Catching up

Well it has been a while between posts, I must get back into the habit of posting every few days. The good news is I kept taking photos with the blog in mind, the bad news is the battery is now flat and I can't find the charger. I will send out a search party today and hopefully it will turn up.
It has been a rather hectic month round here, for us anyway. We seem to have developed a social life since we moved here, and our location, just off the highway about halfway between Mackay and Townsville has seen many people popping in, some staying the night as well. It has been great, but it makes for a busy life around here!
On the long weekend mid June, we went for a quick weekend in Brisbane. (forgot the camera, sorry) We went to the camping a carravanning show in Brisbane and caught up with the boys. We met Son 19's new lady love, who seems to be a lovely girl and they seem to fit well. They will come visit next week so looking forward to that. Son 19 has an interview with Sydney Uni on Thursday coming for a place in medicine, so fingers crossed please!
We still have our beautiful young backpacker Anna and last Thursday we got another one Adam, for a spell. They are both lovely young people, and KISA and I lenjoy having them. We rather miss our own home grown young people, and they help fill the gap.
Anna has been working locally as the most overqualified dishie in Australia, and Adam is looking to do similar. They both would prefer the more tedious farm work, as Anna would like to qualify for a second year working holiday visa, and I think Adam just likes being active and outdoors, as he doesn't want to stay that long. It is hard dirty work though and I don't envy them. I think it is mean of our government making them do this stuff to qualify when they have the skills and education to contribute in more meaningful ways. But I guess they need someone to pick the crops and not many Australians are offering.
So in photos a quick summary of what we have been up to.
KISA and I cleaned out the garage. That felt good. We have only been in the house for 3 months and it is amazing how quickly it got messy. Must try harder. This is the tidy shot by the way. Didn't take the before one! We missed a family wedding in the UK. The first one KISA has missed. It made him sad. They sent us bonbonnerie and buttonholes to wear on the day. Congratulations, Chris and Sam.

My KMart breadmaker sucks, so I have been practising doing it by hand. My grandmother on my mum's side taught me how when I was in high school. It takes a while to get back the "feel" but I have nearly cracked it. Was happy with this loaf, I have had a few duds.

Recently we had a full lunar eclipse, and we got up at 5am to watch. It was freezing and cloudy and we thought we had got out of our warm beds for nothing, but it cleared just in time. So here are the shots in case you missed it. Aren't you glad there are geeky people in the world who want to get up on a 5 degree morning at 5am to photograph this for you??

This loaf tasted pretty good too. Not much bread goes stale around here at the moment with young people in the house. It can even stay out of the freezer now!

Morning sunrise through the window, while waiting for the kettle to boil.

Was good enough to open the front door and take a photo so there were no screen marks in the photo!

We have had quite a few visitors lately. Most have been people, but there was this guy. Anna and I were sitting on the verandah enjoying an afternoon cup of tea (and cake..shh don't tell my dietician) when we spotted him. A young chap.

Her certainly wasn't shy either, in fact very curious. While we sat not 3 feet away, he wandered over the edge of the patio and wound himself into the desert rose right in front of our table.

Is that cake? Where's mine? I'll pass on the tea if you don't mind, so hard to pick up the cup with no arms. Or pinkies.

Then he joined us at the table. We decamped at that point till we were certain he was a green tree snake, but for an english rose, Anna was very brave! Neither of us would have been so brave if he had been a little bigger, I suspect!

Our next visitors, of the two legged variety were Jdubya and son. It was a bit of a boys' weekend, with a few beers and some squash and spas. There were also coffees and food and planned golf. But the weather and a local comp put paid to that activity.

Marc decided that it might be some jolly fun to play this drinking game, whereby you drink 50 ml (a shot glass) of beer a minute for 50 minutes. Sounds easy enough right? Just a big sip right? One a minute? A minute lasts ages! Easy! Do the maths.

Boys are so competitive.

Minutes get shorter so quickly, but there was the kitchen timer that doesn't lie!

With only a minute between shots, there was no time to visit the loo. Apparently this dance helps.

Jdubya and Marc made it, KISA manfully bowed out at 40 and kept time instead. All this in the hour before tea. And of course they made interesting conversation for the rest of the night!!

The last night, after a gruelling weekend, great to see you guys!

Anna and I say our farewells.

We have had a couple of weeks of very bad weather, cold and very windy with rain. During one such weekend, last weekend, we had my cousin Al and her husband Bill visit on their way up the coast. It was a shame, that the weather was so bad as I prefer to show off our town in the sunshine. But we managed to have a BBQ and lunch out and a short walk between showers. It was great to see them and I hope they enjoy their trip further north. At least the weather improved for them a couple of days after they left. Again, slack blogger that I am, I forgot to take photos. Must. Try. Harder.

On thursday evening Adam arrived, (Photo coming, once battery charger is located) and he seems to like Bowen so far. The weather has been sunny though it is still windy. He is off job hunting today.

Last night we had our first decent sunset for weeks. We have had a huge weekend, that social life again, we went to Mackay for a Friday night function to mark KISA's project at Dally Bay coming to completion. He played an integral part and though he no longer works there we were invited. We stayed in town at the hotel and headed back next morning. Saturday was a late one too, sharing in a birthday celebration of a friend here. So Sunday was kind of muted.. And while we were sat out enjoying a quiet glass of wine last night, another visitor.

A big male grey. He watched us for ages, then went behind our neighbours house onto the vacant block next door. Adam got a few shots of him, I will see today if I can down load a couple. He got quite close to him, and it made his day I think.

We get a few wallabies and roos around here. This was the closest encounter we have had.