Canberra, heat and friends

Tuesday, 11 February
Elaine and I left Sydney on our first train trip for the year. After about 20 train trips last year, mostly in the UK, we are looking forward to exploring a little of Australia by train. This trip is to Queanbeyan to stay with Terry and Ellie for two nights. I walked to the station to keep my step rate up for the day. Our Canberra train left from Central station. The train trip was very comfortable and set up thoughts of where else we could go. Perhaps I'll even go to Brisbane by train instead of flying?

 We arrived to a very warm 38 C and were met by Terry and Ellie at the beautiful Queanbeyan station. They then took us home for a very relaxing evening.

Wednesday, 12 February
Up at a leisurely hour (6:30am) and after sharing breakfast Ellie, Elaine and I headed for the National Library for the current exhibition "Mapping our World". First a coffee and cake down by Lake Burleigh Griffin then off to our guided tour of the exhibition. We also had time for "The Treasures Gallery" and browse through the bookshop before meeting up with Ellie again and heading for lunch at the National Museum of Australia.

Morning tea by the lake.

Dragon boat training on Lake Burliegh Griffin

The view from our table at lunch.

 

Unfortunately there was a mix up about gluten free options so both Elaine and Ellie had problems with their lunch but my lunch was a lovely sandwich.

We all then browsed the exhibitions in this museum where Ellie had worked for some time. The museum concentrates on many aspects of Australian culture, lifestyles, history, discovery and inhabitants.I had been to neither museum before so was really impressed with the displays.

Mallee stumps made into a wall at the NMOA

 

I had fun during the day 'jogging' or just doing extra walking to get my step rate up to my goals during the day. 

Back home to Terry and Ellie's by 4pm to find Terry preparing kangaroo pie for dinner. He had to eat early to leave for a fire fighting course he was in charge of. We three girls then had a leisurely dinner and an easy evening except for an interlude chasing a blowfly who had ventured inside. Ellie's magic catcher for such insects is a hand held Dyson vacuum cleaner. It works really well.

The jetty and dam at Terry and Ellie's

 

Thursday, 13 February
Another leisurely breakfast before we all headed for Mont Adventure Equipment outlet to find a gortex rain jacket for me. It was so easy to find one. Though quite expensive I think it will fill my needs for some years to come.

We then had coffee at Cosmorex, a coffee roasting and supply shop that has its own cafe. The coffee is really quite delicious. This was followed by a browse through the book remainders warehouse, Clouston & Hall just over the road. What an incredible number of books!

Ready to leave Terry and Ellie's

 

Terry and Ellie then dropped Elaine and I at Queanbeyan station for our return journey to Sydney. We decided to test out the train buffet hot food this time. It was mediocre but edible so we'll have to try the sandwiches. After a comfortable trip back to Central, arriving 30 minutes late we caught our respective trains home. I even walked home from the station.

With all my extra walking I was able to maintain over 10,000 steps each day so I am pleased with that.

Our little break away was a pleasant time and I'm sure we'll both be keen to do such a trip again. Thank you Terry and Ellie!

Underhill is having a dry summer

The last 3 months have been particularly dry at Underhill (4mm rain in total). This has meant that we have lost most of our fruit since picking the apricots mid December. Our total harvest last week is shown in the photo. 

Because of the heat we have only done day trips in both January and February. Perhaps when our new roof is up the shed will be cool enough to sleep in at night.

In January we were lucky enough to see an echidna. It seems he has been digging in the mud by the dam. It is caked  in his quills.

Perhaps a little more rain next month will mean we will be able to harvest the 10 apples we still have. The quinces are still on the tree so maybe they will survive to maturity if it rains a little.

Gerroa holiday

 Ponyo says it all! We had a great family holiday at Gerroa again this year. We rent a house just down by the river and it is a wonderful relaxing holiday about 1500 steps from the surf and a calm water river swim.

 There is a kayak we are allowed to use.

 The boys love it!

 Ponyo loves it!

 Watermelon Man loves watermelon but unfortunately got an ear infection as a result of a recent cold he had.

 

 We had dinner out together at the Fisherman's Club and won two meat raffles!

 We had time to sit out the back of the house for a cuppa.

 And we had lots of visitors to share our meals.

Now it is home again to sort out life for 2014 after a relaxing start to the year. Jobs to do, people to meet, stuff to sort. Happy New Year!

Rainchain

The heavy downpours in November alerted me to a problem with a bad leak in my back bedroom. It seemed to be due to issues with the downpipe. Having seen rainchains in Japan Geoff and I decided that this could be the solution to my problem.

 

They are available on the web at www.rainchains.com.au and of course I bypassed the cheap ones to get a water lily one. They are easy to install and work well (we need another downpour to check if the leak problem has been solved though). It empties into a new water garden which looks lovely at the back corner.

Underhill again in December

Our visit early in December alerted us to the apricots that were not ripe enough to pick but would be before Christmas. So this trip was specifically to pick the beautiful apricots. The tree was full for the first time ever, even though it is over 25 years old.

Luckily I had two willing helpers in Anne and Ellie so in the 'cooler' part of the afternoon (probably down to 30C) we stripped the tree, much to the annoyance of a pair of Crimson Rosellas who were watching.

 

Our total harvest was a mango box full of apricots as well as small amounts of plums for jaming and some very dried blackberries with which we could not do anything.

Geoff, Jen and Ponyo came down later in the evening and Ponyo was delighted with the dam and the old fireplace ash and charcoal.

 

We all enjoyed our nibbles for dinner (total fire ban so no cooking). Terry and Ellie did boil up a few kettles for tea and coffee in their A-van. It had been an extremely hot day and did not cool down until well into the night.

Cal came down for morning tea the next  day but as Terry and Ellie had already left it was cold drinks only. 

Thanks to everyone for the help and company and helping me to accomplish my mission - to harvest our first real apricot crop.

November Visitors

Barre and Marion H came to stay all November and joined in my activities when they were in Sydney. Looking after the boys one Sunday meant that Barre watched his ice hockey game with Jess for company. She really was watching it with him! There were lots of concerts by the Sylvantones and one by the Sutherland Shire Choral Society. We did all sorts of other very ordinary things together.

Then in late November we were joined by John and Marion C so we all went sightseeing together. Our first trip was to Sublime Point, Austinmere, Audley and back home...

Morning tea at Sublime Point cafe with a stunning view down the coast.

Marion C paddling at Austinmere in sea with real waves, no crocs and no stingers (not like the usual north Qld coast)

   

Looking back to Seacliff drive and Stanwell Park

 The next day we visited Hazelhurst Gallery and the Archibald exhibition there. Later we enjoyed a great meal together at Excelsior Restaurant at Kogarah.

Brunch at Ellen and Rod's allowed a lot of friends and family to catch up with each other.

Geoff and the boys installed a computer for them.

Janice had time for a quick lesson from Rod

Barre and Rauri chatted on the lounge

Marion H and Janice had a lot to chat about

Janice J, John and Rauri

Then we five headed out to visit Camelia Gardens and Joseph Banks Native Gardens.

My visitors have all gone home now and it is a very quiet house!

Underhill in December

Geoff, Jen, Ponyo and I went for an overnight visit to Underhill this weekend. We met the Ranbuild guys about building a replacement roof for our living area.

We had two other visitors, a large monitor (probably a Lace Monitor) and a tiny dragon (probably a Jacky Lizard).

We three adults spent our time constructing new tree cages for some of the damaged ones, stealing star pickets from anywhere they were no longer required.

We demolished the fireplace ready for the new roof construction and generally tidied things as a beginning of our preparations for that event.

We left the blackberry harvesting until the day was a bit cooler and were rewarded with fruit for desert and breakfast as well as some each to take home.

Ponyo loved the whole bush experience, especially not being roused at for digging in the fire place. She will need a good bath when she gets home.

Because we did not want to light the stove we enjoyed nibbles, and salad for dinner with a glass of red wine. Absolute bliss after a long day of work with womper-stompers and star-lifters.

We did a survey of the fruit trees we now have and there are about 50 different varieties including old and new. We tidied many of them up by pruning lightly and will do a bit more after harvesting the fruit because those we did prune last year are doing much better.

Next time there will be a lot more tidying of the living area ready for the building project.