The Farm is where we head of course!
There was a big morning tea with pineapple dip of course as well as all the other usual suspects. Oh I do love a plate of Jatz and a bowl of pineapple dip!
There was washing up to be done.
And the Christmas Tree. The tree was actually in the living room but I carried out to the turf to take photos…. I love this tree. I found it on Ebay for $9.95, I carefully waited till the last minute to place my bid, hoping no one else wanted it as much as I did. No one else did and it was mine for the starting price. Let me tell you right now, I was prepared to pay a lot more than $9.95! A quick drive to Ipswich and it was in the boot of the car. It is made in Italy, I guess in the late 50’s to early 60’s. It is a little over 6ft tall and is a combination of white, silver and clear tinsel. I’ll have to take a close up photo today when we go to the farm as it actually have leaf shaped tinsel mixed in as well! There are a few of the little white pine cone branch tips missing but oh when the light catches on the tree doesn’t it looks amazing!
The wind of course picked up when we went to take photos, (hence why we are holding the tree) and the sun wouldn’t stay out for long hence why there is sun in Mum’s photo but not in mine.
160/365
It was just a few little knick knacks under the tree, I got a candy thermometer, Matthew got various fiddle toys, the kitchen got an oven mit etc.
It was roast veal and veggies for lunch which Matthew was cooking. Whilst we waited, Grandad put his legs up (of course) and Mum and I went down to the Black Flat to explore and take photos.
Then it was time for lunch (lunch round 3pm of course). Bon-Bons with silly jokes and trinkets inside, roast meat and veg, gravy in the Christmas gravy boat and of course dessert. Plum pudding, trifle, flummery, jelly, custard etc etc!
Then you guessed it, time to wash up again!
That was Christmas at the Farm 09. Who knows what next year will bring.
Photos from Days 21-29.
I’ve been to the farm, to work, to play, to the airport, to my parents, to my home and many places more!
Crazy Duck in the Roma St Parklands, 29/365
This morning it was Brown Owls and whilst in the park waiting for the others to arrive I was visited by this bird.
Seam Sealing the tent, T-20hrs before departing for Mongolia, 28/365
This morning Mum and her two sisters along with three or four others headed off to Mongolia for the next three and a bit weeks.
Waiting for the future to come, 27/365
Sitting on a bench in Adelaide St, waiting before I went into see the prosthodontist.
Not our pick-up, 26/365
Thursday night, Mum and I went to pick Susan up from the airport. These two drivers waited and waited and waited for their pick-ups to come out of the gate.
All done at last! 25/365
Ekka Wednesday. Oh so lovely to have a mid-week public holiday. I spent the morning cracking pecans, I finally finished my allotment of pecans from Granddad.
Oh Yeah Transformable Tomas, 24/365
A few weeks ago Karl, sent me a link to this picture. I couldn’t get over how cool it looked. A look at ebay a few days later, a little $$ later and I now have my own Transformable Tomas.
Catherdal Square flowers, 23/365
This is by no means the best photo but every time I walk past this flower bed, I wonder if anyone stops and picks a few flowers? The flower bed is at chest height and it looks so tempting.
Squished, Dry Cane Toad, 22/365
We were going to pick up the avocados and passion fruit and I noticed this squished dried out cane toad and just had to a little photo 🙂
Oh little bird in the yard, 21/365
I don’t mind the birds when they stay in the yard, like this one here. When they cross the border of the deck and try to come into the house though, that I don’t like.
At the moment I am watching Dr Rosemary Stanton on Ethical Eating. Over the past few years I have enjoyed reading editorials by Stanton and she is a very very good presenter. If I see a public lecture from her in Brisbane I will be going! I have to add again how much I love ABC Fora, I have listened to some very interesting presentations over the last year or so.
Today, I woke up at 6ish but dozed in bed till 8ish, so luxurious! I popped into work for a while to pick some stuff up/drop some stuff off and say hello to the reservists I don’t normally get to see during the week. I also visited the RSPCA opshop at New Farm and picked up a Le Parfait jar and some crochet doilies for the grand total of $3. Then it off to Flannerys to stock up on rolled oats. Then Ikea called.
I have had a clothes rail for my wardrobe for the last 7 mths or so which I have kept covered with a dark doona cover to keep my clothes dust free and stop fading. I said enough is enough today. I had been umming and ahhing between a few different ones the last few nights on the net. Looking at them today I decided on the Aneboda. I also picked myself up a bookcase, a Billy of course. Looking at them now in my room, I love how they melt into the white walls. I also bought my first Ikea fabric, this nice orange one, which I am going to use to make curtains for my book case. Tomorrow I will have to take some photos. I still have bits and pieces to put away but it looks a lot more roomier now. Also tomorrow I have an SES fund raiser to attend, washing to do and family to visit!
Two photos to share.
I took this photo back in April one rainy afternoon at The Farm. I love how the rain drops.
And sharing my Food Connect box from last week, I had fun this time arranging the fruit and vege for the photo.
On a sad note, I finished watching The West Wing the other night. It has taken me about 6 or so weeks to watch all 7 seasons and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have laughed my head off at times, wept at times, shaken my head at others and at others just absorbed the drama, the wit, the speeches. And this quote from In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II
We went to The Farm (as we do) yesterday and I had a glorious time basking in the sun, taking photos and reading. Matthew cooked a veal roast, which was quite a treat. Grandad has two pecan nut trees planted in the lawn and currently they are in season so to speak. Each week I methodically work the lawn picking up the nuts. Yesterday I made a heart with what I had collected.
Whilst I was collecting the pecans though I got a little side tracked though taking photos. These are the photos I took.
This is the Fried Egg tree otherwise known as Gordonia. It is named as such because when the flowers fall to the ground they look like eggs sunny side up.
Aren’t they so pretty?
Then these balloons caught my eye. They are from Christmas Day, when the trees were full of streamers and balloons. This trio had long lost their air but had stayed hanging on a branch, fused together in the sun, swinging in the wind. Then I pulled the branch down.
Between the two pecan trees is an African Tulip tree, it is also flowering at the moment.
This is my hand and the sky. My fingers look quite slim and long for some reason in this photo.
I know Mum will hate this photo when she sees it when she returns from Africa. I was laying on the grass looking at the world upside down and out of focus and took this photo. I strangely like it.
One plant that I closely link to The Farm is crucifix orchids. A large mass of them grows on a tree stump outside the kitchen window.
This is Matthew, yes that is true, a photo of Matthew. He was on the lawn finding the strongest wireless signal. He didn’t know I took this picture. 🙂 He is in his final year of uni this year and had dived into this honours year.
This little frog gave me a scare as I was putting stuff into the car, he jumped from the tree, over the top of me and onto the bonnet. He was such a little darling of a frog.
This photo is from the week before but I will share it today. The passion fruit vine at the farm, is not just on some joe average trellis or fence, but it runs wild over the avocado trees, a gum tree and some other trees in the same patch of land. These passion fruit grow high in the canopy, metres off the ground. When they are ripe or a wind has gone through, they fall to the ground below, finding little homes in the leaf litter till they are collected.
Oh what a day that was.
There was rain, sword fighting, food, laughs, food, turf adventures, swimming, french cricket, food, water fights, lots of photo taking and generally just a fun day.
Matthew and the girls came in my car for the trip to The Farm and oh what at trip that was. Seven odd weeks later, I still think of that trip with a smile on my face.
As has always been done, you take a selection of your Christmas presents to The Farm. Matthew took his gas mask and the girls took their SuperSoakers. The journey was spent with the gas mask rotating between the three of them and scaring/getting a laugh out of other cars as we drove past. It was classic.
The Christmas Table.
Even before I started suggesting “Christmas at The Farm 08” I had wanted to have a meal on a long table with a white table cloth out on the turf or under the pecan nut trees. This Christmas I had that long table with white tablecloths.
Another thing I had been thinking about for a long time was having my glass hurricane vase, filled with glass baubles filled with beads. Christmas Day, saw the girls and I sitting on the floor of the garage filling the baubles and trying not to spill too many beads on the floor! Once they were filled though they looked gorgeous!
One of my other ideas was a large stack of pinecones on Mum’s 21st platter. Al and Ash collected the pine cones for me a couple of days before Christmas but come Christmas Day, I left the platter at Mum’s. Instead the girls had fun wrapping the pinecones with ribbons etc
After morning tea, it was time for the Christmas Tree. There were a few silly gifts given between families as well as the regular gifts intra-family. One of those silly gifts was from Karl and I. When we were in K-Mart getting presents for the girls we saw these foam swords and went “sweet” We bought the four that Chermside had in stock and then when I went to Toowong, I emptied their shelves and got another eight – one for all the grandkids and two extras in case of damages or if partners/wives/the girls wanted swords as well. The foam swords ruled the day.
Once the sword fights waned. It was time for French Cricket. For Christmas, Matthew and I gave the girls a Kanga Cricket bat and ball as they had loved playing French Cricket with us. We only gave them the ball on Christmas Eve and had planned on putting the bat with their stockings for Christmas morning, however I forgot to put the bat out so I wrapped it and took it to The Farm. But! I left the ball at home, so we used a tennis ball. We used to play a LOT of French Cricket at The Farm when we were younger. I don’t remember Grandad playing it when we were younger but Grandmum always did.
French Cricket with eighteen odd players is one hell of a game. When one of the boys got in, they would field out so they could slog it and then get in nice and close when it was one of the girls. It was all fine till James slugged the ball into the sweet potatoes… We only had one ball. That was a good sign though that it was time to start getting lunch organised.
The table was re-set, the BBQ was lit and the snags were been turned and then it started to rain. Luckily, it comes in pretty handy to have a large shed round the corner and with plenty of people it is easy to just move the entire set-up.
Aunty Susan and her girls (and Ian) had made the bon-bons for Christmas Lunch. Inside each of them was a gorgeous beaded Christmas ornament, a scratchie and the other usual goodies
After lunch we had a Turf Tour with Max
The girls were total posers and had a great time posing for photos of each other sword fighting on the turf.
When the Turf Tour was over, we retired to the front lawn to prepare ourselves for dessert. For some this meant more sword fighting
comparing hair length
or just having their photo taken
Dessert was a treasure trove of yummy food.
Trifle from Erica! Plum Pudding from me! Pavlova from Lisa! mmm so much dessert.
With our stomachs filled with sweet treats, a realisation came upon that the light was not going to last much longer and we had not yet taken the family photos!
All the family minus James who had gone visting
We know how to fight
With the fall of darkness, Iceland, Mum and Pabbi returned to Brisbane. The Howie kids, Karl, Matthew and I moved onto The Block where the Williams were staying to chill out in the pool. We had a lot of fun making whirlpools (walking in single file round the edge of the pool as fast as you can) and hypothesising why it is that some people get more pruney than others in the water.
Christmas Day was the highlight of what was an incredible Christmas season and I am looking forward to the next big family Christmas when or wherever that might be.
I spent this morning cleaning the windows in my room, they were filthy. First I scrubbed, then I scrubbed again and a rinse and then a polish with the window cleaner. Now I have windows that I can bear to look out of. I also managed to get rid of all the cardboard boxes as well, my room is now looking quite homely. I didn’t get my ironing done though, that will need to be done in the morning I guess nor did I get a chance to tackle the stove in the kitchen. I am slowly cleaning my way through the house.
One downside of new house is that I am now in high possum area and said possums are eating my lettuce (not that I can eat lettuce now anyway but I have been giving Mum and Matthew picked leaves once a week). I have moved the pot so it is now beside the kitchen stairs where there is more light at night so I will see how that goes.
When I was cleaning my windows today the resident Scrub Turkey came for a visit as well (yes my street has a resident Scrub Turkey, I tend to see him/her at least once a day). So cool.
My room has picture rails so when Mum and I went to Bunnings yesterday I picked up some picture hooks and wire. I was so excited then when I got home and tried them they didn’t fit! I was devastated. I was sooo looking forward to using the picture rails. At the moment I have some of my foam core mounted photos and LPs propped up on the picture rails and my framed pieces wrapped up beneath my bed.
Once I had cleaned and cleaned some more it was off to Mum’s and then off to The Farm. We have crumbed fish and veg every time we go to The Farm for dinner but tonight the fish tasted even better than it normally does. We also spent time counting the linen to make sure Grandad has enough to house the NZ contingent as well as other general planning. Man oh man I can’t wait for December! Only nine sleeps to go till the first of the outer towners arrives!
