Summer Storms

Oh how I LOVE storms!

We have some truly fantastic storms where I live and Tuesday was no exception.

It was at least 34 degrees celcius, possible higher that morning and that means steamy, sticky, tropical weather.

Just after lunch the clouds built up and then the rain came....

...less than 5 minutes after I took the next picture you couldn't see the hills in the background from the rain.

Maleny is up behind those hills and I found out later they had about 50mls (2 inches) in half an hour!

No matter which direction we looked, there were storms.

Lots of thunder and lightning and torrential rain.

It was sooo wonderful!

Slow moments

I have had two sick cherubs home the past few days.

They are both having quite a bit of rest....

...on the mattress and lounge in the living room.

Dry toast and chicken soup has pretty well been the menu for the past few days.

Rest time with the air conditioner on because it's well into the mid 30's celcius which means it's hot and really steamy and sticky.

A midday storm has gone through which is not surprising considering the weather.

There was lots of lightning and thunder booming right over head which was pretty exciting.

Now it looks like Little Miss R will be missing her third day of school.  Master M is fine now and Little Miss R is nearly there but I think one more day should get her back on track.

That means it's another day of toast, soup, movies and I think I'll just have to have some hooky time as I haven't picked up my crochet hook in well over a week now!  Terrible I know.

xx Susan

Aunty Rob's

What a fantastic family weekend we've just had!

On Friday at midday, we picked Little Miss R up from school and started our 3 hour journey to Shane's Aunty Rob's for the weekend.

She lives on about 80 acres of land out at Clifton on the Southern Downs about halfway between Toowoomba and Warwick.

It was the first time we had been there so we followed my father-in-laws VERY BASIC map and actually found the right place (after a couple of phone calls).

I just love rambling old farmhouses that seem to have such character. 

We set the camper trailer up just outside the house yard, had a cup of tea and some scrummy homemade fruit cake, then it was time to explore.

I just love the wide open space feeling on the downs where you can see for miles.  The below photo is what we saw from the side of the camper.

The next photo is looking over the back of the farm to the neighbours house.

Of course you can't have a farm without a shed and this one is filled with hay bales.

They've had so much rain out there that there's plenty of grass growing, it's pretty green too so the stock have plenty of sweet, yummy grass to munch on.

You can't be on a farm without animals either.  Aunty Rob has 3 dogs which were a bit excited to see the kids.  It took awhile for everyone to get used to each other, especially Little Miss R who was TERRIFIED of one of the fast running and jumping dogs.

The kids were in their element though and while hubby and I finished setting up the camper, Aunty Rob took them around to meet and feed the animals. 

Mud, poo and everything else didn't worry them at all.  They had a ball and just loved being there.  In fact they both didn't want to come home and wanted to stay there forever.

There were goats to be fed.

Chickens and ducklings to collect eggs from.

Pigs that wanted attention (and food).

...and of course, cows to be milked.  The four calves were a hit too.

Yummy!  Fresh milk twice a day. 

It's interesting to note that my lactose intolerant boy could drink fresh cows milk without a problem.

It's a little difficult to make out on the next photo but a calf escaped so the round up started.

Little Miss R (in green dress), with Daddy and Master M following, had to chase the calf back towards Aunty Rob so she could get it back in the paddock. 

Now the kids thought that was great fun.

It was just such a relaxing couple of days with everyone enjoying good company, being around the animals, doing something different and just relaxing.

Oh and the storms each day were pretty good too.

It was a fantastic weekend and we're all looking forward to heading out again sometime soon. 

I hope you all had a great weekend too.

xx Susan

An eclectic weekend

I'm really not sure how to describe this weekend. It's been good, bad, boring, exciting, happy and all of the above a number of times. Late last week we had a few late afternoon storms although none broke anywhere near our house. There were a few that went to the north and south of us creating some wonderful dark, stormy clouds, but we didn't get any rain or thunder around us.

I've been doing lots of cooking and baking and having such a wonderful time doing it and trying out new things. I went through my freezer, pantry and fridge to find out exactly what foods I have so I can plan our meals a bit more and reduce some waste and was amazed to discover that we had about 10 jars of jam!!

My mum's a fantastic jam maker and her Rosella jam is probably my favourite jam as it's something I can always remember her making and the jam I've grown up with. Having said that, I'm not really a big jam eater and neither is my husband or kids so to have about 10 jars of either home made or bought jam seems a bit extravagent. So I decided if we're not going to eat much jam in our day to day normal lives then I'd better find some recipes which have jam in them.
I've started with a Jam Crumble slice which is very yummy and really very crumbly so it's aptly named. I've used up quite a bit of my store of raspberry jam for this one which I think its sweetness has worked well with the rest of the mixture in this slice.

Some of the baking that I've been doing has also helped when lovely hubby helped out at my cousin's house on Sunday. My cousin has just finished building a new house and has quite a large yard which needs a bit doing to it. They hired a bobcat which is where hubby came into help as driving machines (although usually much larger than a bobcat) is what he does.

He shifted lots of dirt so the kidlettes and I turning up with homemade morning tea of jam slice, cupcakes and meringues was a nice break... I hope. The kidlettes loved playing in the very red dirt and also having a go climbing onto the bobcat.

They even got a ride in it later on when daddy was shifting some dirt which was Oh So EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's back into the working week tomorrow although it really doesn't feel like we've had a break from last week yet. I'm hoping to get in and get a bit more done around the house this week as I really struggled with everything last week. No matter how much I tried to do something around the house last week, by the end of the day everything just seemed worse....enough on that and how frustrating everything seems at the moment as you really don't need to hear all of that.

I just want to have some time to do some crochet without feeling guilty that there are a million other things I should be doing. In fact I think I used to do a lot more crochet when I was working as I seemed to find the time more often..go figure! I don't think I've picked up a hook in well over a week now which is EXTREMELY frustrating and with everything else I have on a list to do, it may be another couple of weeks before I do anymore.

So I'll leave you with a sneak preview of what I'm currently working on which is a blanket for one of my nephew's. I'm making a granny square blanket in natural colours (which is actually left over from other projects as it's the only yarn I have in my stash right now). I'm really yearning to do something really different in big, bright, bold colours but that shall have to wait a bit longer....sigh....

The end of a long weekend

Monday dawned beautiful but very HOT. After a couple of photos of the lovely blooms in the gardens of the motel, it was off to the real estate before heading home.





Master M's face is very sore and we had a very interrupted sleep because he kept crying out 'My face' during the night. The poor mite has been in a bit of pain.

This is the block of land we've put our name on. The contracts aren't available yet as they have to finish the road in front of the next lot of blocks to be developed. It's a couple of acres of flat ground with some bushland at the back so we're happy with it and will now wait for the next step in the buying process.

Then it was the 4 hour drive home with just a few toilet stops for Little Miss R this time. (Dad coped much better on the drive home).

It was nice to get home to our little house because it was about 37 degrees celcius so the heat was nearly unbearable. We put the air con on at home, unpacked then got down to doing some lazy things for the rest of the afternoon.

Not surprisingly, a huge storm started to build up and cooled everything down so we were at least able to sleep well. Aren't those storm clouds pretty amazing!!

mulberries and storms

Yay!!!! The first storm of the season and my first at my salon. This photo below is taken from the back door of the salon looking towards Mt Glorious. I just love storms and the first one of the season is always pretty exciting. We actually had a couple go through during the afternoon then more rain and thunder during the night. Aaaaaahhhhh bliss!


The storm was pretty exciting on my first day back at work for the week but the weekend was quite lovely too. No storms but the weather was warming up so off to the park we went for a ride on scooters, bikes, then play time on the swings, slides and twirly things they have there.

It was all pretty exhausting so once we got home it was cold drinks, cold fruit then a nap (for Master M and mum - in the chair I know but I couldn't help myself!).

More fruity fun over the weekend too as we went to visit Aunty S who is home from her holiday. That means some lovely pressies for the kidlettes which is always exciting then it was off to the mulberry tree for some fruit picking time. Master M had a case of 'no like' when he tried a mulberry although I'm not sure if it even made it to his mouth. He did love helping Aunty S with the ladder though.

Little Miss R had an absolute feast and kept filling her little container up. I'm not sure who ate more, her or the dogs but our container full at home kept getting smaller all afternoon so I think she may have won. She's such a little fruit bat! The hands and the mouth were of course completely red as anyone who has feasted on fresh, sweet mulberries will know. I think the most exciting part was sticking out the tongue to see how red it was because she could do it without getting into trouble!!

Not much else planned for the next few days as it's more work for me but if anything does happen I'll be sure to keep you posted. (Especially now that I seem to be a bit organised again!)

Storm

I so LOVE storms! Here I was thinking that the weather's getting cooler and winter's starting to come but no, summer decided to have a little flutter before it's gone for another year.



It's been a bit of a muggy day so I really can't be too surprised that we have storms around. The first, third and fourth photos are of the storm that passed a bit north of our house first and the second photo is from our front yard looking at the next storm coming which we probably will get a bit of.



I just love the whole build up to a storm. The building clouds changing from white to grey then to black, and then the thunder starting is enough to make me quiver with excitement! I also love that earthy smell that you get just before the storm hits. That's one of the few things I love about the summer's where I live, the pretty amazing storms that we have often. Unfortunately they can be quite destructive too but we have been lucky enough to have not received any damage so far.



These are probably the last storm images you'll see from me until next summer. Once summer comes you'll probably get pretty sick of seeing them because I'll be too excited not to take loads of photos and tell you about them. I'm getting all excited just thinking about it now!