A little break...

I am having a bit of a break from blogging ... too much to do, too little time

I will still come and visit you now and then, if I may. And maybe I will be back sooner rather than later.

Hopefully the blogging world will not change too much while I am away.

Feeling Mossy

I am thinking that if we stand still long enough (which does not need to be very long at this point in time!), we will grow moss very effectively!
The rain has not let up for any extended period of time and when the sun has peeped out, it has been so humid it feels like we must be inside a cloud.
So far we, it looks like we are having the wettest February on record, with just under 800mm recorded up to today.

We are absolutely fine here in town. Just the inconvenience of no milk and a few other grocery items while the road was cut, other than that we have no cause for complaint. Looks like we will be washing mildew off the walls for a while to come.

Not so lucky for some others though - Ingham has had two floods go through and there are many small communities/farming families still isolated by flood waters.
Cairns has also been isolated for some period of time, but they are now connected to us again. With all the rivers so full, it doesn't take a lot to cause further flooding.

Charters Towers, with empty grocery stores, received a shipment of beer and a lawnmower when a mistake was made hitching the wrong carriage to the train. It would be funny if the need for supplies had not been so desperate.

At the other end of our country are the terrible, terrible bushfires. I don't have my thoughts together enough to say something meaningful about the fire disaster, so much has already been said.
The sad loss of life, the dislocation of so many lives is too massive to fully comprehend.

I hope your corner of the world is on a more even keel.
And if you are suffering through the bushfires and floods, know that we are thinking of you

After the holidays

Ahhh... a lovely break away. This was the view from the roof top of the hotel we stayed at in Sydney

Always hard to catch up after a bit of a break from blogging so, in summary

Holidays 2 weeks away, 1 week catching up with family, 1 week in Sydney enjoying all the touristy things - the Harbour Bridge walk, ferry to Manly, Bondi Beach, exploring The Rocks, saw Le Grande Cirque Aerial Dreams at the Opera House, Monet Exhibition, Paddington Markets, Rocks Markets, shopping at Bondi Junction - each worthy of a little write up of their own, but suffice it to say we had a wonderful time

Back to school We were all ready for "back to school", much as we also all love holidays! There comes a time when you need to see your friends again, and to get back to a bit of a "normal" routine. Not quite sure what "normal" is, though...
Everyone is very happy with their various classes and teachers, so that is a great start for the year

Weather It has rained...and rained...and rained! Cyclone Ellie crossed the coast about 300klms north of us, and the rain we have had has been amazing! Lots of comparisons to the floods of 1971 etc etc, so quite a significant event.
Today, we are "cut off" - all the roads leading out of town are flooded. No drama - yet! Usually these things don't last too long, plenty of supplies on hand, and we have water, electricity so it really doesn't affect life too much as long as you do not need to travel in/out by road.
Of course if you do, or you are stranded between towns, it is not so pretty.

And at the other end of the scale, Melbourne has had a record 3 days of temperatures over 40C, Adelaide a record 6 days of temperatures over 40C.
Very strange weather.

Sunflower

Not much to say here, other than to show this monster sunflower.

We grew some a few years ago, they were about waist high at the best.
These ones must have had some pretty good nutrition, and stand about 4 metres high. We watched them grow and for a while there, it looked like they would never stop!

Here is Ange next to the sunflowers, just to give some perspective.

Holidays

Argghhh...when are you going back to school so I can get back to being a DOG!!

New Year's Eve

Hmmm, my little "weather pixie" was standing in a little sundress in a thunder storm, at 10.50pm when I just went to my blog. It is night time, little weather pixie, you shouldn't be out at all, let alone in a thunderstorm (which hasn't arrived in real-life yet)

Anyway, this wasn't going to be about naughty weather pixies in thunderstorms, but it was going to be a little entry of our New Year's Eve and Day.

As you can see from the picture above, we made some oliebollen. My mum makes these every New Year's Eve but I have not been as conscientious in keeping up that tradition.
I am glad I did them this year, they tasted pretty good!
We went to Kev's parents bearing oliebollen gifts and enjoyed them with a glass of champagne and other nibblies.
Kev's sister, her husband and 2 children are here for Christmas/New Year (up from Melbourne) so the cousins had a wonderful time together, yahooing as only they know how to do!

We had fun with sparklers, and Kevin cleverly took the photo in the post below. We were all impressed with how co-operative the children were, they followed their instructions beautifully. And go have a look - the biggest, most enthusiastic cicrcle/zero you could ask for was made by little John, the smallest/youngest cousin!

We had a "family friendly" New Year, and didn't stay up to bring the New Year in - I am not too sad about that. And (don't tell the girls!!) we didn't get "pinched and punched for the first of the month and then some for the first of the year". Not sure how they missed it, but that is OK, I can live without the pinch/punch.

Because we didn't stay up late, we were able to go for a bike ride this morning. We thought we would go before it got too hot, but... this is summer and this is Townsville, so that just doesn't happen. It was still good to do, and we jumped into the pool to cool off when we got home

This morning, we played Scrabble - noteworthy because I won! (insert a little victory dance here). A Scrabble win doesn't happen too often for me, maybe this will be a successful Scrabble year for me? Let's hope!

And this evening we had 2 sets of neighbours (do neighbours come in "sets"?) over for some "Happy New Year" drinks - with some more oliebollen!
Sadly, we are losing one family of neighbours as they are moving to Melbourne with the army. Always sad to say goodbye, this was a nice opportunity to do so before they leave.

Now don't look for any New Year's resolutions here - there are none. 2009 will no doubt be another busy year, my aim is to make sure I breathe it all in and to treasure all those busy times, and to value the quiet moments all the more.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!