AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   GET ME OUT OF HERE

A non paying passenger. Luckily Ron was also on board and saved the day by removing the freeloader to the nearby bush. You can see by the pic that he was large, very large. 

Below is  something you don't want to see when you live in the bush. A fire.

Luckily it was a "controlled burn off" and we all have heard the stories of those things going very very wrong. These pics were taken from my bedroom and I spent all last night fire spotting as it kept burning and spotting all night.

What's green and hiding ..................

I guess when you are a wee bit small it comes in very handy to disappear into the local foliage.  When I was out in the garden yesterday I found this little fellow on a Banksia leaf and wondered why prop there ? it seemed a precarious place to nap, but little did I know what was on the prowl.

Godzilla

was out and hungry, so I guess it makes perfect sense to blend in.

It's a family Garden

The last 24 hours has been rain and more and more rain and it is coming in "dump" mode LOL. This morning at breakfast the rain eased off and 3 pretty faced wallabies came into the garden for their breakfast. They stuck around for most of the morning and then another dump occurred and they took off for dryer places.

Just before lunch we were out in the garden and the resident roos dropped in for their lunch nibble and we got our first sight of a new member. We had suspected that the little family group was expanding and today we got the proof. As you can see it was two for lunch.

but eventually the temptation two explore the surrounds won out and out popped joey.

But like any self respecting joey the adventure of romping through wet grass didn't appeal and back into the pouch it went.

There here!!!!!!!

Walking along the beach yesterday and we found these tracks in the sand !!!!!! someone driving a tractor out of the surf? an invasion by the Indonesians ? Boat people ? Lost Kiwi's ? all wrong.

The Turtles are here.

The season has started and so far at least 5 turtles have made it up on China beach to lay their eggs. Apparently it is very early for them and is usually a sign that the wet is going to be long and wild LOL. Gary (neighbour) has suggested that we get involved in the process of keeping track of them and we probably will do it. It means an eco course at Rocky for 5 days and lots of walking along the beach at night but it sounds like a great thing to help out with.

At last it's raining,

After weeks of threats about the weather last night the rain arrived and a welcome sight it was. We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks with visitors dropping in helping us to explore the surrounds and encouraging us to drink too much.

As well as the in-house visitors we have also had the locals at Sunrise over for drinks and meals and of course there was the Melbourne Cup luncheon. The locals are starting to get a bit suspicious because Ron has now won the betting on the Grand Final and the sweep for the Melbourne Cup. I think they are beginning to wonder about the organisation of these events LOL.

Only a couple of weeks before we head off to Melbourne to finally organise the transport of the rest of our gear from Melbourne. We should have everything up here early new year and then will finally feel totally at home.

We're back (from outer space)

Jonathon (Mac) is back and working beautifully so we are finally back in touch with the world. We headed off to Brisbane last Saturday for Denise's 50th party which was at the Plough Inn on the Southbank. Neither of us had been to Brisbane for 35 years so it was quite a different town that we drove into. Freeway madness, lots of skyscrapers but it still has a big country town attitude LOL.

Sunday was a wee bit slow as the heads were not great, so off to the Valentino dress exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. As you probably guessed there were lots of women and very very very few blokes, but that didn't stop us wandering around ooooh and aaaarrring with the best of them LOL.

Really the exhibition is amazing and if you ever get the chance to see these fab clothes do it. From there we headed over to the rivercat and spent the next two hours wandering along the Brisbane River.

Along the way we came across some bowling friends so dropped in for a chat (Pic) always time for a billy tea with friends LOL.

The trip along the river was quite an eye opener. We had no idea that there was so much development along the river. Thousands of apartments, one on top of the other. The Jacs were in full bloom which made the river banks very colourful and hid some of the concrete LOL.

After the cruise we ended up at Kingsleys restaurant at the Riverside and what a great find that was. Overall a pleasant trip to the city. From there it was off to the Brass coast for a night to catch up with Di and the local gossip. Yesterday (Tuesday) was spent on the road as the trip home was 7 hours. Waiting for us as we drove in was another orchid out in flower. AAAAAHHHHHH it's sooooo good to be home.

Sorry Mac is in hospital, hopefully back this weekend will update the blog then -da

Good morning from the not so sunny central coast. I suppose by now most of you know that south east Qld has been getting hammered by rain and severe storms which have caused flooding and landslides around the sunshine coast. Well the good news is we have missed most of it and only in the last 24 hours have we had any rain and then not much, but the winds !!!!!!!!!!! they get your attention.

On the critter front things keep getting more and more interesting. Last night was our first green frog (very cute), several lace monitors and Ron saw his first giant frill neck lizard. I also staggered onto the world's biggest spider as I was crossing from one house to the other the other night. He would have been about 10 - 12 inches across and I am not sure who got the biggest fright LOL. If you know how I get on with spiders you will surprised that I am still alive LOL.

Almost all of the little annoying things have now been fixed, we have a washing machine with an on/off button that works, a dish washer that has an on switch, solar panels that are finally pumping back into the grid, flood lights on the pool deck and the decks have all been oiled. Ron and I have also stained the outside furniture and it all looks great.

The garden is coming along heaps and bounds. So far 24 grevillea (yellow, pink and red), several banksia, ferns, local grasses, a couple of tiny Blackboys and now some orchids have all been planted. The herb garden on the other hand has been decimated by the local bush turkeys, bloody things.

Our resident kookaburras are expecting and are very happy to let the world know at 4.30am each day how the long awaited hatching is going LOL.

It's very sad...........

Almost reminds you of a teenagers bedroom, doesn't it LOL, but someone is still celebrating.

For the first time in 3 weeks we have the house back to ourselves, it has been great having all the visitors but now we can get those annoying bits fixed. We are making headway with things like the washing machine, dish washer, gas certificate (so we can get some more gas, sort of important) decks are being oiled as I type so we are almost finished.

Plotting and planning the new painting and I promise it will be a much happier subject than the last one. I have entered "Out in 2010" in a competition at the Bendigo Art Gallery so it will be interesting if I make it to the final cut.

For those of you that are interested, it's the Laird's 30th birthday this month and Southern Star (newspaper) have done a big story on it - of course Saunders gets lots of credit LOL LOL LOL LOL and of course we get a passing mention LOL LOL LOL. You can see it online.

Yes I am scared ----less with spiders and the one the size of a dinner plate that greeted me on the landing last night certainly got my attention, but this little fella is fab. I think I might adopt him/her as my new pet.

Guess who's looking at you.......

Just couldn't get past those great eyes, LOL. Well Bailey and Julie have returned down south and the trip home was interrupted with the explosives truck rolling over on the highway and catching fire.  The highway was closed all afternoon and then only one lane all the next day.

But while I was stranded in Rocky I found a fantastic display case at Harvey Normans, marked down from $1600 to $600 because it was ex floor stock, so now the Clarice has somewhere to live when it arrives in Dec.

Dirk and Denise and the local neighbours will be joining us for the Grand Final round 2 so we have been busy getting more sausage rolls and party pies ready. Balloons and streamers all over the place and not a piece of "red" anywhere LOL.

I'm sure there are pixies at the bottom of our garden because the rain stopped and the sun came out and there wonderful highrise homes burst out of the ground.

The planting continues with this hibiscus that has very large white and red flowers. Bailey decided that Ron needed some assistance with the site selection and planting.

Wallen goes "Black and White" for grand final day. Denise and Dirk and some of there friends joined us for the great day. Sausage rolls and party pies were the cuisine of choice and lots of beverage was consumed. By now you probably know that the game was a draw so we do it all again next week. Hope the balloons last LOL.

We have them tooooooooooooooooo

Our local orchids are throwing spikes madly and today started to open up. We have a fallen log in the front yard which has 3 orchids growing in it.

Julie and Bailey arrived Tuesday and it hasn't stopped raining since !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the forecast for the next week is "RAIN", "Showers" and more "Rain".  At least we are not in the caravan park.

OUT

This will offend some people but this depicts what is happening around the world to gay people by states controlled by religions.

People are shot

Imprisoned

Stoned to death

Hung

All because of the way they love.

More new neighbours

We decided that the weather was so good that a BBQ down at the pool with Caroline and Mark was the order of the day. So we positioned ourselves in one of the treetop huts and look who came to put on a show. First came this couple, a mother and calf and then about half an hour later another pod of 3 or 4 adults appeared swimming from the south and then they did a massive U turn in front of us and headed back south. Great day

I don't think this pic needs any comment other than "We did buy this place because it had a great bush garden" LOL LOL LOL

New neighbours at Sunrise

First off you go see Lord of the Rings and do a tour of a Hobbit house, then you get yourself a very very big truck and put your version of a hobbit house on it.

 Ooops dam, there is this thing called a gate...............

Oh well, let's just have a look at how big that gate really is ......................................

hmmmmmmmmmmm  I don't think this is going to fit, but never fear Supertruck is here.................................

Why don't we just jack up the front and bring it over the gate ..................

Well that's the front in now for the back, up we go ..............

See it's easy, ooops who put that blasted tree in the center of the road !!!!!!!! So a roll to the left

Then a roll to the right...

and we are on our way to...

a home among the gum trees


This was the third piece of the new house that had to be lifted over the gates. This section is the kitchen and lounge area. There was some very anxious moments for the owners, architects and removelists but everything is now on the block waiting to be put back together. Our new neighbours should be at home in about a month.

Our backyard

You never know who is coming to visit. We were sitting on the deck and all of a sudden there was a thud thud thud and these two dropped in to say hello.

This morning when I was crossing to the kitchen I heard some splashing coming from the pool. On closer inspection I found this fabulous kingfisher having a wash and splash around. Ron says he has seen him before so I figure this is more his place than ours LOL. One of the problems with having so much glass is that the birds don't see it. There is the sound of something hitting the windows several times a day.

It's raining on our backyard

Good morning from a wet and soggy Agnes. Although from what I hear we are getting a much better time than the rest of the east coast. It appears that there are very bad storms happening all over the place.

Ron has a new Chainsaw and you can see in the middle of this pic some of his handy work. I did mention that we bought this place because of the great bush surroundings LOL. Actually he is doing a great tidy up of old trees and things that just don't look right. I am working on a new painting and I will give you a peek but standby for something very different - political and religious, definitely a move away from the usual Whiteman dreaming themes.

Hans I think you will love this one LOL

Good Morning from 1770

Well so far things are going quite well. Apart from the electrical appliances not working (washing machine and dish washer) most things are great. Being an eco development we have pumps from water tanks that cut in and out, so we need to do a little bit of sound proofing as they are located underneath the bedrooms.

We have now been here three days and had two luncheon parties so we haven't had a chance to get our heads around all the bits and pieces apart from the fact that this place is bloody huge and will take us all our time to keep it clean LOL.

This morning we woke to our first shower and it triggered off a whole new set of reactions from the wild life The black cockies circled overhead telling us their displeasure with the rain. The lizards and spiders all got very busy making for high ground and the Kookaburras just sang even louder and longer LOL.

 Poor ol' Miss G is locked up in the compound with the boats and trailers - how unbecoming, but just to get back on the right side of her we are organising new seals around the slide out and a new blind outside to keep the rain and salt off the slide out. She is never far from our minds LOL.

It's done

Our first night was a mixture of sadness of saying goodbye to our life on the road and excitement with what the future will bring. We spent all day ferrying things from Miss G to the house, who would have guessed you could have some much stuff in a van LOL. We finally finished at 6pm and were so tired that we grabbed a cooked chook and cracked a bottle of bubbly (made by one of our neighbours) on the deck.

It is quite surreal being here as it's sooooooo quiet at night. From Rons room you can see the lights on Bloodwood drive disappearing into the distance but from my room it's totally dark. The sky is magnificent with thousands of stars and the slow creaking of the surrounding trees. Ron did comment this morning that he had some visitors during the night, probably the Pygmy possums or their larger relies LOL.

Today was our first real day and we set about cleaning and trying to find everything we  bought in yesterday. The owners of the caravan park came out for lunch bearing house warming bottles LOL. As a result a very lazy and enjoyable day has been had.