Easter @ Warwick...

Leon and I packed up the car and drove out to Warwick for part of the Easter long weekend. Leon's sister and brother-in-law (experts in hospitality) gave us a bed for the night. My nephews and niece are growing up fast and this trip gave me plenty of opportunity to photograph them. The camera loves them...

On Saturday we went to the Warwick Easter Markets to spend some money and then out to Girraween National Park.

Girraween is amazing. I really want to go back and explore some of the longer walking tracks. The granite boulders are HUGE and the landscape is really different to other bush walks I have been on in south east Queensland.

All in all we had a great weekend....(Kathryn, thankyou so much for having us stay at your place)

Camping at the dam...so fun...

We went camping at Moogerah Dam with family and friends last weekend. Fun was had by all in spite of the magpie and the cold nights. It was Kathryn (Leon's sister) and family's first camping trip in the new camper trailer and our second camping trip in a fabulous tent. The other people with us were seasoned campers.

We went kayaking on the lake, ate yummy food, played volleyball, tried slacklinging again (and decided that I should give up trying as it really hurts) and did a bit of star gazing. The kids also got chased by a very territorial magpie that only attacked children.

I forgot to pack our sleeping bags so we had to wear layers of clothing to bed and borrow blankets from friends. It was a great weekend and I look forward to more camping trips this summer...

Cheese, Chocolate, Pizza and Brisbane Festival...

The Brisbane Cheese Festival was on a Hamilton's Portside last Sunday. Being rather fond of cheese, Leon and I were waiting in anticipation all week for a taste of all the lovely cheeses on display. With wine for me and apple cider for Leon, we wondered around the stalls tasting yummy cheese and trying to decide which ones we wanted to take home. We ended up with a lovely washed rind cheese, marinated feta and a mature vintage. All very good!

After cheese we discovered that Max Brenner had opened at Portside. So it was time for coffee and chocolate. We shared a yummy, rich choc sundae...chocolate icecream, melted chocolate, choc waffer balls and choc brownie....sooooo good. ( So hungry as I write this.)

In the evening we went to Southbank for the Laser Light show and all the other festivities. We had yummy pizza for dinner and sat on the riverbank and watched the light show.
On the whole it was a lovely day out...

Mel...

P.S. I just found this post that I was going to put up last week...opps

Top of Town, Ipswich and Sunday Sport...

Leon was off to climb Mt Warning in northern N.S.W on Saturday so I decided to spend the morning exploring the Op Shops in the Top of Town Precinct in Ipswich. Oh what fun...I love a good Op Shop forage and the Top of Town feels so festive on a Saturday morning. The people of Ipswich and beyond all come out for a jaunt in the coffee shops and boutiques that line Brisbane Street.
There are four Op Shops in the Top of Town and several more within a 5 minute walking distance. My favorite is the Hospice which also has a secondhand book shop next door.

In the Old Flour Mill across the road from the Hospice is a Vintage Boutique full of awesome vintage loveliness...

It has lots of vintage kitchenware, ceramics, jewellery and books.
After exploring all of the Op Shops I stopped in for a coffee at the new shop on the block, Urban Pantry. The coffee here is really good, the service is great and there are lots of lovely products for the pantry to buy.
It was a lovely way to spend the morning.

On Sunday, we were off to the St Lucia campus of UQ for Leon to play Volleyball in the Corporate Games. I watched him play for a while and then found my way to the Co-op Bookshop and the Wordsmith Cafe. They serve Campos coffee here, probably my favorite coffee in Brisbane. I had a coffee and spent several hours in the Bookshop, I love this bookshop. This bookshop and Mary Ryan on Park Road, Milton are my most favorite bookshops in Brisbane.
On the whole, it was a lovely day and a lovely weekend...
Have a great week,
Mel
(P.s please excuse the overuse of the word "lovely", can't be bothered rewriting...)

A visitor or 3...

Last saturday I had a visit from my sister, my baby niece and my sister's sister-in-law. We had a fun time catching up and remembering the good old days...the days when we were footloose and fancy free. After a cuppa we headed into Jindalee DFO for lunch and some shopping.

Our first camping trip...

I have been desperate to go camping for ages so when a friend suggested a weekend camping trip I jumped at the chance. We went to The Gorge which is less than 10 minutes from Aratula, South East Queensland. Leon and I could only stay 1 night but the rest of the group had 2 nights at the camp site. It is such a beautiful place to camp. There is a flowing creek that you can swim in or kayak on. You can set up your tent right on the bank of the creek. Our site was a little way back from the creek as we had children with us.

Leon and I bought a marvelous tent about 5 years ago and we finally got to use it!! Upon using it for the first time, we decided that a smaller tent would be good for weekend camping trips as our big 2 room tent was too big for overnighters. We also discovered that even though we have never been camping as a couple before, we are remarkably well prepared when it comes to camp equipment.

We all had so much fun swimming in the creek, sitting around the camp fire chatting and eating really yummy camp food.
On the way home we went to Moogerah Dam and went for a swim and cooked up all of our left over food for lunch.

Such a lovely weekend...

Mel

Weekend Diaries...

We had such a great weekend. So full of fun, friends and all round frivolity. It started with dinner at a friends place on Saturday night. We ate a delicious dinner and caught up with friends old and new. Then on Sunday it was off to the beach after church. We met up with 3 other couples and their kids at Tallebudgera Creek on the Gold Coast. The creek was so nice to swim in, a great place to take young children. After a swim, we went down to the beach front and a friend of ours set up his Slackline so that we could try Slacklining. It was soooo much fun but very hard. You have to keep your balance while the line is moving all over the place. I fell off about 15 times and have a huge bruise to show for my efforts. After everyone else had taken their kids home Leon and I went for another swim in the creek to get all of the sand off us. The tide was coming in and it was raining but the water was beautiful. It was clear so you could see the sandy bottom and the water was a lovely dark greeny blue colour. It reminded me how much I love swimming. I really should get back into swimming laps at the local pool.

Have a great week,
Mel

The Herb Garden...

I spent most of this weekend at home working on the garden. The weather was so nice and it was lovely to be outside. I decided this year to move my herb garden up next to the house so it is closer for picking herbs while I am cooking. In the past I have grown my herbs in a fridge down next to the vegie gardens.

(Converting a fridge to be used for a no-dig garden should be done by a licenced Refrigeration Mechanic. My husband is a licenced Refrigeration Mechanic so he checked to see if the fridge needed de-gasing and helped me remove the element off the back. We then drilled holes in the back of the fridge for drainage. )

This year I will use the fridge for salad greens. At the moment I have a healthy tomato seedling growing in the freezer section. It came up on it's own so I don't know what type of tomato it is, I am hoping it is a cherry tomato. They seem to do alot better than bigger varieties. Last spring I had a beautiful crop of tomatoes growing but with all the rain we had they got some sort of fungal disease and I had to pull them all out.

I planted a mixture of culinary, medicinal and tea herbs in my new herb garden. I planted some leek seedlings and marigolds as well. In an old rusty wheelbarrow I planted some basil, chives, peppermint and marigolds.

In this garden there is also a tomato seedling that came up out of the compost so I am trying a bit of companion planting with the basil, tomato and marigold.

Happy gardening...Mel

Weekend Diaries...

I had a great time away with some of my closest friends this weekend. We went to the Queensland Baptist Womens camp She is...

I had been looking forward to this camp since last year's camp. I wasn't disappointed. It was a great camp with very timely and practical bible teaching. I also had a great time away with my friends.

The camp was held in Mapleton, on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Such a beautiful place to be.

This photo is actually taken from Montville but you get the idea. We spent Saturday afternoon in Montville shopping, drinking coffee and generally having a good time.

Until next time, Mel...

Weekend Diaries...

I thought I would start to keep track of all the things my husband and I get up to on the Weekends. We always seem to be heading somewhere on the weekend. About a month ago we went out to Mt Cotton to visit the Sirromet Winery and two weeks ago we went for a drive through Brisbane and ended up at the Brisbane Powerhouse. We got to the Powerhouse just in time for some free live music and a lovely glass of wine from Bar Alto.

This weekend we were back at the Brisbane Powerhouse for the album launch of an awesome A Capella group The Idea of North. This group is amazing. I like all kinds of music but I'm not a big concert goer. Having said that, I really enjoyed the show.

Sunday afternoon was spent at Portside Warf, Hamilton at the Merlo Coffee & Chocolate Affair. There was lots of coffee and chocolate on offer as well as cupcakes, fudge, brownies and live music.

The Blue Sky Coffee that I had was really nice. I like strong coffee and this coffee was stronger then the other one that I tried. I have quiet dreams of doing a Barista course one day, then I would be able to do pretty patterns on the top of a coffee like this...

After exploring all of the coffee and chocolate stalls we enjoyed some perfectly cooked calamari and chips and listened to Firefly, a jazz trio.

We finished off the afternoon with fresh strawberries dipped in belgian chocolate...very yummy.
Hope you had a lovely weekend...Mel