Christmas is coming.

What a wonderful weekend we had here at Bellavista. We worked through the heat on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to complete the final structure of the Great Wall. Now its just a case of back filling and preparing the beds for planting. With the heat that we have had of late I am in no rush to plant but the next few weeks will be spent preparing the soil. No photos as yet. Its too dark and wet right now.

Yes, that's right....wet !!!!! It has been sooooo long since we have seen rain up here but the last three days have brought afternoon storms with accompanying rain. Only about 7 or 8 ml each time but at least I don't have to water and I am sure that the plants thrive better on rain than on any watering that I do.

Sunday and Monday, the winds that preceded the storms brought with them swarms of flying bugs. Huge beetle like insects. I was not quick enough to get out the camera but I doubt whether any photo that I took would have done them justice. On Sunday night, after the storm had passed, the Gorgeous Boy and I had to go out and remove a fallen branch from the electric fence and found the branches coated with the bugs....all making merry! I guess after surviving the strong winds and heavy rain, procreation was the next thing on their minds.... you never know if you will survive the next storm!!!!!! ;-)

Today, I began my preparations for Christmas. Since I moved to Australia over thirty years ago, I have never enjoyed Christmas in the way that I used to in England. My mind still cannot adjust to a hot Christmas. I yearn for crisp cold weather....where fairy lights sparkle in the night sky and you rug up to venture out Xmas shopping. Hot spiced wine with mince pies......oh, I could go on forever. Its just not the same. My Darling Husband is truly one of the best. One year he humoured me and lit a log fire in the fire place of our old house....while the airconditioner belted out cold air. Bless your heart Sweetheart ....it just wasn't quite the same.

The fact that Christmas has become so commercial and is being pushed down our throats by the shopping centres and the media from October onwards is also such a turn off. The spirit has gone.

For more years than I can remember I have switched off to Christmas....trying to ignore it until the last possible moment and then rushing around at the last moment to make it up to my family. The Christmas decorations were never put up until just a few days before the day, cards to family and friends barely got sent out before December 20th. Bah humbug. The lions Club always helped me out with their ever reliable Christmas cake. Yes...every year I promised I would make my own but would inevitably put it off until it was too late. Then Christmas day would arrive.......the feeling of love for all...peace on earth, would come to me. But crickey....forcing those roast Turkey dinners down were hard work while the sweat dripped off me. (I don't do...hot...very well!!!!)

Well.......I have done some serious thinking this year. Maybe, just maybe, I have been going about it all wrong. So..........



Its December 1st and my Christmas tree is up and decorated. I will go out this week and gather bits and pieces to make some table decorations. I have my Christmas cards ready (many purchased years ago and they never made it out the boxes!) and over the next week I will write out our family news letter and send Christmas greetings to all our friends and loved ones. I think I may even have some nice Christmas music to play to get me in the mood. I may even start doing some Christmas cooking. Mmmmm.



and......look what I have found today. I began this quilt over five years ago while I was living in Malaysia. It was a mystery quilt put that I together with the quilting group that I belonged to. Most of the hard work is done. All it needs now is to be machine quilted (if I attempt to hand quilt it....it could take another five years!!!!) and then I will bind it.

YES....its beginning to feel at lot like Christmas :-)

A moment to reflect.

Its been a busy couple of months. I can't believe how fast it has flown. A time full of family and friends, a time of ill health, jobs completed, some still to finish. It has been hectic to say the least but now it is time to slip back into a comfortable routine. Even the dog is exhausted with it all :-) He is laying under the desk as I take the time to catch up on all my favourite blogs. It feels as if I have been catching up with family news as I read back posts of my favourite blogs and see what everyone else has been up to. One common thread is that everyone else has also been busy with "life" and not as regular with writing so I don't feel altogether slack.

Mama completed her five weeks of teaching prac. and achieved excellent results. Well done darling....you worked hard for it. While she was teaching The Princess and I came down with the most awful virus with hacking coughs and no energy. Three weeks later I still cannot seem to shake of the exhaustion. As an asthmatic we were very worried about The Princess but with plenty of rest she was lucky to avoid another trip to hospital. Into the second week of being unwell, Mama and the gorgeous Boy also succumbed to the virus. I am not sure what our neighbours were thinking but the sounds coming from our house must have been awful. Still.....it is a thing of the past and we are all on the road to recovery.

During the past couple of months we were fortunate to have plenty of visitors to the Farm. Nods and Cherry and Lauren came to visit ( luckily before we became sick) dr K, Richie and his Mum came up for a weekend. My girlfriend of forty seven years came over from France and stayed for a week.

Gilli and I met when I started senior school and we have been friends ever since. She has been one of the family, to me, my brother and my parents. The sister I never had. She is a true and loyal friend. Months can go by and I hear nothing from her......years go by and I don't get to see her and then our paths cross and it is as if we were together yesterday. Mind you I think I kinda blotted my copy book this time LOL. I drove down to meet her at the airport......I hadn't seen her for around five years. As she got off the plane and walked towards me I was taken back with her resemblance to her late mother. The first words out of my mouth (and sometimes I have NO control of my mouth....it just works of its own accord ;-) )were "my God you look just like your Mum" Now I guess that isn't what every girl wants to hear and actually it wasn't quite true. She still looks like Gilli but it was that hint of something that I was not expecting. You know that as the years pass we will all age and change a little. When you see people regularly, you don't get to notice the change but it is still there. Your subconscious expects them to look as they did last time you saw them. It is that split second when your mind adjusts to the change. As I said ....my brain and my mouth are not always in sync.

It has been a wonderful week catching up with all that has happened to her and her extended family over the past five years. I have enjoyed the time so much....each day was as if I had seen her every day of my life and as I dropped her off at the airport to continue her trip down south there was no sadness, just the knowledge that when we next get together it will be as if she had climbed back into my car.......we will continue our trip through life !

While she was here, Gemini and the Great Dane also came to stay for the weekend. They have returned from their "round the world" cruise and I was keen to hear their news. With so many tales to tell I think we barely scratched the surface. I am sure there will be many more wonderful memories that we will get to hear about.

I am down in the city at the moment. Killing a little time while the Gorgeous Boy is at a business meeting. As soon as he returns.....around 7.30pm we will put Tiggy in the car and head up to the farm. We can't wait until the morning....we just want to go home. To wake up to the birds singing. No sounds of traffic and civilisation. Time to slow down again and smell the roses.

No photos today......just reflections. Tomorrow is a new day and I am looking forward to working towards finishing the "Great wall of bellavista"......thats one job that has been going on far too long....sigh

Still I gotta say........... "Life is good" :-)

I am back !

Its been a while since I have found the time to sit down and post. Some days I think that I just don't have the time to write anything.......always have plenty to say though ;-) Today I decided that it is better to be brief than not to write at all.

One of the reasons for being so tardy of late is that I am playing Mum/Nanna full time at the moment. Mama is busy doing her final prac for her post graduate teaching degree and I have offered to take over the reigns of her house to give her the freedom to "give it her all"! Five weeks commitment....two down and three to go.

This means that I am spending all week down in the city. The Princess comes over to our little Granny flat when she awakes in the morning and joins us for breakfast/showers etc and we head off to school. Then back home to clean both homes and work on the gardens until 2.30pm when its time to pick up the little one.......afternoon tea/ homework/ trips to the park...you know the story. Then dinner to fix for us all....showers and bedtime stories.

I am desperately missing my time up at the farm so on Wednesdays after I have drop her off at school I head up here to check on the chooks, water the gardens etc. Three hours driving for two and a half hours here in my little part of paradise. Am I crazy ? Yes.... but its worth it.

Friday I hand the reigns back to Mama and scurry up here as fast as I can. So much to do...so little time.

The GB and I are STILL working on the great wall. This weekend we have dug out another seven post holes. We always knew that this stage and the next one would be difficult for a few different reasons. One reason was that somewhere in the proximity to which the GB would be drilling with his trusty post hole boring attachment on his tractor was the main power line from the shed to the house. After some discussion with the builder it was decided that since we were only drilling 800cm and the cables were supposedly 900cm underground we would be OK. An added insurance would be the blue tape that covers the said cables. If we proceeded cautiously we would encounter this first. Hmmmm. I held my breath as he drilled, heart in mouth. Quite rightly so, it would seem.


The photo that I took shows that on one side of the hole are both the telephone cable (400cm down ) and the power cable (just under 500cm down) and NO BLUE TAPE!!!!! Fortunately the GB was using a smaller auger than was used by Tony the bobcat driver who dug the bulk of our other post holes. He was manually widening the hole when he encountered the cables. This was one of those days when I think we are just so blessed. I shudder when I think of what could have happened.

On that note I am off to bed to rest up for another busy week ahead. Hope I can get back here before too long :-) Night all.

Guess what I have been doing today!

Yup...there are only so many days that you can put this job off before you look in the cupboard and "ooops...not a thing to wear". Its been a busy few weeks, what with one thing and another. I have been able to keep up with the laundry but the ironing!!!!! Well, its just one of those jobs that begs to be deferred. I only iron the bare necessities nowadays but this pile took me most of the day.....there are a lot of tablecloths and napkins hidden in that there pile!!!! Oh...and the pillowcases!!!! Did I really wear all those pairs of trousers? What was I thinking ? Jeans don't need to be ironed....note to self......wear jeans more often. The poor Gorgeous Boy was running very short of business shirts....it had to be done.

I managed to do a few loads of laundry (and ironed all of those as well) before I called it a day. Tomorrow I am planning to tackle the "total house clean". After two dust storms in the past week everything....and I mean everything...has a fine coating of orange dust over it. Yikes......I have house guests arriving on Thursday and Wednesday I will be busy running errands and getting the car serviced. Do I feel pressured...sure do :-(


This is not a very clear picture but I took it on Saturday afternoon as the sun was going down. It was so hazy with the dust in the air that you could look straight at the sun and barely see it.

We worked all weekend on the "Great Wall" and I have to say, its looking pretty good. Next step will be back filling it. Will I make it in time to plant the potatoes on the full moon? Who knows, but it wont be from lack of effort!

I picked up a the October copy of "Gardening Australia" from the supermarket last week and it came with a free copy of "Choosing Eden". Written by Adrienne Langman, it tells of the journey that she and her husband have begun towards self sufficiency in preparation for the aftermath of "Peak Oil". It is a thought provoking book and in my opinion well worth the read. Here at Bellavista we are working in the same direction but I do have to say that we have not put half the thought and research in to it that she and her husband Larry have. One thing that I wholeheartedly agree with her is that we do need to skill up. Being a "baby boomer" I still remember how many things were done "in the old days" but there are areas that I need to learn more about. Just as well that my favourite hobby is .....learning new things :-) With this in mind.....I have spied another cheese making course coming up in this area. Tomorrow I will make a few phone calls and see if I can book myself in. Off to bed now. Night all.

Progress report on the Great Wall of Bellavista.

I can't believe its been so long. I really have been slack. I have so much to say (as always) but not much time to sit down and type at the moment.

Firstly.....The Great Wall of Bellavista......is moving ahead in leaps and bounds. It really helped that dr.K and Richie came up for the weekend and lent a hand. I don't think they realised what they were in for when they suggested coming up but they worked like little Trojans. The Gorgeous Boy and I had all the posts installed for section one......the longest run of sixty metres. The four of us spent the weekend putting in drainage, levelling off (the GB likes everything to be perfect....ah...so tiring!!!!!!) and laying the first two rows of planks along the entire length. We managed to do about twenty metres of two more rows and work ceased when we ran out of planks AND screws. Still, now I can at least get to work back filling the first twenty metres so that we can plant some more potatoes on the next full moon. My life has become a little Lunar of late....not that I don't run around like a "lunatic" at the best of times LOL!!!!

I do think that this latest project has been jinxed by the weather. I suggested to the GB that we begin the Great Wall well before the summer heat really set in. The first week we worked on it, we had a heat wave....hottest spring weather in years!!!!! What happened this weekend....the temperatures soared into the thirties again. This time with hot dry winds. What is summer going to be like this year!!!!!!!



This is where we were at before the weekend......I have not had time to take an updated photo. Tomorrow maybe!

Not much work was done last weekend as we went down to Brisbane and joined friends, on the Sunday, at a "street party" of sorts. Part of Albert Street in the CBD was closed to traffic and set up with tables for a dinner presenting Stoneleigh Wines. Four or five different restaurants participated and it depended on where you were sitting, what type of food you ate. We were fortunate to have an Italian based menu. Five different Stoneleigh wines were served, each complementing a different course.

We had a sparkling champagne style wine with the canapes while street entertainers wandered in our midsts. Then we were seated and dinner was served while a band played in the background. Our table was served

Anti pasta Platter with crusty bread
Sauvignon Blanc

Pasta with Calamari tossed with rocket and chilli
Pinot Gris

Osso Bucco with Mediterranean vegetables
Pinot Noir

Tiramisu
Oooops...by this time I couldn't remember what the wine was....must have been good!!!!

Cheese board comprising of local cheeses with rain berries

Some yummy little chocolate coated balls of something delish but it was getting late and the wine was obviously getting the better of me!!!!!!

The company was wonderful, the weather was fabulous and the entertainment was good. We did take some photos but none that did justice to the evening. Am I not just the slackest blogger!!!! ;-) The event was planned as part of the Spring Festival and I would certainly put my hand up to go again next year. If I am lucky enough to go....I will take notes I promise LOL.

Note to self........diet is not progressing well.....question...wonder why!!!!!!

How time flys.

When I sat down on Monday to catch up with reading my favourite blogs and write a new post of my own I saved this photo for the next days post but wow...its Friday again. Where does all the time go? This is one of our new orchids. I don't know its name......I guess for me, its not important to know the name....just to revel in the beauty. Whenever I walk past the fernery I spy this beautiful yellow bloom sitting right next to an everyday pelagonium. To my mind they are both beautiful, one for its delicate blooms and the other for the vibrant colour that just plain cheers me up :-)


Tuesday, I went on my computer early to send an email to a friend only to discover that I had been "hijacked" and someone had sent an e mail to all of my contacts....on the face of it they were just promoting an i camera. Was it more sinister than that or are we all just a little paranoid? Who knows, but for someone like me who is not particularly confident with the many uses that the computer has to offer, I was down right annoyed. I changed my password and phoned my "computer guru" down in the big smoke for advice. He suggested that I send another e mail to all contacts to warn them that the first had not been from me so that they could check to see if their computers had been "violated". Well that pretty well blew all morning. Do I have the time to waste cleaning up after someone has been rude enough to a) trespass on my private space on the world wide web and b)impersonate me for their own purposes. NO I DO NOT! Whats with these people? They seriously need to get a life of their own. Grrrr.

Later, I headed down to the city to babysit the Princess while Mama went to do a workshop and stayed down for a couple of days to get my computer "checked" and run a few errands. Its good to be back home again. Today, the Gorgeous boy and I resumed work on the retaining wall. Six more posts installed today. Hurray! It would have been more but we had to do extra work digging out the holes where rocks had diverted the auger on the bobcat. Poor GB was attacking the subsurface rocks with the crowbar and the sledge hammer. My puny attempts with the crowbar were nowhere near as effective but I do a good line in laying on my belly with my arm down the holes hauling out shattered rock ;-) We make a good team. LOL. I think (hope) that we are over the worst of it as the next holes seem to be quite sandy. We will find out tomorrow !!!!!

I had best go to bed to rest this old body 'cos who knows what tomorrow has in store.

The Eye of the Storm.

The last couple of weeks have been very busy and today is the eye of the storm. Peace and quiet reigns. Ooooh its lovely but I know there is more to come. The thing is....while its been busy....its been good so I can't say I regret a minute of it.

The Gorgeous Boy and I have been working on our latest project....the retaining wall. It took a while to line everything up. Measuring, moving fencing, ordering supplies and then the work really began.
Here he is with the trusty tractor leveling off all the rubble that had washed down the bank in the last couple of years.

We had to wait a few days for the bobcat to come in and drill around sixty post holes. It was too tight a squeeze to try and do it with the tractor. Then a day to shovel all that surplus soil back on the bank where possible until my arms became so sore that I found it easier to shovel it into a wheel barrow and barrow it out of the way.

The next day the GB levelled off the holes and lined up the posts while I mixed the concrete. We managed to concrete in place twelve posts. Three to four mixes of concrete per hole....it takes a while. Unfortunately work has been put on hold as the Gorgeous Boy had to fly out to Abu Dhabi on business.(or was it just to have a rest LOL!!!)

I used the time that he was away to spring clean the house as we were expecting a visit from a very dear friend from our days in Kuala Lumpur. During that week the bookcase that was being built for us for the lounge room was delivered and installed. Great excitement.

We are so pleased with it. It has been a long wait. It took me a whole day to bring over the books that had been stored in the shed....clean them up and arrange them on the shelves. We have a few spaces to fill!!!!! We could also do with a little time to sit and read some books !!!! but that's a whole other story! Since we plan to be here for a looooong time....I don't see any problem.

I picked up our house guest from the airport on Friday and spent the whole day and half the night chatting and catching up with all that has happened in four years. The Gorgeous Boy arrived home on Saturday. We spent a wonderful weekend taking our guest to visit mutual friends near Noosa and sight seeing and with more friends dropping in for pizzas yesterday. GB took our guest to the airport this morning to complete her journey to Kalgoolie to visit her daughter and family. So today was a quiet day up here at the farm. I managed to read two weeks of my favourite blogs that I haven't been able to get to and now I'm ready to get back to work.

We have had 6ml of rain so far today so I think the first job tomorrow will be fertilizing the vegetable beds and the citrus. Oh....and the retaining wall is waiting for us :-) Time to go and cook dinner. S'all for now.