Crows

One of the most annoying birds around. They caw all the time and raid household bins when they can.

They are quite clever and two of them will work together to tip the bin lids off and then help themselves to the contents.

I have not seen them do it to our bins as they dont have latches on them but if something is left hanging out of a bin or it is overflowing, then its game on and everything is fair game for the birds.

I saw a curious bin in a park the other day and had to take a closer look.

It has the words Crow beater on top and it was quite heavy to lift.

Maryborough

We had to drive past Maryborough the other day on our trip north and we decided to stop in. It was a bit out of our way as the highway bypassed it years ago. I like doing virtuals

and there was a newish one in the town. Hum, not sure if it is a town or a city, it was reasonably big with several traffic lights so maybe it is a city or heading that way.

Anyway it was a interesting place. We had to park a couple of streets away from the town centre as we had the camper on board. Warren and Lucy stayed with the car while I walked to the info boards that I needed.

Maryborough was a place of firsts, first post office in Qld and it is still in existance in the orginal building, almost 150 years. First school started by the nuns that Mary Mckillop was a part of, its probably named after her. Unfortunately the district also had the first deaths from the plague in 1908.

The district had to appoint a minister of nusiances as goats, pigs and sheep used to run riot down the main street. Hard to believe that livestock are still there but now they are at least contained.

Montville

This is a real tourist town within an easy drive of Brisbane. We visited a few weeks ago and it was good to see that people were social distancing while walking. We only walked along the footpaths so dont know what it was like inside shops.

It was quite cold and we did have a "comfort stop". Not sure if it was too much comfort as the toilets were all stainless steel. One thing for sure was there was no dallying!

Found this in the middle of town. Even here, people were waiting to have their photo taken in front of it.

We had been out in the bushland to the west of the town and discovered massive trees.

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Teddy Bears

Out walking the other day, it was interesting to come across teddy bears.

When the lock down was in full force, people would put teddy bears in their windows so that kids could discover them when they were out walking. It was the only exercise that families could get as all gyms and playgrounds were closed, many of them had swings chained up.

I didn't put a teddy in our windows as we have the screens covering the front porch and they are the only windows facing the road.

These were in someone's garden that ran along the main road in town.
The next group were sitting under an underpass with the main highway above.

Certainly put a smile on our faces so can just imagine how excited kids would get.
Good work people!

A challenge for the year

We have a few caches and as well as finding them, they are lots of challenges as well. One common one is to find a cache every day for at least a year. Not one that we will do but there is one very similar which is to find a cache on every day, now it almost seems the same but there is a slight difference.

Looking to fill in a grid for each day and it doesnt matter how long it takes, it's the doing. I worked out the days we needed in large January, I think it was an average of six days per month that we were missing. We got the back end of Jan, all of Feb and March, helped that I went to Tassie and filled in four days. Only one day was vacant in April but as we were in lockdown, only going out for essentials, couldnt justify going to find a cache was an essential service so that date will have to wait until next year.

May, when some restrictions were eased saw us out and about and luckily, there had been a series of caches not too far from home published just before lockdown.

A couple of weeks ago was a cache day and I had targeted one where we had been before. It was a nice walk up an old train line.

Last time we were here, it was dirt. A nice bitumen track going between two towns, it is 10 km long. Most of it goes along side of a main highway, the bike/walking track is lower and there is only a few times when you can hear the traffic. Yes, we got the cache, so, so far we are up to date for this month only two more dates to get.

A Booboo to Beanies.

Soon after I learnt to crochet, I made some strips but none of them were the same size and they had a tight bottom. This is caused by the first chain row. I have since learnt to do the first row with a larger hook and problem solved.

I was going to pull all these squares undone and re do them. Then I was reading a pattern, YouTube on beanies. One was just a rectangle, sewn up on side and one end pulled in and a pompom added.

A light bulb moment, my strips had already the pulled in row and they were about the right size. I was planning on making 30 beanies, one night's work and I have five done already and I don't have to pull them undone.

I have done a black band on each of them and I will be adding a black pompom as well.

Crochet hooks

Hooks are usually steel and thin depending on what size. When I started crocheting, members of our group had some with handles on them. I was able to buy one but it was $10 plus Spotlught only had the one. Luckily for me, it was a size that I could use for most of my projects.

A couple of weeks ago I started a blanket and needed to use a bigger size, I soon found out how good the one with the holder was to use.

Warren went searching online, found a pack and ordered them for me.

Twelve hooks, a counter, tape measure, a cutter plus darning needles all in its own zipped case. Price? $24 delivered.

This is the blanket I am making at the moment.

Going north today

We travelled up the second highway today to deliver my quilts to their new home. Lots of people also had the same idea as their lounge room was full and we had trouble getting a park.

We continued on and dropped into a couple of lookouts. Unfortunately there was mist over the Glass house Mountains today.

We also went to the Discovery centre and while we could get morning tea there, the actual centre and viewing platform were not available.

However, with the doors being closed, we had never seen the doors before. What a fantastic looking set.

Continued on for lunch.

We had to give address and phone numbers but were not asked if we had downloaded the Covid app on our phones. The meals looked very big so we opted for snack food to share. Very nice sitting out on the balcony overlooking the valley.

Train trip

Yesterday I caught trains and buses for the first time in months. I got the normal train that we travel into the hospital, early but after peak hour.

This was the train carriage. There was a person across the aisle from me and one woman was two seats in front, no problems with social distancing. The bus was the same with probably only four or five people on it while I was on it, only four stops.

Our local train station has been done up over the last year. Now there is a modern look about it and lifts plus covered metal walkways.

A Garden Project

We have had some bald patches in the lawn especially in front if where we keep the bins.

For several months could even be a year or two we have had some pieces of artical grass to at least give us something decent to walk on when going to the bin. Probably more for my benefit as I'm the one more likely to walk outside with no shoes on, to put rubbish in the bins.

We weren't real sure if Bunnings would have lawn pieces. We have bought these before to fill in areas of dead lawn and decided to go a different way.

Warren got new dirt and then seeded it with lawn seed. We also bought some pavers to give us and Lucy space to walk on.

We have had to water it as it does dry out quickly and today was the first day that I noticed tiny green shots coming through.

New Carpet

Last time we had the carpets cleaned we could see some wear on our bedroom one. Which is fair enough as it is seventeen years old and nothing last forever.

It was especially wore at the doorway and I had bought a small runner mat to cover it.

Next year was when we had down to redo our bedroom a bit but with Covid19 rearing its ugly head and not going on holidays, we decided we might as well do it this year.

The plan was blinds for the window, wall to ceiling wardrobe and new carpet. Wardrobe costs came in double what we expected even with a fudge factor so we ditched that idea, figuring that there are three other bedrooms with wardrobes that we can use plus we probably need/should get rid of excess clothes.

Not a terribly good photo but the colour is a milky coffee brown. 

Now it's a nice silver grey, very nice to walk on. Lucky enough to go last month to arrange it when the company had just posted 20% savings on Australian made carpet. The adverts went on TV the next day. 

A winter's picnic

Not doing or going too far at the moment so I suggested a picnic. Warren suggested the venue.

I had a sleep in so instead of cooking something like I intended, I bought pies and buns at the bakery.

It was cool and quiet, Lucy had a good mooch around while we ate. She had her own small lunch but she eats much quicker than we do.

Strange to see were some flowers out in bloom.

This was a tiny plant and flower. The park is a heritage park and as such, it is not planted grass but it does get mown every so often.

A flowering shrub was dotted around the banks of the creek.

A walk in the Black forest.

Not really but I can't remember the name of the forest/national park. The Black forest was an episode of the Goodies and it always comes to mind.

Sheridan and I went north a few days ago and we followed a path for approx 200 metres. We soon got into large trees and mosses, it was a cool day and boy oh boy, I was glad that I had three layers of clothes on, with the thought that I could take off one or two, that didnt happen.

 This was the tree that we were aiming to find. Just thought of the park, it was called Bonnee and we walked down the Bonyee trail. It was down too although I didnt notice it was that down until we walked back up. I was glad to see the bitumen road again.

 This was as far as I could get to take a photo.

An afternoon walk

First day of winter today and I decided that I need to walk more. I thought I might as well take Lucy as she is looking a bit board in the beam as well.

My plan was to walk down our street, through to and around the park and back again. Lucy thought she was going down along the creek, we had a stand off for a few seconds but as I had the end of the lead, I won.

We headed down the street and I saw a school bus and kids getting off, then I saw four people coming out of the streets and around the corner of the shop. Because of social distancing, they were talking loudly and said that the silver car did a u turn and the other slammed into it. Guys everywhere in highvi jackets, three towtrucks and ambo.

Lucy and I went the opposite way and had to walk around people standing out in their front yards.

Halfway through the park and I saw a toddler didn't look much more than two years running down. Then I saw Dad out to the side of the path, about twenty metres from us with a big German Shepherd trying to get off his lead and barking and groaning with Lucy in its sight. We were too close to turn and walk the other way so we kept going. Bit scary.

Glad to get home.