Tuesday 18 March 2014

Mardi-gras, Outram style

Last Friday I went with my GKB to the mardi-gras.
No, not the big one held each year in New Orleans.
This was just the name given by a local school
 to its annual fundraiser. We'd never been before so
 were looking forward to it.


It was a beautiful warm and sunny evening 
and hundreds of people turned out to enjoy it.
We weren't sure whether there was to be a parade or not, 
we never saw one, but there were lots of little fairies  
and pirates wandering around along with other storybook characters. Mostly the junior school littlies.


There was a fairy grotto and a pirate booth, horse rides for the kids and lots of stalls with very cheap 'stuff' to tempt 
the rest of us to part with our money. We succumbed.
Lots of food stalls with prices ranging from $2-00 to $8-00 depending on what you wanted to eat. 
We bought a nice tea for both of us along with a hot coffee 
and sat and listened to a jazz trio (what else at mardi-gras?)
while we ate it, one of four or five bands playing 
during the course of the evening.


Of course with it being a (nearly) country school there were all sorts of farm animals there...including this wee lass. 


Or perhaps I should say, this big girl. I think her name was Bess.
As you can see she had a pretty full udder and the farmer was letting people have a go at milking her. She was so patient.
Most of us didn't have a clue as to what we were doing.
I say we, because I had a try.
 I thought why not, here's your chance to do something you've always wondered about. 


So this is a picture of me, trying to milk a cow. It's not as easy as you might think and I probably managed to squirt about 1/2 teaspoon into the jug. As I said she was so patient, with kids of all ages and sizes having a go. Every now and then the farmer milked her properly, just to relieve her I imagine.
He made it look so easy!

Next year we will probably go back, 
it was a very pleasant way to fill in a warm autumn evening.

Well that's it for another few days.
Stay well till next time.
Diana



Sunday 16 March 2014

A wish for St Patrick's Day


Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers-
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!
  

Monday 3 March 2014

A busy day or two


Just a bit of a catch up today.
Last week was fairly busy and
 I seem to have lost my oomph.

On Tuesday I had lunch with my little mother
and then took her and a friend to do their shopping.

On Wednesday young Danny was 
taking part in the junior school triathlon.

lining up for the cycle leg

We went along to watch.
A beautiful day, very hot and sunny.

Danny was doing the cycling leg.
Twice around the playing fields and his leg was done.


That's him nearest the camera,
 heading for the final uphill stretch.
His team came in about 7th
 but he wasn't really worried about the placing.

Thursday we did a spur of the moment 
round trip to the caravan,
 about 7 hours in all, counting coffee breaks.
Another really nice day, just right for travelling,
 not too hot or too cold.



We went up to make sure we had battened
 down all the hatches, which we hadn't. 
We were fortunate we went up when we did as 
the following day the weather packed up
 and there was snow, rain and hail.

I did some shopping at the sales 
while we were up there 
and scored a very nice cardigan for just $10.
Very nice, you can't growl at that.



The rest of the week was just normal day to day stuff, 
but I have to tell you that Autumn has definitely arrived. 
Dead on time.
On March 1st it roared in and has been roaring ever since. 





I hope you're all having a good week,
and you haven't lost your oomph!
Diana