Our flowers

 Not much of gardeners but these are our lillies in full bloom.

Poor things have been moved twice in our place before settling here. Probably the only flowers that we have.

Retreat

 Just north of Miles was a retreat with a difference.

Its a veterans retreat.

Cabins caravaning and camping available for veterans of all services.

Every third night is free.

This was the end of the road for us so we turned and drove back to Miles. With me testing out driving the manual ute on a quiet and gravel road. Not something that I want to be doing on a regular basis, I love my auto but at least I know I can drive it if I need to.

A quirky photo from Wandoan.

The Wandoan Surf Club. 

What the?

I asked the waitress about it when she bought our coffees. 

It was a printing hub and when it opened a few years before was the only place in town to surf the net. Of course!

Wandoen

 This was for a parkrun. We had travelled up to suss it out on the Wednesday. Great park and lake. It did start to sprinkle a little while we were walking around. Not really getting wet but ground was becoming muddy and as there was clay involved, it stuck to our shoes making us about an inch taller. Lyckily there were rocks and gravel on the track vack to the ute and we were able to scape much of the mud off.

Saturday was dry so not a problem.

Soldiers park and the statue was made was made from tools

Nice pretty garden

Soldier settlers avenue of honour. Visitor centre was over to the left and there was a coffee van as well.

Miles

 Quite a bigish country town with all the facilities that you would want or need. We went north south and east while we were there.

Dogwood creek was jyst out of town to the west.

Heading west is Dogwood creek, no idea why it is called that. We needed info from the info board. Apply some ma ths to get co-ordinates for a cache, which wasnt far away.

Rest stop on either side of highway with a toilet block on one side. Overhead rail line.

The hint was 12, each pylon was numbered. The cache was about head high in a bolt hole.

Condamine

We drove to Condamine yesterday. It is apparently the home or start of the cow bell called the Condamine bell.

This is it, need a big bull for this one to fit.

Of course there was a cache there. 

 Silly me didnt check before hand and it had a dnf, while I was rummaging in the ute for a suitable container, Warren found it up high in a corner of the shelter.

There was an airport halfway back to Miles with anther xache there.

e container

K8ngaroy Cache Fest

 First caching event for geocaching Queensland, held at the showgrounds in Kingaroy.

We had gone to parkrun in Proston, 60kms away but made it back for the offical opening and cutting of the ribbon by the mayor.

Sheridan had made the peanut. It was the second one, first had been attacked by the president dog and torn to shreds. 

The two ends unscrewed with a pink ribbon to be cut.

The mayor dresses in pink all the time and as it is pink month October for breast cancer the ribbon was pink and so were the scissors.

Cache fest concluded on Monday morning with an annoucement the next one would be in a years time in Cairns, following a mega in Maryborough Easter 2028.

Kingaroy lookout

 Our first day in Kingaroy for the Cache fest was spent doing adventure labs. One took us to the airport, that was a walk around then another invovled driving to a lookout.

Could see all around

Nice picnic tables and plenty of space.

60 metres up the concrete path, Lucy was in her element, she enjoyed running up and down.

a massive thistle, some were a metre high with pretty purple flowers.

Last stop for this adventure lab was the giant peanut as Kingaroy is peanut country as well as the home of Joe Blenogy Peterson, a famous pollie from years ago but still remembered for his down to earth policies and straight talking.

Proston

 Another small township in the country. We stayed here three years ago for a parkrun. When our event was at Kingaroy for the weekend, we needed a parkrun reasonably close.

Choices were Wondai, done in June, Nanago done in March or Proston. Kingaroy, although bigger does not have a parkrun.

Even though Proston was further out, 57kms or an hour was the chosen one, its also the smallest so got to be a help for them.

A lookout just out of town, great views.

Toilet block with fountain outside of it.

Parkrun had thirteen "runners" I did one and a bit laps, 3.20kms

Hivesville

 A small township outside of Kingaroy. It does have a pub, a couple of shops, a memorial park for fallen soldiers and a nice looking toilet block.

We have had the opportunity to drive through this small hamlet five times in the last ten days. Two were going to and from Proston for a parkrun and the others times were doing loops around the area to find caches.

In the park was a bee sculture.

Caravan impovements

 Warren has been working on the outside of the van. It was pretty tired looking so he took off the red stripe and painted it white. Certainly made a difference. He was going to paint the red stripe back but it may just get left. 

I wanted a clock and a radio but apparently there was no room to put it. I did get the clock last time we were out.

Then he bought foam to make a bigger bed for Lucy, the caravan sofa wasnt very big. 

 

Grand final day

 Brisbane lions against Fremantle from Western Australia. First time that Freo had been to a grand final since entering the comp 32 years ago.

Brisbane has won the last two grand finals and were hoping for a three-peat. Not sure if that is an actual word but footy fans have coined it. 

Our son is a member of the Lions and had to go into a ballet to see if they could get tickets to the game. They had booked flights several weeks before.  As usual he was lucky enough to get tickets. Grand final is always played at the MCG Melbourne. The comp started as the Victorian Football  league and has morphed into AFL, Australian.

The singing budgie, Kylie Minoghue was the entertainment before the game.

The middle of the MCG. Melbourne Cricket Ground

This was the second outfit.

Up close and personal.

Very big footy

She was suspended quite high.

Finally the game started and it was a good game with several lead changes. No fights and on injuries except one. Freo's captain was chasing after the ball and suddenly his achillies snapped and he went to the ground, no one else near him. Of course he was out for the rest of the game. 

Brisbane were 17 points behind with six minutes to go, people were thinking that Freo were going to walk away with it when suddenly the game turned on its head and Brisbane kicked four goals in those last few minutes.

Three peat had come to Brisbane, tshirts have been printed with the three cups on the front.

A week later, the coach has announced his retirement. Hes 65 and been there ten years and the only coach at that level who did not play AFL himself.

It will be a blow to the club as the players and fans loved him but I think hes doing the right thing going out on a high.

A full on sports day

 With Warren on crutches last week, he decided that he should volunteer this week but our roster was full so he went to the one closest to home. I told him that if he was pkay to run, I could fill in for him. Jyst an aside, he is a iming to do 50 parkruns in the year. No, he said he had offered so he would do it regardless. Two days later, their second bar code scanner pulled out so he and I ended up doing the scanning together.

Our day started at 5.35am when the alarmwent off, we were required tove there at 6.30am, it was a 20 minute drive for a 7am start. A ll fimished by 8am, home for breakfast and we watched some darts,four Aussies but none got thru to second round.

10.30am, we headed into Brisbane for the Davis Cup, Australia against Poland in tennis. Saw two games, won the first by our top player, lost second game in three sets.

Home by 5.15, ready to see the AFL prem finals, Lions against Warrens team. Of course he thought his team would win by three goals, I thought it would go the other way by three goals.

Wow, what an exciting match, it seesawed to anf fro with the Lions on top by 22 points, then there was a come back and it was neck and neck, only one kick in it with Lions and one of my favourite players kicking a goal with about 30 seconds to go.

Next week is the grand final, a Western Australia team against a Qld team,unheard of but how it goes.

Tomorrow afternoon is more Davis Cup on TV. The powers that be decided to take the trains offline the one that goes past the tennis centre so we had to drive in and walk a couple of kms, up a hill and down the other side.

S pr.ing cleaning.

 A few weeks ago, we started the housework. Well, we got a bit carried away and ended up doing a fairly deep clean and tidy of the living areas. It took about three hours with both of us working.

Good to see things were back in their correct place and floors and walls dusted and washed.

Funny how getting stuck into those areas gave me the incentive to continue so next was my sewing room.

I have a set of drawers in there that is attached to the wall. So far I have gobe yhrough four drawers and found things that I had forgotten about. Between us, we delivered four bags to the opp shop, two bags out to rubbish that I had kept just in case I could use them.

I did find a series of crochet squares that I had made in crochet class. I stitched them up and then crochetted around making two lap blankets for the hospital.

The six middle squares I sewed together and there were four bigger ones, I unpicked the bigger ones and used the wool to continue the pattern. I think the intent was to make a jacket for myself but I run out of puff.

I have two more middles to use. I am amazed at some of the crochet projects that I had started and put down. Two down and at least two more to go.

Shoes

 Well, Spring has arrived and with warm weather. During winter, I wear moccasin type slippers to keep my feet warm. I figured they needed a wash before putting them aside for Spring and summer.

I have a pair of slip on sneakers and another pair of fabric shoes that I bought when working in China.

The China ones I located in the back of the wardrobe a few weeks ago. I decided that I should wear them now that I found them. They have to be over ten tears old.

They are quite comfy but they dont have a tongue so they need to be pulled on.

This is the back loop to help pull them on.

Warren regularly washes his runners in the washing machine so I loaded the machine with my three pairs of fabric shoes with a couple of shed towels.

Whoops, the glue didnt last.

The soles came off! I havent put them in the bin yet, wondering if I can glue them back on. One is off completely, the other is about half off. I will ponder on it.

Roadworks

 After many months of roadworks on our main road out of our area, the road is open!

First they were ripping ut up to lay in bigger water pipes, then they are making it into two lanes. 

Of course many of the pathways have also been either shut down or blicked so our walks with Lucy have been curtailed.

This area used to have large trees between the path and the fences, 

Down oppisite the kindergarten/childcare, they are now starting on the other side of the road

Walk thru the bush, several trees have been taken out but at least they have laid down turf and ut is more open now. I didnt loje walking there if it was getting on dark.

Big ball of a tree stump over to the right, coming back the day I took these photos, there was a snake crossing the path, he looked to be about the size of my thumb and about a metre long. First snake I have seen in years, I dare say his home had been disturbed.

Some of the old path was kept and they made a new path for the rest. A new crossing will be made to cross the road to kindy and school.

Hat making

 Spring and summer are nearing and so I have been asked to make hats again. Last season I apparently made over 300 hundred hats, I wasnt counting but it seemed some one was and almost all of them have been given away. Time to build the stocks again.

I have become faster or possibly just more effien

ent with my time. 

I cut the fabric in strips. The crowns take the least amount of fabric and instead of a pattern, I have a glass dish which is the right size and with several layers pinned together, I draw around the glass in texta then cut out in bulk.

Then cut out the head piece and the brim. The brim needs a wide piece.

I cut them double when I can.

I have three baskets, lined up, with the crowns, head piece and brims.

First step is to attach the round crown to the head piece, then the brim is sewn on.

At this stage, I usually stitch two at a time then one is fitted inside the other, sewn around and pulled through a space left.

Then I do three rows of top stitching, its a good way to use up odd colours of cotton.

Then the finished product

The hats can be worn either way. Sometimes, they have one colourway but I usually match them up in different fabric. Uniforms for kuds meet this week and I will have fifty hats to deliver. I spent an afternoon cutting out and another one sewing the sides together, once thats done, one hat takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.