The last two weekends I have been smoothing dresses, toting camera bags, playing light stand, changing memory cards and taking the odd photo at two weddings with Tim Harris oh and having a total ball of a time as well 🙂
Wedding 1, was a small affair at Woody Point on a gorgeous blue sky day.
Wedding 2, was a slightly larger affair at Pacific Harbour Golf Club on Bribie Island on an overcast rainy day.
I know, I know, I know, total lack of words, some wordy posts are coming I have some big news but you all only come for the pictures anyway right?
The other weekend when we were coming back from Gumbarra, I got lucky 🙂
We had driven to Cunningham’s Gap to pick Mum and two other walkers who had walked from Sylvester’s lookout to the gap along the top of the Main Range Escarpment. Mum had gone to the toilet to freshen up and on her way back had gotten talking to a Land Crusier full of Italian men who had taken a one day holiday to pick the olives for the year. Whilst talking Mum had mentioned to the blokes that her daughter would love to pick some olives and could they tell me where they picked up, the answer was a hearty no but we will give her some olives. I came down with Mum’s hat and I skipped back to the car with a hat full of olives and a smile that didn’t leave my face for a good 48hrs. I also came back with tips on how to best cure them. You need to rinse them in water for a week said one. The others said no, just straight into salt water in which an egg will float with a little bit of garlic and a chopped up lemon. They all nodded and said yes. Then another adds, you must put in a little bit of wine vinegar and change it every so often.
I know have a container in the cupboard with olives curing in and you have no how idea how big a smile that puts on my face.
Now I just have to play the waiting game.
I have been talking about making a trip out to QLD olive country since probably September last year, as we are smack bang in the season at the moment my talk ramped up a couple of weeks ago. I only wanted a small amount to play with. Mum sort of talked me out of it – You want to drive 3 plus hours to pick perhaps 2kg of olives and how much do you even like olives Helen? Next year after this batch have worked out I’ll be there. I am also very interested in having a going at pressing my own oil, I understand the science of the matter and have found a few little notes on extracting olive oil yourself which I will keep in mind next year.
I went bush the other weekend to the Goomburra Section of Main Range National Park. We were sitting round the kitchen table on Thursday night after dinner and Mum was planning what she needed for her weekend away. I suddenly realised there was nothing stopping me from going, and I really needed to get out Brisbane. 5 seconds later I was going and we were planning the new logistics. We nipped over to the shops to get some extra groceries and I packed my bag ready to depart shortly after I arrived home from work on Friday. It was also the first time my car got to go a little big trip, all up doing about 400km and going up and down some steep hills 🙂
I can’t describe how absolutely happy I felt on Sunday morning as I was walking up to the toilet block, the sun was shining on the eucalyptus, the air was filled with the scent of those gums. Then there was this wanderer butterfly that always seemed to appear as I walked up to the toilet block. Yep I’m the sort of girl who decides that one of her highlights for the weekend is a wanderer butterfly that always appears when I go to the toilet block but never when I was exploring with my camera.
I got to give my ankle quite a work out too and bar a bit of minor “yes I do remember hurting this ankle on Saturday evening” I was brace free and happy scrambling up/down/over/under all weekend, well for the most part. I couldn’t physically bring myself to rock hop up the creek though so I took off my shoes and waded.
I spent the weekend, reading, a bit of walking and generally just lazing around. Quite nice 🙂 Ohh and one of the highlights was hearing Lyrebirds x 100 times, ok maybe more like 40 but it was soo cool, I just wish I had seen one!
Last week I was listening to the Zed son the bus to work, and the lovely announcer said she had a double pass to Custom Kings the following Thursday for sale. Yours truly was the first to ring up. I mentioned it at the kitchen table a few nights later and Matthew mentioned that one of the girls at Uni wanted to go. Come Thursday night there was five of us, two with free pass and three people faced with a sign on the door of the Troubie that said sold out. Due to seeing the right person at the right time, we managed to get three tickets off a girl who had bought the tickets for her entire group only to have some people pike at the last minute. We were happy 🙂
When we eventually went up the steps, the support act were playing their last song and it would only be a matter of time before Custom Kings took over the stage and had the floor of the Troubie bouncing like I have never seen it bounce before. It was a great night with good tunes and a happy crowd.
😀 I still am not a big fan of the new album but I have waited gee almost half my life or perhaps even more than half my life to see them play live and the time is near 😀
JULY Wed 30 Perth, Australia The Capitol
JULY Thu 21 Adelaide, Australia Fowlers Live
AUG Sat 2 Sydney, Australia Metro Theatre AUG Mon 4 Brisbane, Australia The Zoo
AUG Tue 5 Melbourne, Australia Billboard
Is Helen happy? This is just the icing on the cake! I had a great weekend a post is coming on that.
