Anzac day and beads and more

My year of "how to" is fast vanishing. I was going to learn all these new techniques and crafts which I have thought in other years I had not enough time for! Guess what, the same thing is happening again! I have managed to make these paper beads a couple of weeks ago, I have bought all the findings to turn them into a necklace and earrings to take away with me on Sunday. I have now packed them all into a bag to take with me, hoping I have time on Monday morning to make them up!!!

Today is Anzac day in Australia. I attended a very large parade in Mackay which was very inspiring. My 6 year old grand daughter was marching with her school, but passed by in such a flash I couldn't even see her. I rushed round the corner and just snapped away when the school appeared. Much to my delight when I downloaded the photos onto my computer I had manage to get her.

The little ones are pretty tired by the time they get to the cenotaph - about a 30 minute march, so they were looking a bitt ratty, but still waving their flags. I am wondering how my just 5 year old grandson went in his march in Gladstone. He wanted to go to the Dawn service with his father and big brothers, was quite put out when told he has to wait a few more years to do two marches!

We are going to Townsville for nearly a week for a conference - fun for me but hard work for Bill. The partners get taken round to see the sights and have lots of lunches and morning teas etc. I will probably need to diet by the time I come home. There are some lovely art galleries in Townsville, and I will have some spare time - after I have made my necklace of course!!!

I was a guide at the Botanic Gardens on Wednesday for a group of very young school children (aged 5 - 7), who were absolutely fascinated with the harlequin bugs I posted about recently. They were then looking at how water plants floated, examples being water lilies, water lettuce weed and water hyacinth. The last two are awful pests which washed down into our section of the lagoon with the flood. The teachers wanted to take them home to grow in a tank in the school for the children to watch. I don't think the curator approved of that at all - thought the weed might spread even further. Last year the Gardens spent about $70,000 hiring a water weed harvester which cleared our section of the lagoon. We don't have that sort of money to spend again this year, so they are looking at biological control, but will probably have to poison a lot of it to begin with.