Category: spring

Australia · kitchen renovation · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · spring · Tweed Valley

Hazy, blustery, and a beautiful sunset

Joanne8 Comments

The weather has been pretty ordinary today. Although the sun has been shining, the wind hasn’t let up for a minute, and the crystal clear valley is hazy again after being washed clean by Saturday’s storm.

I didn’t know what I would end up with today photo-wise, but tonight we had a very pretty sunset. Mind you, I didn’t stay outside long to take the photo, the wind was quite cold!

This afternoon I had a sweet little visitor again. Daddy magpie turned up with baby mags, and they both got stuck into the bird seed I had left out for the honeyeaters. They seemed to enjoy it too.

This baby is still very young, but it seems to be a confident flyer. I see it often flying around up high with its parents.

On Saturday afternoon – during the power outage we had, as it turned out – we had a kitchen designer here who made us an offer to replace the whole kitchen which we simply couldn’t refuse! They are booked up with new kitchen installations until February, but it seems from what we have been told that we will have a kitchen filled with tradesmen for a few days, and everything will be finished when they leave. That includes removing the old kitchen, replacing all the cupboards, installing the new rangehood and range cooker – everything! So I’m pretty excited about that. 🙂

Australia · books · clouds · farewell · fiction · memories · Mount Warning · spring · Tweed Valley

Sean Connery

Joanne11 Comments
Windy Monday

It isn’t often that I’m dreadfully moved to hear of the loss of a famous person. Sure, it’s always sad to hear of someone passing, I think of their family and friends, and how the loss will affect those who are left behind.

And then yesterday the news came through of the passing of Sean Connery.

During my last uni semester, one of the books we were asked to read was Dr No. I have never been a huge James Bond fan, but besides reading the book, I watched the movie for one reason only – it was in Dr No that Sean Connery first stared as James Bond.

But it was when I watched another movie, several years ago, that I became a huge Sean Connery fan. So today, I will add a short YouTube video of one of my favourite scenes from the 1986 movie Highlander.

R.I.P.

Sir Thomas Sean Connery

1930 ~ 2020

 

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.