19 May 2014

Matilda Waltz

Hi there...long time no see!

I know it has been a very long time and I have no excuse except that I just couldn't be bothered. But here I am on the farm, a little bored, so thought I would post about what we did yesterday.


Stephen had the day off (Sunday - isn't it suppose to be the day of REST?) so we decided to tackle a few geocaches we had been putting off for a few years. They are all on top of Mount Matilda. 

I had a good talking to myself before we left and said there was to be 'no whinging' and just enjoy the experience. I knew I would get tired but...I needed the exercise. 

Anyway we set off and arrived at the bottom of Mt Matilda around 11am. We figured it would take us about two and a half hours for the round trip. In the cache description it said there was a bit of a climb from the car park and the rest was pretty flat. After a while we were wondering when the flat part was coming....finally it did! 

We arrived at the first cache 'Matilda Waltz', found it quickly and signed the log. I was feeling pretty good, not too tired and happily went on to the next cache. The flies were becoming annoying and I wished I had thought to bring my fly net...oh and a hat...fancy going out in the Australian bush without a hat, sunscreen, bug spray and net?? Thank goodness we took water!

Onward and upward to Speakers Chair and Gimlet Gully

We still had a fair way to go before we got to the next cache and walking was starting to hurt. Pain the the tops of my legs...something I had never experienced before. I wasn't out of breath or feeling really tired..it just hurt! Anyway I had another good talking to myself (in my head) and reminded myself of what we had talked about in the morning and pressed on.  'The Speakers Chair' named after the Hon T F Quinlan who was the Speaker of the House of Assembly at the time he climbed up here. Then we set off for the last cache, 'Conway Gimlet'.

Along the track Steve almost stepped on this little cutie. Both of us remembered these when we were children. A kid in Steve's class brought one to school in a shoe box and I remembered Dad bringing one home for us after a trip away in his truck.

Australian Thorny Devil

Ok getting pretty sore and now my knee is starting to ache. I had a car accident a few years ago and my left knee smashed through the glovebox and it's never been the same since. I told Steve to go ahead as I was getting slower and slower....he was soon out of site. I had some stern words to myself and even thought about those poor men who were on the Kakoda track and how hard it must have been for them. Really???

Finally I got to a T junction and called out "cooee" to Steve. He called back and said he was at GZ which was downhill. I decided it would be better for him and me if I just kept going along the track and he could catch up. It didn't take him long. I was in so much pain by now I could hardly walk, almost crying but what would be the point of that!! This track was full of rocks that had to be stepped over, up and down and every time I lifted my legs, it hurt.

Finally we arrived back at the entrance 7.5 km's and three hours later. Steve brought the car to me and I piled inside. I was so happy to sit down. 

It sounds a bit funny now but at the time......it was agony! We will never be going back there.

*************************

Before I sign off I want to remember my beautiful nephew Dom. He chose to leave us seven weeks ago today. He was a lovely, caring person a talented musician with a passion for the blues. We are missing him greatly.


Rest in Peace now Dom. 


16 December 2013

The Christmas Tree

"Lets get a Christmas tree" I said, "It will be fun" I said.
Our sad 'tree' from a couple of years ago

When I was a young child I can not remember at any time having a christmas tree,  we had pillow cases at the end of the bed and even as an adult with young children we never had a 'proper' tree with lights. We decided we wouldn't get one till we had grand children…but that seems to be taking a while and well….we just couldn't wait any longer.

We went and picked out the biggest tree we could find and lots and lots of decorations.
When we got home we started to put it up…it was fun for a while! Then it got really tedious…..
We gave up before we finished!
Finally it was finished…the next day!
 Just one more thing….


Merry★* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★Christmas★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˚* _Π_____*。*˚
...˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛| 田田|門|˚
And a Happy New Year!



19 September 2013

Long time no see.....

Well hello there family and friends, it has been a while but Stephen and I have been quite busy since you last saw us.

Firstly we have been wanting for a very long time...well ever since we moved into this house, to put a gate opener on our driveway gate and finally after 6 years, we have! The only problem was the bottom of the gate rusted away while waiting for us to get around to it, so had to be replaced. Steve had done a bit of welding while on the farm but left most of it to his dad as he was a gun welder in a previous life. 


But being the very handy man that he is he got the job done and spray painted the gate and it looks great and works really well.


Only thing was, it then made the rest of the fencing look terrible so all had to be painted too.

After finishing the gate we realised we had over sprayed a bit and the car had little black speckles all over it, (more about that later) so we thought it might be a good idea to get a tent to paint in. When we were ready we had plastic pegged around the sides. Made it a bit dark but better than painting the house and cars. Then when we finished the painting we could take the sides down for the air to flow through and dry the paint. Excellent!
All set...
..ready to go!
 
After finishing all the black painting we thought we may as well do any other stuff we had planned to paint (one day) while the tent was up.

I had been wanting to rejuvenate this old (not antique) bed head and side tables for a long time, so while Steve was painting the gate I dismantled and sanded it back ready for him to paint white. 


This is a little video I made while Steve was spray painting.
But of course before we could put it all back in the room we needed to paint the walls, remove a large pin-up board and give everything a good clean.
Looks much better!

Also a couple of little tables we have on the balcony had become a bit weathered got a make-over too.

We, well more Steve than me, have also been working on a couple of things at my sisters place. She had a garage door opener that packed it in which Steve repaired. She also had a gate that had never been put back after the house was built so Steve installed that for her. 



(I will continue our Iceland/Ireland trip in the next post)









19 May 2013

Christmas in Sauðárkrókur

We continued on our journey to Saudarkrokur, the scenery was absolutely spectacular. I must admit I was a little bit more than nervous driving on the wrong side of the road in these conditions and was very relieved when we arrived safely thanks to Stephen's expert driving.
The lovely scene we had from our window of Vicki's accommodation, Gamla Pósthúsið
Very Christmassy
Our first walk out in the snow and ice with Donna, Bella and Vicki in the background with Perla.
Vicki and I. Vicki showed us the better spikes to buy for our shoes and now we felt quite comfortable walking on the ice.
The big prawn and Bella
The fish factory. Dried fish carcasses that are shipped off to Africa. Was a bit smelly but not as bad as you would think. Love the look of them...took heaps of photos.

Looking back towards the town


Drangey in the distance
Nom Nom... We found a couple of caches while we were here too.
Walking home to Vicki's
It was lovely to finally meet my great nephew Henry. We had kinda met on Skype but it not quite the same.
Bella entertaining Henry and Henry entertaining us all
Gorgeous little man
My nephew Ross
It is custom in Iceland to have a dinner on Christmas Eve and Open gifts. We were invited to Olga's aunty Sigga's house to share in this tradition. 
Vicki
Sigga
On the way home from Sigga's we were treated to falling snow... and woke up to this on Christmas morning. 
Ailsa and Ray (Steve's Mum and Dad)
Sharing christmas morning with family even though they are on the other side of the world. 

...more to come