Brisbane Dec 10-Jan11

I made a water feature for our garden, this is one of the 3 large pots containing water loving plants.









Like a lot of people this lizard had to move to higher ground during the January floods.







The art work along the river is called 'Man and water' I wonder if it should have been renamed ' Man walking on water"












With much of the city out of action it was an excuse to do my New York jigsaw. Never buy a jigsaw with a plain blue sky, it took so much time trying to fit in the pieces,






I helped with the cleanup from the flood, spending two weeks washing off handtools that had been under flood water. That increased my knowledge, I now know the correct names for tools when I go to Bunnings. Not that I could go to Bunnings, they had been under water at the two shops closest to us, but the Company I had helped had a gigantic sale and I scored some bargains for Dave to put to good use around the house.

Brisbane to Suva and Home - Nov/Dec 2010

I was only home a few days and packed my bags again to head to Suva, Chris was coming to Canberra to work and I helped mind the grandkids, a tough job in Fiji. The last part of the road from Nadi to Suva is lined with wild orchids, wish I could take some back to Australia and I can with a photo, lucky Chris has some growing in her garden here and they deck the house. so no need to worry about getting them through customs.













The sunsets are pretty spectacular from the Holiday Inn in Suva and the sunrises from the house in Suva encourage me to wake up early, not that I need to worry about missing the sunrise Oskar is an early riser and he wakes me most mornings before the sun is up.

















Pacific Harbour and the Pearl resort is about an hours drive from Suva and drivers need to watch out for the radar, especially on Sunday when people tend to disregard the 60kph signs through the villages. Its a great way to spend a Sunday, a swim, a good meal, a massage in a bure with the sounds of waves lapping on the sand a few feet away, and also a TV is you feel you need to know what is going on in the world. Oskar even tries a meditation pose.












I love the warning sign at Pearl, the Fijians say the coconut has eyes and won't land on people, but I hadn't heard that saying when one dropped from the tree and knocked the water bottle out of my backpack. I realised it hadn't meant to hurt me, but it was a bit too close for comfort.






After a month of mostly wet days in Suva we returned to Brisbane ready for Christmas. What better way to be a tourist in your own town than to vist 'Modern Art in the 21st Century at GOMA. I didn't have to go to the Middle East to see this building. It was fantastic.

More Travelling New South Wales

After leaving Canberra I drove to Goulburn and took the back road heading for Lithgow, the road was good and I came upon the sign for the Wombeyean Caves, it was somewhere I had always wanted see so with no definite arrival times, I turned off the road and went kms++ along a gravel road to the caves. I could do a self directed walk and the people knew I was the only one in the cave, so off I went, it was great, not the most spectacular cave but worth the visit, until my camera battery went flat. I had to buy a postcard to make sure I had some memento of the cave. Luckily I could recharge my battery while I had a cup of tea and a bag of potato chips, a yucky sombination but when you are miles from anywhere and need a battery recharge there is not much choice.








Further along the road I had to go through some floodwater, but it wss only shallow and a truck had gone through first. Then I made the main road and travelled further on my way, who needs a map when they have a Tom Tom. I spotted a sign that said 'Cappertree Canyon' and a dirt track leading up a hill to the viewing site. Its supposed to be largest in the world, and with all the trees that is difficult to assess, but it was amazing. Look for it if you are travelling Lithgow way.










It was getting late and I wanted to make Rylstone before dark, it was also Melbourne Cup day, I did make Rylstone with time to visit the cemetery to see some Cooper relative graves, but it was too late for me to find what I was really looking for, and the only hotel had been having Melbourne Cup parties and didn't seem to be a place I wanted to stay that night, so I headed off to Mudgee and finally found a motel room and an Indian cafe a short walk away. The meal was good and I had a great sleep to be ready for the road. Everything was so green as I travelled along and there was water flowing across all the watercourse dips. I had meant to visit a friend in Gunnedah and had forgotten her phone details, The man at the motel looked up a number for me but when I got to Gunnedah and tried to phone it went to message bank. Its about 60 years since I was last in Gunnedah but will have to go back to see my friend. Lucky I went to the tourist information as I wanted to go to Sawn Rocks and thought they were near Bingarra, but no, they were closer to Narrabri, so I did a detour and was pleased I did as they were amazing and an easy walk from the road.





I continued on to Inverell with a stop at the Myall Creek aboriginal massacre memorial site. I wished I had time to see the whole walk but it was getting late and when I'm by myself I don't like to wander too far off the beaten track especially if there is no phone coverage. Stopped at a good motel in Inverell, had a nice Thai meal and enjoyed the sunset as I walked back to the motel. I left the next morning after a breakfast of fruit toast and coffee. Last time I was there I had ordered two slices of toast, but it was too much, so this time I knew I only needed one slice.
I drove to Tenterfield, went down the mountain road to Casino and on to Kyogle. I had lunch at Jennifer's Cafe and visited Daleys fruit nursery to get a load of fruit trees to plant in our garden at Moorooka. It was looking like a bad storm and coming over the Lion's road it poured down, lucky the road is now all sealed, but it was full of potholes and Running Creek as the photo shows was really running fast. Its good that they have put in new bridges on the Queensland side or I wouldn't have made it back to Brisbane that night.
Hardly had time to settle down before my next adventure

Travelling New South Wales Oct-Nov 2010

The itchy feet started and I had a good excuse to go traveling. It was 50 years since I had finished my training at Prince Henry in Sydney.
I took a slow trip down the coast, stopping at Macksville my old home town for a night. A motel in the centre of town has replaced some neighbours houses, I walked around the block and enjoyed the view of the river, next morning I went to have breakfast at Short Order cafe and read the paper, if you're traveling through, they do serve a good coffee. I also visited an Italian lady, 40+ years I had delivered her live baby boy after 9 miscarriages and we share a special bond, Her husband died earlier this year and she is all alone.

I had a sudden flash as I was driving near Taree, I had walked out of Short Order and forgotten to pay. Perhaps I had had a psychic message when they realised I had walked out. When I arrived in Gosford my next stop, I phoned them and said I would send the money, they appreciated my call. I always stay in Gosford for a few days, its my place of birth, and I decided to do some exploring and did a drive from the Entrance North to Norah Head, I may have been there when I was very young, but its not a memory so I really enjoyed my walk around the lighthouse and beach. The rocks there are all small pebbles in solid stone.













Then I drove on to Sydney, lucky I have a cousin there and can always stay. It was my 50 year of finishing my nursing training, I had tried to get the others from my group to come, one lives in Gunnedah, I had only recently found her on the internet but she can't travel now, one of our group had died about 4 years ago and the other two who live in Sydney, had other reasons not to come. Fortunately I've always been friendly with the group above and one of them lives at Tamborine, so we had met up several times over the years when we have had small reunions at the Casino in Brisbane.











After the reunion I took a walk around Little Bay and the Golf Course on the headland, the Golf Course area was always off limits to Nurses, but this time I decided to check out the rocks and was pleased I did, The beach at Little Bay is much cleaner and there are now steps down to the beach. On my way back from my walk I found a very small sea urchin shell to add to my shell collection












On the Sunday I went to the State Library for a while and caught up with some of the graduates for a lunch in the city, then I was off exploring Campbelltown where some of my mothers early relatives had left their mark. My family history line dates back to the first fleet from my paternal grandmother and I have three convicts who arrived on the 'Asia' in 1820, William Bursill, Joseph Preston and John Ferguson. Over the years I have researched all these families and can still find some surprises.














I was unsure where to stay next, I was heading to Rylstone, but a phone call to Chris who was in Canberra working for a few days, caused a quick detour to Canberra to see her, We had a magic Italian meal and next morning I was off again, On the way into Canberra I had noticed water in Lake George but I was too late to stop for a photo so on the way out I stopped. Its years since there was water in Lake George, and its probably much more with all the rain they have had since. I'll need to go again to check it out.