A day in the sun with Jean

A lovely visit with Jean, found her up in the lounge room in a tub chair and with such a beautiful sunny day we were able to take her out into the garden.  She enjoyed being in the garden and you could see her taking in the plants and the warmth of the sun. She held our hands and looked at us with beautiful smiles.  What a special visit!

A day to catch up on my blog!

Not a good start to the day......Bonnie up and about, sniffing around the garden and then caught sight of next door chooks and she is off again!  Flying feathers, a ferocious black dog (in her cowboy and indian pyjamas!) chasing after them!  Finally got Bonnie back, she is in disgrace and banned to the caravan without her breakfast and at last count, one chook still missing!  What a good time to catch up on the blog and to supervise!  Not that she is needing much supervision as she is fast asleep and snoring happily!

We have had a wonderful few days since the last blog, the main event being Paige's pink 4th birthday party on Saturday.  A 10.00am start for the kids, lots of games and pink food and especially the pink train cake.  After the kids left and the noise level settled down dramatically, it was adult time and so we had a lovely day sharing her birthday with family and friends.

Sunday, was a relaxing day, Paige enjoying all her lovely presents and a lovely time spent with family.  Ben and Natalie cooked up their signature camp oven dinner of chicken and vegetables on the deck and I made a spotted dick, inspired by Masterchef masterclass!

Beautiful Natalie and Sienna, all toasty and clean after her bath! We are lucky enough to be here for her first meal of farax! Natalie and Helen, Nat's Mum enjoying the first feed, both Natalie and her Mum are great cooks and will provide Sienna with some wonderful taste sensations in the future!

Making cupcakes with Paige, a lovely present that she received on her birthday - peanut butter cake and icing, a lot of finger licking going on!

Time to relax, Bonnie happily sitting in the middle!

Life just floats by in sunny Queensland

Our daily routine, a walk along the beach, home for a shower and then a visit to Ross' Mum.  This morning we were lucky to see a turtle floating in the shallows of the river.  What a lovely treat, Bonnie wasn't interested though as we watched the turtle float out into deeper water. The walk takes us around the river and then out along the beach.  We meet lots of lovely dogs and their owners along the way, it is wonderful for Bonnie to be able to run free without her lead.

Thursday, and Jean is out of her bed, sitting up in her room, smiling and waving.  She is still not eating but taking fluids and obviously not ready to leave us yet!  Wonderful to see her awake and aware of our visits.






Friday, change of scenery today, off to the Foote Sanctuary, a beautiful rain forest walk just near Ben and Natalie's home in Buderim. We had a lovely walk through the the beautiful natural bush, Bonnie doing particularly well with her short little legs! No running water through the Cascade Falls, but still lush plants and trees surrounded the path.

After our walk, it was a busy cake decorating morning for the big party tomorrow!  A pink train cake with lots of lollies was the request, photos to follow in the next blog!

A visit to see Jean in the afternoon, she was tucked up in bed and sleeping soundly, maybe yesterday sitting up out of her bed had tired her out.  Lunch was at my favourite cafe, Raw Energy, a delicious bean patty in a wrap.  Ross had a toastie and after a relaxing lunch, home to do our blog.  Ross, Ben and crew are off celebrating the end of Ben's exams, girls' night in to watch Masterchef and then early night to prepare for the big party!

Our Queensland Dog

It has now been over week since we arrived in Buderim, and Bonnie has fitted in well to her Queensland life, and after her bush turkey experience we were ready to leave her here!  A very stressful 15 minutes running up and down the hills of Buderim trying to find her after she caught site of the bush turkey scratching away in the garden at the bottom of Ben and Natalie's block.  With a burst of the terrier in her, she was off with the turkey in full flight!  After much frantic calling, she came trotting out of the bush with not a care in the world!

This incidence was preceded by Bonnie chasing the chooks next door after catching sight of them when we were happily hanging out the washing on the line near the next door neighbours boundary!  Bonnie had the chooks baled up in their own yard, luckily she did not actually catch one, we are not sure what she would have done with it!

Other than Bonnie's need to be the great black hunter, our days are filled with lovely walks on the beach at Mudjimba.  We have found a wonderful dog beach, off leash so that she can run and play without a worry in the world, and also without us worrying either! We stop for a delicious coffee on the way home.  Some of the cafes in Queensland don't like dogs near the cafe but we have found a great place that if we sit out on the outside tables we can enjoy a coffee, the lovely sunshine and our dog!

Great photos of Bonnie playing in the water, also a great photos of Ross' hand

Ross' Mum continues to amaze us, we visit each day and she seems to be getting stronger!  Today's visit, we received a lovely smile and her eyes were following our voices.  She is very calm and relaxed and is tucked up warmly in her bed.  The nursing staff are great and she is so well looked after.

Preparation starts tomorrow for Paige's 4th birthday party.  She is having a pink party, her favourite colour so there will be a lot of pink colouring happening in the next few days.  Ben is busy with his university course, he is in the middle of exams, on friday lunchtime he finishes his exams and will be free to relax and enjoy the celebrations. Sienna has nearly reached her 5 month milestone and will be having her first taste of food in the next few days.  What a special time to be here!  Natalie is gorgeous as always, giving Pa (Ross) a wonderful massage to try and sort out his old back.  Our family is so very precious to us, we love spending time here, and being part of the family.  We get to enjoy the daily routine, especially Paige and her fantastic imagination.  Today she was sitting on her upturned umbrella, imagining that it was a sailing boat, and with a chorus of "Aye, aye, aye, me hearties", in perfect pirate voice, she made us laugh.  She is such a treasure!
Looking forward to the 4th birthday party celebrations!

Life in Sunny Buderim

We have now been in Buderim for 5 days and have established a lovely routine of a walk along the beach in the morning with Natalie, Paige and Sienna.  Bonnie and Paige love to run along the beach, Paige throwing the ball to Bonnie and Bonnie chasing.  The weather has been gorgeous,  even to the point of discussing the possibility of a swim!

Bonnie and Paige playing in the rock pools!  Sienna enjoys her walk in the pram, lots of sunshine and fresh air!

Our walk is complete after a delicious coffee at a local cafe and just sitting back and enjoying the day.  We miss Ben on our days out, he is busy preparing for exams next week for his University Course of Urban Planning.  Exams finish next week so we can celebrate!

Today, Natalie Paige and Sienna had a birthday party in Brisbane so Natalie kindly dropped me off to visit my friend Cath who is in Mater Hospital, battling Multiple Myeloma.  She is truly amazing, planning her overseas travels after her bone marrow transplant which will happen in a few months time.  I will get to spend more time with Cath in July.




Ross spent the day with family, Sue and Barry flying up from Melbourne to spend time with Jean.  Jean has been discharged from Nambour Hospital and is back in her Aged Care Facility where she is well looked after.  Jean is comfortable and with all her family around her she is in such good hands.

Warm sunny days!

Outside temperature, 21 degrees as we drive into the Sunshine Coast, an easy drive from Crow's Nest to Buderim.  It was wonderful to arrive at Ben, Natalie, Paige and Sienna's beautiful home in the lush hills of Buderim.  With the assistance of Ben's friend Steve, the boys were able to back the caravan up Ben's steep driveway and to the side of their home. All set up, and a relaxing afternoon shared with Natalie's parents, Helen and Vac and Steve and his wife Larnie.  Ross had a date with Paige and had his hair styled, a very intricate hairdo, very becoming!

A good night sleep, very quiet in our 'Buderim Caravan Park' and a wonderful start to the day with a wake up from Paige.  She is such a beautiful girl, had a lovely time drawing with her.  Her drawings are remarkable, we had fun creating an underwater scene, with Paige drawing an amazing assortment of sea creatures.




We left our baby in the care of Paige who is loving having Bonnie to play with and went to visit Ross' Mum who is in Nambour Hospital.  All we can say is that she is well cared for and comfortable.  The staff were very caring and thorough and unfortunately she had just been showered so she was exhausted.  However, we did manage to feed her half a tub of custard.  We will return again at lunch time so that we can help with feeding her.

Afternoon was spent walking along the beautiful beach at Alexandra Headlands with Natalie, Paige, Sienna and Helen, Natalie's Mum.  What a beautiful day, sun shining, people swimming and sun baking, maybe not quite warm enough for us though!  A lovely coffee at Cotton Tree, Bonnie and Paige enjoyed their walk but both struggled on the way back!

Relaxed weekend in Crow's Nest

Masterchef Lorraine prepared a delicious dinner with her team of helpers, this is her overseeing the dessert selection.  She is helping out at the caravan park with her husband Ed, there daughter and son-in-law run the park and they have been lots of fun as they are parked across the road from us in their caravan.  Dinner was food for the masses, roast lamb, chicken and all the variety of vegetables and salads possible!  $20 a head was certainly a bargain!  Sheryl experienced a wonderful explanation of "what do you reckon" when she asked what was in the carafe, as it turned out it was custard, as if we all should know that custard is always served in a wine carafe!

Up close and personal with a horse!

Taking Bonnie for a walk this morning, down by the paddock of 3 horses, separated from the caravan park by a barbwire fence and our little miss decided to investigate.  Through the fence she flew, ducked low enough to avoid the barbwire and then found herself very close to the 3 giant horses!  Not sure who was in more shock, me or her, as she returned to us quite quickly!  The photos have been taken when she returned, securely put back on her lead and then reintroduced to the horses, from our side of the fence!

These beautiful photos are of felt work especially taken for my special cousin Joan, who also does very lovely felt work. This was in a craft shop that specialises in gourds, painted, decorated or completely natural, ready for you to decorate.  In the shop, they also had a huge mass of beads, ribbons and other craft bits and bobs!

On our return, we stopped at the Black Forest market at a group of shops including  a Cuckoo Clock shop.  Drizzling rain, cold and misty had us thinking we were back in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne!

Paige is waiting for our arrival, dressed in her Easter Bunny suit!  We can't wait to see Ben, Natalie, Paige and Sienna, with out any mishap, we should arrive at the Sunshine Coast tomorrow afternoon!

Arrival in God's own country!

God's own country is a term of endearment for Queensland as penned by our Ben who wonders why we continue to want to live in Victoria!  We have no real answer, we could say the hot weather of Queensland doesn't suit us, not that we have seen any sun on our travels northwards!  We are cosily tucked up in the van in Crow's Nest with Ross' brother John and partner Sheryl, beside us in the their new van.  They are complaining about the  bitterly cold weather, but we have to admit it is not as cold as what we have experienced on our journey.  We had a remarkably uneventful trip yesterday with only the safety latch falling off the caravan door, other than that we survived the border crossing with no mishap!
This morning was spent catching up on washing, usual chores do not disappear in the van and a quick trip back into Toowoomba to buy new globes for the blown light!  That is all fixed now and we are able to read in good light without using a torch!
Lunch was a final serving of Aunty Doreen's hearty soup, Bonnie also got to enjoy a little taste!  We are off to the camp kitchen tonight for a roast night!  We can already smell meat cooking and it is only 3.00pm, not sure whether that is a good sign or not!  Will do a restaurant review in the next blog!

A day to regroup!

Bonnie was ready to greet the day early, maybe just a little too early at 6.00am!  Ross took her for a walk and she came back and settled down well so off we went to float around the Artesian Pools and to start the day on a positive note!  Ross spent the morning creatively patching up the gaping hole in the van with gaffa tape and blue tack and I went into the thriving metropolis of Moree to hunt and gather! It was lovely to be off the road and just try and repair some of the damage we have had to face.  Back to the van to pack away shopping and time for another float in the pool!  Our day couldn't unfold without something going wrong, we are now enjoying mood lighting in the van as we have blown a light and don't have replacement globes!  Looking forward to tomorrow when we meet up with John and Sheryl, Ross' brother in Crow's Nest.  Hopefully we will travel well tomorrow!

A Cracking Day

A day of disaster, started off well with the car already linked from yesterday as we had a drive through site so we were on the road early.  Ross drove the first 100 km, petrol stop in Coonabarabran and I took over the driving.  The new car is travelling well, we only had a 300km day and we had the Moree Artesian Spas to look forward to! Half way between Coonabarabran and Narrabri we heard an almighty bang and then everything started to move sideways!  We had blown a tyre on the van!  I was able to manoeuvre the van off the highway and avoid the rumbling big road trains!  Lucky for mobile phones, Ross rang the RACV and they had the NRMA out to us within the hour.  Meanwhile, we enjoyed a lovely picnic on the highway with the road trains to contend with.  However, we must say that we felt quite safe as they all took a wide birth from the car and van so we could enjoy our picnic without fear.  Bonnie discovered a delicious charred kangaroo leg in the forest that she insisted dragging us back to!  After only and hour and half we were back on the road after receiving a joyful text from Ben asking how we were travelling and he suggested we were having a cracker of a holiday!

We headed on to Narrabri and found a tyre repair shop with a very helpful man and a whole crew of men ready to replace all tyres on the van as they were over 11 years old.  What fabulous service, all with a smile and we were back on the road within the hour.  The car and van feel different, everything seems to running much smoother!  At this stage I had rang the caravan park in Moree to book in as it was getting late in the day.  Arrived at Moree, a long queue outside the caravan park, it was so lucky that I had booked.  Directed to our site, not a a drive-thru, my poor darling has lost his backing confidence and so out popped Russell, a little dwarf like man with a big cheery smile offered to back the van in for us.  Within a few minutes we were nicely tucked in and after meeting his delightful dwarf like wife, Dulcie we were looking forward to relaxing and hitting the spa.  I opened up the van, things were not quite right!  There was a real mess on the floor, rather strange as we have brought along our little Dyson and I had vacuumed before we left Gilgandra.  Looking around at the side of the van we discovered the tyre had not only blown from the outside, it had blown inside the van and wiped out a draw!  In that draw we kept our tinned foods!  All you could see was a huge hole, open air, a mess of rubber and peaches and total chaos!  Another hour cleaning up, some major work to be done tomorrow and we finally got to have a quick float around in the spa, another thank you to Aunty Doreen for a delcious dinner and early to bed.  

Tuesday - a day of driving

After leaving Canberra, in a vaguely direct way, only get lost once we hit the highway.  Beautiful driving through gorgeous country, especially around Cowra, rolling hills with giant rocks, will come back to this area one day to explore fully. Arrived in Gilgandra late afternoon, a walk up the street and back home to enjoy more of Aunty Doreen's delicious cooking.

A visit with Doreen

Up early and off to a trailer specialist to have the shackle removed and with the help of a menopausal moment to sort out a disinterested lad who was not too keen to help us there and then we were finally able to remove our house off the back of our car!  Set up at the caravan park, again, we got ourselves sorted out and then off to visit my Aunt Doreen.  We had a lovely day with her, relaxing in her new unit, beautifully warm with her delicious home baking.  Doreen treated us to yummy pikelets and hearty beef and barley soup.  The day was spent chatting, drinking cups of tea and just spending lovely time with my special Aunt.  We left feeling much calmer and loaded up with delicious home cooked meals to enjoy on the road.  Hopefully, life on the road will now become less stressful and we can start to relax, finally!  Do I need to mention that the lock on the door of the van is also not catching so we are worried we may leave a Hansel and Gretel trail of all our worldly possessions on the way to Queensland?

Orbost to Canberra

After a disturbing night, Thomas the eldest grandson, spending the night in hospital with a badly broken arm and Jean, Ross' mother also being admitted to hospital in acute care we finally made our move while waiting for further updates!  The drive from Orbost to Canberra on the Monaro Highway is a lovely drive.  From lush green rain forest to rolling planes over the Great Divide with a stop at Bombala for morning tea and to finally enjoy Georgia's delicious gingerbread men!

We arrived in Queanbeyan at a reasonable time, only to find after a few sharp turns we had bent the shackle on the caravan that links to the car.  Basically, this meant that we were trapped, we couldn't unlink the van, after much maneuvering and some swearing, we finally pushed the van and car off the road to a precarious position half hanging over the Queanbeyan River!  The night of disasters did not end there! With no where to go and try to remove the shackle on a Sunday afternoon, we set the van up.  Dinner, an attempted gourmet delight, turned into a messy fry up when I thought we had ran out of gas, and I resorted to the electric fry pan.  Unfortunately, we did not get to enjoy this meal, as I dropped it and it turned into a sweet potato tap dance, with Bonnie enjoying the fall out!
I later found out that Ross had forgotten to turn the gas on!