Going bush for a day ...

At this time of the year, when the days get just a tad cooler,

my thoughts often tend towards Australia.

One of the reasons is the warmer weather

and the other is because half my siblings,

along with their kids and grandkids live in Queensland.

Last time we visited was back in September,

just because we could, for a few weeks.

We visited with both my sisters, who are in north Qld,

as well as the nieces and nephews of course

and another couple of Kiwis we knew before they moved

to Aussie (a lifetime ago).

One of our nieces and her husband invited us to

spend a day at their 'block',

so we duly got in a car early one morning

 with her mother, middle sis,
and drove for a hundred kilometres

 or so down the road a bit.
We arrived in time for morning tea.

Niece and her husband and family had left much

earlier than us, 6am I think, and had set up camp.

Below are some photo's taken on the day, at the block,

7 1/2 acres in all, and it's amenities!!

There were also goats, cows, fruit trees and sugar cane.

And a pond for swimming.

The bunkhouse and alfresco dining room

Goat shed in the background.

The welcoming 'longdrop'.

Outdoor ablutions,

I had a wonderful bath under the stars that night

 before travelling back to civilisation again.

Kitchen amenities, with some of our lunch cooking.

Fish caught on the block, oysters bought on the way in.

Home grown salad greens to go with it.

What more could you ask for? Delicious!

Some of the 'muddies' (crabs) caught during the afternoon, for tea.

The blokes are very much into the hunter gatherer thing

and my GKB thoroughly ejoyed a great afternoon out with them.

The dogs having an afternoon nap on their 'bed'.

 Raised to keep them off the ground because of

creeping/slithering critters and to keep them cool.

Me, with my GKB, holding Blossom, a week old kid.

I was allowed to name her :D)

A couple of the young blokes getting the fire going after tea.

We had a lovely day out and were invited to stay the night

 but elected to travel back.

I'm a bit of a soft city slicker and enjoy

 my home comforts I'm afraid.

Well I hope you enjoyed our day out,

this is just a few pictures to give you a little bit 

 of an idea of what we did one day in Aussie.

There is so much more to tell, but maybe another day.

letting off some steam

Sorry folks, I just have to let off a little steam!

I sat down to write something quite different but

that will keep till later.

Last night I was working (I work in a rest home)

and went to answer one of our residents call bell.

She was in quite a frantic state, had just answered her phone

and couldn't make head or tail of what was going on.

I could hear someone talking to her in a really persistent manner,

in a foreign accent and alarm bells started ringing.

It was one of those ratbag computer hackers trying to

get her to turn on her computer.

Being 99 and in a rest home and not owning a computer

she couldn't work out what was going on and getting in a real tizz.

I'm afraid I saw red and took the phone and let rip.

I sent him packing with a flea in his ear!

(And I didn't swear).

Now the poor old soul is scared to answer her phone in the evening.

These people have got no idea of the damage they do,

not just to peoples computers or finances but emotionally

  - I guess they don't care either, unfortunately.

On a happier note, in February I planted a couple of

sunflower seeds,

far too late for them to do anything major,

I really thought it might already be too cool for them to

germinate but was hopeful.

Well they did germinate and they grew and reached toward the sun. Then we had a week or so of cold weather.

I thought that was the end of them, but no.

Autumn turned out to be beautiful and warm.

The sunflowers grew and grew,

one outdoing the efforts of the other.

The photo above is the one which opened and bloomed,

and even though we have now had a dusting

of snow on the hills it is still standing tall.

Its mate is about 8 inches shorter and the day before the snow it was just starting to open - I haven't been down the yard to have a look at it since, but I must soon.

They haven't reached their full height, but just to have made it to the height they are has really amazed me.

Isn't life grand on the whole.

fishing on the Taieri

Today has been a beautiful autumn day. The temperatures are still reasonably up there, afternoons where you can still get around in a tee shirt as long as you stay in the sun.

A couple of days ago, on a day very similar to this one, my GKB went fishing on the Taieri river and brought home some lovely fresh fish for tea.

While he was filleting it he had a rather frantic Claude helping

(or trying to help). Finally it was all done and Claude had his  reward. And so did we.

       Fresh fish fillets with lettuce salad and boiled potatoes
                                      and peas for tea.
                            (Just fish for Claude, of course).

In the meantime youngest daughter called in and said that on her way home she was calling into the supermarket to buy fish for tea.

So soft Dad decided he had better go out fishing again and get some fish for both the daughters and their families.

Not that he needs an excuse!

So after work today he packed his rod and gear into the boot of the car and away he went for the afternoon.

He put his line in and settled back to make a coffee and enjoy the day. But oh dear, where was the coffee? He had his thermos, hot water, cup, milk, sugar but the coffee 

was still on the bench at home!

So he took some photo's instead while he waited for the  fish to bite. He spotted a swan flying just feet above the water but he couldn't get his camera out in time so missed getting a photo.

 What a pity. Black swans breed down that way and are on the river and the nearby lake.

What a great place to spend a sunny afternoon. I might take a book and go with him next time.

Oh, and yes he did catch fish for the daughters - that's a photo of some of them at the top of the page.

Have a great week everyone.