the family I’m from

We’ve had a lot of rain this morning. It started bucketing round 2am and kept bucketing till round 5am, since then we have had showers on and off.

My phone just rang, it was Matthew, my younger brother does not typically call me so I was a little concerned at first as to what might have happened. However, Mums voice came over the speaker wanting to know what my back yard looked like. After I gave her the run down she told me that her and Matthew were at the Toombul car park observing it in all its flooded glory. Matthew must have gone out last night as Mum had picked him up from the bus stop due to the rain. He had told her that Kedron Brook was over the banks. They then proceeded to check out Kedron Brook at as many vantages as they could to watch the flooding. They are now headed on to Downfall Creek to see what it looked like.

Mum was telling me they were taking photos on Matthews phone of the flooding. I didn’t comment then but I will now since I know Mum will see this fairly shortly, that is why I take my camera with me wherever I go!

Yep, that’s my family, well really the Stephenson part of us, straight down the line from Grandad, a man who has kept weather records dating back to the war. The family for which the first thought when it buckets, is “mmmm I wonder how high the creek is?” or Mum’s favourite idea when it has rained is to go waterfall chasing. Yeah, we like our weather.

I got up close to 5, thinking there must be a fair amount of water in our backyard by now, sure enough there was. (A fact of life when living at a bottom of a hill on three sides, is when it rains our backyard will fill with water.) Our street is more convex than most streets to help the street drain in such events. There was probably about 10-20cm over the “top” of the road and about 30cm at the kerb. In our backyard, the water was over the retaining wall. I took a few photos but was not in the mood to get the tripod out so they have been pushed a little bit in Lightroom.

204/365
It has rained, 204/365

I went back to bed for a little while but wasn’t in a mood to sleep, instead I took my book (it seemed quite fitting to be reading a tales of Brisbane, whilst watching the water drain off the street) and my quilt and cozied up on the couch on the deck, watching the taxi drivers trying to decide whether or not to drive the street. By 6ish I was ready to go back to sleep and returned to my bed to doze to the sound of the drizzling rain for you know, oh 45mins or so. I’m not one to sleep in!

The street now just has a little bit of water in the gutter and the water in our backyard has gone down a wee bit, it’s no longer over the retaining wall. I won’t have to water the veggies for a while….

It has rained

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain, as a child when I first saw My Fair Lady, I thought they were referring to a plane not a plain and could not for the life of me figure out why the rain would stay in the plane!

The rain in ‘Bris stays mainly in our yard!

the sound of rain

It’s 2120 currently and I’m kicking back with a cup of tea and listening to the rain. The rain sounds different at night to it does during the day, have you noticed that?

In tribute to the rain we have had on and off this weekend, today we have a video instead of a photo.
[flickr 4318532724 640 368]

Unless you are reading this via the RSS feed, you might (well should) have noticed that I’ve changed up the design a little bit. Swapped some new colours in, changed the photos in the header and made it a bit more 24 something me instead of 22 something me. Not 100% settled on the background colour yet but we will see. I’ve also been thinking of renaming the blog most probably just changing the words round a little but who knows.

Mum and I went to see Bright Star this afternoon, it was slightly sad as expected but gorgeous nonetheless. I have some questions regarding the historical accuracy of a few aspects of the costuming, mainly the earrings that Fanny wears and the machine knitted jackets/cardigans. I did adore however the ledge that ran at waist level round Fannys room in the house that the Brawnes shared with Mr Brown and Mr Keats. I loved the shots in the fields of wild flowers and in the orchard, all those flowers! Oh to be able to bask in a field of flowers like that.

I have my bitters

The U.S. Angostura distributor says the production line ran dry in June, telling The Guardian in November, “There has been a shortage. You can’t just turn on and off supply of bitters. It’s not like producing bottled water – it’s a very delicate, intricate process.” Invented in 1824 by a German doctor and made from a secret recipe of herbs, barks, roots, spices and rum, bitters became popular in Britain as an additive for gin, partly to conceal quinine in tonic water. Today most serious cocktail makers can't do without them; as London bar owner Tony Conigliaro explains, “What bitters will do is stretch the rest of the flavours across the palate”.

via Will Bitters Shortage Finally Kill Old Timey Cocktail Trend? – Gothamist.

I came across this post earlier this week and after reading a lot of articles across the web came to these two conclusions; one part of the problem to an inability to source bottles at the plant and the other is that the shortage is restricted to UK/USA currently. There are some articles that indicate USA will have fresh supplies in a couple of months but who knows.

My younger brother uses a fair amount of bitters, if he has cordial, he adds bitters. I don’t use it so much but I still love a dash of bitters. At the shops yesterday I picked up two bottles for myself and four bottles for Matthew. If the shortage hits Australia, we will be fine. If it doesn’t? well we have bitters for a while to come.

😀

88, 89, 90!

It’s a training day at work today so I am able to get in a wee bit later than usual. Today Grandad turns 90! We had his birthday party last weekend and it was such a treat. The weather was perfect, a fair swack of extended family turned up which was great for a catch-up and of course there was food!

Lawrence Pryce Stephenson, born 29 Jan 1920.
Grandad

Grandad is Grandad and for all that he is, I quite treasure the time I spend with him. We typically go to The Farm, once a week to visit and have dinner etc.

This was the cake.
The week before when we were up, Mum asked Grandad what sort of cake he wanted, his answer was a plain fruit cake with no icing and that is what we had. I of course couldn’t let it go undecorated though! We used to play with this fishing rod and fishes when we were younger and spending time at The Farm. Grandad is a fisherman, not so much at all in recent years unfortunately as it is hard for him to keep steady on his feet in a boat.

Just like we have done in the past for other milestone birthdays, Mum had taped together 90 party poppers in bunches of fives. With a slight breeze in the air, they looked fantastic when they popped.

90 Party Poppers! 90 Party Poppers! 90 Party Poppers! 90 Party Poppers! 90 Party Poppers! 90 Party Poppers! 90 Party Poppers!

Grandad with streamers all over him.
90 Party Poppers!

Pabbi
Papa

Max and Ian
Ian and Max

Jim – Such a Stephenson face!
Jim

Of course, whilst historically hailing from the Northern Rivers district we are a Bundy Ginger Beer family. 😀
Gaye and Wally

I can tell you all since Grandad does not read this blog. Today he is having a surprise party in the shed with all the workers. The workers all call him Poppy, which is just so different from Grandad. There will be a big BBQ lunch and who knows what else.

Happy Birthday Grandad.

Not Sundae today

It’s been an interesting last little while

The Kitchen, 179/365.
Dinner Time, 179/365

The Sails, 180/365
Sailing away, 180/265

This is it, 181/365
This is it, 181/365

Day 182 or My big trip to the Gympie area to check out Antique and Op shops.
The Lifeline Sunshine Coast sale at Gympie – the reason for the trip. I came away with a pair of jeans, a few tops, a cardi, a tunic and a few other bits and bobs.
All items $3.50

A canister set that I found adorable – they had one for oatmeal!!
Love this canister set

Isn’t the design on this wash set just so perfect?
Love this design

Fat Hen Creek, 182/365
I’m guessing the creek is full of super nutrients that produce fat chooks?
Fat Hen Creek, 182/365

Day 183, Lifeline bookfest and cocktails.
Fish Lane, I just love this for a street name, I wonder if at some stage there was a fish market here? Taken on the way back to the car from the bookfest.
Something Fishy

Sapphire Sunday at Libertine with Sam and Katherine.
A matter of what to say here. The cocktails were amazing, the food was quite good but the service was beyond belief.
Sapphire Sunday at Libertine

I do believe it’s Mango time, 183/365
I decided to walk home from The Barracks and stopped to smile at the squashed mangos on the road.
Mango, squashed, 183/365

Coro Drive, 17:48, 184/365
Coro Drive, Traffic, 184/365

A fold a day, 185/365
I’ve had this calendar on my Amazon wishlist for a while, imagine my delight when I found it amongst the $5 2010 calendars and diaries at Borders???
A fold away keeps the doctor away, 185/365

Supersize Loftkökur, 186/365
Supersize Loftkökur, 186/365

Contrails, 187/365
I was on the way to work and looked up and saw this :D, can you see the birdies in the bottom right of the frame?
Contrails, 187/365

Today is Friday! Yippea! We are celebrating Grandad’s 90th! Birthday tomorrow. It will be quite a bash, with lots of extended family coming. 😀

Have you seen this? – Love Project. I love it 😀

Old Spice, your number is up

Good-Bye Old Spice
Old Spice

When I moved out of home, I used these old jars to store my spices in. They were free, they matched and it worked.

Hello New Spice
178/365
New Spice, 178/365

Before Christmas I came across an auction on ebay for these pretty spice canisters. The auction was only for the green canisters but the lady added the blue ones as a treat. I quite like the green ones but I adore the blue ones!

The blue ones do contain what is named on the outside. The green ones though? Only the oregano one contains oregano. The garni one contains garam masala, the sage one has turmeric in, the rosemary one has cumin in etc. An additional upside is that they fit better in my spice box as well.

Other topics
I am having a great time discovering the 100 things we didn’t know last year over on the BBC site. I especially like #85, #63, #39 and #48. #48 was drawn on LSED today as well!

I would love a pair of these tights, I’m thinking the vein/artery ones, though I do adore just about all of them. So Quirky! A lovely change from the standard patterned tights.

I’m 24 and you think by now that I would have learnt that if you put hot water in a container, put the lid on and shake. The odds are very much stacked against you if you think the lid would stay on… The most recent demonstration of this phenomenon was on Monday morning, I was washing out my yoghurt container. Let me just say hot youghurty water all over the kitchen at work and all over my black dress…. Yeah great way to start the week Helen!