A visit to the beach

We live in a coastal city, but I very rarely visit the actual beaches, so today I took a drive to Illawong Beach, which is mostly known as Far Beach because the tide goes out so far.

 This photo is quite deceptive, I have zoomed in so you can see the coal terminal in the distance - it is actually about 20 km across the sea - you get some idea of the distance from the photos below.  The coal terminal is very large and has another terminal owned by a different company immediately on the other side of it.

The two islands in the distance are appropriately named Round top and Flat Top!  There used to be a lighthouse on Flat Top and up until 1940 all shipping coming to Mackay anchored off this island,  Lighters carried cargo and passengers from there to a jetty in Mackay.  There was great rejoicing when the man made harbour was finally opened.

I love these beautiful old paper bark (Melaleuca) trees on the foreshore at Far Beach.  When our children were small, there used to be a playground amongst them and we had many happy hours there.  The playground has been moved to the other side of the road now.

Today was a perfect winter day and there were dozens of people walking their dogs in the late afternoon.
the photos should all enlarge if you double click on them

Birthday party and some garden snaps

I have had a wonderful morning today - there was a birthday party for ten year olds organised as part of the celebrations for our Botanic Gardens.  Thirty children registered and they had a fantastic time.  I was supervising a treasure hunt in the shade garden where the kids had to look for all sorts of interesting plants and butterflies etc.  Other activities included planting a seed in a pot (to take home later) and then decorating the pot, fence painting, negotiating a maze, and various outdoor games.  The very last activity was to decorate cup cakes with icing and a variety of bits and pieces - then eat the results!!  There were some sticky messes to clean up later, but what fun.  I am glad there were no more than thirty, that was enough chaos.

We were so lucky with the weather - Miserable misty rain set in about 5 minutes after the cakes were distributed!  The kids were so creative with their decorating too.

 This lovely Costa Potierae is flowering in the Shade Garden, a closeup below

 I have a Sasanqua camellia in my garden which has been there for about forty years and I keep threatening to dig it up and remove it.  Then I get a few lovely blooms like this and it is spared for another year.

 My tree begonias are giving a bit of bright colour and the Whitfieldia below is wonderful for providing flowers for the house.

Watering and taking a few photos is as much gardening which will be done by me till sometime in August.  I can't risk getting any cuts or scratches at this stage, no broken skin is allowed in surgery.

A workshop and a question

No photos today.  I have spent most of the day at a workshop learning bookbinding techniques, and now I feel quite exhausted.  We had a lot of fun, but the room was remarkably quiet a lot of the time, even though there were 14 people working away - we were all concentrating hard!  We made a sample book using Japanese stab stitch, another concertina book (can't remember what the stitching technique was called) and then made (?) a book using Coptic stitch.  We were using a very heavily waxed thread and I got into all sorts of trouble with tangles in it - I have almost but not quite finished the book, but at least I know what I am supposed to be doing and I will unpick and finish it properly over the next few days so I can understand what I am supposed to do.  I am not sure if I will ever use that technique anyway, the other two look more like me I suspect.

Our email address has changed and I have been trying to find out how to alter this on my registration with blogger - and getting more and more frustrated.  I think I have finally changed my email address for notifications, but perhaps one of my readers knows something more than I do and can help me out.

We had a couple of miserable days during this week which produced some welcome rain, but now we have glorious sunshine and pleasant days - just the right weather for gardening and I am not game to get out there for anything more than watering.  I managed to get three large skin tears early this week, which my doctor says should be completely healed before the end of June.  I hope so as there will be no knee surgery if I have even a small cut - hence the reason I need to be so careful in the garden.  The branches of shrubs seem to leap out at me as I get older and my skin gets thinner.  At least with the cooler weather the weeds are not growing quite so fast.  Hopefully I will have some photos to show soon.

A book launch

Last Friday was the tenth anniversary of the day our Botanic Gardens was officially opened.  There was  a celebration which included the official launch of a wonderful children's book - The Bungy Jumping Caterpillar. 

 Three of our very talented Friends wrote, illustrated and produced this book, a story featuring four plants which grow in the Botanic Gardens and which are considered to be 'threatened species' in the wild.

 Do click on all these images to see them enlarged.  Kate has done a lovely job with the illustrations, a combination of photoshopped photographs and paintings. 

 There is an exhibition in the gallery with photos of the caterpillars and the Zodiak day flying moth, which triggered this project.  There are three Omphalia trees growing beside the carpark, which the caterpillars denude of foliage on a regular basis.  The gardeners and Maya, one of the authors of the book, wage a permanent battle.  They want to spray to kill the caterpillars, and she want them left for her educational talks with visiting school children!!  Mostly Maya wins.

 Maya wove the giant leaf, school children coloured the caterpillars with water soluble pencils.

 Carolyn, another of the authors, made this gorgeous caterpillar for the exhibition.

Maya reading the story to the children on Friday night, and you can see the adult audience reflected in the glass!
There was a really good crowd there to celebrate and reminisce on how far the Gardens have come in ten years - now we have to work on the next ten years!

I have more immediate things to concentrate on however - I have finally got a date for my second knee replacement - 4 July.  It seems so very close and I need to do so many things here before I fly off to Buderim.  My surgeon has moved down there, and as my sister lives in Buderim, I have decided to go there rather than try someone else.  I just hope I recover as quickly as I did the last time, but I imagine I shall be away from home for nearly a month, leaving Bill to fend for himself for most of that time....now I just have to fill the freezer!

A lovely card and a day out

I admired a card which Suz had made and here it is - she gave it to me!

 It is so pretty and I will keep it for something special.

 Today I spent most of the day with the botanic Gardens Friends setting up and manning a stall at the annual Farleigh School Palm Fete.  The day was perfect - cool morning, clear skies and a light breeze.  The school does a fantastic job - there are only 31 students there now, but the committee organizes this huge event, which has over 100 stalls, mostly selling all kinds of plants, but also some craft stalls as well.  I resisted the temptation to buy more bromeliads to bring home to my garden - now I am a bit sorry!

Our stall, as well as having lots of books and pamphlets with information, was promoting this exciting children's book which will be launched next Friday.  Three of the Gardens friends have written and illustrated it, showcasing three endangered trees which are growing in the Gardens.  I will show you more photos after next Friday night, but we are all very excited.

Apart from this, I have done very little of interest - just boring paperwork for the office - oh, a bit of gardening on the side when the weather has been too nice to stay indoors.

Down Memory Lane

It is 50 years since Bill graduated as a chemical engineer and we have just come back from a wonderful reunion in Brisbane.  About 80 engineers from all the different schools of engineering plus a lot of wives attended - starting with a tour of the engineering labs at University of Queensland for the men and a look at an art exhibition for the women.  I hadn't been back to visit the University since 1960 and it has grown so huge, I couldn't remember what was there back then.

 This is the front of the lovely sandstone building, which now has been extended to a massive circle

 I love these gargoyles which have been carved by a lady who was at primary school with Bill.  I think there are about 200 of them around the uni now.

 Still taking a trip down memory lane, we visited the City Hall which has recently reopened after being closed for two years for restoration and renovation.  As part of the renovation The Shingle Inn was installed and opened.  This was an iconic cafe in another part of the CBD which had been closed sometime in the seventies as the site had been sold for redevelopment.  The owners had the whole interior removed piece by piece and they have now recreated it inside City Hall.

 The waitresses are even wearing similar uniforms to the ones they wore soon after the second world war ended - but they don't have a notebook and pencil for orders any more, it is all done on an electronic pad with a pointer!

 Our favourite order was always waffles and icecream and butterscotch sauce so of course Bill and I tried them out again - different shaped waffle, but the taste was just as good.

 This is a photo of the concert hall which obviously can be used for lots of other functions as well.  When I was at College we used to go to symphony concerts there

but this light was definitely not there then.  I can't decide whether it is okay or garish - changing coloured lights seem to be all the rage these days.  I assume it would be just the ordinary colour during a concert.

 This is the best photo I could get of the outside of City Hall, there was a very ugly tent city in the square outside for some sort of an art exhibition.  Once upon a time ( when we were still students) this was a landmark which could be seen from all over the CBD.

 This beautiful methodist church was another landmark.  I often attended services there as a child when we visited family in Brisbane as my aunts were very loyal parishioners - I had never been in a church with an upstairs balcony before and I used to love it!  We children were always sent up there, I think to Sunday School, but that part failed to make any lasting impact - I have no idea of what we did.

 Walking back to where we were staying we went through the beautiful Brisbane Arcade, still with reasonably exclusive shops, but not as fashionable as it was in the thirties, forties and fifties.  I hope it is never demolished as the architecture is lovely.

 We stayed in the very tall tower you can see at the back of these buildings, but only on the 7th floor!  We had a very comfortable serviced apartment only 5 minutes walk from the dinner venue - that made us happy.

 Here is the outside of the old Customs House, which the university has bought and uses for functions.

 Very swish meal and lots of very happy people made for a night to remember.

And I couldn't resist a last photo of one of the desserts - a scrumptious almond tart and vanilla baked custard - lovely, but I couldn't finish, too many good things all day!

Now I need to do some watering.

What a day

Our Gardens Friends had a planting bee last Saturday which was fantastically successful - after having been postponed twice because of wet weather!  Our aim was to plant 1,000 lomandra plants during the morning in a new area of the Gardens - all done and more by smoko time.
The photos have loaded in the wrong order - too hard to change!

 In the middle of the morning, the birds arrived!

 A mixture of magpie geese and whistling ducks as well as other types of ducks

The team hard at the planting

This pair of black swans led the flotilla.
The weather was perfect and it was a joy to be out in the open air.