Berlioz Te Deum and more

Wow! What a time I had on Saturday night at the Opera House. My distant cousin Ruth invited me to accompany her to the 90th birthday concert of the Sydney Philharmonia. They performed the Berlioz Te Deum and other works. It was a most enjoyable night and most of the music was new to me so it was quite interesting. The choir was great. So precise I could hear every word. Thanks Ruth.

Dinner and a Movie

We enjoyed another dinner and movie at Sutherland Entertainment Centre on Wednesday. The movie was South Solitary and apart from the poor sound quality it was really quite good. The best thing was being able to enjoy a great meal and entertainment with friends for such a reasonable price. I would thoroughly recommend the activity.

Underhill in October

 This visit we were greeted by a beautiful red tulip in the dog yard. Every Spring, depending on the alignment of weather conditions and date of visit we are greeted by something beautiful. This time it was a tulip, a pear tree and quince tree covered in blossom and a few blossoms on one of the apricot trees.

There was also quite a thick carpet of grass though on closer inspection an awful lot of it was actually bindii.

 Greg and Evelyn drove us down in their new car and Anne came as well. Our achievements were:

• internet access checked with my new Telstra dongle on my laptop - no luck - it did get two bars and opened up my blog but not my Gmail so cannot be used as a communication tool,
• checked that the chimney on the stove actually draws - check - and that we can now assume we can successfully cook a meal after the trauma to the kitchen roof,
• timber from the trees felled by Terry last time has been tidied and stockpiled except for the very largest logs that need chainsawing before they are moved,
• berry yard weeded and weeds collected for my chooks at home,
• two apple trees that had died because of ring barking by feral goats were demolished ready for burning off when we next light a fire.

Thank you Greg, Ev and Anne for coming with me and working on so many tasks.

Soon I'll need to make decisions about the fences on the dog yards as they were broken during tree felling. There will also be chainsawing to be done. I will also need to deliver some of this chook poo that I will be bagging up from the old chook shed area at home.

The Chook Shed Saga

Well at last I have space for my vegetable garden in the chook yard. It was a long slow process. The first job was to move the chooks and take on the task of hand filling their water until I have rigged up their small water tank that was plumbed into their old sheds. I now have them housed in these two sheds and they are laying again. I can't let them out to free range just yet as they need two weeks to learn where home is.

Then Gav and Stef returned after their travels and were roped into starting the dismantling task with Geoff.

This proved a bit difficult for us all except for the dismantling of gates, waterers and fittings. Gav helped me get the tank down and then used the angle grinder on the little low shed we were using as a tank stand. This originally came from the Federal Match Co. when they were cleaning up. The oldest shed in the corner was the canopy of an old truck also from Federal Match. This one was my main problem because it was not starling proof and from the amount of food I am using in the new sheds we have been spending a great deal of money feeding the starling population of Sydney. The chooks are now using about one tenth of the amount of chook food.

Today the big guns came to complete the dismantling job. Craig and Phil brought angle grinder and truck and now I can see the back corner for the first time since about 1972.

I have a lot of digging of chook poo (I hope it does not rain because it is so much easier to dig while it is dry). Then I'll need to do a bit of leveling and clearing old bits and pieces of concrete and brick from the site. Then I can create vege gardens. I also have a huge pile of firewood to chop or give away. If anyone would like to help with any of these tasks I will be most grateful.

And my chooks will soon get a tank to supply their water so I don't have to hand fill their water. That means I must build a tank stand.

I'll get there eventually, thanks to all those fabulous helpers I have had.

Lunch at Helen and Bob's

Last weekend the old gang was treated to lunch at Helen and Bob's. It was a great day with good friends. Janice and Roger brought Marie and Iain and I brought Stef and Gav who are staying with me at the moment. We spent the time chatting, touring the garden and house and eating; catching up on news of the gang and days gone by.

Here we are watching for the elusive native bees to return home to their hive but I think they were all out feeding.

As always, the repast was magnificent. Added to the beautiful meal prepared by Helen were Marie's delightful butterfly cakes and Jane's yummy sticky black rice with taro and coconut milk. Mmmmm ... I didn't need any dinner when I got home!

The garden was looking great with lots of unusual plants.

Stef and Gav were quite amused by the whole event.

Thanks to all for a great day.

Hip news

On Monday I had the specialist appointment about my hip saga. After some discussion of history, looking at scans and xrays and prodding and poking he said that I should delay any surgery while the physiotherapy and exercising are helping.

To celebrate I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working to the point of exhaustion in the chook yard. Amazing transformations though only the chooks and I will notice it until the old sheds are removed and the grass has a chance to grow. I hope to create some vegetable gardens that can be temporarily fenced for rotation purposes and strip grazing by my beautiful chooks.

I still have 3 speckled sussex hens and about 14 silkies (roosters and hens). All are laying well so if you would like some eggs ring me to arrange a visit. I will keep the chooks till they die of old age and may even hatch out some more silkies if the numbers begin to decline too much. They are all so pretty with their new feathers after the autumn moult. All the other chooks have long since gone to good homes and as far as I know they are being used as breeding stock by their new owners.

September in Berry

Last weekend I spent 3 nights with Janice, Rauri and Ruby.

I spent some time practising with my new camera. It has a great macro feature and with help from Belinda have learned how to use it.

Tony and Martha came and helped with lots of weeding on Saturday. The garden is looking quite fine now and Janice is mulching it all.

Rauri has a new vehicle. It looks very new and shiny but I am sure it will blend in very soon.

The Wisteria was in full bloom and Surrey's ghost was present underneath gutting and plucking ducks as in a photo taken some years ago.

Saturday evening Belinda and David arrived and stayed till Monday.

The big entertainment on Sunday was watching a truck arrive with more coal washings for the gate areas to fill the holes made from continual driving through. They get very boggy in wet weather and need filling and compacting. The amazing thing was watching how the 'dog' is emptied first then backed out of the way so the truck itself can be emptied.

Another award for Surrey

This past week Barre Hellquist journeyed to San Angelo, Texas to attend the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society's annual meeting.  Each year they induct people who have promoted the study and growth of
waterlilies worldwide.  Barre nominated Surrey and made a presentation. There were slides of all the waterlilies he named.  It was very well recieved.  I am so happy that they have recognized all the work he did with the Nymphaea.  He joins Don Les and Barre as a member in the IWGS Hall of Fame.

Brisbane break - episode 8

Tuesday 21 September 2010

After breakfast Barbara and I drove to the city to the Valentino exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery - lots of beautiful gowns from 1950s to 2009. Magnificent clothes and even some inspiration for my patchwork.

Our next stop was the Hans Heysen exhibition.

We enjoyed a light lunch at the River Cafe between galleries and drove back to The Gap to collect my bags.

On the way to Banyo we made a quick stop at the Virginia Dolls & Antiques shop and enjoyed a short browse.

The evening was restful with lots of chat with Aunty Dot and Uncle Des and of course Daisy needed a pat or two.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

My last morning in Brisbane was spent quietly. I was able to skype Barre and catch up with a few emails.

We ordered the taxi for 11:30 so that I could get lunch at the airport on my way through as Virgin Blue offers no complimentary food or drink on the flight.

I arrived home around 4pm to find that Leigha had locked herself out of the house that morning with no car keys and no money. She was pleased to see me as you can imagine.

Brisbane Break - episode 7

Monday 20 September 2010

My last morning in Kilcoy! One of the fascinating plants around Kilcoy are the Xanthorrhoeas. They have such long flower stalks and the birds love them. I tried to get a photo of the Rainbow Lorikeets feeding on one that we could see from Kathy's verandah.

After a slow start watching birds, drinking coffee and breakfasting Kathy took Barbara and I for a tour of the acreage blocks north-east of Kilcoy. There are certainly some lovely places to live. This was followed by lunch together at Chantilly Blue.

Barbara and I then said our goodbyes to Kathy and headed south to Brisbane. We took the main highways east then south after some discussion. Barbara had wanted to go via the Mt Glorious road but with the rain and fog it could have been quite dangerous and we would not have been able to see any of the views anyway as we would have been in cloud.

Home to Barbara and Keith's by about 4pm and spent the evening slowing down. I decided to have a very light dinner to alleviate the pressure on my rib. This has worked somewhat and I am now much more comfortable.