weekend holiday

well it's all we've got time for at the moment! fungus took part in the Mt Coot-tha Challenge, a 70km organised bicycling event which started and ended at Southbank in Brisbane. We decided to all go and spend some time in the "city". we stayed at the Royal on the Park, which i so recommend. we've stayed here before because it's directly opposite the Botanic Gardens, is an easy walk to everywhere, parking, late checkout at 1pm for an extra $10, and has 2 queen size beds in the deluxe room. fabulous. we played in the park, met cousins for noodle dinner, and slept like babies in our big soft beds. then the kids and i walked down to the ferry, one stop to southbank, a short walk and we were at the museum. bliss for both kids and me too actually. we had some reasonably priced and ok food in the cafe and made our way back to the hotel to checkout and drive the hour home. oh so civilised. the kids were amazingly amazing, and i'm quite keen to do it all again very soon.

sunflower

the first one has popped open, we watched it gradually open all it's petals over the weekend. and there's still one to go. i can't imagine how uplifting it would feel to gaze over a field of sunflowers, i feel ecstatic over just one :)


i guess i picked a bad summer to...................purchase the long-wanted outdoor furniture. we've had so much rain that i've put it under the roof at the back of the house. it's a little like an IKEA showroom now. it was sublime when it was spread out on the deck, umbrella shading the diners, and we took our dinner out there every night. oh well, we can still take our dinner out every night, but there's just the garden to look at instead of views of the gum trees.

we're at home today, preparing for the very edge of the cyclone hamish currently sitting off Mackay. we've got high winds and heavy rain predicted later today and for the rest of the week as it tracks down the coast, so i'm just packing away toys and balls into the laundry and moving some pots around. plus sasha has a bit of tummy bug and is having a quiet day too.


fortunately she has made it to the garden, the bush path at school, and the bowl each time she's been ill. what a smart girl!

rain and sunshine

before i can turn around each weekend, the garden goes back to looking like this. rain and sunshine - throw seeds, stand back and watch them grow. these sunflowers were mere seeds in a packet 4 weeks ago. the flowers are just appearing - not that we'll be able to tell without a ladder.

there were many more seeds planted, but our roaming bush turkey chick scratched them up before we could shoo her away. she was searching for a nest site, and we definitely didn't want her to choose our garden (for those that haven't seen a bush turkey nest, it's a bare mound that can be 9 or 10 metres across. kinda dominates your garden.

and those are "tumbling cherry tomatoes" beside the sunflower trees. lots of flowers already. again, planted 4 weeks ago. i should dig up the lawn and feed the neighbourhood.