Beach

We recently had a little break at the beach, thought the boy was back to make use of time in the house sans napper to get things done.

Though some of us were surprisingly less excited about the sand and waves than expected ...

... though with a little practice, and the discovery of some perfectly sized rock pools (so as to avoid the waves) things were looking up by the end of the fortnight!

What we did on the weekend

We were up in Gympie visiting the parentals so we dropped in to the Noosa Regional Gallery to get some culture in. Munchies first trip to a gallery and she handled it very well.

Ms Brown, your work is even more stunning in person!





(I think Munch wanted to eat them.)

Gympie Weekend

The boy went off to do boy things last weekend and I went up to visit my parents. It was lovely to spend some time pottering about doing girlie things with my Mum. We dropped into Stitch Bliss to pick up a crochet needle for my first Brown Owls meet on Sunday. We ended up buying some lovely knitting books and I will definitely be back there to buy some yarn once I've gotten a bit better at the whole crochet/knitting thing.



We received a belated wedding gift that will have a proud spot in the garden at Toxteth.



I visited my Dad and his latest project.







And spent some time hanging out with my parents new stray, Pablo while taking some photos of the sunset. Very relaxing!

Brisbane Weekend

Last weekend we visited some friends in Brisbane who have just started renovating their own home. We like to have regular catch ups, and have a little system worked out, whereby us girls take turns with the boys to cook a three course meal and breakfast the next morning. It's pretty fun, and we alternate homes so everyone gets a chance to be in their own kitchens. True to form my friend and I went way beyond the call of duty and as a result, the entree wasn't served until 9:30 on Saturday night!



Home made fettuccine!



Quail eggs ... Love the speckles on the outside and pale blue lining of the shells.



We worked out you need six quail eggs to make up one chook egg. They're also fiddly to work with. In order to not pulverize the shells into the good bits you want to keep, you have to carefully slice them open with a sharp knife. I think it took me about half an hour to finish the 18 or so we used to make our scrambled eggs in the morning!

Yarraman and Bunya Mountain Weekend

I promised earlier that I would share some of our adventures in Yarraman and the Bunyas from the weekend before last. We were up for my nephew's 21st birthday and I have to say, the Saturday night we spent in the Yarraman pub has to have been one of the coldest nights I've ever experienced. I ended up stealing the boys woolly socks to wear with my open toed heels!

The next morning we took the back road from Yarraman to the Bunya Mountains and on the way we stumbled across this spectacular homestead. I couldn't help myself, forced the boy to stop the car and indulged in a bit of house stalking.







I love the delicacy of these massive broadcast towers at the top of the Bunyas. The sun coming through them seems to make them shimmer and become intangible.


The amazing veiw from the heights. I'd love to live here, but don't think I could handle the cold in winter!





Perfect weather for Bunya nut scones with Bunya nut strawberry jam and cream and a spot of tea.



I love the feathery delicacy of the Bunya pines branches and the domed shape of their crowns. I'm hoping that we can plant a few at Toxteth, but they maybe too large for our block.



The beautiful patchwork of the farms whizzing by on the way home. The colour combinations are so inspiring!

Toowoomba, Goomeri, Gympie Weekend

The boy and I embarked on a serious road trip last weekend so we could visit his mum in Toowoomba and my mum in Gympie for the Mothers Day weekend.

First stop was Toowoomba on Friday evening and Saturday morning. We had a lovely winter dinner on arrival and then spent Saturday helping the boys mum run some errands.



One of our stops was to pick up some hay bales for the garden and this little fella was guarding the entrance to the feed barn ... I was starting to consider the potential of having a 'house goat' for milking at Toxteth ... until my parents reminded me that goats are pretty skilled at mass deforestation and cause a lot of erosion problems because of their ability to eat pretty much everything.





Overheard: They're bloody ugly when they grow up, but pretty cute at the moment.



Ah, the speckled chicken. I'd love a herd of these girls scratching about our yard, but they're not the best layers. We'll most likely end up with a mix of speckled girls for aesthetics and red hens for actual egg production.



We also dropped into the local pet shop so the boy's mum could replenish her goldfish stocks. I wandered into the bird aviary and discovered these sweet little pink budgies. Do you think it's odd to base your bathroom colour scheme on a budgie?



We headed off after lunch and made our way to Gympie via the little town of Goomeri. The drive through the back roads and little country towns was so calming and the quality of light is just beautiful at that time of day, and this was followed up with an amazing sunset. Though it was fairly difficult to capture at 100km/hr! I must have taken about 30 photos just to get one that was in focus.



The other amazing thing was the moon. It must have been full or close to full and it was so fat and yellow just hanging there on the horizon.





We stopped for a refresher at the Goomeri Grand Hotel. We've decided to go back in a couple of weekends time and stay overnight for the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival. I'm so excited. There will be a pumpkin rolling competition among other events!

I'm embarrassed to say that this is where my camera ran out of batteries!

Never the less, we arrived in Gympie safe and sound and spent Mothers Day consulting on the construction of mum and dad's new cat run. Theirs is definitely an improvement on ours, so it was good to collect a few new ideas to try when we have to construct our own at Toxteth.

Gympie Weekend

We had a weekend break from reno duties in Gympie so the boy could attend a residential school at Noosa. I spent most of Sunday pottering around with my mum in the garden.

We ducked out to get some turf and made the acquaintance of some curious cows. I love these big sweet faced creatures and would love to have a house cow, but couldn't see myself getting around to milking the requisite two times a day.





Watching turf being cut and rolled. I'm amazed at this incredibly specialised farming contraption.





We also worked on reshaping mum's pear tree. Spreading the branches allows more light in and results in a larger crop.







Mum had some spare tulle from a millinery course ...







Some more autumn beauty. These Agapanthus seedpods are so structural and I can imagine them working well pressed into clay like my star anise experiments.



And finally ... this little bunny needed a bit of a haircut. The poor little fella doesn't realise my mum has set him up though ... there's a pack of six or so hounds on his fluffy little tail!