March

I have to admit, I have been thinking of closing down this blog as I don't think most people are interested but this morning I received an email from my sister saying that she reads it and she's reading up on older posts too and she likes it and is proud of me. Well, how can I stop now?! 
So I'm doing a recap of a busy month and as I have promised many times before, I will try and update my blog more regularly.

When I came home last month, Steve had already cleaned up all of the damage around our house which was a big relief. During the cyclone the locked sliding tour to the Patio got taken out of its hinges and luckily wasn't damaged or caused any damage.

Two large terracotta pots with trees were lifted up and smashed against the retaining wall.

But compared to the damaged the poor people in the following pictures experienced, we got away with only minor damage to the yard and no damage to the house which was a big relief.

Can you imagine how hard the wind must have been howling to bend the metal poles like that?

This house is ocean frontage - every second house looked similar to this. Just glad that no one got hurt.

We booked a few days on Keppel Island late last year - well before we knew about any cyclone. First we thought we couldn't go but we were assured our cottage was in good condition. This is our little cabin we lived in for a few days of pure relaxation. It was so nice!

We walked every day and went swimming every day - the water was cool but not cold and the marine life around the island is beautiful.

This is one of the staff cabins which the cyclone destroyed. You could clearly see the impact Marcia had on the island but it was still beautiful.

We indulged in daily cocktails - a tradition I want to continue when I get home. Maybe not daily but have a weekly cocktail, that would be nice. Sometimes, it's just the simple pleasures - it doesn't take much to mix up some juice with some alcohol but you just feel special, so why not feel like on holiday more often?

This was the view from the Pub/Bistro. We had a great deal which included breakfast and dinner with our accommodation. I loved having breakfast with this view!

Yes, I tried ALL cocktails. The first one was called 'The Hideaway' and was my favourite. This one is a Pina Colada which is one of Steve's favourites (and the one we had at home and at our friends place when we visited).

What a romantic dinner setting - no wonder we were so relaxt.

This is George. He came every morning to pick up his breakfast.

We went on wonderful walks and I'm looking forward to show this island to my Mum and my Sister when they're coming over for our wedding.

A Curlew - one of my favourite birds. I love their sound.

Endless peopleless beaches - how wonderful!

There were thousands of butterflies everywhere we went. I tried to film them and also I thought I moved my camera slowly, I obviously didn't. If you get dizzy quickly, don't watch this!

But every holiday comes to an end and we went back home. As Keppel Island is on our door steps, we will go there again in the future.

 

In our case, when one holiday is over, another one begins and we went to Brisbane to visit our friends. My friend and I went to a Craft fair for me to get some basic supplies of my new hobby. After spending the morning shopping, we enjoyed the view to the Brisbane River ...

... and a yummy lunch. What a great day it was!

On the weekend, we tested out the new boat our friends bought.  

The men are fishing...

... and the women are drinking. Perfect!

But if we don't catch anything, we need to go and get something, so this is our lunch/dinner. It was very tasty!

Of course once we eaten, we caught something but we let that one go again.

It was overcast and a bit rainy but a nice change to the previous hot and humid days.

See the smile on our faces?!

But we also had to attend some business for our wedding. We met with the celebrant and arranged for the ceremony. I was looking forward to strolling around Montville but the weather made it cold and rainy, so we just went for a drive.

We stopped at the Maleny Pub for a couple of drinks and the dragon and the roster were fighting about crumbs on the ground. Too funny!

On our way back, we picked Hera up from the kennel and she and I were happy to spend the rest of my R'n'R together. 

Our yard is full of Magpies and I do like them as they sing so beautifully. The Magpies eat the food our birds chuck out so it's a win-win situation: I don't have to clean up and the Magpies get fed.

Everything is nice and green from the rain and I love standing on the veranda of the chook pen with my morning coffee and just look around.

As I come from Germany, I never thought I would say this but I love autumn! The air is cool and crisp and it's not hot and humid anymore. The sky looks beautiful and it's time to plant the winter crop.

Steve created me a gardenbed around the chookpen, so that I can get the chooks in after harvest to prepare the soil for the next crop.

The Lorikeets love the 'Golden Penda' Tree and eat all the sweet nectar. It's flowering early this year, they normally flower in winter.

I have never seen this bush not flowering but still - every time I look at it, I have to think how beautiful these flowers are.

I need to plant more succulents into our desert garden. Maybe next R'n'R.

The plants in front of our entertainment area have grown and now I can start taking some cuttings and establish new garden beds.

The hedge in front of the house is slowly forming.

Sunny & Stormy are happy and chirpy as usual.

"Are you talking to me?"

And this is how Stormy looks like when he complains.

And my potplants look magnificent as well

I'm not just feeding the Magpies, the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos also like to come and pick up their food. They're pretty demanding and often eat the entire week's food ration in a day. Also I love having them around, this has become too costly and I have on of those Grandfather feeders on order.

I have also ordered some fabric to make colourful cushions for our entertainment area.

Our alfresco dining area with the beautiful table runner my sister gave me for my birthday. The birds look like Stormy.

When I come back from work I normally have a sleep here as I've been on the go for a long time. And in the afternoon I sit in my rocking chair and read. I call this my serenity corner.

Steve's Bar which we will upgrade sometime this year.

I love this entry. It's a shame, we never ever spend any time in there as it's such a beautiful room. Makes me even more happy every time I come home.

Our colour scheme: blue/green with splashes of gold/yellow/brown and red. Works so well for us.

Our kitchen extension we got in November last year comes in handy for my new hobby. Now I not only create food there but I also use it for cutting of fabrics. Perfect!

Our kitchen is now nice and spacious.

The total opposite of what it used to be. It's got heaps of storage and I still have lots of empty shelves - mainly the top ones as I'm way too short to reach them.

Our dining table decorated for Easter. I always say "Let's go to Cologne for dinner" which means he have dinner on this table.

We only use our living room to watch TV. I guess it's so beautiful outside, we try (and we do) to spend most of our time out there. Plus it's QLD - the weather is always perfect!

I've re-decorated my bedroom table and every morning I look at this pic, I look forward to wake up in my bed again.

The soft green and blue hues are calming and just pretty to look at.

There's some work going on at home as well. Steve decided to get another shed for our caravan. So a gigantic structure was built.

A few days after we came back from Brisbane, I fed our birds and discovered 2 brown eggs underneath a bush. Easter came early for us! One of the French Marans got out while we were away and she must have eaten the bird food and created herself a little nest there. How funny!

And this is our new 12x8x5 m shed. We will use it to store items we hardly ever use as well as the caravan and trailer - both which we need to purchase first... I know this is not very frugal but I guess, we will always be able to use it for something. We will put solar panels on there and get watertanks installed. Even if later down the track we don't travel anymore, we might be able to use it for my horse.

Steve is looking forward to his new projects: building a retaining wall, a path, a garden, getting 2 x 25,000 L water tanks installed and get solar panels on the roof. Well, I better keep working...

I have to say that the shed has a nice view! Future visitors might like to stay in the caravan which gives them a bit more independence - and that view.

Steve's new garden around the pool suffered a bit from the cyclone but I hope the plants will recover and keep growing. It's such a lovely gardenbed.

The chooks love their run and reward me with beautiful eggs - either white from the Leghorns or dark brown from the French Marans.

I planted another Mulberry Tree in the new chook pen. I have to also plant another lemon tree as I heard that they're the best trees for inside chook pens and you can never have enough shade for the poor chooks who suffered badly from the heat this summer.

Everything just looks so pretty after the recent rain.

My Mum and I planted this Hibiscus when she was here in November 2013. She'll be surprised to see how much it has grown when she comes back this year.

Quentin's memorial tree is also growing nicely. He guards the property just like Quentin did.

The apple tree also looks good.

I have changed this gardenbed to a herbgarden for now. The conditions are perfect for herbs and they're easy to pick.

And look at the Nectarine tree! It looks great and I hope for some nectarines soon.

The new shed looking up from our garage.

Early 2014, I got this laundry installed in the garage. First I was unsure if it was the right decision to install it here as it's away from the house. But it's between house and clothesline, so it's easy enough. I'm so glad I did it! I just love this space! I only have cold water connection but I got a kettle just around the corner to boil water to make up cleaning products, wash large items like the oven trays. It's a really handy laundry!

The Magnolia will produce large fragrant flowers we and the bees can enjoy.

Now the new shed is finished, we have a new view from the Pool.

I still remember when I took my Mum to look at this house after we signed the contract. She was horrified. But I guess Steve and I we had a vision. We bought this place relatively cheap. We had the area around the house concreted, installed more water tanks, connected rain instead of bore water to the house and renovated bathroom and kitchen. We build the garage and the laundry as well as the chook and dog pen. Steve created beautiful gardens and I created a beautiful home. I absolutely love this place! We still have a few visions and we want to do most of our project now where I'm working so that in about 10 years time when I'm planning to retire, everything is exactly how we want it to be, it's easy to maintain and it's not going to be costly. But until then, we keep improving.