My weekend away

It is not often we get a chance to duck away from our very busy lives to spend some much needed time with dear friends, those whom I see way to infrequently and hold a very special place in my heart.

A few of us flew to the big smoke for a friends 35th+5th birthday party.

What a treat to be able to be there to celebrate her big occasion, of course it was just heaps of fun and again got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in years.

 My travel buddy and the birthday girl,

My first roommate from school, all those years ago, she is still a great girl with her very busy boys.
I miss her heaps.

And another good friend from primary school and Uni days, who put me up for the night, what a privilege to spend some time with her and her husband before their baby arrives.

Another special friend also came to visit me, it is always great to see her.

I don't feel old and nor am I, but I just feel so lucky to have such great bunch of friends, we can always pick up where we left off like time has not passed us by.

Apart from some nasty blisters acquired while trying to look business like for meetings. I opted for flats for the rest of the trip, a much more appropriate attire for shopping however not for running late for a plane that we absolutely couldn't miss. You could hear the pair of us clapping our sandal flats through the airport running to gate 48....

My boys, all of them were sooo very pleased to see me. They had a great time with Dad but you can tell they really liked having me home.

A fun filled 5 days...a week ago!

Sometimes the busy-ness of our lives borders on the ridiculous, but with itinerary in hand we were in pursuit of the finish line for school with distractions like:

Friday - Inter-school Swimming Carnival

Under 9s Cricket

ABBA Christmas party on behalf of ICPA

Saturday - Under 11s Cricket

Under 9s Christmas breakup

10 year old's birthday party....phew!
and birthday cake lovingly prepared by Auntie Pip..thanks!

Sunday - 10 year olds actual birthday

Parents 40th Wedding Anniversary

Another mighty feast by Pip...fabulous!

All the grandkids....gosh it is hard getting them to be still so I told them to be silly!

Clearly the girls are way more sensible....my kind of chicks! Mumma (great grandma in this case) looks unphased...

Monday - travel to Emerald for our schools' Interhouse Swimming Carnival

Followed by end of year presentations,

And yet another birthday cake generously prepared by my dearest friend, thanks J!

Home Tuesday to fires in the army country, whilst contained, they were still filling the sky with a brown haze....we could do with a drop of rain but gosh we slept well!

I actually can't believe we pulled it all off.

Tis time to relax for the holidays!

In the Christmas Spirit....

Traditions die hard around here at times, like putting the tree up on the 1st, pfft only if you are home I assume.

The boys set to decorate while I attended to all of those jobs that I pretend don't exist during the week....just what you want to be doing on a Sunday.

Looking like he is working on a car here....no just the Christmas tree.

Adorning the tree with a couple of home made decorations 

My new pin board for cards, made from an old frame, sprayed with white and covered with left over fabric,

And my most favourite, a panel of fabric kindly quilted and decorated by a very clever lady I know.

And our attempt at a star, BHG paper from a few seasons ago put to good use.

Gravel, grass and the precious ponies!

We delivered Dad out to his next DRY weather job, carting gravel for gateways.

I got a look at the breeders too, this is a fresh paddock, still going strong although dependent on weather we may shift these to another paddock. Our green date is the 15th of December, i.e. we expect to have received at least 2 inches by that date.  If it doesn't we will move them into our best paddocks and when it rains get them back into their own paddock. Not an easy job to shift a lot of breeders and calves but their welfare is extremely important.

After we delivered Dad we came across the horses.

This is Grace and her new foal to One Moore Playboy.

Note: in the background Honda and Fantasy (half sisters and in their 30s) are now retired. They didn't come up for a pat, they may have thought we had alterior motives.

Meet Grace's foal from last year, also to One Moore Playboy, she is beautiful and has a kind eye. She won't be broken in until next year.

This is Fantasy's last foal, Butter, she has a tonne of personality and was broken in last year. 

She has a kind eye and husband will do a bit with her next year. Rohan has gotten so keen on his horses. He had a small buster a few weeks ago which makes the heart flutter, so we are on the hunt for a decent horse for him....not an easy thing to find.

Thank you Cattle Kids & Chaos.....

It looks good,

Even better,

Mouth watering delicious

Generosity of people in the bush.

Camping for the non campers

Last week Rohan had a school camp for 4 days. He and I stayed in town to do Under 11s cricket while,

Drewe and husband headed off to the Christmas Break up for Pony Club. Drewe has been riding a couple of old mares but their days of travelling to Pony Club are over, when you are a horse and over the age of 30 you really have earned the right to stay in the green paddock at home. Finishing the day with a swim at the local pool cooled the kids and the adults down.

What I learnt about camping...

1. Look at the rain forecast

2. Find the instructions to erect the tent before attempting

3. Don't listen to you husband when he says it won't rain

4. and therefore put the fly over the top

5. before you have a few drinks

6. and camp in the damn shed with everyone else instead!

Of Pandanus and Pelicans

With a few wet years to account for now we can see the benefits to the flora and fauna.

We have been on bushwalks of late and discovered small plants of the Pandanus Tree littered through the creek beds (native to our area). I love the Pandanus Tree it has such a prehistoric look and you can see the fine thorns on each branch of the young plant, I assume this ensures it survival to adulthood.

 At the end of the creek we came across these beauties,

there is quite a population, and clearly difficult to photograph but they are majestic!

(Whenever I see them I think of the "Nigel" the pelican in the movie "Finding Nemo" voiced by Geoffrey Rush...
wise and funny!!)

Garden Watering System Project complete

I have finally installed the last irrigation system in the gardens.  The skies have not yet been kind to us so I soldiered on to complete the dripper system which is now installed in all of my gardens.

The idea of course is to give plants a good deep watering once a week rather than sprinkle on top and lose half of it to evaporation. Obviously I couldn't finish the mulch until the dripper system was installed....all in good time remember.

This weekend I decided if it didn't rain I would finish the darn job.

It all seems to be working well.

We have had a casualty though. The archway has rusted out in 3 places and unable to be saved. The monotonous winds we have been having finally sealed its fate. I have saved the climbing Iceberg Roses, perhaps I will suggest a timber arbour for this spot.....

 This garden bears the brunt of the winds and I managed to lose a lot of plants.

Some decisions to be made on what to plant, any suggestions?