Mackay

 This has been our spot for five nights. I visited the Riverside markets on Thursday afternoon, it was advertised on our caravan park info. The markets run from 3pm to 7pm.

I picked up some dumplings, like in China and some goat meat, that was already frozen so it will go home for a goat curry.

We have been out caching, lots here.

Friday was grocery shopping, yesterday was parkrun through the botanical Gardens and washing day. Today we took Lucy to an off leash beach, she had a ball running through the waves and tearing up the sand. It was a cool day so very few people there.

Had to grab a jumper this afternoon, temps only got to 22 and there was a wind.

Breakwater

Painted water tower

Wall with the towns happenings

Parkrun

Sculpture in the botanical Gardens. Seven frogs and a platypus all made from recycled metal bits.

 

Rockhampton and Yeppoon

 As we couldn't get into Bowen caravan park, I suggested that we have two nights in Rocky. We took the opportunity to spend the day in Yepoon, not sure if it has two p's or only one.

There is a great ad from years ago and the punch line was "and it blew a ruddy great hole in a tarana" d9nt know what the ad was for but most people our age relate to Yepoon by that ad. Tarana being a small Holden car, popular at the time. 

Yepoon was bigger than I expected with nice scenic views.

One of the lookouts we visited

Emu Park just south had a great military avenue

We walked up the board walkK to see the singing ship, no other info on it

Bit errie seeing these dotted around just up from the walkway

The poppies, red for humans and purple for animals in conflict

These were also dotted around in the park.

Monto

 We stayed the night here at a caravan park, first night was at a showgrounds.

Our adventure lab took us to the old railway station, there is still a train once a day and the area did have caravanners staying in the grounds

Had to go to a weir, it was a beautiful spot. Lucky wanted to go down to the water 

And a painted cow, not sure why.

We had coffee at Biloela, pronounced bil o wheels.

Lunch at Mount Morgan boy was that hilly. Understandable with a name like that but either side of the main road was a large hill to climb for other shopping.

Both those places we had not visited before, they are mining towns.

Gayndah

 Morning tea stop. A large orange was at the coffee shop. Very smart of the owner/farmer who grew oranges, he built a roadside coffee shop which was proving very popular.

This was the little guy at the entrance to the car park. The big orange is the other side and held information about the place and the town.

Later we drove to a cemetery and this guy was near the entrance, he was real. I was only a pace or two away when I saw him and stepped to take a photo. I gave him a wide berth when I came back. He didn't move a muscle except his head. 

Jockey and horse in town.

Nanago

 Another adventure lab up the road, 20 or 22 ks, this was to find the murals.

First one beat us, double barrelled question and we can't seem to get it right.

This was the one that frustrated us, poem on the wall. Question, who wrote it, google tells me banjo Patterson, an famous Aussie poetry. Second part what does the mural depict.  It's called mustering and so is the poem. 

Bullock team hauling logs.

Two kms walk to find all these, then off to Goomeri showgrounds for the night.

A sudden trip north.

 Finally all Warren's apts are over and he has a date for his op so we decided to go away for a few days. It was always in the plan but had been postponed.

Warren had volunteered for parkrun so we left after that getting away by 10am.

First stop was Blackbutt, Warren needed to give his butt a rest, so lovely bakery there we know. No carrot cake this time, it still looked as good but I had to give it a miss. Sausage roll was good though, Warren had a pig sty pie which comprised of bacon egg ham and roast pork with maple syrup.

Next stop was Yarraman for a sculpture walk around town. Yarraman is on the way west for us and don't know how many times we have been through there but didn't know anything about the art.

Two men sawing a huge log, there was also an Eagle of top of a pub, a flamingo near the post office and a horse. It was a bit of a drag up the hill to the horse, good going down again.

Friday was a caching day

 Power was also off from 9am till 3pm.

We went south to finish the painted water towers.

These were quite spread out with one being close to home, one in Redcliffe and one on Bribie Island.

In front of the water towers were several of these done up as military figures.

Then there was the north's watering holes. Five taverns within a twenty kms area.

This flowering tree was in the car park, there were several trees in various stages of losing their blooms. 

At the last tavern, it was time for lunch. We shared two entrees, spring rolls and kebabs. 

Grocery shopping then home just as the power was restored.  

 

The Bao Place

 Sheridan had eaten here before and said we would go there before catching the flight home. The restaurant's name was just that.

I wondered if they would be open on a Sunday night, yep they were.

We both went for three mixed, I had crispy chicken, tertiary chicken and pulled pork. There was some salad then the meat of top. Very filling without that stuffed feeling.

Good choice, even my dietitian approved as I saw him the next day and he asked what my meals were like.  

The Patch

 Fancy having a surburb called The Patch but it was and about 20 minutes away from Emerald.

It was late when we arrived, 11pm and the owner met us with a lamp out the front. They had also supplied some sandwiches as they thought we may be hungry. 

The place was cute and reminded me of my grandparents home in Adelaide, which had actually been our family home when I was a baby. My Uncle had bought it from M and D when dad got a job back in his country town. Uncle Vic had never married and lived with my grandparents, I guess really they lived with him as it was it was his house. 

The owners lived in the smaller part of the house. We had two bedroom, one with unsuited, a sitting room and a sun room.

 Sunday room with coffee maker toaster and sofa.

The other side of sun room, very large cane chairs and a single bed, fridge and microwave,

Sitting room with table chairs piano and fireplace which he offered to light for us on Saturday night, there was a air con in that room.

My room with queen bed and bathroom.

Unsuited, adequate but tiny. Each bedroom had an oil heater and there were hot water bottles with covers to use.

Silly me when we left, I had put my case near the door ready to go. Ten minutes later, I picked up my handbag and walked out locking the door behind me. Got to the car and realised no case. Had to ring to ask them to open up for us, which turned out OK as we chatted to the guy. He told us it was their sole income, although I would have thought they were pension age.

Parkrun in Emerald Victoria

 It was a chilly 6 degrees when we left our little cottage to drive to Emerald about 20 minutes away. It didn't get any warmer even though it was an 8am start.

The kids walked one way and I went the other through the mountain trails.

We breakfasted at a bakery and Cafe after, bit cheeky to call it a Cafe as no table service, not even a table, the only seating was a couch. Lots of yummy things to eat, I could feel two kilos packing on just from the smells. I bought a pack of three small spinach and ricotta quiches, Rob had one of them.

Took this photo because of the old cash register. I used one like this in my first job which was also a bakery. I worked there for four years before leaving to get married.

The kids before they started.

I saw for awhile and had a couple of parrots join me, one was shy and flew off. Rob's Jimney is in the background.

Lots of trails

My trek, I ended up walking 3.45kms.

A quick weekend in Melbourne

 We flew out Friday night, a parkrun in Melbourne catch up with son and brother, see a show, bit of sight seeing on Sunday, then back again on Sunday night.

The show we saw was Footloose, I thought I knew it but as it unfolded, I realised I didn't, although I knew lots of the music.

There are several theatres in Melbourne that we used to frequent regularly when we lived there. The Regent is quite small with only two levels, we were upstairs in the dress circle. Being small, no one was too far away from the action which was brilliant. 

Loved the Architecture 

 The show was good too. Not problem to see. Funny the two women along of me didn't return after interval.

Anyone for Pizza?

 Warren was cleaning the top of the pantry over the weekend while I was away, not sure what he was looking for, maybe he was just bored.

He found a few things that needed to be binned. One was a container of caustic soda, I had had vision's of making soap.  It had burst out the sides and was spilling over the shelf. 

There were two gourmet pizzas bases,  yum!

Not sure when they were purchased but the best before date was 13 June 2021.

We are trying to make a concentrated effort to get rid of things so clearing the top pantry shelf gave us a good start on our throw out for the week. The bases were as hard as a rock so Warren had fun flinging them into the bin like a Frisbee.

Zillmere

 The family that volunteers together whatever whatever.

Today we drove to Zillmere for the Z parkrun, this completed Warren's alphabet of parkrun venues.

He had offered earlier in the week to be a tail walker, which was just as well, as he pulled a calf muscle or something when he was playing tennis. Lots of massage, compression socks and an ankle brace meant that he could still walk the 5ks. 

Zillmere parkrun have a banner just for that as I think it's the only Z in Queensland.

This was their photo beforehand. Sheridan had already done this one so she offered to do time keeping and Aidan did the tail walking with Warren. On the second lap, they picked up a trolley to collect the markers along the way.

Chris ran and took the photo. I walked the streets around the area, Lucy thinks leaving the house in darkness is nuts so she didn't come, she doesn't even move off the couch. 

It was one of the closest to home, only 36 minutes away.

Jordan joined us at the end and we all went for breakfast, home by 9.30am, a good start to the weekend.

PJ fortnight

 Each fortnight I sew for Uniforms for kid's and then take what I have made to the meeting. We meet each second Wednesday afternoon at the men's shed, a few kilometres from home. 

Work that is brought in and displayed while we have a cuppa and stitch up toys. One of the women has an embroidery machine and she cuts out toys and puts faces and words on them, something like Hug me, another lady fills them and they bring them along and we stitch them closed.  

New fabric is on show so we can choose what we want to take for the next fortnight. 

I had selected some stretch fabric and decided to make pjs with a raglan sleeve. I usually make a few different patterns and sizes but only went with pjs. It has been decided that pjss don't need to have any of the service fabric on them. 

I did have some other fabric at home that I had bought a few months ago at an opp shop so I was set.

Making the same pattern didn't get boring as the fabric were different and I mixed and matched a bit, even using applied on a couple.  All up I made seven sets of pjs and a couple of extra tops. The worst thing and it takes the longest to do is the band around the neck.

They are also all the same size, size four.

The Gold and blue and gold pants on the right are fabric from the opp shop, it's quite light but still good for the cooler nights in Qld.