An old, old menu

You will have to double click on this to make it large enough to read.  I was sorting through some old papers today. looking for something I could photocopy to use in a project I am about to start, when I came across this fascinating menu.  My great aunt accompanied a family to be governess to their child, children while they went on a trip to Japan and on to America.  I wish we had asked more questions when there was someone alive to tell us the story.  I know they went from Japan to America, and I think via Alaska.  I know they went to New York and also that their ship sailed out of San Francisco the day before the big earthquake.  I can vaguely remember my aunt telling us stories of  the trip, but infuriatingly, I can't remember any details!  This menu is over 100 years old, interesting to see what was offered on Hotel menus back then.  Does anyone know what a Burdock saute is?

I think I am getting back to normal again, hoping to start on a journal project tomorrow - a good day to stay indoors.  We have had no rain over the last few days, but the sky is overcast and there is a 30 knot wind blowing, most unpleasant.  At least this is the winter season in Australia so we expect days like this, I feel for all of you in the UK where you are supposed to be having summer.

Time for bed.

Better than a Big Mac!

This looks gruesome, but is pretty amazing.  The photos were taken by  mine crew on an access road west of Mackay.  It took a total of 5 hours for the carpet python to consume the goanna.  The workers erected safety signage so the snake wouldn't be run over by mistake.

This series of photos was sent to me in an email.  I was not aware before that  a python would tackle a goanna (a large monitor lizard), so we all live and learn.  I don't think I will post these photos anywhere near the cafe at the Botanic Gardens - we have quit a large python living in the rafters of the cafe and gallery, which sometimes pokes it head out during daylight hours!!!

I've been for a walk

Actually I have been for several short walks, but mostly just to the corner of our street and back.  However before my sister went home on Tuesday we went for a short walk in the Botanic Gardens - and down some stairs with no handrails, which I hadn't intended.  All was safe though.

 The waterfall is looking very lush at present - obviously the pump problems have been sorted, it used to keep getting silted up.

This is a sad story, and the tree was removed from the Gardens yesterday.  A horrible new plant disease/pest has arrived in Mackay - Orange Rust.  It is highly contagious, effects the growing tips of affected trees to the extent that the tree will eventually die.  The rust affects plants in the Myrtacaea (can't spell it) family - nearly a thousand species.  The rust was first discovered in NSW about three years ago and lots of the eucalypt forests were being destroyed.  The only way to treat is to spray weekly with quite toxic chemicals and that won't work in the wild anyway.  I have a Backhousia and some grevilleas as well as lillypillies in our garden at home which we are checking closely, we will be devastated if we find it here.  I suppose nature will eventually work out which are the strongest plants and find a way of overcoming the rust, but that will take a long time.  I think the rust came from Argentina, but has now been found all along the Eastern seaboard of Australia.
On a more cheerful note, I am still improving, though I have had to spend quite a bit of time lying on my back with my feet up higher than my heart because I had quite sever bruising all down my leg.  All you can do then is read, so I have been reading to my heart's content with no guilty feelings. Unfortunately for that excuse, the bruising has almost gone!  Cheers

Checking in

No photos this time, but I thought I would let you all know that I am absolutely thrilled with my new knee,  I had the surgery on the Tuesday, came home last Saturday morning and haven't used my crutches since!  I saw the physio yesterday who was very pleased with my progress and says I can go walking for ten minutes each day.  the surgeon took the staples out (32) this afternoon and that was a big relief also.  I can even walk up and down  the stairs to the upstairs part of the house, though I am typing this on the laptop downstairs.  I shall start catching up with blogs in the next few days, now I am going for a walk outside in the wonderful sunshine we are enjoying here.  

Kitchen dramas

 We have had some dramatic changes in the kitchen in the last couple of weeks.  While I was cooking dinner nearly a fortnight ago, I left the kitchen briefly, then heard a small explosion and tinkle of glass as I came back into the kitchen.  The ceramic cooktop had exploded into a million pieces, just like the old windscreens used to.  That caused quite a stir, I can tell you.  Fortunately I was only using one hotplate and had finished cooking anyway - and no pieces of glass went into it either!  Bill took about an hour and a half after dinner to clean up the mess and remove the 20 year old cooktop.  Of course the next day we had to go shopping for one which would fit in  the hole.

This is what we were able to buy, and I think they walked it up from Brisbane, it took so long to arrive - of course nothing was available for immediate collection in Mackay.  However, by Thursday night this was installed - very flash with no knobs, just pressure points (sorry, Bill says they are capacitance points) at the front.  All very easy to clean.

Of course I had to try it out thoroughly with some grapefruit I had been given - I had thought I would need to resort to the microwave, but the results are below.

 There was a deal of excitement from next door last Thursday as well - they are installing a swimming pool and it was dropped into the hole very late in the afternoon - with rain threatening all the time!  We had a grandstand view from the upstairs deck of our house.  There is almost no garden area left next door now, and they have installed a 6 foot timber fence as our boundary fence.  We are not entirely happy with that, will see what happens with drainage in the next downpour!

We have had several more days of miserable rain, but today was beautiful after a pea soup fog to start the day.  Just great for washing the dog and all his bedding, as well as his precious rabbit.  I am almost organised for my sojurn in hospital.  I don't have to be there till 11am on Tuesday for surgery at 1.30pm that afternoon.  Then home again on Saturday morning, all being well, which I am sure it will be.

I am hoping if you double click on these photos they will all enlarge, they always used to, but blogger is doing such strange things lately I am not sure any more.

My(?) new toy

 My wonderful husband has bought a new laptop - the biggest one I have ever seen!  It will replace his very old one, but he has set up wireless connections to the downstairs part of our house so I can use it after my knee replacement.  I am hoping it will stay down there except when he needs to take it away with him for work!  The countdown is well and truly on now - only 16 days to go!
The other photos were taken at the Palm Fete held today - in a slightly different location, run by the Farleigh School P & C, rather than the useless organisers we have had for the last 5 years.  Everything was going extremely well, lots of visitors, and lots of interest, then down came the rain! A fierce squall came across the grounds mid morning, but fortunately most of the visitors had been there since 8 am and had done their shopping.

 Maya's critters are always fascinating for the children!

 Stalls I could see from our position

My walking stick made a handy prop to keep the roof up and stop drips!  We were lucky that we were under cover, lots of the stalls had no gazebos so I am not sure what they did.  By mid afternoon the sun was shining again and the wind had dropped back to a light breeze!

Manic May

 I took this photo last Saturday during a planting bee at the botanic Gardens - it is a silver bean or Sophora tomontosa tree, an Australian native used for medicinal purposes by the aborigines.  I don't do the planting, I take the smoko, much to everyone's delight!  Click to enlarge the photo and you will see the beans better.

 This shaded path winds through the nearby area.

 I titled this post Manic May as that is what our visitor Services Officer Maya calls it - there are extra activities every weekend during the month, and as well as that she has an exhibition in the gallery at the Gardens!  This sculpture, which is about a metre and a half long, is part of it.  The exhibition is all about seeds, and this is representing a dehiscent pod - one which scatters seeds in an explosive fashion.  I read that, I did not know the name before!  Maya wove it  from palm inflorescances, coconut leaves and a cane.  She ended up sitting in a small wading pool in her togs as she couldn't keep everything wet enough otherwise - that is dedication I think.

 Another of the Fibre Fever ladies has had a birthday and this is the card I sent.

I have had some fun with attachments which I made several years ago.  The top three magnets have decorations from my melting pot, stamped, then extra paint and embossing powder added.  The bottom ones are all from a hot glue gun squigled onto freezer paper, then painted with acrylic paint, and embossing powder added later.  I must do some more as they make very useful attachments to have on hand.
 Only 20 days to go now, I am really counting - and trying to get everything done beforehand as I don't really know for how long I will be incapacitated.  I am assuming only a couple of weeks, but who knows.

More photos next week probably.  There is a Palm Fete this weekend, usually a very large event, I have to be there by 7am to help set up - there are usually dozens of customers there by 8am - or earlier - the official opening time.  A different group is running the fete this year so it will be interesting to see how well run the day is.  The previous organisers were pretty hopeless so this should be better - we hope!