Christmas Post

20th December 2012

Christmas is almost upon us and it’s almost a month since my last entry.

We are having a family Xmas lunch at our house this year with 22 people so far, I say “so far”, because it could be 20 or 26, it is just as likely to change on the day. Seating is a little problem for us, Lisa ordered an eight piece dining setting recently and it has to come from Melbourne. It was guaranteed to be delivered by Xmas but they are cutting it fine as it hasn’t appeared yet, I’m sure we will manage.

We have our caravan back from the factory and back at the storage centre, hopefully no more leaks. The builder said he couldn’t find anything that would cause the re-appearance of water damage and thought they may have replaced damaged panelling last time before the dampness had been properly dried out. I guess now every time we have any significant rain paranoia will set in. Unfortunately it doesn’t look as if we will get the chance to empty our garage back into the van until the New Year so it will have to stay looking like a junk yard until then.

It looks like I have had some success with stopping the aircon leak in the Toyota. I pulled as much gear as I could off the area below the glove box until I could get at the back of the aircon unit. When I removed the back plate off this section I could see it had an obvious seal arrangement that was wet indicating it wasn’t sealing. So keeping my fingers crossed I was doing the right thing, I dried it, applied a sealant that won’t be too hard to remove and put everything back together. So far the newspaper I have put on the floor to show if any condensation drips down has remained completely dry, however I haven’t done a substantial trip of late, but it‘s looking promising.

The last few weeks have been quite busy; Nancy and I have been doing a bit of pre-Xmas prep, making goodies including pavlova, Scottish short bread, fancy chocolate meringues, rum balls, (potent ones) and mini Christmas cakes with liqueur and dipped in chocolate. Half way through one session I almost blacked out and ended up in the Redland Bay hospital emergency ward being monitored for 24 hours. After every known test to man and very little sleep they still didn’t have a conclusive diagnosis and decided it may have been a reaction to medication. Since then my GP has basically said bullshit all the symptoms you were de-hydrated, anyway alls well that ends well and I am scheduled to go back early in the New Year for some follow up tests, so at least I will know I’m in good shape when we travel.

In between Lisa’s work and studies, we have been landscaping front and back gardens and kidding that hasn’t been a marathon effort. The front garden was full of rock rubble and clay so it needed a lot of work and preparation prior to planting. Lisa with her usual enthusiasm was getting up at 0400 and collecting washed up sea grass from the foreshore, then spreading it out for drying and later washing it to remove any salt, she read somewhere that it is good mulch as it breaks down well and in our case we covered it all with Tea tree mulch which also helps keep the white ants at bay apparently.  

The centrepiece for the front garden is a large Pandanus tree (Breadfruit), to depict our coastal location, surrounded by two types of Jasmine one of which is the variegated strain, Cycads are featured in each corner and stepping stones to the letter box are bordered with dwarf Mondo grass. Outside the front wall between entry and driveway gates, we have planted Mock-Orange (Murraya paniculata), to be eventually trained into a tidy hedge. On the opposite side of the driveway to the main garden Lisa has planted Agapanthus that she purchased online from Sydney.

Establishing the Pandanus was a feat on its own. Lisa had contacted a nursery up north that grew them and wanted $1000 for an advanced plant. So Lisa used the internet and found an advanced plant on the Gold Coast for sale privately for $350. By using Facebook she organised a couple of volunteers from her sailing fraternity, booked a double horse float online and put a carton of rum and coke in the fridge. When we picked up the horse float my tow ball was much higher than the receiving part on the float so we hooked it on and towed it down the Gold Coast and return on the back two wheels with the front wheels off the ground. It must have looked quite odd but it towed like a dream. Arriving at the Gold Coast we discovered the Pandanus Lisa had booked was far too big for us to handle, we would have needed a crane to shift it so we settled for something that three men and Lisa could just skull drag and gradually manoeuvred this into the float, all of us bleeding like stuck pigs, I never realised how spikey these things are.  Off loading in Brisbane was a similar exercise and eventually we had it laying on its side overhanging the monstrous hole Lisa had dug the night before and as it turned out because we had purchased a smaller plant (thank God) the hole had to be backfilled quite a bit. Getting the depth right was critical we only had one shot at how it was to sit as we were never going to be able to move it once it was in the hole. We gingerly cut the huge bag away from the root ball and with us all pulling on rope or pushing it slipped into its final resting place absolutely spot on. Reduced price for smaller plant $250 + horse float $90 + carton of Bundy and coke $65 – Bargain, and the ice-cold rum and coke was like nectar.

Since then we have purchased Lilly-Pilly shrubs for the side boundary (back garden) and Tiger Grass for across the back. Tiger Grass is like a bamboo but not so invasive, fast growing and easier to maintain. The idea is to train it like a hedgerow so it breaks the starkness of the colourbond fence. Over the past week once the sun has dropped I have progressively dug fifteen holes to accommodate all of these shrubs which Lisa and I will plant over the next couple of evenings. Keep in mind all of the plants we have purchased to-date are advanced plants and need substantial holes to be dug for example the Lilly-Pilly is over a metre high and the Tiger Grass 1.5 metres tall, trouble is the ground is so dry and hard with the lack of rain since we have moved in it has to be dug using a pick axe. A big problem for us is what to do with the surplus material that comes from digging the holes.

We also planted three Frangipanis in the back area one pink, one white and the other red.

Our electric front gate is now working as it is meant to after the limit switch was finally changed and the out of line post in our side fence has finally been rectified although I wasn’t impressed with the mess they made and left.

We are certainly appreciating where we live during the humid weather being experienced lately, it is not often there isn’t a good breeze blowing across the bay and by opening up the front of the house we can enjoy refreshing air without air-conditioning.

Lisa has just submitted a big paper for her Phd, I watched her working late and early for the last few weeks and weekends averaging 4-5hrs sleep a night, I had the task of proof reading it and that took long enough. I hope it goes well for her she has worked hard and had to read something like 50 books for reference purposes.

Back to Xmas our menu will consist of oysters, prawns and salmon, baked ham, roast pork cooked in the Weber and a turkey roll which Nancy does with Mango conserve and Macadamia nuts, its delicious.

There will be potato bake and various salads and of course a variety of deserts.

I don’t think anyone will go hungry.

At this stage Nancy and I are still aiming to get away on our trip at the end of January providing everything is in place with the trust we are setting up for David.

For those of you that may read this pre-Christmas we hope you have a most enjoyable festive season without any drama. If you are travelling have a safe journey. Try not to over indulge (I know I will)

If it is post-Christmas I trust you had an enjoyable period with friends or family or both and that you were sensible with your intake of both food and alcohol.  

All the best

Nigel

Our temporary herb garden

Add caption

Lilly Pilly

Tiger grass across the back

Happy looking Frangipani now it's in the ground

28th Nov 2012

I've been practicing my watercolours lately, still struggle with it and not really happy with results but I'll keep practicing.

Getting pretty warm in Brisbane now still haven't had much in the way of rain, couple of storms a week or two ago, no doubt we will get our share shortly.

Took the caravan back to the factory on Monday to address leak problems so our garage is full of gear again it's a pain having to remove everything especially when the van is stored several kilometres from where we live, let's hope we can get it all back in before Xmas. 

Leaks are our focus lately with the caravan, two separate leaks being addressed in the house and now the cars aircon is dripping inside the car, it's never ending
Purchased two new steel rims to suit the caravan, one to replace the wheel I wrecked a few months ago when we lost a wheel on the return trip from Caloundra, the other to be an extra spare for when we travel in remote areas.

Our front electrically operated gate is playing up, every now and then it jams open, I disconnect it and we operate it by hand. The installer spent hours adjusting the tripout switch yesterday and no sooner had gone and it jammed again so they are going to replace it now !!

Pen and wash

At least he's the boss

Monochrome for tonal practice

Pen and wash an Edward Wesson copy

I felt the hull looked a bit blank so added the fishing sign and a name just to break it up a little, I think it worked.

5^th Nov 2012

We’ve just returned from a great week on Fraser Island. For those that don’t know of or where Fraser Island is I will give a brief description. As the crow flies Fraser Island is a couple of hundred kilometres north of Brisbane basically off Hervey Bay, it is 123 kilometres long by 22 kls at its widest point and at 184,000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world. Now heritage listed it is a place of exceptional natural beauty with its long white sandy beaches, fresh water lakes and magnificent forestation. I highly recommend Googling Fraser Island or type in your browser - fraserisland.net for better info and some pics.

We got there by driving north from Brisbane traveling just over two and a half hours to Gympie where we turn off Eastwards to the coast at Rainbow Beach all up about 3.5 hrs, 4hrs if you stop for fuel and coffee en-route. Usually we fill up with fuel at Gympie on the highway, which for some reason or other is cheaper than Brisbane prices and then top right up again at Rainbow Beach to ensure we go onto the island with full tanks. Fuel can be purchased on the island at a couple of places but as would be expected it is pretty exy.

Having left Brisbane at 4:30am to get to Fraser Island on a falling tide we had breakfast at Rainbow Beach and then drove up the peninsula for a few kls to Inskip Point where the barge picks you up from the beach. Ten to fifteen minutes crossing the Wide Bay channel and we are at Hook Point on Fraser then the run  north up 75 mile beach to Indian Head (Headland), at this point the island starts to change to a more north westerly direction. We drive through the sand blow where some novice always seems to be digging themselves out of the soft sand, then on to an area called the Champagne Pools, this is as far as the Back Packers and tourist day trippers are allowed to go. We then head inland through the bush for a few kilometres on a very soft and rough sand bush track until we reach the Waddy Point, Orchid Beach area. Orchid Beach is a freehold settlement one of a few on Fraser and is situated about half a kilometre back from the beach on high dune country. In the last few years quite a few large holiday homes have been constructed all of them with the fisherman in mind and catering for large groups. Like us, families or friends come in groups to share costs and in most cases fishing is the main focus.

It is also home to a few permanent residents and these are usually the houses with a tractor and boat parked on their lot, the tractor being required for beach launching and retrieval. Most of the homes are built on sloping ground and the majority are of the pole house type of construction, in some instances to maximise views but it is also seems to be a practical way of construction on sloping ground. Keep in mind the nearest concrete plant is about 100 kls away at Hervey Bay.  There is no reticulated power on Fraser so the majority of homes are established with large solar systems, automatic generators and gas appliances, all very efficient. Tank water and spears provide soft water at good pressure and there is always plenty of hot water for showers at the end of a hard days fishing. All rental houses have good refrigeration and freezers and in recent years Telstra has established mobile phone coverage at Orchid Beach, also most places have satellite TV so you don’t do it tough. A light aircraft landing strip runs alongside the Trading Post, Orchid Beaches one stop general store, bar and fuel servo. I didn’t hear or see any aircraft movements the week we were up there, but a few years ago a plane flew in every day and when a young boy got killed by a dingo the place was busier than Kingsford Smith Airport.

We only saw a few dingoes on this trip, apparently they can still be a problem even though they have obviously been culled to reduce numbers. I may be wrong but I don’t recall any problems with the dingoes when there were brumbies on the island, but in their wisdom the National Parks people have eliminated them altogether stating they weren’t native to the island and were damaging the environment ???? I guess they know best!!!

On the fishing front, we had a little difficulty getting fresh bait in the first few days, relying on the Eugerie (Pipis) we had the presence of mind to gather on the way up the beach on day one. Eventually we got onto the elusive sand worm and fortunately Merl acquired the knack of getting these tricky customers so between the two of us we got enough for all of us to fish for a couple of days, the next time we went looking for them they were even harder to find. The first days fishing was the most productive but after that it was pretty dismal and on a couple of days we hardly got a bite, don’t know if it was the changing wind direction or full moon that did it but we ended up with three good feeds and the weather was magnificent so we were all very happy.

We still haven’t had any decent rainfall in Brisbane the grass is looking like hay and plants are starting to look very tired. We have an underground rainwater tank but there hasn’t been enough rain to put anything into it since we have been in the house. I guess it will start soon and then we will soon be whinging about the humidity and if it rains for more than a few days we’ll whinge about that too.

7 weeks to Xmas Yikes  !!!

I have spent the last couple of days sorting out our gear so we can start re-packing the caravan in preparation for our long awaited trip. I would like to get away around the end of January after all the holidays are over and a bit of sanity may have crept back into the travelling public again, but who knows a sudden wind change and we may be off sooner.

Surprise surprise, Nancy organised a picnic in the park for today with a few lady volunteers she worked with at Braille House and it’s raining and miserable. Months of dry and beautiful weather and Murphy has stepped in. Mustn’t complain though we badly need it.

Indian Head looking South

Another magic day ahead

An early catch

No fish around so we just relaxed 

Brett's contribution 6 of us had this baked for dinner

A harmless night visitor

My latest oil on refurbished canvas board

24th September 2012

20^th Sept 2012

I started this several days ago and got as far as the date.

Firstly a little explanation regards my writing. I don’t feel my art is good enough to enable me to express how I see things at times and It’s not my nature to verbally describe what I see or feel but when I write sometimes I find myself expressing how I see or feel without really thinking about it, some may think a little over the top at times but it is probably an emotional outlet on my behalf and is particularly how I feel about something I can see, like a stunning sunrise or the antics of Lorikeets or Plovers and yes I waffle on – so be it.

To those it may offend, just ignore it put it down to the ramblings of an old geezer (but far from senile). Does anyone read it anyway?

  

We’ve had some fairly warm weather lately that has allowed us to open up the house and appreciate the lovely breezes it captures. With the big bi-fold doors open upstairs at the front and a window or door open downstairs at the back of the house a fair breeze funnels down through the void over the front entrance and right through the downstairs area. It wasn’t planned that way but we will take it as a bonus and I don’t think we will have a need for too much aircon in summer.

Finally we had a couple of showers last week and even the little that it rained helped freshen things up and gave a nice green tinge to the park across the road and certainly didn’t do our lawn any harm.

Our resident Plover couple in the park produced a brood of chicks four in all but sadly after a few days only one seems to have survived. I don’t know if they died of natural causes or local predators, there are a couple of cats that prowl around here at night. Saturday night Lisa phoned me to say she had just avoided running over a humungous python crossing the road a few houses past our place, on Sunday I couldn’t find the plovers anywhere and figured the python must have got them, once the crowds of picnickers dispersed they appeared out of nowhere, the chick can’t fly so goodness knows where they disappeared to they are obviously smarter than we think.

These very protective birds are fascinating to observe as people come within their self designated no-mans land, of course this zone changes  as the spritely chick scurries around ferreting for food, the nursemaid plover, whether it is the male or female is anyone’s guess, maintains an ever watchful vigil always keeping just a few metres away while the other parent does the security patrol maintaining the ever changing boundary. When a security risk presents itself the patrolling bird takes up a position in that locality and starts its unmistakeable staccato barking sound, in fact when I was kid we used to call them barkers . The intention of this is to make the intruder concentrate on the bird making all the noise and draw danger away from the chick and as mentioned previously this is often accompanied by kamikaze attacks that are great to watch for my warped amusement.

Got some Brownie points in yesterday, Nancy asked me to go for a walk with her, which I did without moaning. Strange that I enjoy bush walking and hiking but detest normal walking for exercise, I would much rather put some effort into bike riding which I did this morning just a moderately paced 14kls to start with and build up over a week or two until I’m back to my old routine.

Lisa has a job interview this afternoon, she is a bit nervous about it all, her current contract finishes in Dec and the uni have changed the rules and aren’t renewing contracts for people without PhD’s, Lisa won’t have completed hers for another two or three years, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for her this is the second interview and she has to front a panel so we can understand the stress level will be up a little, anyway a second interview is promising.

According to a report I heard on ABC radio today water will not be released from Wivenhoe Dam as a flood precaution prior to summer as they are expecting a hot dry summer, water storage in the Brisbane region is currently at 97.8% capacity.

Cheers

Nigel

9th September 2012

9^th Sept 2012

Other than the crowded garage we have found a home for most things although our storerooms are looking quite full. There are still a few issues to address such as window coverings in certain rooms, gardens and a small garden shed to put outside items in. Until we finish tripping around Australia and more about that later, we won’t be going over board with furnishings downstairs or building a workstation in the garage and the BBQ area will make do with our old BBQ’s that have serviced us well for a long time, wonky as they are. In the original design a BBQ was to be built in, but we were un-decided as to what we really wanted and didn’t want to be restricted to a fixture. So we got the builder to run required services to the BBQ area ie water, drainage and power and when we eventually make up our mind we will probably have a small work station with a nice modern portable BBQ alongside. Some of these things have to wait, the purse strings have become frayed and the zip is crusty. (she’s asleep at the moment).

Our side fence eventually got finished, two days work only took three weeks. Front gates are being delayed, owner of the company fabricating them came and apologised for the delay, apparently his welder got bitten by a White Tail spider, he ended up in hospital for a week and nearly lost his thumb unfortunately he is taking a long time to recover, getting a temporary replacement has been a nightmare for the owner and needles to say his business is suffering. Nasty business and not much point us jumping up and down under those circumstances we will just have to be patient.

The man scheduled to seal our external tiles has been in hospital with Asthma and so he also has been phoning in, apologising – what can you say, knowing how ill Nancy was with it recently I would be pretty callous to go off my brain, I guess it will get done one day.

Bathroom extractor fan in Lisa’s bathroom hasn’t worked since we shifted in, the original was replaced by the builder’s electrician, the replacement didn’t work either so it became a warrantee claim. It took three bloody weeks for a service man to finally get here only to inform me the fan is faulty and has to be replaced which will take approximately two weeks, what a lot of crap, what sort of garbage are they making these days this was supposed to be very good quality.

We haven’t had rain since early July (whose complaining) the weather is fabulous, clear skies, high twenties and no humidity, spring is certainly good this year. From my leather recliner I can observe the bird life activity in the gum trees across the road, these gnarled old giants are host to numerous bird varieties. Through my binocs I can closely observe a couple of Rainbow Lorikeets canoodling like lovers on a park bench, a solitary magpie exerting great effort to produce a melodious tune that surely must be his mating song, to no avail, a brace of white cockatoos and the odd crow.

Around three thirty each afternoon the tree comes alive with feeding lorikeets cavorting about with feats of gymnastics acrobatics while seeking nectar from a profusion of gum flowers, and all the time a constant chatter like excited kids in a children’s playground. I guess it won’t be long before we see mated couples of the various birds popping in and out of the many hollow branch stubs we can see throughout the two big trees. Already our resident Plover couple are seeing off those that venture too close to an obvious nesting area, which as usual with these strange birds is completely out in the open. Unsuspecting victims, particularly those with a dog on a leash suddenly enter into convulsive ducking and weaving as a kamikaze attack together with staccato warning screeches, sends them scurrying from the plover’s no go zone. Unfortunately they often attract snotty nosed brats who delight in in throwing sticks at them from a cowardly distance, thank goodness their aim and strength is normally quite wayward, disappointing how oblivious parents are to the potential harm their loved ones are indulging in, harming the plovers that is. Soon however when the chicks are born their will be two plovers attacking from different angles, this evens up the odds a little and last year afforded me endless hours of amusement and saves me bellowing at the little sods so much (I don’t care if I’m a cranky old bastard).  

Looking out my study window there is actually a large grey cumulus cloud forming, this would have to be the first significant cloud I have seen in two months, it’s pushing up from the south/south west and appears to contain moisture, promising rain perhaps? Oh well we’ve got to get it some time I guess.

I’ll keep you posted.

Following is a few photos of the finished house