A bridal shower

We had a bridal shower last weekend, at my eldest daughter's home, but before I share some photos with you

here is a little bit of whimsey :)

Can you see the face?

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Now to the shower.

My granddaughter Monica is going to be wed this weekend and so it was time to celebrate with just the girls. Pink was the colour theme and the instructions we had were that we should wear something pink :) but as you can see some people never got the message, oh well.

We were greeted at the door by the beautiful bride to be in her pink and white outfit. She and I both love pink. Somehow we ended up with nearly all the food being pink or white as well which meant quite a lot of it was very sweet:)

Once everyone had chatted for a while it was time to play silly games and have some fun. There was a mix of people, workmates, friends and family and the games were a great way to break the ice. Daughter in law was in charge.

Daughter with cake on her face after one of the games - don't ask - but it was fun and I think I won a prize in this one - always a bonus.

Time to open the parcels and I'm not sure why the face pulling but maybe she thought a pink teddy bear was a bit strange at a bridal shower :) She did get some lovely gifts though. Anyway, we all had a fun afternoon and as long as Monica enjoyed it that is all that matters in the end.

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Middle sis arrives from Aussie late tonight and another grand daughter flew in yesterday. Monica's big brother is bringing the cake down from Christchurch on Friday, he's made and iced it, so none of us have any idea what it's like - well maybe Monica does :) So we're really looking forward to a wonderful celebration with everyone at the weekend.

I'll see you again once it's all over.

Diana

joining in with Debby over at

Friday foto friends

Beautiful colour

My GKB has been sussing out more features on his camera and below is the beautiful, colourful results of some of his sussing. 

And I had to show you this photo of Mischief (used to be known as Fluffybum as a kitten), our neighbour's cat. He is sitting under a bush at the bottom of our yard. Look at those eyes:)

Joining Debbie and friends for

Friday foto friends

An afternoon at Airlie Beach

At the risk of boring you I'm going to share

a little more about our holiday in Australia.

I left you in our last post at Colour me Crazy,

a colourful little shop in Proserpine.

From there we travelled on to Airlie Beach,

a holiday resort a bit further north.
I have two sisters in Mackay and it was
my middle sister we were travelling with today.
The first thing we did after parking
the car was find a nice café for a bite of lunch.
It was as delicious as it looks :)
Even if it was pudding, yum.

After lunch we went for a stroll through town,

mostly looking for souvenirs to bring home for the family.

Sis found herself a nice little dress for the summer.

And we took a photo with one of the locals

who looked just a little bewildered :)

We wandered along the esplanade and admired the cruise ship which was anchored offshore. Then we headed down to the lagoon, Sis and I had thought we might go for a swim...

 

...but we changed our mind when we saw all the beautiful young people lying around, we didn't want to scare them, that was our excuse anyway :) I had gone out and bought swimming togs especially too, they're still waiting to be christened. Oh dear, vanity, vanity.

We'd been there quite a while and I didn't think my GKB was looking too good. He was dehydrated and so we found a spot in the shade and sat and drank lots of water, then thought we should get him home where he could go and lie down. He said he thought the damage had been done in the car on the way up, he was sitting on the sunny side of the car with his window up!

And this is one from a mob of emu's we saw on the way home.
They were scavenging on the edge of a cane field where
the cane had already been cut.

We went out to a sugar cane factory another day

but I'll save that for later sometime.

Diana

Colour Me Crazy

I promised you a look inside Colour Me Crazy.

Well here it is :)

Once upon a time it was a house but now

all the rooms have been converted into

showrooms for all manner of goods.

In fact it was so bright and vibrant

that when I first walked in I was quite

overwhelmed. Sensory overload for my

poor, tired brain :) I immediately turned right

into a side room which was filled with plants

and stayed in there a couple of minutes

and eased myself into the experience.

Beautiful, vibrant colours everywhere, even the toilet!

Gorgeous stuff, clothing, jewellery, home goods,

cushions, throws, wall hangings.

You name it, they had it. I enjoyed it

but wouldn't want to do the dusting or the stocktake :)

No, we didn't buy anything but in hindsight

I wish I had. I think at the time I was just too

 tired to shop. We only stayed a short while

as we were heading for Airlie beach and still

 had a short drive ahead.

I hope you enjoyed the visit to this colourful little shop.

Diana

Joining Debbie for

Friday foto friends

An ordinary week

Although the temps are still pretty cold at times it has warmed up enough for the bumble bee queens to be out looking for warm dry places to make their nests. After having had half a dozen or so exploring our lounge over the past few days we decided it was time to put up the screen curtain. The bees are quite clever though and have been known to come in low and crawl under the screen and then go exploring :) Last year we had a nest under the house for the summer. If it happens again we may have to have them removed, unfortunately.

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Even though the weather has warmed up enough for the bumble bees to be out and about exploring there are still days when it is cold, wet and with a hint of snow in the air. That is when I get the crock pot out and make up a big pot of soup. Guess what we're having for tea tonight? I think we'll have hot buns with it :)

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We went for a wander up the street one day this week, well we went for lunch originally and then took a leisurely stroll afterwards. It was one of the nice sunny days we are starting to get now. I like to poke around the bargain racks when I come across them and so while my GKB looked through a couple of second hand shops that's what I did. I was very pleased with a couple of tee shirts I got for around the house over the summer. Just $6.00 for the two of them. A real bargain :)

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I've also just spent a morning blanching and freezing broccoli to use next week when I am on duty for the Friday Light outreach meal. I don't cook a meat dish any more but when we are given free veges I think it is shame not to use them. May make a cheese sauce to pour over it, hmm.

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looking in from the doorway of Colour me Crazy

While we were in Aussie we took a short trip to Airlie beach and had a couple of stops on the way. There was a shop everyone said I had to go into in Proserpine. Colour me Crazy was just that ,very colourful and very crazy. Even my GKB was fascinated. I'll take you inside next time I see you.

Diana

Bob's birds

It's such a miserable night we decided to get

fish n chips for tea. It doesn't look a lot

but there was enough for two of us and some left over.

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More from our holiday in Aussie.

Once we arrived in Mackay we were able to relax and recoup. I spent most of the first week sleeping, I didn't realize I was so tired until I got out of bed at my sister's home and could hardly drag myself around so after breakfast it was back to bed for me and I stayed there until well into the afternoon. I took the next few days off and slept and didn't do much else, each day I managed to stay up a bit longer. What was my poor old GKB doing while I slept? He was photographing the local birdlife and rather than show you pictures of me sleeping I thought I'd put up some of his birds :)

 Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

White or umbrella cockatoo

Crow

 Ibis...

...feeding

Masked lapwing or masked plover

Green faced honey eater

Magpie lark aka Peewee

not sure what this is but not a house sparrow

Brown thrasher

another Thrasher 

He took all these photos from the comfort of the covered area outside Sis's living area, where we sat to relax of a day.

I hope I haven't bored you by putting up too many pics. And my knowledge of Australian birds is limited so feel free to correct me if I've named them wrongly :)

Diana

A week in Brisbane

Spring has arrived in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

And with it of course the blustery weather, warmer days, rain,

snow and gales...but also a promise of warmer settled days.

Snowdrops on a fenceline after a rainy day.

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My GKB and I had had a holiday in Australia booked for several months before Mum passed away and so a month after her death we winged our way across the Tasman. It was a wonderfully relaxing time. We spent our first week in Brisbane, we had an apartment about 15 minutes walk from the CBD. All downhill.

Coming home we would get a cab.

This was the evening view from our balcony.

Across the road and to the right was a lovely garden and although we had stayed here before with the kids, strolling around gardens is not something they really want to do - they tend to like something a little more exciting, like theme parks :) We hadn't intended to spend time there this morning either, were just taking a shortcut but it was so tranquil and relaxing we spent most of the morning there.

We came across this little train while we were there and decided to go for a ride. A gold coin donation for the garden tour, about a twenty minutes ride. Fun. When it stopped we were just a hundred metres from a lovely tearooms/coffee shop and it was lunch time. A nice way to spend the morning.

Below, a garden view.

One day we went to Southbank, across the river from the CBD, and met up with our niece, Amanda. We also met her two wee daughters for the first time. Last time we saw Amanda she was only about their age, her parents had moved to Aussie and she had just started school. Southbank is a lovely place for a day out, food outlets, river rides, ferris wheel and a children's playground. Another relaxing day out and so good to see the littlies enjoying themselves. Below is a little portion of Southbank.

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We also decided to go to Australia Zoo, founded by Steve Irwin.

We enjoyed our day here as well and of course we went to watch the crocodile show which we thoroughly enjoyed. There was a performance with native birds as well, trained to fly from certain places and put on a bit of a show and I have to admit I actually enjoyed the birds more than the crocodiles, but don't tell anyone.

Of course being a zoo there were heaps of animals, kangaroos, koalas, dingos for example but I was disappointed that the camels were gone, still have never seen one. I loved the rhino family lined up snoozing in the sun though :) Don't they look great? Daddy, mummy and baby bear, oops I mean rhino.

It was a long day though and I have to admit that we were pleased to see the bus arrive to take us all back to Brisbane. We'd been on the go for ten hours by the time we got back to the apartment.

And here we are, finally on our flight north to Mackay where we caught up with sisters, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. Oh and a contingent of Kiwis all escaping the cold southern winter :)

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My thoughts and prayers are with the folk in the Carolina's and other states that may be affected by hurricane Florence. Also with you in the Philipines and China. Such heartbreaking devastation is being endured by so many. Kia kaha - stand strong.

Diana