Category: daughter

Australia · Changes · daughter · family · flowers · granddaughter · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · palm trees · realities · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

No Mountain Today …

Joanne15 Comments

Today I haven’t seen Mount Warning at all, not even for a second. There is no rain about, so I can’t blame the whiteness on distant rain. The day has been warm, dull, and humid, so perhaps it is heat-haze. It has also been extremely windy all day, so my granddaughter and I couldn’t even enjoy some time in the garden today while she was visiting. So indoors we remained, playing with farm animals, reading books, and watching some cartoons on TV. It is easy to keep Aurora occupied, both indoors and outside, and she is wonderful company. I must admit to being a tad tired tonight though after a whole day with my lovely little visitor.

Considering the lack of an interesting mountain photo today, it is a good opportunity to share a couple of photos taken during the past week. First I have a photo of a cute little Honeyeater who visited my back garden recently. If it wasn’t for the rustling of the palm leaves, I wouldn’t have known he was there.

The gum tree the trio of Kookaburras are perched in is right down the back of our garden. I realised these three were there when they had a laughing competition with another group of distant kookaburras. I’d love to know what they were saying to each other.

The last photo is from May. I came across this photo when looking for flower photos for The Week of Flowers posts, so saved it as an extra to share this week. It is a beautiful bunch of flowers my daughter – Aurora’s mummy – gave me for my birthday.

So here we are, the 30th of November, the last day of spring. It is with a touch of trepidation that I will turn the page of my calendar tomorrow morning to the first day of summer. Every year, I try to find positive aspects of my least favoured season of the year, and by the end of summer I always look back and think the heat wasn’t as difficult to cope with as I imagined it would be. It’s a bit like a visit to the dentist really, an unpleasant thought until it’s over. Once again, I have my fingers crossed that we will have rain without floods and heat without melting! I learned many years ago that when living in a subtropical climate, it’s useless wishing for no extreme heat and no cyclonic rain. Mother Nature will do as she does regardless. 🙂

 

Australia · daughter · granddaughter · Mount Warning · spring · Tweed Valley

Thursday Sunset

Joanne16 Comments

I tried out the camera on my iPhone again tonight, this time taking a photo of a pretty orange sunset sky. The phone will never replace my actual cameras – I have two Canons – but it’s good to get some practice in with the iPhone for those times when a camera isn’t handy.

Yesterday my granddaughter spent the day with me, and my daughter suggested that for something different, she might like to play with my mother’s old jewellery. Aurora loves beaded jewellery, as did her great-grandmother. I have had the jewellery hoarded away for the past 27 years in a box, collecting dust in the top of my wardrobe, so it made sense to get the jewellery out for Aurora.

She had the best time with the jewellery! Not content with just one string of beads, Aurora wanted to wear all of it, so of course I had to take a photo. 🙂

Australia · daughter · Halloween · Mount Warning · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

Storm Warning on Hallowe’en

Joanne6 Comments

Today I am getting in early with my post. There’s a storm warning in my area, with strong winds, hail, and possible power outages. The valley, as the picture shows, is cloudy and hazy. There’s also a strong, warm, notherly wind blowing, so we have the front of the house closed to the heat.

Meanwhile, it’s Hallowe’en! I’m not sure if Covid will have any affect on the number or trick-or-treaters about, but I have bags of individually wrapped chocolate treats prepared.

In years gone by when my children were living at home, they used to get into the spirit of the day. I wrote a post in 2014, showing Emma having her makeup done by Hayley. Here’s one photo, and more photos can be found in the post, Lady of the Dead.

Happy Hallowe’en!

Australia · birds · daughter · family · grandchildren · kitchen renovation · Mount Warning · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

An Out-and-About Day

Joanne8 Comments

For a while now, husband has been trying to convince me to go to a local kitchen installation showroom to find some inspirational ideas for our kitchen renovation. What with uni, I have constantly resisted, but now we are actually getting into the reno, I made an appointment for 11am today.

As soon as my daughters heard I planned to go out, they organised me to have morning tea with them first! So we met at a lovely little coffee shop beside the Tweed River in Tweed Heads.

Little Aurora just loves her special “coffee” – a babycino – so seeing her so excited when her cup arrived, I just had to take a few photos.

For a two-year-old, she manages a “big girl’s cup” very well. (I think she’s had a lot of practice!)

And she didn’t plan on leaving one tiny bit in her cup! Her face looked very chocolatey by the time she had finished. 🙂

I had limited time though, so had to have a quick cuddle with both Aurora and Eli before I left. Aurora wanted to play her new favourite song for me, which is from a movie I haven’t seen yet.

And I had a big cuddle with handsome little Eli before I had to leave too. 🙂

When I arrived back at my car, I could see three pelicans in the distance, so had to take a quick photo of them before I left.

It was really worth the trip to the kitchen showroom. Everything I have on my wish-list was there – the doors and door-knobs I like, tiles, taps, cupboard fittings … we were so impressed that we have a rep coming to our house tomorrow to quote on a complete new kitchen. That will save a lot of time and effort for husband who has a million-and-one other projects to work on anyway.

The down side is that they are booked up until February next year, but we can still install the new range so we can use it over Christmas. It’s a free-standing cooker, so the new kitchen can be fitted around it.

In Mount Warning news, the valley is a tad hazy this afternoon, but we haven’t had a storm today for a change. It’s awfully humid though, so there’s probably rain about.

Australia · clouds · daughter · granddaughter · Mount Warning · spring · Tweed Valley

A Windy Friday

Joanne2 Comments

It’s been a bit of a blah day again today – weather wise – with a hazy film blurring Mount Warning early in the day. I thought if perhaps I waited, the day would improve. It didn’t. And when a gusty wind picked up during the afternoon the dusty-hazy-whatever-it-is increased.

My beautiful granddaughter Aurora and her Mummy spent the day with me though, so indoors it was a very lovely day indeed. ❤