Wednesday, February 29, 2012

First Formal Night Dinner

Looking pretty handsome in his suit from Lowes.................

The Rules of.....

I have been a devoted follower of a blog for the last five years. I've read the life story of a girl and I've watched her as she met a boy, drove across the country to be with him, married him and had a baby and then moved back across the country to live in LA. I've followed the gestation and birth of her book.........and yesterday, I bought it. Here, in my hometown in rural Queensland, I walked into our local bookshop and there was the girl's mother, staring at me from the cover of her book. I couldn't believe it! I thought no way would I find it here. I thought I'd have to buy it online. I took a photo of the book on the shelf and I sent it to her and she wrote back which was kind of neat. I start reading tonight.

Melons and Flowers

Here's the watermelon, split in half. It's a bit floury but still sweet.


As a thankyou for having him stay with us this last year or so, Chris bought me a beautiful bunch of lily flowers (and for Gibbo, a bottle of rum but I didn't take a photo of that. It wasn't as pretty as my flowers).





Sunday, February 26, 2012

This Week

We came home from Brisbane on Tuesday night. Work continues to consume me. Chris finished on Friday and we still haven't permanently replaced him. He will be sorely missed. He packed up his car and drove to Brisbane on Friday night; he starts his Master Degree on Monday (Architecture). Meg came home for the weekend and will work in the local office tomorrow. She should find out soon if she has been shortlisted for the Supervisor role that she is currently "acting" in. We've put our two blocks in Howard on the market and have had a nibble. Last night we went to R's birthday celebration and ate home made pizzas cooked in their new pizza oven; they were great. Surprisingly, the seafood one was my favourite.

This morning I spent four hours over at the garden/chooks - rearranging chooks and chickens into more manageable groups, returning mother hens to their home pens, treating for vermin and cleaning out pens. In the garden I pulled the old cherry tomato plants and threw them to the chooks, pulled weeds, picked fruit and veges, spread some of the beautiful worm compost and generally got ready for autumn. I really enjoyed it.






I let these sorghum plants grow in the compost - I'll feed them to the chooks this week.




Old corn plants, curry plant cuttings and some tomato prunings.










Jerusalem artichoke flowers.




These little guys squeeze in and out through the mesh; not for much longer though - they're getting a bit big and it's becoming a bit of a tight squeeze!


I had help - sort of.




Most of this load went into the chook pens.




I think it's ready!


I found these - quite by accident!!

Room Photos

Looks like the doona cover has needed it's first wash!




A New Chapter

Last weekend we took Drew to begin life as a Uni student; he is living on campus at one of the well know male only colleges. We spent the day before packing his gear and we had sushi for tea. Meg and Chris went to Byron Bay for a couple of days to celebrate their fourth anniversary.




We took photos at home.














We had lunch at The Ville, a short street of shops, cafes and restaurants a short walk from College Road. We had coffee with the W's and D's, our regular Nobby's Beach December companions. Jack is in 2nd year, Maggie in 1st. They both stay on campus too.


Then we headed over to Uni to meet and greet and unpack. Drew has a nice room on the ground floor. We went to a short information session then carted all the gear in.


Gibbo was very helpful.





Sibling Love!






















Meg and Chris left to go home; she to Twba, he to Dalby.


We stayed and attended o'clock Mass then dinner. Parents were asked to leave around 7.15 and it was suggested that we didn't linger. It was much easier saying goodbye to Drew this year than it was at the airport in January last year.

We stayed in Brisbane for two days of meetings; I spent the time buying Drew's textbooks and a few odds and ends that he needed and I went back to the Uni to deliver them. He's had a huge week of parties and breakfasts and meeting kids from the other colleges and it's been a blast. He's so happy to be there and he's looking forward to his classes starting - and I'm glad he's there too. He's so much more ready this year than he was 12 months ago.