After the rain...

After all the rain we’ve had last week, we were hoping for a couple of dry(ish) days. Didn’t happen.

Washing took a week to dry resulting in kids dancing in puddles without it. 

The mighty Clarence went up for a day to a minor flood, back to normal the following day. The Orara River behind us went for a moderate flood, cutting off many people for days. School was rather quiet.

Fungi and flowers are popping up everywhere. Tim finds it hard to sleep with the ruckus the frogs are making. And more to come I’d say, just going by the frog eggs, turning the dam into a fluffy merengue...

Laura aka Casper the friendly ghost.

Just like 4 years ago, the prolonged rain gave way to horrendous swarms of biting flies. It drives everyone absolutely bonkers, washing gets hung up inside, collecting eggs becomes and egg run, weeds get out of hand but you just don’t want to be outside. The copious flies and mozzies might be bad, but this is the stuff for horror movies. Especially when you’re a horse... I couldn’t get her rug on fast enough, while both horses are marinated in insect repellant...

Hopefully all those frogs get their act together soon...

All the citrus trees are heavy with flowers. Fascinating how they can have fruit on them while blossoming for the next run.

After a couple of weeks with sick kids, countless trips to school for Sophie and bad nights. Last week I could hardly keep my eyes open. A virus knocked me down too. With grey, drizzly weather, bed was a nice place to be. I’m back on my feet again, too much to do. 

With the exception of granola, cooking and baking has been on low for the last couple of months, too hot, just didn’t feel like it either. Since the weather has started to cool (still 30 degrees today though!) and the nights are getting considerably longer I’m tentatively putting the oven on a bit more often. 

Last weekend that meant cooking with Quinces: a bunch of rock hard, inedible, fuzzy, pear like creatures.

That magically transform into these soft, ruby red, delicious and aromatic beauties wanting to be bottled for the winter months to come. They go well with just a little yoghurt, but also with salads and roasted meat.
5 hours in the oven on 160 degrees, with vanilla sugar, covered with water and aluminium foil to minimise evaporation.

Quilting is also back on the menu. The reason I got into quilting 6 years ago were all the beautiful fabrics with gorgeous colours and patterns. They tempted me enough, for me to want to learn how to sew. I picked this fabric up months ago, the print is as pretty as a painting and I couldn’t resist it. I’m turning it into a table runner for my mum, it suits her so well.
The baby quilt for my niece is ready to post, just waiting for her safe arrival.

A friend’s 40th turned into a 3 day music festival. We had a wonderfull time listening to many different bands and styles, while the kids had a ball with glow sticks. At least they were easy to find!

The veggie garden is loving all this rain, especially since its now combined with sunny, 30 degree days. Many plants and trees are going for an extra flush. More asparagus, I’m not complaining and I’m loving all these fresh herbs! 

The focus stays mostly on permanent plants, with salvias for colour, strawberries, capsicums and chillies while I’m contemplating if I could squeeze more fruit trees in.

Cyclone Debbie is creating havoc in Queensland. She’s a category 4, nearly to be upgraded to a category 5 ,which is as bad as they come.

Thinking of all of our friends and old colleagues that are still in Mackay and Sarina. 

From the years and cyclones we did encounter while living in Sarina, we do know one thing: they grow them tough in Queensland...

Meanwhile friends in NSW are becoming a little worried if Debbie comes down. She would be downgraded to a Tropical Low way before she reaches us, but another 300mm of rain is just not what we need right now! With dams and waterways already at maximum capacity, they’ve started uttering the F-word (Fl**d), and getting their pantries and medicine cabinets stocked.

Sander has been working on a plan for the front deck, when we couldn’t find the (pebblecrete) tiles we had in mind. 

Having made one himself, we now know how much time (months) and money goes into every tile (we would need about 100). It’s now doing a time and cost calculation, while considering a quote to get a concrete truck delivery.

Since Alex has been using the still wet setup as an obstacle course with his bike, twice, (%#$&*@), getting some quotes (and some duck-tape) is becoming a mighty fine idea...

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