3 Towns, 1 City, 2 Days!

We were invited up to a friends place at Toowoomba. Toowoomba is a beautiful inland city, just gorgeous at the top of the Ranges. A two hour trip and it feels like you are in another world. No sooner had we arrived than we were off to Crows Nest to visit the Antique center.

Meet Jimmy Crow! Jimmy Crow lived in a Gunyah (aboriginal house) which was made in a hollowed Fig Tree. He used to wait for the ox trains to come through and would update the cattlemen on the goings on in the area. The area became known as Jimmy Crow's Nest which was later shortened to Crows Nest.

This is, I believe, a reproduction of the original Gunyah but the kids thought it was pretty cool.Its almost the middle of Summer here and there has been a huge amount of rainfall which has kept the gardens beautiful and green. These lavender were at the entrance to the town "common" for lack of a better word. It was gorgeous circle of lush grass with a concrete path the whole way around which the local boys were having a great time skating on. Then there are sandstone beds and arches of wisteria all topped off with a small fountain in the middle. The most amazing thing was that UNDER the grass was a 360 000 litre tank which earnt the town an environmental award and $1 000 000 in funding!

We then decided to enjoy yet another drive to the sleepy town of Esk. The drive was exhilirating with dense forest, wild lantana (which is a pest but smells soooo good) and the flowering Pattersons Curse.

We arrived at Esk and this is the view of the towering cliffs that surround the town. It is just beautiful to see, you can easily look at the lichen on the cliff face.

Every small town out west has monument to servicemen who have lost their lives for their country and Esk is no exception.

I jokingly told Tony that this was his new stud cat! Freaky looking find at the Antique store.

As we left the weather began to close in with towering thunderheads filling the sky. The clouds were beautiful but only the smallest amount of rain fell.

****

Day two and we got a phone call to say that we were able to go out to our friends farm, which is what we were looking forward to. Mile after mile of cotton, corn and sorghum, all in brilliant health, as far as the eye could see.

This is our friends sorghum. Still a month or so off harvest but the heads have flowered and are about to set seed. When it sets the seed heads become deep red with the resulting seed. Its an awesome sight, especially as the sun sets.

My kids had a run in the cotton fields. Its only baby cotton at the moment but will be allowed to grow until its hip height. Then it will get sprayed to arrest the growth and to encourage it to send out more shoots for more flower heads which will become cotton. There was cotton all over the ground from last harvest and Caitie was especially amazed as, being a city kid, she had no idea where her clothing came from.

The farm cat, Biggy. She is pretending to be dead and doing a very good job of it I must say! As you can tell by her trimline figure there are heaps of mice and rats for her to feast on. More importantly there are a heck of a lot of King Brown snakes out there which are the most fearsome of the Aussie snakes as they have no problem in chasing down anyone that hassles them!

Lunch at Pittsworth was lovely. A loaf of bread, some shaved ham, silverside, cheese and some choccie chip muffins, all washed down with orange juice.

Aiden being a goober and trying to be cool...it didn't work.

Conor being a dag. Pull out a camera and he starts to pull faces.

Again, we are in the middle of summer and the town common in Pittsworth had the most beautiful roses that smelt absolutely divine!

Caitie posing.

Conor posing. They don't get this from me.

The town map showing places of interest. Might consider another trip out to visit some of the weirs and river crossings.

And finally, my lot decided to hide out in these spruces. I daren't tell them that they are usually full of paper wasps. Made a good photo though!

And from there we headed home. The trip was long but worth it. We came home after two days and felt like we had been away a week. It was short break that we needed. Oh and we restocked the shop at Esk.

Cin

PUTT PUTT!

School holidays can be a trying time, especially when there are five of us to please. I took the initiative today and sent us on a fun filled morning where we played 18 holes of Putt Putt Golf! Scary looking bunch aren't we?

Caitie is very competitive but was super excited when she got two hole-in-ones!

Conor will always be the baby of the family so often gets a chance or two but he too got a hole-in-ine which was no mean feat on this course!

Aiden is our comedic child and enjoyed himself immensely! And got a hole-in-one...are you seeing a theme???I actually love to play Putt Putt so it is NOT surprising that I got a hole-in-one!

My darling husband did NOT get a hole-in-one so it is fair to say that the Putt Putt gene comes from my side of the family! All in all we had a lovely morning topped off with a lunch at Macca's.

More adventures are on our way, we are heading up to Toowoomba on the weekend.

Cin

Christmas Fun

I had been eyeing off these gingerbread men at Aldi. I finally decided to buy them and the kids and I had a great afternoon designing. To make it a little more challenging, each of the kids and myself were given someone else to design for and we had to make the gingerbread look like them.

This is my effort, it is for Conor. These aren't your ordinary cookie men either they are around a foot long!

Caitie concentrating on getting the icing in the right spot.

Aiden loved using as much icing as possible.

And Conor of course just had fun!

This is for me, created by Caitie.

Conor did a great job of Aiden.

Aiden used a lot of icing for Caitie.

And our verdict was a two thumbs up!

Family Pics

Its been awhile, I know. The above photo is how I found Aiden the other night. He is still hilarious. Comes out wearing boxer shorts the other night telling me he's cold. So he was going to put on some socks! uuuhuh!

Just thought I would share some of the pics I took for my parents Christmas present.

C

Piece of My Heart

I don't make friends easily. In fact I can count my friends on one hand. I'm too shy, too weird, too quirky for most people. So when Tony and I moved into our small house together I think I needed Di as much as she needed us.

Di was a high school teacher. She was passionate about the kids and teaching. She taught me to sew and to cook things I would never cook. I taught her how to make packet gravy and how to laugh at herself. Together Tony and I taught her to not take herself so seriously. Tony corrupted her on her 30th birthday, which was the funniest thing I have ever seen and shall remain a closely guarded secret. We had water fights, tickle fights, Tony and I broke into her house and rearranged her home and labelled everything with post-it notes. She stole our car and pushed it down the road all by herself. Di welcomed us into her family, we played cards with her and her mother Ann, we had barbeques with her family and celebrated the births of her niece and nephew.

She was my best friend.

She took the photos at our wedding and held me as I cried over the appalling treatment dished out by my Mother-In-Law. She celebrated the births of our first two childen with us. Aunty Di was known to yell at them just as loudly as I did when they didn't clean their rooms. She smuggled Baskin Robbins icecream up to my hospital bed the night before I was due to have cancer surgery. We laughed and joked so much she got kicked out.

All Di wanted was a family and we celebrated with her when she finally nabbed the man of her dreams. We then grieved with her when they found out that he couldn't have children. I remember working at the shop one day and she came in and told me she was pregnant...with TWINS! I was so excited. Jessica Ann and Lily Grace came into the world but Jessica wasn't strong enough and went home as an angel.

It was about this time that we drifted apart. Life took us in two seperate directions, she to be with and start her own family, Tony and I to continue with ours. We rang occassionally, we caught up, we moved on but we always knew she was there.

***

The phone rang one morning and Tony groggily answered it. I remember he sat up and spoke a few words then hung up the phone. He looked at me and said, "Di died this morning..." I couldn't and still can't believe it.

Di and her husband Charlie were expecting their last child. Di had suffered a miscarriage previously and this was their last attempt to expand their family. She went into labour and excitedly told Charlie to get her Mum and said to him, "Our baby is on its way!" Charlie went and got Ann. Ann came into the bedroom, her eyes met Di's and Di passed away.

***

I attended her funeral with the largest amount of people I had ever seen. The church was full, the seats outside were full, there was standing room only. In only a few short years we had gone from blowing bubbles at their wedding to mourning the loss of a beloved friend.

I still grieve to this day. I will be driving and a song will come on the radio and I tear up. I can't listen to Vanessa Carlton singing "A Thousand Miles" without losing it. I have to turn the radio off. I hurt, my heart hurts and I wonder why God took her back. I was so angry at Him for such a long time, not only for taking her but taking her unborn baby. That smallest of coffins made me so angry. I think of how much she is missing, all the Mothers Days, all the Birthdays. And it breaks a little piece of my heart every time.

Di, I love you, I miss you, I never got to tell you how much you mean to me.

C

Tiny Babies and Huge Obstacles

It has been the hardest first week of my life with these wee babies. Two days in and they had all rapidly lost weight and Mum had very little milk. I was devestated. After having my four previous litters challenge me in every way, I was ready for an easy one but its not meant to be.

These babies are all being sup fed, taking 5ml each on top of Mums milk every time they feed. I don't get to bed until 11.30ish and get up twice a night. I'm tired but can see the results in that after a week we are almost back to our birth weights.

And to just put the cream on the cake, our choc silver has turned out to be a lilac! Fingers are crossed that everything works out. Its still early days. They have all hit their first milestone and thats to be alive after the first week.

POP goes the Devon

First though, a confession. I had no idea when Titch was due....cause I didn't write down what date she got mated. This is quite unusual for me because I am quite anal about that but she got mated twice. 2times....two....and everyone knows that queens need to be mated at least four times to produce enough hormone to encourage them to release their eggs. ( at least thats what I read somewhere LOL). AND Titch didn't pink up, there were no pink nipples. So I quite wisely deleted the information and forgot about it until she was roughly six weeks along and was quite fat!

That being said though, she remained a bit of an enigma and dug her bed and pretended to have contractions some two weeks before she gave birth.

Last night she was sitting beside me when she gave an almighty push. She gave no other signs that labour was imminent. I organised her crate and sat quietly beside her as she continued to move forward into full, active labour. The first baby was born, a lovely torbie bicoloured baby. Mum seemed more concerned with her own welfare rather than her babies so I quickly took over and revived the little one. Her brother arrived some ten minutes later. He was coldish blue colour with a silver sheen which had me stumped until he dried and became a chocolate silver tabby.

Around an hour later, number three arrived with her Angel Wings intact. She never took a breath, no matter how vigorously I tried to revive her. For anyone who takes breeding lightly and is in it for the money or for the joy of their children experiencing birth? Hold a dead kitten in your hand and marvel at its perfect but stillborn features. Yes, I shed a tear or two because this little one never had a chance.

An hour later number four popped out and is either a cream or white male. At this stage Mum settled down but still had some very strong contractions. By 2am I was quite concerned and bundled the new family up and flew to the vet. It cost me $165 to walk in the door and a little over $110 for the vet to tell me she had a tummy full of food! Cow....(gr)

Home by 3.30, in bed by 4am and now absolutely cactus.

SO...here are our stats.

Torbie girl- 70gr

Choc Silver boy- 90 gr

Dcd girl- 90 gr

Cream boy- 90 gr

A big litter alround!

Mum and her babies, settled in on the heat pad

The wee munchkins after their first bed change.

Now,if you will excuse me,my bed is calling!