it was 4pm and we parted to head home. It was good to be able to have a chat to Rhonda McG and hear all her news before we made it home about 6.30pm to a very lonely dog. 

Late Sunday afternoon Doug took us for a drive into the forest to a lookout where you can see for miles – can’t see anything but trees but there are lots of them. It was drizzling rain and would have been amazing at sunset on a fine day. Joe and Angela were married in the ‘chapel’ at ‘Redlands’ and then came up here to have their photographs taken – which were spectacular.

Doug goes into Dalby on Tuesday and brings Jake home for a few days. He is Ben’s son and a lovely little bloke if a loner, and was in his element when Doug let him drive the buggy around on his own. Though most of the time Dixie was in the back. Now that I have finished the dolls I have started on making a quilt of Graham Burton’s rodeo ribbons for Doug. He has hundreds of ribbons and I am putting the oldest felt ones (from 1959) onto an old doona cover. Why they couldn’t have made them all the same length I don’t know. While most of the cover is full length ribbons there is a bit of fiddling around to fill in corners etc.

Wed 24^th The road to Toowoomba has still got roadworks around Bongeen and Norwin so it takes a while to get to the new Brisbane west airport at Wellcamp where a massive works program is under way. The trip to Public Trustee has them sure that all the paperwork is ready to go now that they have managed to find a copy of Mother’s will. The Jeweller says that the ring should be ready on Friday and they will ring in advance so we have a chance to get in to collect it. Then it was a trip to Brent and stuffing around getting some food and checking out a 5^th wheeler Doug has seen. It wasn’t too bad and should suit him as it has a lounge that folds out to a double bed where his grandsons can sleep if necessary. We wander through Laurel Bank Park after Brent does his thing and see the beautiful flower beds. This year’s theme is ‘under the ocean’ and they have Nemo and seahorses etc and it is very well done.

 Their wisteria isn’t blooming as well as Doug’s but still looks good. We find some interesting buds amid annual beds and then learn that they are hollyhocks.

 

 Bill & Yvonne call while we are driving home to let us know that Tony has been transferred so it takes a bit of thinking before speaking so that we don’t give away that we have known since my birthday. They are looking after the grandsons in Sydney and will be moving to Tewantin to continue their grandchild caring while we are at Belli so we will catch up with them there hopefully.

Friday 26^th Pittsworth was our destination to post off the dolls to Michelle and while Doug was in court we took Jake with us to Sue & John’s and then the shop where John talked to John D and then we stopped at the park for a stretch before joining Doug for lunch. After stopping in Millmerran for supplies we took the Gundy road to Turalin road and then went through the forest to Weir river road and into ‘Redlands’ from west.

Sunday 28^th sees us go into Dalby to church with Tom Bower. It was a great service and lovely to have a chat to him & Lyn afterwards. Fortunately when we went to bakery for a loaf of bread they were having a special on twists so we bought two, because when we arrived home Chloe and Warner were there and we shared lunch with them before they all went off around the paddock.

Tuesday 30^th we bid Doug & Dixie goodbye and head towards Kingaroy. Leaving Dalby we ring Tony to see if they are at home and no they are in Adelaide on holidays so we have a long chat to Kate and hope to see them while we are at Belli , but if not Tony’s induction at Beaudesert is on 11^th December at 7pm so we will catch up with them then. After lunch with 30 rainbow lorikeets, 2 minahs and a blue faced honeyeater in the park in Wondai and a stop in Goomeri to get some more hayfever tablets we arrive at a rest area outside Kilkivan about 3pm. So there is plenty of time for a cuppa and few crosswords outside in cool before the mossies chase us inside on dusk. It is a busy road but eventually the trucks stop and we get to sleep, before the early morning chill has me reaching for the doona.

They are extending the Bruce highway south of Gympie so we miss the turn in all roadworks (it wasn’t there anymore) and end up going 20klm before taking Cooroy turnoff as we were out of fuel. Driving around town trying to find a service station while towing a caravan is not funny so we pulled up and J put our reserve fuel can in ute and I googled the address and found a road across the range so we didn’t get back onto the highway. It was a very pleasant drive around Belli creek road to Zedfarm, where we met Shay & Peter and their son David, Melissa and their kids Oliver 2 and Bianca who is 8 weeks, and the dogs Bella, Hugo and. They have chooks as well as Bella to be fed and some plants on the verandah to be watered.

 J is also going to water their seedlings and the veggies next to van. They have 2 massive greenhouses which grow cherry tomatoes for local IGA and restaurants. They also have kale, fennel, black kale, basil and other herbs for the market. The get 14-15 tomatoes per truss and sell 1200-1500 punnets every Thursday and Monday, along with the other products. We have a long chat to them over happy hour and find out lots of info. Shay and Peter are off to Japan at 4am tomorrow morning so we leave them at 8.30pm and head to van for dinner, shower and bed.

Friday sees us in Kenilworth to refuel and then visit the cheese factory for some lovely tasty cheeses, mint mousse chocolate mouse and an icecream. My mango one wasn’t as nice as ginger macadamia one I had last time but j enjoyed his rum and raisin. Then it was a trip to Cooroy to the supermarket and a drive over to Boreen Point to ring Dave and Jenny and learn that Michael was awake and talking to them after his 8 hour operation. Taking the wrong road we end up turning around on a dirt road and pick up a hitchhiker who had dropped his truck off at the pub for a stage over the weekend. Everywhere around here is advertising concerts. We find Old Ceylon road on the way and take 15 minutes off trip. Coming down the dirt hill it is amazing how many homes there are tucked away in the scrub. We had seen the cheapest place advertised in local paper – 46 acres on Lake Cootharaba with old fruit trees and 2 cottages – didn’t seem to be worth $700k to me.

Saturday we had to visit Eumundi markets again and the same old thing even in same spot as when we were here 2 years ago. You couldn’t move for people only 2 stalls of veggies, 2 of bread/cakes etc and the rest were jewellery, clothes for skinny people, woodworks, candles and soaps. Food shops were nothing special so we bought some sourdough bread, pineapple, passionfruit, green peppercorn pate and and headed home for lunch.

Sunday night was brilliant when South’s rabbits won the NRL Grand Final in a top game. After 43 years they deserved it – hope Arthurson & Quale took note! The Baby Broncos lost to Warriors in under 20’s but Northern Pride won inter state clash.

Monday and we had to go to Gympie to get bread for lunch – couldn’t find anyone who had bread for sale so went to Subway instead. We had gone up Skyring Creek road through Imbil and came back through Dagan, Amamoor and Brooloo but missed Kandanga somehow. Coming down road into Kenilworth we saw some interesting rock formations along the roadside. There were lots of tall trees but the further west you went the drier the countryside got.

Tuesday had us going into Eumundi to post off Billie’s books and collect Shay’s mail and buy a loaf of bread. Then J decided we would go to café for lunch and abused the proprietor when he finished making someone else’s lunch before serving him. I am very tired of his abusing people when they don’t drop everything for him – sheer arrogance, rudeness and self importance. First it was the jeweller, then Public Trustee and now this so I am ready to quit.

As I have no sewing or knitting to do the day was spent reading one of Barb’s books.

Wednesday & Thursday were spent around the farm as I wasn’t in any mood to go out with J, especially when on Thursday night while watching an ABC program on mental issues he said that he didn’t have any control over the rising ‘bomb’ on Tuesday and that we should have left when he wanted to – 5 minutes after we got there. Turning the blame back onto me did nothing for my mood either, but on Friday night I agreed to go out for dinner and we went to a little Thai restaurant in Eumundi which was very nice. Of course we started off with fried entrees and 2 bottles of wine (my wish to lose weight so that I don’t have to live in so much pain is always completely disregarded) then the pork jungle curry arrived followed by the basil & chilli prawns. I wondered why they bought the curry first but it was the ‘mildest’. Both dishes were very mooresh, but the chilli prawns crept up on you with a wallop. It was very nice eating it but my lips, roof of mouth, and gums ended up numb.

After our walk around the farm on Saturday morning and a chat to David, we took the scenic dirt route to Rainbow Beach. There are more pine plantations between Gympie and coast. There is a nice foreshore in RB business area with a huge propeller and their new war memorial. We had a good view through the trees of Double Island Point before going to Surf club for lunch.

 Despite my better ideas, the fisherman’s feast minus chips was ordered and it was lovely. Very fresh fish – think the 2 thin pieces were whiting but the larger one escaped me. Then there were 6 prawns, 2 calamari rings and scallops. Decided I won’t have dinner tonight so that all the calories won’t count. Then it was off along the beach to the coloured sands which weren’t as vivid as I remembered but maybe it was because it was partly cloudy. Someone has carved a face into a rock at the base of a cliff which drew lots of attention from other tourists.

We were mesmerised by the hang gliders hovering at the top of cliffs. There were 7 in total and at times you thought they would crash into each other. Dragging ourselves away we ventured down to Inskip Point to see the barge come in. It was amazing to see so many vehicles lines up on beach of Fraser Island waiting to come back. After both ferries left there were still 27 lined up. When they came through the soft sand everyone had to stop and reflate their tyres, so we wizzed into queue and headed for Tin Can Bay.

“Katrina” took us through Cooloola Cove which was another eye opener -  so many new houses and a fairly big shopping centre that we passed. Tin Can Bay has also built a lot of new houses but only a few new businesses that we saw. Stopping at the Fish warehouse for some fresh fish we bought tailor and some prawns because they were ‘made in australia’. The majority of species they had were imports!! We made it home by 5.30pm and then had to cook up Bella’s tea, which she waited very impatiently for.

Sunday 12^th and we ventured to Kenilworth to church and were made very welcome by the 10 people present. Their locum priest for the day was David Hunter a kiwi who had preached in England in a church built in 800’s, which he managed to wrangle into sermon on several occasions. We had a chat with him over morning tea where he did most of talking – in the end I asked a man standing next to me if he was a local and got him to join in the one sided conversation. He spoke about the caravans that stop at showgrounds where he is janitor and the church at Gheerulla which they are selling. Of course no one is too keen on the idea but are realistic. Just another case of country towns missing out on Holy Communion because Ann Street says this is what will happen. J had left his wallet and keys somewhere so I had to fork out for collection and then we went to cheese factory for some more cheese and another icecream. I had Old English Toffee and J had Butterscotch and both met with approval. Then it was home to wash the dogs which didn’t meet with much approval, and water the pot plants. J took another box of lids into house to stick labels on while watching Bathurst and I got to spend the day by myself.

After lunch on Monday we took the Cedar Creek East road and wound our way up the dirt track over mountains past a few interesting mail boxes to Mapleton. It is called Mapleton Forest road after a few klms and it is fairly realistic as there are millions of tall trees clinging to sides of mountains. Apart from gums and paperbarks, there were palms, tree ferns and all sorts of smaller shrubs – the only ones in bloom were tea tree. It was a lovely cool green drive if rather bumpy with all the speed bumps to direct the water off road. We were joined at one spot with a rather large goanna.

Mapleton is a little tourist town where the arts & crafts and some café’s only open on weekends, so we headed to lookout above Nambour which has a great view of Maroochydore skyline and the ocean. Nambour is spreading out everywhere as wound our way to Yandina and the ginger factory. Fortified with a ginger cream icecream with a scoop of ginger cinnamon on top we checked out the shops and managed to buy some birthday presents for Liam. As I have no doubt I won’t be invited to his party will have to hope nothing gets broken in mail. Yandina now has 8000 people according to entry sign but we didn’t find too many shops, and only 1 pub. Yvonne and Penny did a Thai cooking course at the Spirit House restaurant and they are open for meals on weekend so we might come back. With a big bag of ginger seconds and some ginger cordial in tow we headed to Eumundi to collect Shay’s mail and home to dogs welcome.

Tuesday is spent doing up more Sudoku sheets and checking emails. Barb wanted to know why I haven’t signed form and sent it off to Public Trustee so she got told. How I am supposed to pull half the stuff out of container to try to find a box of papers or office desk and then put it all back again I don’t know.  But whatever I can’t do it from here so they can all wait.

On Wednesday we head over to Tewantin and Noosa and it is bedlam, cars going everywhere, and traffic banked up at every roundabout, so we didn’t see too much before giving up and heading through Sunshine Beach to Peregian which was nothing like it was when I used to come up here in 1977 – 83. With houses and shops everywhere and nothing looking even vaguely familiar, we headed over to Yandina and posted off Liam’s birthday present on our way home.

Thursday sees us heading up to Maryborough via Tin Can Bay Road and we find Tinnanbar and Poona on route. Both are little seaside towns on Great Sandy Strait so would be top spots to retire to. Tinnanbar was more expensive but didn’t have any shops (that we could find) and Poona had more houses, school and shop. There are 2 more little seachange towns between here and Maryborough so we will have to come back and explore them in January. Maryborough is still as lovely as ever but has a lot of empty shops in the CBD. We haven’t been able to discover whether they have more satellite suburbs or has something happened to industry in town to cause such a downturn.

We had a lovely stroll through Queens Park to the riverbank and collected a fruit off sausage tree – very large fat sausage.

Winding through the hills to Brooweena reminded us of the drought as the land was very dry and it got worse the closer we got to Woolooga. Coming back to Gympie it started to green up then we missed the turn off to Glastonbury and as it was getting late we didn’t turn back – just left it till next time. After buying the groceries we took the wrong road and came down Mary Valley Road which goes through Imbil to Kenilworth and it was 6pm by the time we got there. J stopped to ring the Spirit House to make a reservation only to find that they were booked out on Friday but we could go tonight so it was a quick trip home to feed Bella, change clothes and drive to Yandina. Of course I put shortest route to Yandina in GPS and Katrina took us over the range on a dirt road but fortunately there was no oncoming traffic and we made it to restaurant with 5 minutes to spare. The service was very friendly but a bit slack as it took 30 minutes to place our order which meant that a lot of wine was drunk before our twice cooked baby pork ribs turned up. Don’t know what the idea of them was as it was all bone with very little meat and very spicy. We had ordered a duck dish and the atlantic salmon one and they were superb, J is determined that we will come back and do their cooking class. At $300 per person for a 3 hour class followed by meal it seemed a little expensive to me. Mind you our tab for the evening was over $200. Everyone seems to be catering for yuppies earning $100K per year and not worrying about anyone else. Desert was a chocolate orange mousse which had a ball of orange marmalade in middle of mousse and topped with ginger wild rice and also divine. It was freezing by the time we arrived home and because I had eaten and drunk far too much I was ill for the next 4 hours.

The next two days were spent around the van cleaning up and packing stuff away so we can leave on Sunday as soon as Shay & Peter get home. While filling the tank with dam water J found their ‘pet’ snake – a rather large carpet snake who was curled up near the tap but behind the tank. Overnight Friday he decided to move up onto the verandah and I found it curled up near the laundry door. I hope it doesn’t know how to go in dog door or they will find it inside the house when they arrive back – if Bella hasn’t bitten it to pieces. I know they are harmless but they are still revolting creatures.

Shay and Peter seemed to have a lovely holiday and we enjoyed hearing about the robots in Toyota factory, but did not like hearing about a tick David found on Bella’s face that has caused her to have a few days in hospital. She was fine when fed at 7am and we did not notice anything odd when we left for church at 8.30am. Bishop Jonathan took the service for St Luke’s Day and was very easy to listen to. After morning tea we bid our goodbyes to Val & co and promised to visit again in January, however when we got home they weren’t too keen on our returning – so there!

We left after a quick lunch and arrived to a warmer welcome in Kingaroy from the Swanssons’ except for Dusty who still hasn’t forgiven us. Had a great time chatting to Tony & Kate about their move, footy, Bill etc.

We lunched at Cranes’ winery on Monday a lovely little winery with spectacular views over the countryside and some very nice wines. Judy does a very nice platter which we tucked into with gusto and knocked back 2 bottles wine as well. Then it was home for Kate & Tony to have a nap and me to copy some recipes into computer. We had chinese for dinner which was also very nice – Kingaroy might not be a good place for dieting. Leaving mid morning Tuesday we made it to Cecil Plains for lunch then went over to Millmerran for a chat to Beris and some lovely fresh pikelets. Then it was a late trip to Clifton where we made it to Vaughan & Karen’s by 6pm. They have a great set up – 3 sheds with 30 caravans or boats locked under cover, and another one under construction with has 9 waiting and space for another 6. They live across the road where Vaughan makes 5 wheeler horse floats and does caravan repairs and servicing. We left the van with him on Wednesday morning for it’s service and headed to Cambooya to have a quick look at Frosty’s new home and while peeking he drove up so we got an escorted tour and all the news on the builders, painters and plumbers incompetence. He was having lunch with Tracy and invited us to join them so we left for Wyreema where we had to pull the front part out of container to try to find the filing cabinet and get our marriage certificate out. Fortunately it was near the front so didn’t take too long and then we could drop it off at Public Trustee so they had better not want anything else. Then it was over to Jewellers to pick up my ring which is lovely – it is a different design to most others and best of all the valuation certificate is for over $4,500. With time to spare Heritage had time to give me a new card and then Zierra exchanged a new pair of shoes for $230. It is just as well we have arranged for $200 to go into credit card every fortnight. I had a very nice atlantic salmon for lunch and strawberry & lime cider to wash it down, but it was better to chat to Tracy & Steve. They are not sure whether they will be moving in on 6^th November so we will probably go to Doug’s and wait. Vaughan wanted $130 for the service, 2 night’s accommodation and a tank of water (they sell tank water for $5) which was very good value.

Wednesday after an early start saw us in Tenterfield for morning tea and then we planned to get Malanganee for lunch but were stopped halfway down range because of a caravan fire, so we had an early lunch and waited for the all clear. When we got to pass the caravan was just a pile steel and wire on road – the only thing we could recognise was the bike on rack on front of chassis. The poor man was in back of ambulance taking oxygen – hope it wasn’t his only home because there was nothing left. The fire had started a bushfire which was getting away and firies were going to close road again to try to contain it. Because of the delay we decided to stop south of Casino for the night and had a lovely spot if a bit noisy. It is amazing how many semis travel the Summerland Way all night. Putting the radio on next morning we heard about a crash south of Grafton that had the highway closed for 6 hours so we stayed put til lunch – started thinking we were jinxed, but made it to Clog Barn by 4pm.

Saturday had us heading up the mountains to get away from heat and we had an enjoyable drive through the forest at Bonville to Belligen, which is a lovely little town. They have converted butter factory into a craft centre with café, and several other cafes, and craft shops in town. We shared smoked mahi mai (local fish) with salsa and a salmon one which were both very nice, so will recommend the Purple carrot. While walking around town we found an organic grocery store which was advertising a pomegranate & blueberry iceblox so I had one and John had a lime mint one and they were very refreshing. Fortified and several degrees cooler we wandered around town looking at the shops and buildings before heading down the mountain towards Urunga and Hungry Head. Urunga looks like a lovely river town not far from beach and HH had another nice beach and caravan park right on water. 

It was another nice drive through to Sawtell where we stopped at Boambee headland to stretch the legs walking around the rocks and beach. While looking out to sea, we saw several sprays of water and then realised that it was mother and calf humpback whale who took to riding the waves. It was a lovely sight to see. It was not a lovely sight to see the Kangaroos’ go down to Kiwis in rugby league 4 nations and then the cricketers do so badly in test in Dubai.

Sunday was a day to collect Lilly’s photos and set about printing labels and filing them and wrapping everything so we could post in next morning. Walking around the shopping centre we found the Curious Minds shop where we bought some Christmas presents, and several other toy shops which we left loaded down, so it was a very successful morning.

After posting the parcel we checked out the other shops in centre of town and bought more presents and then had a pina colada smoothie which was divine. Having time we drove down the Jetty and around the headland which had some big rocks coming to sea and a lovely beach in bay. They must get some big swells here as there are 2 breakwaters with some big blocks of concrete to protect the beach. The Jetty is supposed to be longest wooden one in Aust  and has a few eateries around it. 

We came back here after the Dolphin show and had nice fresh fish & chips for lunch from the Co-op. The dolphin show was fantastic and nothing like the commercialism of Seaworld etc. You were welcome to go and have your photo taken being kissed by Abbie the seal and Buck the dolphin and only had to pay $15 per photo. It was good to watch them wait for people to sit beside pool and then they reached over and kissed you on cheek.  Some of kids were a bit scared so they put flipper on pool deck and kids could hold that instead.

You can wander around looking in the pools at the dolphins and seals before the show started with Buck (44 year old dad) and his 26 year old son performing in the pool. They certainly seemed to enjoy jumping and doing tricks with basketball. A young seal came out and sped around the pool creating a big wake and then did her tricks balancing ball on her whiskers and climbing onto a rock to wave to crowd. She then came around in front of people and climbed onto stage to show how clever she is. When the commentator spoke about not putting rubbish into the sea she went over and picked up a plastic bottle took it to rubbish bin where she put flipper onto peddle to open lid and put bottle inside and then came back to stage to applaud the crowd who were applauding her. The dolphins were just as amazing and did lots of tricks including swimming around on top of a big ball, doing headstands and waving to the crowd as they swam alongside the pool edge. Some people were having a swim with another dolphin in pool next door and he would do some amazing jumps in the air – his tail must have been 6 feet from the water. 

Bruxner Park had a lookout with a hazy view over the coast so we might come back on a clear day. We then toured Emerald, Moonee, Sapphire and Korora Beaches but couldn’t afford many of the houses. The banana plantations along the roadside on way up must have been hard to pick as it is very steep. One was a 3 bed 3 bath 4 car place and painted dark blue but on steep block. Some of the new estates had 320sm blocks for $210,000 so we probably won’t be retiring here. John has decided he would like to live in Lawrence (where K & J live) but I would rather Poona, so who knows – we have a lot of Oz to see first.

Tuesday was a rest day – washed floor, sheets, blankets, clothes, dishes while J photographed 2 water dragons who came visiting. They look so much like goannas I couldn’t get enthused. 

Shay smsed us over lunch to ask for post office box keys which J had in car so we posted them off before going to Clog barn to see model Dutch village and then watching the making of a clog. The village is very well done and had boards telling you what they represent and how old the original building is. One was started in 1280!! They are all fibreglass and built from scratch and glued onto frame – I think it was started in 1986. The clog making is much quicker than doing it by hand. You start with a piece of green poplar and can spend 5 hours carving the outside with a long curved knife by hand or use a lathe and do it in 1.5 minutes. Then there is a long rounded file to carve out the inside in 1.5 hours or use another lathe and do it in 1.5 minutes. Then the ends were chopped off and we had a clog for 10 year old. The trick is to wear clogs that are very loose so don’t know how you hold them on your feet in the wet. The pair the owner was wearing had worn through in 12 months but they usually only last 6 months – at $80 pair they weren’t cheap. Being so loose I couldn’t wear them. 

Wednesday 29^th was Lilly’s 7^th birthday so we had a chat to her before school and she was quite excited as is expected, also seemed to be happy at the thought of us coming for Christmas. Then it was off for a drive through the hills and trees to Dorrigo which is a nice little town on top of mountains. After lunch in the smallest motorcycle museum (had 1 very old one and a dragster of recent times as well as posters covering every wall) I checked out ‘Threads’ a craft shop with 2 quilts that they were raffling for the local hospital. The one with chooks and wire netting in a frame was very cheeky so I bought some tickets in the hope that my luck might change. Dangar Falls are close to town and had water running over them even in the current drought so would be spectacular in wet. 

The road to Ebor was fairly flat so we must have been on top of range and it looked flat all the way to Armidale. It was good to know that we can bring the caravan over the road from Armidale to Grafton next time we want to call in on Kevin & Joyce. Ebor looked like a ‘black’ town and a little unkept so we went straight to the falls that are in 2 parts, or 3 really. They also had a sizeable amount of water flowing over them. There is a 600 meter path connecting the upper and lower falls and a good sized park around the area. The walls of river were similar to the ones in Gawler Ranges NP with their sheer knife edged blocks.

We continued along Grafton road through mainly trees and hills with the occasional farm in cleared valleys. Crossing the Nymboida river we saw the canoe centre where they go white water rafting from but J couldn’t remember whether the army left from here when he did it. There were farms when we cut across country to Grafton-Coffs Harbour road and a few afterwards near the little towns of but it is still mainly hills and trees with little creeks every so often.

On Thursday we drove down to Urunga to have lunch with Graham & Terri at Anchors Wharf a lovely place right on water between the two bridges. You didn’t really hear the cars and trucks on road bridge but when the 2 trains went over you could hardly hear yourself think. WE had a lovely time catching up on all their gossip – they had gone up to Darwin when summoned back to Melbourne because Terri brother and sister were unwell. She had lots of running around to do over a 3 month period but finally got both of them into nursing homes with 1 month to spare before they went back to their housesit in South West Rocks, where they will be for the next 12 months. The boys both had barramundie, Terrri had seafood mornay and I had prawn salad, along with 3 deserts, 2 coffees, 2 teas and 2 bottles wine and the bill was $260!!! We won’t be eating for a while to pay for this. There is a town called Bowraville near Nambucca Heads so while we were down this way we went for a look and it was just a little country town, a bit run down and as my map showed a road connecting it to Bellingen we took it. The track became narrower and narrower, then potholes got bigger and bigger until we thought about taking off towbar but the road ran out in someones garage. None of houses towards the end of road seemed to be occupied though there were a lot of dead cars around. Fortunately no one with corn pipe and shotgun came out to chase us away so we made it back to town in one piece and then had to retrace our steps back to CH.

After lunch on Friday we left for Minnie Waters not realising it was almost in Grafton.  It was a lovely spot on the water but the town didn’t seem to have any shops etc everyone went into Wooli so, so did we. It had a few shops and a lovely beach so we found some houses for sale and looked up the internet - $475,000 for a 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 car on 400sm and nothing special. Another highset wooden one on 400sm with possibilities was $400 – so we won’t be buying here. Back onto the highway to A Headland – same thing houses grossly overpriced so we did the same in Red Rock and Woolgoolga. They all had lovely beaches and some beautiful views but the price of houses was out of reach on 98* population. One little brick house that had all windows broken near the headland at Woolgoolga was $850 with the real estate blurb saying that you would have to demolish the house and build something else!!   

Why we left the grocery shopping till Saturday morning I don’t know but someone wanted to go to Aldi which has a very small narrow car park and of course we went up a one way the wrong way and then had to try to turn around to get out and there were no free parks – all to go to shop for some coffee (that they didn’t have). I hate Aldi they don’t have a range of products and no choice of brands so you invariably have to go elsewhere to get the rest of shopping list. We didn’t as I wanted to watch the 100^th anniversary of ships leaving Albany for start of WW1. It was a lovely ceremony with the troups and veterans marching down the street to Anzac Peace Park and the 5 navy ships in King George Sound. While the commemoration service was being held the ships left the harbour and headed south west as the original 30 did 100 years earlier. It was an interesting program which I taped to show to Doug when we got back to Cecil Plains only to find that it didn’t record. When we turned over to Nine the Samoans were leading the kiwis in the rugby league test match. Unfortunately the kiwis scored right on full time to snatch a victory but the samoans played really well and will be a force to be reckoned with in not too distant future. The church in CH is a very modern round one and their assistant priest Lenore’s sermon was interesting, but it was incredibly hot inside the building even though the trees outside were blowing furiously in the wind. It was refreshing to head down to the Jetty for dinner where we could get some breeze. Latitude 30 is an upmarket restaurant upstairs above the bistro I though we were going to and had a seafood platter on the menu so we opted for that and it was wonderful. Oysters, Mussels, lobster and prawns were the cold items and calamari crumbed with some spices were warm. It came with a plate of 4 slices of pizza base with preserved lemon, rosemary and parmesan sprinkled on before cooking and 1 pot each of tartare, seafood, garlic aioli and chilli sauce. We really didn’t need desert but had a panna cotta with fresh raspberrys, honey muesli and dollop of triple cream which was divine. We couldn’t figure out where they would have got the raspberrys so asked out waiter and he knew, because his in laws grow blueberrys in tunnels in the hillside near Coramba and he knows that they also grow raspberrys in tunnels nearby -  so you learn something new each day if you care to ask.

Sunday was a rest day to clean up and pack things away before the Kangaroos played the Poms. After their loss the previous weekend when they let the English score first I started to get worried but they avoided elimination by winning in the end. Not like the cricketers who have had a disastrous time in Dubai – losing both test matches by large scores. If the Pakis had made them follow on they would have beaten them by an innings.

Monday – We have an uneventful trip up the range to Dalveen where we stop for night and have a good Qld welcome – it was freezing.

Tuesday – After setting up camp in Quarry street Cambooya we have dinner with S & T at Bull & Barley

Wednesday – It was great to lunch with Bill & Yvonne and chat to them for a few hours and get Bill to answer J’s questions about the bible before heading back to Cambooya.

Friday – We cooked hamburgers for dinner with S & T & boys after they bought over some goods and started hanging blinds & curtains, and connecting up the television.

The boys moved house on Saturday and it was a long hot exhausting day but by the time J couldn’t walk any more they had half furniture in new house.

Sunday – J continued moving house this time with James to help, R went to church at All Saints then went into spotlight to buy some wool to start on Shannon’s cushion covers. Then it was home to try to find a cool spot before going for a walk around the block and chatting with Trevor across the road who works for the council as a gardener in Laurel Bank Park. Then it was dinner with S,T & boys.

Monday – washed walls at Eton street before lunch, then into town to Brent and walk around Laurel Bank Park, which was still quite pleasant even though they have removed most of annuals that were there for Carnival. Stopping in Drayton to get some groceries we decide to have AT and meet with Lois & Doug who had same idea, so we spend pleasant 30 minutes chatting to them.

Tuesday – I washed curtains from Eton street and rehung them, packed van and moved to Pittsworth where John Dade had just come home from hospital after having heart troubles. I interrupted our chat with Sue & John to get a Haircut, then it was off to Lions meeting.

Wednesday – We moved over to CP and I went for swim while boys were in Millmerran buying stuff!!

Thursday – Did some more exercise in pool swimming and rang Barb to see if she wanted to have lunch on Friday since Shannon had a public holiday because of G20 – she had to go shopping so might come out in 2 weeks. It is amazing that she sees Shannon 5 days a week at least, Jamie twice a week, has lunch with her girlfriends once a month but ask to see her only sister and it is a major ordeal.

Friday -  50/50 cricket started in Perth so we stayed in van with air con running trying to reduce the 40* temperature.

Saturday – final 4 nations 40+* again today so after a long swim we decided to go to Moonie for dinner. The MXR hotel has a great bar and restaurant,  and we were joined by a lot of locals who also came into airconditioning  to eat and watch the final of 4 nations football. Unfortunately J was happy that the kiwis won but wisely didn’t celebrate too loudly. My chilli prawns and salad was lovely – had 8 large prawns which I had trouble getting through. The waitress told us that it had been 45* that afternoon.

Sunday – Lions markets meant a very early start, for no real reason. I helped Lyn put out some of Trash & Treasure items, had a chat to Max, then Elisa & Roger. After an anzac slice and cup of tea from Miss P entrant I sat around for next 2 hours. During lunch at brick Romona & Joy came in and Cheryl was there having lunch. My salmon & salad was very nice. Then it was grocery shopping and drive home to pool to cool off. The rest of week was spent doing crosswords, reading and knitting cushion covers, then swimming every afternoon after 3pm to cool off. One of Doug’s friends has committed suicide in Jandowae motel, the day before his son’s 9^th birthday – how could he have been so selfish? Wayne Coleman (Judy’s brother) dropped dead from heart attack at work, then Gary Oberhardt (Sheryl’s brother) hung himself – it has been a dreadful week.

Friday 21^st was David’s 36^th birthday so J had a short call to him where he heard that Narelle had been in hospital for the day having a lump removed from her stomach. Jake has come out for the weekend so he called in for a chat and toasted sandwich for dinner.

Saturday continues the birthday month so I rang Trace to wish her a happy 46^th.  It was over 40* again today so had a long swim in pool to cool off.

Sunday we decide to go over to Millmerran to church and spent the day with Beris where J tried to fix her computer to no avail. We had another divine Mulberry tart for desert and bought the remainder home for dinner. After pikelets for afternoon tea we bought some of them home too so I spread basil pesto on mine and topped them with ham & cheese and we had a very indulgent dinner. Bennie the bull was in eating hay and of course came over to green grass in houseyard and we were chasing him out when Lilly rang so she was impressed that we were playing with a bull after swimming in our own pool. We had a few drinks with Doug and then it was time for second half of 50/50 cricket with air on full blast.

Monday saw us back in P’worth to get car serviced. While filling in time we chatted to Matt about what could be wrong with Beris’s computer so came away with a new modem and another screen, which J installed when we called in on our way home. We were expecting the car to be ready about 3pm as they also had to do a recall and fix an overheating problem, so were very surprised when they rang in middle of lunch at 12.50pm to say that it was ready. Walking back down town I posted Jamie’s birthday card, picked up scripts at Chemist, collected car & computer screen and headed for grocery store. At 2.15pm there was nothing left to do but leave, via Murlaggan for Millmerran. As it was after 6 by the time we arrived back home we had a few drinks with Doug before he left and retired to air con in van.

Wednesday saw Heath call in to get help to straighten a pto shaft, then we chatted to Doug until a good storm came over.

Tuesday 25^th   was another very hot day which was relieved with a long swim. A few dark clouds came over while we were in pool and then a scud hit. With the second scud it was time for a shower and trip over to P’worth for Lions meeting.  The drive over was different as there had been a good storm move across from the west and we followed it into Brookstead and then watched it move over through Bongeen to Mt Tyson area. The Vice DG was guest speaker for the night and a little boring with his speech but had the right idea about increasing membership and keeping members involved. The only business was to decide to have 50^th anniversary dinner at St Stephen’s hall. It was a long drive home in wet especially when we took the North Branch road outside Brookstead and didn’t know exactly where we were for a while, but eventually found the right sign and came out at Norwin silos.

27^th Jamie’s Birthday saw us going to Gatton to have morning tea with Barb and a walk around shops in main street. There must have been a few shopping centres because there wasn’t much in CBD. Barb bought our mail so we had plenty to read when we got back home. Fortunately there weren’t too many bills – just the water rates – and the TRC have increased Wyreema’s charges almost in line with the T’mba city fees.

28^th   Heath came over and boys spent the day fixing the air-seeder and harrows and then we had 2 trips over to Heath’s farm to deliver them. Heath has a great flat block along river on road to Millmerran which he is in process of clearing and sowing pasture in. We stopped at the Victory Hotel for dinner only to find the school teachers were having their Christmas Party so it was quite full. Michelle was there but didn’t speak to us, but another friend did stop for a long chat. The trip over in cold did nothing for my back as I had to sit in middle of seat on something hard and had my right leg up in air so Doug could change gears – old age isn’t much fun really.

The next few days were spent around Redlands feeding hay to cows chasing Bennie out of the yard when he got too close to plants and trying to stay cool. We had happy hour with Doug most afternoons and shared dinner most nights.

4^th   We bid Doug goodbye and headed for Aratula where we stopped for lunch. Cunningham’s Gap has been repaired after the flood and is a very good trip but there are still too many single lane sections. It will be great when it is double land each way. We find the Anglican church easily and are welcomed by 3 very hot exhausted people, who are remembering what it is like to have to unpack the household. Dusty has taken over the spare room and is hiding behind a mattress. While hooking up J tries to join our hose to tap on old shed quite close to van and manages to break the pipe! So it is a quick call to warden to get a plumber who arrived promptly given it was 4.45pm. After showers all round we walk down to the RSL for a birthday dinner (Kate is 53). The food was very good with everyone enjoying their choices. When the shuttle bus driver wouldn’t drive us around the corner we had to walk home – 300 metres - wasn’t that big a deal really.

5^th   Helped Kate with the unpacking and stacked up the bookshelves, wine cupboard and some china before going for a drive to check out the churches at Rathdowney and Tamrookum. The Tamrookum church is a lovely old wooden building on top of a hill and is privately owned – don’t know how that works – but grounds were immaculate. I think it was built in memory of some boys killed during WW1. We will have to come back on third Sunday for a service to see inside. It was raining by the time we got to Rathdowney but found the church and drove around looking at it too. Then it was home in a storm. I hope that some of this rain is getting to the west. Kate, John & I walked down to chinese to place our order; while Tony took Matthew to Maccas for his dinner. Matty still ate a container of fried rice on top of his burger – it is no wonder he is growing so much. He is doing weights and is putting on some muscles as well.

6^th    T, K & M leave to go to Greg & Karen’s for the night so we have Dusty & Sophie for company  - though they aren’t interested in joining us.  After lunch we head for Ipswich through Peak Crossing and it is a lovely trip in green hillsides. It is lovely to Maureen again – One thing I really miss is seeing close friends – so we had a long chat about everything and caught up on all her families’ gossip. Yvonne is getting forgetful which is sad as she is a lovely person. It rained most of way up and was misty as we headed home.

7^th   We are made very welcome at church and really only had to report the singing of first prayer as the only strange part of service. T has promised to get rid of that – so all should be well.

8^th   We have unpacked all except china cabinet in lounge room so head off to Canungra to O’Reillys winery for lunch. The GPS takes Tony around the back roads and along a short dirt section near Biddaddaba but he wasn’t impressed at all – I thought it was a lovely country drive. They had some pleasant wines but of course J didn’t like the prices (mid $20 range) so poohooed everything. Then T & J didn’t want to pay $70 for a platter for lunch – couldn’t work out that $70 divided by 4 was $17.50 per person and you wouldn’t get a meal anywhere but pie shop for that. Fortunately Kate & I prevailed and we stayed and had a lovely antipasto platter and a bottle of wine for K & R, while T had a coffee and J sulked. Then we found a bitumen road back home but it was still a pleasant drive through green countryside.

9th  John & Tony go off for a game of golf and finish early when the rain comes down. J mustn’t have liked being the underdog as he spat the dummy and wanted to leave. Fortunately I saw Tony on my way out and told him so they must have kissed and made up because by the time I had walked around the block all was well again.

10^th   While sitting around chatting after dinner, T started spruiking about the Sudanese at St Mary’s and this time I told him of a few facts and left. It was much later when I realised I was walking around dark streets and probably not too safe and went home to an apology. It is amazing how people can become an authority on a subject when they have heard some gossip 3^rd hand – not something I would have expected from a priest anyway.

11^th   Today is induction day and raining quite heavily so quite a few people don’t come, but it was still good to see B & Y. Tony’s new Bishop is Allison Taylor and a bit dull. I spoke to Valerie before the service but she didn’t come near me at the supper afterwards. I would have thought she would have asked about Mother as a matter of courtesy. We joined Kate’s uncle Keith, Brother Bruce and cousins for port and cheese afterwards, but didn’t get any cheese. Bruce is going to stand as the labour candidate for South T’mba at the next state election and has good intentions so let’s hope he makes a mark. Dusty gets into the spirit of Christmas but isn't too keen.

Saturday sees us head to Forestlake for Christmas lunch with the Jeffreys'. Liam gets into swing of things quickly when it came to opening presents but it was Hudson that stole the show. He is gorgeous and will be very spoilt.

14^th  and Tony’s first service which I think is a success and everyone seems happy at morning tea, after which we pack up and leave. Stopping at café at Aratula again we have another great meal. I washed mine down with a celery, carrot, beetroot and ginger drink which was very tasty. Then it was back up the hill to Clifton where we pull up at Vaughan & Karen’s for 2 nights. Vaughan comes over for happy hour so we have a long chat to him before dinner.

15^th  I do some washing before we head into town where David gives J a tick for everything except his weight. I get the shock of my life when the scales hit 105kg and with BP still on high side he changes pills and I go back onto Micardis and have a new one for fluid. I can go to the loo every two hours now so I don’t know what will happen if I am supposed to go more often. However; we will give it a try for a few months and see what happens. I think I will get the remaining script for Twynstar filled. After the visit to Brent and our walk through Laurel Bank Park which was looking quite good despite the gardeners removing all the spring annuals and some bare beds, we visit Woolies to get some more diet food. We stop off in Cambooya on way home and find Frosty asleep after nightshift and the boys in various stages of arriving or leaving. Finally they are organised and we take Benjamen to Bull & Barley for Barramunday. Don’t know where Bruce gets his fish from but it hasn’t been bettered.

16^th   We are just leaving after bidding Vaughan & Karen goodbye when Kevin rings so we inform him we are on way and should be there late afternoon. It was an uneventful trip down the Tenterfield range this time and quite green so they must have had some rain. This time I do find the spot where caravan caught on fire and burnt the countryside around it – must be approaching it from western or up side. It was great to see K & J again and spend time with them. The area around Lawrence it very green and Clarence river was at full height.

17^th   Kevin takes us for a drive around town looking at houses for sale so J can get an idea of what is available in our price range. There were a few that overlooked the river (for my water views) that had possibilities so let’s hope that their prices keep pace with T’mba’s till we retire. We had a leisurely afternoon with J trying to fix Joyce’s computer and K & I watching the cricket.

18^th     Joyce joins us as we go to Ferry Park for morning tea overlooking the river and then a drive around the area. There were a few more places for sale but I was a bit wary of them being on same level as river – you would think you would get wet feet quite often. Vivian, Richard, Lily & Robert come for afternoon tea and Richard and I have a great chat while Vivian helps J fix the computer. They end up staying for dinner so the kids enjoy themselves playing with new leggo and walking the pram around. Pandemonium breaks out when Aunty Brenda rings up to say goodbye as she and Randy were taking Lauren to USA for Christmas with Randy’s sister, whom Lauren was going to be staying with during her 6 months as exchange student. B & R have built a mudbrick place near Montville which we will have to visit sometime. As Joyce explained it – it should be very interesting.

19^th  We leave early and take the Pacific highway to Newcastle and it is a reasonable trip. The traffic wasn’t too heavy and most of it is double lane – it is a freeway from Kempsey south – so there isn’t a lot of places to pull over but we eventually find one south of Taree to have lunch. We do get to Newcastle on peak hour but it wasn’t too much of a drama for me. Richard seemed like his old self but is on lots of medications. Louise is living with them at the moment as she has signed to build a new home but nothing has happened yet. She seemed very nice and it was very pleasant to spend time with her and Richard & Margaret. Richard’s parkinsons has become much more pronounced and he is injecting himself with insulin for his Diabeties but not changing eating habits or exercising.

21^st  We make it to Peter & Lindy’s just after lunch and have a piece of cake and caramel biscuit with them - not good for the diet but very nice – before heading over to Grandies who were excited to see us. We spend the rest of day chatting to everyone and admiring all the kids expertise on monkey bars and swings before a roll with ham, cheese and runny egg on bread roll for dinner. Both the little ones are very agile on bars.

22^nd   David had gone to work when we arrived so we spent the day with kids and had a jam sandwich for lunch. J was able to chat to David over dinner of chicken and salad while watching first half of big bash game. Since I had to drive we left then and went home to watch the second half with P & L.

23^rd   We have a quiet morning as Relle and kids have gone roller skating and have a great time. Zahra tells us she didn’t fall over once and I am not surprised. ^.J decides that he has to buy something for his sisters for Christmas so we take Lilly and head to Plumbton Village where he eventually buys a box of doggie shortbread and we post them off. They won’t get there before Christmas but what the! As we are leaving I see a very black storm approaching so we detour via Riverstone to take the washing off the line. Peter had beat us to it, and Lilly had a good time helping Lindy with her cooking while we had a cuppa with Peter. Back to Glendenning for chicken and salad for dinner while watching the first half of cricket and then back to watch the second half with P & L. Sound a bit familiar?

24^th   Narelle has to go to Homebush so J & I arrange to join B & Y at Wild Pear Nursery and café at Dural for lunch and head off. Unfortunately they can’t join us but we have a slow trip – near Castle Towers shopping centre at Castle Hill the traffic slowed dramatically – after taking 15 minutes to go 500 meters we get past the entrance and move a bit quicker towards Cherrybrook – but alas we get into another slow land and after taking 20 minutes to go 200 meters we turn around and head down another road to Dural where we find the café and get a table on the verandah where it might be a little cooler. It is very humid as well as hot. We have a lovely meal and then keep driving to Wiseman’s Ferry – which is a lovely spot beside Hawkesberry river – however; because the river is straight and wide it is a powerboaters’ paradise and all the caravan parks have been bought by ski clubs and aren’t available for the general public.

We drive through the rain towards Windsor and the countryside is very lush and green, with some very big mansions around. We spend the next hour or so playing traffic lights and policemen with the twins riding their bikes around and around the table on deck. The kids have been very excited about going to church and are very well behaved – which can’t be said of a brat 2 rows in front of us who played up the whole time. His big brother didn’t move an inch or say anything but this one was a proper pest as he stopped most people around us from hearing anything. Afterwards we all adjourned to Meharka & Deb’s for supper, which was lovely. Their son Nathan wasn’t home for Christmas but Ashleigh & Stephanie and Steps’ boyfriend were there and very popular with the kids. Then it was time to go to bed to wait for Santa to come!

25^th   We all troop over to David’s for the opening of presents and breakfast and are joined by GG Bev, and Scott and Rebecca, her girls and Trey. The kids have a great time opening and picking their favourite presents and then it was time to go over to Scott & Bec’s for lunch. They had some huge pieces of meat which hadn’t been put on to cook at 11am when we got there, so it was a long wait in the heat till they were ready. Because David had said he wanted 3 roast meats and potatoes, there was only one dish of veggies to accompany the roast potatoes and potato bakes, along with some very nice pepper sauce. I had some roast ham and roast pork with veggies, and skipped the beef and potato bake. It had cooled down a little by the time dessert arrived but the chocolates had melted. Bec had a ring pavlova covered with green cream and red and white smarties to resemble a holly wreath so it was in Christmas theme. She had made a white wine sangria which was very nice – don’t know what was in it but guess you could substitute white for red wine. It was pouring rain when we left at 4.30pm so we let David & Relle go home to bed and we went back to P & L. They were going out for dinner with Peter’s brother so we had a quiet time in front of tele. I had a quick call to Barb who was joining everyone for lunch at Springfield Tavern and then rang Doug & Mark late in afternoon.

26^th   Pete & Lindy leave for Port Stevens where they are camping till New Year and we spend the day watching Boxing Day test. Michelle knits me a dog for Christmas so snowy now has pride of place on our bed. When we go away for the day I will prop him up on front legs so he can look out the window.

27^th   David & Relle join some friends for lunch in a park and we go over to see them for the afternoon and when David leaves for work we go to Rivo Pub for dinner. It is a basic pub but the Bistro was pleasant enough. I had chilli prawns and it was a huge meal and very hot. John had to have a mixed grill to get his red meat fix, and then it was home to watch the cricket. Our life seems to revolve around watching sport on tv.

28^th   Starting the day at church in Richmond we find that Humphrey Fryer was the rector there from 1905 - 1908. It was a strange service of Morning Prayer with their two priests in attendance, however the people were friendly and when they found out why we were there came up with an article on the church as a keepsake.

We had been invited to join everyone at Zane & Jodie’s place for a barbeque lunch so found our way over to Seven Hills where we were joined by Nathan, Emily, Jake & Zac. The kids had a memorable time going from pool to spa and back again. The twins spent more time in spa as I think it was shallower and warmer in the afternoon. The boys put up a slide so they could slide down into the pool which was a hit for day. Zane & Jodie don’t have children but have 2 lap dogs (maltese type I think) and a new puppy (bulldog face and chihuahua size) named peanuts because he pees everywhere and is so small. Lilly was terrified of them at the start but by mid afternoon was nursing peanuts and Gizmo so let’s hope she can overcome her terror. We have a lovely lunch and then are joined by Melody (Zane’s mum) who has been at the hospital with Bill all day. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the end of October and doesn’t seem to be handling chemotheraphy too well. She is very upset and had a bottle of champagne quick smart and then started on Chardonay so she will have a headache tomorrow. Let’s hope that Bill can rally and they can do some more travelling.

29^th   We leave Sydney with the intention of going up through Blue Mtns to Blayney but someone doesn’t read the signs so we end up on Hume Highway and at Goulburn I suggest we get off it; and head to Crookwell. We plan to stay here the week and then head to Orange to try their wines. There are quite a few vans in park here so we get to chat to several of them. Each day continues like the one before watching test cricket during the day and T20 at night.

31^st   Somehow I manage to stay awake to see the fireworks to bring in the new year which I thought were good – not like the show before hand which was very boring – guess it was aimed at 30/40 somethings and not 60 year olds.