Big Blue Storm Sunday 16th Nov

Yesterday afternoon (Sunday 16th November) we had a phenomenally large blue storm rip through the south east of Queensland. Areas from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast were blown apart with the worst areas hit including Ferny Hills, Everton and The Gap, with Canungra having BOM reports of a tornado which is really not surprising when you see the footage of rotating blue clouds and high winds and hailstones.



I was at home with the kids on an extremely HOT day - due mainly to the high humidity. After Jessi got sunburnt having breakfast out the back at 9am we decided the UV was too high for us to be out in it. At about 3-pm we went outside to rejig the chicken pen and this is when we sat out the back and watched the "mothership" roll over.

TV Newsroom Floods - Severe Storms, 16 November, 2008

YouTube playlist of footage from this storm.(15 plus videos compiled into a playlist)

News galleries | Storms ravage southeast | News.com.au
(This next image made it to the storm gallery)

Gustfront moments later and its getting dark here

The radar image just as it passed over us...


Kaetys Picasaweb Gallery of this event


Map of the damaged areas























Marty Pouwelse Storm Pics & Storm Report



David Finlay's images for the storm

froz posted this footage of the Seven NEWS storm experience

The other day whilst I was out taking the twins to daycare my partner Darren took some amazing photos of a pair of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos, I am posting them now so I do not forget!

Settling in

Well, the move is done. We still have a garage full of "stuff" we are yet to sort through but we are in! We had a good move if its possible thanks to help from my client Brisk Transport who's wonderful boys helped us move and Box N Go who provided amazing moving containers so we didn't have to pack and move everything on the last day!

We are settling into our new house nicely and discovering how lucky we are to have gotten this house. Living on the Esplanade although we aren't "on the waterfront" as such we are just 200m or so from the waterfront section with beautiful grassy areas and fishing spots. We all walk or ride our bikes daily along this section which leads to a brand new bike path which connects us to Bribie Island and also Turners Camp beach/park.

Ali and Angus (two of our best friends) came over last week and we all rode down to Turners Camp and the boys had a great time, concluding at Turners where we stopped walked along the beach and saw oyster shells under the tree there. On further investigation and reading of the monument we discovered that there are oyster leases just off the beach! Talk about a good fishing spot!!

Just down the creek from us Darren saw a fish skeleton at a local groyne. (click to see) The red thing in the pic is a keyring for scale.

For the first time in at least 12 months I actually feel inspired to paint, mosaic or create! Yay lets hope it lasts!! :)

more soon...

Relocating my family..

Considering how to move a family after 4 years and twins (also 2 teenragers moving in and out) so all in all 5 kids, 2 adults and 3 furry pets plus chickens!

oh my where do we start?

Our wonderful house owners (no sarcasm there- they are wonderful and our friends) informed us that we would need to find alternate housing. Due to the current real estate market dictating that they needed to sell their best investment which was sadly our home!

Despite the situation it put us in, and the initial shock of uprooting, I quite quickly came to terms with the reality and started hunting for houses - our future home.

We looked for 3 weeks, viewing and previewing more than 100 homes some of which were less than appealing! Others that were lovely or had character flaws i.e. close to main roads, no backyards, or just plain tiny.

Eventually we found a street of new (argh) yes new! houses and we looked through 5 or 6 before coming upon the BEST house in the street (to the chagrin of our new neighbours who got the house but missed out due to the owners paperwork messing up or something).

Maybe at this point I need to point out, that despite my virgo love of order and function, I have never been very fond of the idea of a new home as once you move in any "indisgressions" in the building i.e. crayons, dings, fingermarks, red cordial etc. become your problem or in this case, our problem. Despite this "issue" I have with new homes, this house had everything (well bar 1 option- gas stove) that we wanted in a family home.

Honestly, it is obscene, for the same price as a little renovated cottage in our previous area, we now have, a 4 brm plus study. With double car garage, huge yard, loungeroom, dining room, modern kitchen, 2 bathrooms (one is an ensuite) walk in robe, pantry, laundry and umm, oh yes, side access!

Strawberry fields forever?

Let me take you down, cause I'm going to ... strawberry fields...

We needed something to keep the kids occupied and relieve Darren and my own stress of a long few weeks.

Declan had remarked - in fact begged me for strawberries in the fruit shop, and being $5.99 a punnet in the second week of June I thought - why don't we take the kids on a trip picking the local strawbs!

So on Saturday after a phone call to check that the rain had not destroyed all the local crops (indicated by the price at the fruit shop), we packed the van full of kids, boots, spare clothes, snacks and other supplies and headed for Eumundi markets and the strawberry fields near by. Sadly after a snack at the markets and a quick look about as it was nearing closing time (1pm-2pm ish) the strawberry fields were closed thanks to a rain shower.

None the less I bought a couple of kilos of strawberries and we handed them out to the kids and then headed for the fields near the Ettamoogah Pub.

These are named "Strawberry Fields" and it is about $15 a kilo for the strawberries in the organic pick your own patch. Luckily they also offer pre-picked seconds and "thirds" or jam grade strawberries at a cheaper price. ($15 for about 2 kilos)

So we picked about 1.5 kilos so the kids could have their fun and bought home about another 2 or more in jam strawberries which are now topped and cut up to be frozen, smoothi-ed and eaten of course!
The kids had the best time and revelled in being free to eat such a sumptuous fruit without being restricted!

Not only was it a nice day out for us all including Jess (17) but also a great way to show the kids about how their food is grown and where it comes from.

The strawberries were so good - and still are. I think we will be returning there within the next 2 weekends to buy /pick some more as we all love the fruit and what better way to spend a quiet and relatively cheap day out for 6 people (less than $12 each including food and strawberries of course!)

Festival of Sails 2008

Well belatedly I am uploading images from the fantastic day we had on Good Friday at the Festival of Sails. Every year there is a Brisbane to Gladstone yacht race and Redcliffe participates by holding the festival of sails. From Suttons Beach you can see the floatilla and enjoy Easter Bunny dropping from the sky to a sunsoaked beach.
Live music, artists, performers and rides all top off a feast of food, sights and sounds which we look forward to every year! Click on the slideshow on the right to see more!

Jacarandas to go?

New farm parks historical and gorgeous Jacarandas are being hacked to pieces due to them being unsafe!

I hate the thought that such natural monuments to time and history have been neglected to the point where they are dying :(