Random act of kindness (RAK)

Penny had this on her blog and I think it will be fun to join in.
Here is how it works, the first 5 people to comment on this post will at some time through the year receive some small art work, fabric or paint, from me and to do this I will need your snail mail address. What you then do is Pay it Forward and in turn agree to do the same for another 5 people. It can't be too hard to get 5 people who are happy to receive something unexpected through the year and then repay it to another 5 people. So lets play.
The photo above is a brooch I made several years ago, but could be a sample of what I might make.
I have been glued to the TV at night for the last week watching the tennis - and on some nights flicking to the cricket as well.  I have been knitting a sock at the same time, but turning a heel and watching exciting tennis at the same time is not an occupation I recommend - I had to unpick a couple of times! thank goodness I have turned it now so shan't be interrupted when Federer and Nadal play tonight.  I think that may be a better match to watch than the final on Sunday night somehow.
We still have no rain here, but this is our Australia Day weekend coming up and for most of the 46 years of our marriage, Australia Day has been quite/very wet.  School returns on Tuesday and that is another indicator - sure to create maximum chaos and misery for all the newbies!  My garden will be happy though.
 

Distracted again!

I have been very slack about posting - again.  The cricket and the tennis have been responsible.  The Australian Open is being played in Melbourne this week and there have been some very exciting matches.  I even have the TV on while I write this in the late afternoon as Nadal and Dimitrov are playing their quarter final.  Thank goodness the weather is a lot pleasanter for them this week than it was last week.  Playing in 45+ degree heat was really cruel.

The hot weather is making its way up here, but only in the mid-thirties with high humidity and that is very unpleasant.  Still no rain, but my Murraya has suddenly come out in full bloom overnight.  The old hands say that means rain is on its way.  I am not convinced, but I hope they are right.

 There were only tight buds yesterday!

Jock and I went for a walk in the Gardens yesterday, the first time for a while.  Click on the photos and they should enlarge.

 The ducks took no notice

 The Monsoon Waterway was working beautifully

 The red-fruited Vitex looked spectacular.

 The pelicans were simply enjoying the view

and this one was sitting on another pump in the late afternoon.

Now I had better get out into the garden to do some pruning so I can load it into the bin before the rubbish is collected tomorrow morning.

Jock and crabs

As usual on my birthday we had mudcrabs and oysters for dinner, along with some good wine!

 Also as usual, Bill put the crabs on the floor to see Jock's reaction.  he was not nearly as scared of them this year.  In fact I think he was rather hoping Bill would give them to him!

there was not a chance of that, they were far to nice to share.

Have any of you had to prove your identity lately?  Just before Christmas I thought I had had my wallet stolen (I hadn't, but that is another story).  Of course there was a frantic search through the house and car, then I had to ring to cancel my credit cards etc.   When Bill came home, I needed to go out, but of course we realised my driver's licence was in the wallet, so I couldn't drive. I rang the department of transport to see how I could get a replacement card,  when they of course said I had first to prove my identity.  Well I have a passport, but that only sufficed for part A - not nearly good enough on its own!  Did I have a rates notice - no, Bill owned the house before we were married and we never bothered to change that.  What about an electricity account - same deal.  How about my tax return - that goes through our accountant with his PO box number and our PO box number on it.  I was getting a bit desperate by this time.  What about my medicare card - that was in my wallet of course.  The woman to whom I was speaking suggested my birth certificate, but of course that was in my maiden name so was no good either.  Finally I remembered one of the credit card accounts is in my name and our street address, and of course Bill's medicare card has the same number as mine, so I scraped up enough points to qualify for a replacement licence - which took two weeks to reach me.  In the meantime I had a sheet of paper in the glove box saying I was qualified.  That didn't worry me, but I felt sorry for an eighteen year old I met the next day.  She had applied for her driver's licence, which she wanted to show she was over 18 as well as saying she was qualified to drive.  The department lost her card so instead of taking two weeks it took over four - and this was when all the Christmas parties were happening!  She also had the piece of paper so she could drive quite legally, but that had no photo ID.
Sometimes I wish we could go back to 'the good old days', but  I suppose really they were not as good as we think we remember.

A few flowers from my garden

There is absolutely nothing creative happening around here at present so I thought I would put up a few photos of what is flowering in my garden.

 I planted this Impomea - Cardinal flower - only a few months ago and we were absolutely amazed at the speed with which it grew. It has now been flowering like this for over a month.  I can't wait till next year when hopefully it will have covered the trellis completely and will be covered with these beautiful flowers.

 Our Allamanda is always a show all summer, we planted this when we were first married, every so often it needs a good hack back, but it keeps on growing!

 The Ixora is also a long term resident and is cut back by about two thirds every couple of years.  This plant thrives on neglect - I like those.

We have been watching with horror the pictures of the awful weather in the northern hemisphere, but we have been having our share of horrible hot weather here - thankfully no bushfires in the Mackay area to go with the heat however.  We had some wonderful rain yesterday, with still a few showers today, which has cooled the temperature down to  a very comfortable 24 - 25 degrees, especially as there is a strong breeze blowing.  Some of the western Queensland areas have had temperatures up to 49 degrees for days on end - that is definitely hot!  They have had some rain too, but not nearly enough to break the terrible drought they are suffering.  Life on the land can be very cruel.

I had to add this photo of our son Stuart and granddaughter Hannah taken when they visited Australia Zoo - they were both really excited by the experience. 

Hopefully I will be back again before too long, and perhaps I may even have managed to make/paint/ do something creative!

It must be Christmas

The tree, although small, is up and decorated - but there is a dearth of presents below as they are still waiting to be wrapped!

 I have also hung some of our inherited decorations

 Bill's mother had these (there are three) before we were married, so they must be nearly 50 years old

 This musical bell plays Silent Night and is about 70 years old as it was bought when Bill was very small.  Actually, if you click to enlarge, you will see the light shade behind which dates back to 1933.  It is handpainted china and we think it is really lovely.  That will definitely not go with the house when it is eventually sold - at some far distant time (we trust).

 Santa is only just over 40 years old, he plays Jingle Bells and was bought when our youngest son was about 2.

This also says Christmas to us in the tropics - mangoes and lychees, yum!
This year is a good season for both fruits so we will have our fill, but as well as that we will still have the traditional plum pudding with coins!  Nothing else will be hot - apart from the temperature, which is forecast to be about 30 degrees.  We are on the coast so we are lucky and will have a cooling breeze.  The town where I grew up on the inland side of the Great Dividing Range, is forecast to reach almost 40 degrees, with a very low humidity.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing I hope you all enjoy the spirit of Christmas and have a wonderful New Year.

A lovely evening

Last night 'Christmas in the Gardens' happened at out Botanic Gardens, held on a Sunday this year as there had been a mixup with the cafe and there was a function for 100 people there on Saturday night.

What a good thing that turned out to be - we had one of the most successful evenings ever, the weather was perfect and nobody seemed to want to go home.

 The crowd came early with their blankets and chairs and picnics

 We sold flamefree candles (battery operated) and glo stiks, which the children loved.

 They were encouraged to wave their candles around in the air

 and dance to the music

This choir was the first group to perform, with some glorious classical Christmas music, thoroughly enjoyed by the older adults, but possibly not the right group to be performing there as the little ones were getting bored!
I always come home totally exhausted after this event, but I wouldn't miss it for worlds - the joy on the children's faces is more than enough satisfaction.

And Hamish and Alexander got into the spirit.

Last long post of photos from New Zealand

I keep running out of time to post these photos, but here goes

 This building was just near our hotel and fascinated us - we never did discover what it is used for.

 We spent a lovely day at Auckland Botanic Gardens with our extended family.  The children particularly loved it, there are some very special places for children in the Gardens.

 Here we all are, except for my nephew Peter who took the photo

 This was the view from the balcony of our hotel.  We went up to the viewing platform of the sky tower you can see there - 220 metres above ground.  The views were spectacular, all perfectly safe as we were behind glass.

 The blue tone is because of the glass I think, all the photos from the viewing platform came out like this.

 We finally saw some lovely roses in Auckland, we were too early everywhere else.  You need to click to enlarge the second photo which was a fantail displaying like mad just in front of us.  I was clicking and guessing as there was so much sun I had no idea what I was taking.

 We visited Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium, one of my favourite tours of the trip.
The aquarium is in an old converted sewerage tunnel and the penguins are wonderful.  The aquarium makes over 4 tonnes of ice every day to provide the habitat.  We were luck enough to arrive just on feeding time

 The two breeds are Gentoo and King - I could have stayed for hours watching them

 The gentoo penguins are breeding very successfully, the eggs were due to hatch in the next day or so and if you click to enlarge you will see the exposed egg under the penguin.

 The Rotorua Museum is an old Bath House from the late 1800s - people went to Rotorua for the steam baths.  What we saw looked pretty lethal to me, I would not like to have been taking the cure!

 This was the magnificent entrance to Te Puia, the Maori tourist centre with the geyser and mudpools, as well as much Moari culture.

 The main geyser was going off well behind us.

 

 This was a Maori meeting house - still used for Maori cultural events as well as tourists

 The weather in Whakatane where we were staying was not wonderful, and neither was the beach!

 These photos are loaded in the wrong order - this was the scene after the storm has passed

 This was the storm coming up and we were hightailing it home to avoid getting wet

This photo was of the storm approaching, and the one above (which I can't separate) is some roses in the Whakatane Botanic Gardens.
This has taken longer than I meant so I had better run and take the clothes of the line before the sun goes down.