28th Nov 2011

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28^th Nov 2011

Last week we saw a flurry of activity with the new house as you can see from the photo. I neglected to mention previously that when I was looking over the approved and stamped plans we had picked up from the certifiers office, I discovered the wrong set of plans had been submitted for approval by the structural engineer (and theoretically checked by the architect). By this stage the builder had been onsite and carried out some preliminary work as mentioned previously and to cut a long story short the builder wasn’t prepared to continue until he had a correct set of plans and specifications to build to, which is fair enough. Needless to say we had a few cranky emails flying about the place. So to see the sub-contractors onsite last Tuesday was great and at least indicated the issue had been sorted, over the next few days they constructed a concrete sleeper retaining wall which will have a fence on top once completed. I presume the idea is to then fill out to the retaining wall so the whole area is flat. Although they are not onsite today they are aiming to get the slab down before Xmas (they keep telling me this).

My latest oil painting

While we were in McLarenvale SA we checked out a few wineries. During one brief sampling session that latest several hours we got talking art with the very congenial lady who was acting as host, she suggested checking out this old heritage listed winery situated a short distance away on  the same property. While poking around taking photos we had the added pleasure of meeting the vineyard owner who turned out to be an artist also. This painting was based on one of the photos, the old tractor visible in the gloom of the old building and a hint of other things, the subject appealed to me so much I just had to paint it.   

21 st Nov 2011

Flinders Range SA 

This is my latest oil on canvas. I started this when we were down in South Australia and decide it was time to finish a few. this scene is based on a photo I took at Arkaroola in NE Flinders Range. The trees are magnificent down there.

We are running out of room so this one will be up for sale.

19th Nov 2011

At long last a start

At least we won't get flooded

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17th Nov 2011

17^th Nov 2011

Well I said it was up to the builder now and I can’t complain. It was late yesterday (Wednesday) that I delivered the building permit approval to the builder and he was onsite today. By mid afternoon Casey and one of his supervisors plus a subbie with a tracked Bobcat levelled the piles of fill they had previously stockpiled onsite and shot their levels in preparation for foundation excavation. Not a bad response

17th Nov 2011

At long last the building permit has been issued, I picked it up as soon as they rang and delivered a copy to the builder, didn't wait for the post. It's up to the builder now, if he can get the slab down before the  rains start it will be great as the rain will aid the curing of the concrete.

16th Nov 2011

As you can see I have made some changes to the Blog appearance. Note the request message in the Title bar, I have suggested using anonymous as a profile for sending comments but if you have a Google account you can use that in preference as there are less actions required, you can also establish a Google account very simply and easily, it is quite handy at times and FREE. 

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Nigel

Building application still has not been approved, however I think the building certifier has finally run out of things to ask for (one at a time) and surely to goodness it cannot be much longer.

A little excitement during last week, Urban Utilities (Brisbane City Council) arrived onsite to make the new sewer connection. Three trucks, five men, a bobcat, a mini excavator and a truck delivery of some parts while they were doing the job. The job itself didn’t take that long but with all the lead up discussions and wandering around it ended up a long-winded process, thank goodness we weren’t paying by the hour. Even so I believe a private contractor would have been a fraction of the cost and at least it is a start in the right direction.

We have had several weeks of fine weather that is starting to warm up considerably, fortunately we get a lovely bay breeze where we are so it is quite pleasant.

Finally getting the time to re-hash and finish some oil paintings I started while we were down in South Australia last year, I’m reasonably pleased with how they have turned out, they are mainly scenes with large trees. When we were down south I was really taken by the magnificent trees you get in SA, particularly in the Flinders Ranges, grand stately old things that must have been around for hundreds of years.

3 Urban Utility workers hard at it!

As you can see I have made some changes to the Blog appearance. Note the request message in the Title bar, I have suggested using anonymous as a profile for sending comments but if you have a Google account you can use that in preference as there are less actions required, you can also establish a Google account very simply and easily, it is quite handy at times and FREE.

In the menu bar to the right hand side you will see a place to "Join this site", click on that and you have several site options to sign into or in smaller print in Blue it gives you the opportunity to sign up to one of those sites - Join the party it's very easy.


Nigel

1st November 2011

1^st Nov 2011

Any winners in the Melbourne Cup? I picked two horses that didn’t exactly disgrace themselves but weren’t in the money. The French connection certainly performed well when you consider the jockey had never been to Flemington before and only walked the track the day before. Even though he had ridden the horse before I still think it was a great effort.

Still no action with the house, the on-going saga with Brisbane City Council and Building Certifier is quite disheartening it would appear as if each time the structural design engineer responds to one of their requests they must sit and think what else they can ask and check on and then make another request for information one item at a time instead of compiling a list of requirements so it can be dealt with in one hit, it just goes on forever and we thought it was all through a week or so ago.

Halloween was celebrated in a big way in Manly Village last Saturday. There were activities going on all day, some roads were closed from 9.00am until 9.00pm, a lot of big showground rides were set up on the Esplanade road, there were food vendors set up everywhere, market and craft stalls, live bands, a well supported Halloween street parade and a good fireworks display later that night. The place was packed and I imagine the organisers who had obviously gone to a hell of a lot of effort would have been delighted with the turn out and public support. Lisa, Nancy and I walked along from home for and hour or two, watched the parade, had the obligatory Gelato double scoop and strolled back in time to watch Doc Martin. (good dry Pommie humour).

For those gardeners out there, we have been collecting self-sown wild tomatoes out of the garden. We have an area that obviously was a garden probably in the last century by the look of it, but is now where we throw all of the grass clippings and shrub trimmings and is a tangle of weeds and wild vines etc. Several weeks ago a self sown tomato plant sprung up, or should I say spread it self like a creeping vine amongst the weeds and organic rubbish and started producing small bright red tomatoes just a bit bigger than the little cherry tomatoes you buy for salads. These tomatoes are so sweet and juicy, eating them like cherries they are absolutely flavour bombs; we have been collecting ice-cream bucket loads daily for weeks. So the moral is if you want to grow tomatoes grow your vine weeds first and sow the tomatoes in amongst them. There was not one bug in any of them and we haven’t seen any evidence of birds getting at them. Even Nancy got excited and picked some.

All for now

Mean looking critter 

Monochrome portrait in watercolour using basically only three tones.