Polar Bears, Weddings and Gardens!

Last weekend turned out to be quite a fun-fulled weekend! Nat and Andre's wedding was on Sunday, and Clinton was a groomsman so we had to travel down for the practise on Friday.

Seeing we have a QLD pass to Seaworld we thought we'd drop by on the way. The Polar Bears are our favourite as is the Dolphin Show. It always amazes me just how willing the Dolphins are. Last time we went we watched the show twice. I love the Dolphins!!

Jumping High!

Swimming backwards!

Surfing on a Dolphin!

But the Polar Bears, well... they are just soo amazing! This guy had to be coaxed out, and also coaxed into the water but then he seemed to enjoy it. The underwater viewing was amazing.

Why should I wake up?Going for a dip!

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!

The other amazing part was being able to touch a stingray! They had a touch tank! I touched quite a few, and also a sovel-nose shark too! Clinton had to be talked into it, and freaked himself out! I loved the weird feel of it!

Shovel nose shark!

Trying to reach a stingray to pat.Clinton's friend.

Sunday was the grand-event! I forgot my camera, and ended up being in charge of the video camera! Was a truly beautiful wedding down at the Gold Coast. Here is a picture that I have "stolen" from Imogen!




After the huge weekend, we came back to work on our garden. We've been having lots of problems with crows eating everything, so we had to crow-proof the garden, as well as give it some shade. Here's the results of today:



We've got corn, silver beet and lettuce so far, as well as a few tomatoes that are coming up. Our herbs are doing really well too!

Here are my Carrots!

Gardens and Owls

We've been working on our garden since returning from holidays. We needed to put more soil into our garden box, dose it up with nutrients and get some seedlings. Generally, the yard needed a really good clean up too. Why? Rain. It seems that while we were away it actually rained, and rained enough to make things green and grow. Unfortunately this also included the weeds.

While doing our stock up on soil at Bunnings, Clinton hurt his back. So he's been out of action, which has left me to do a good bit of the gardening. I mowed for the first time yesterday. Yep, just as I thought, I hate mowing. I hate mowers even more though. They throw things at you, like rocks! Not nice.

With all the soil in, we've so far planted lettuce, silverbeet, carrots, some more herbs (seems our potplant family of herbs is growing rapidly), and some tomato seedlings. We've also got some snowpeas which will go in soon too.

Today is a rather overcast day, and perhaps this is the reason for our visitor. We've had one of his kind before, it may even be the same one! An Owl has decided the edge of our window makes a very good perch! The only problem is, it's the window right beside the kitchen table, and he look at you if you sit there! He's a big Tawny Frogmouth, seemingly very well fed.



We're currently working on trying to Crow-proof the garden. Rotten crows keep pulling up things, eating things, or just generally destroying things for the sake of it! Any ideas on crow-proofing a garden box???

A New Year!

Well, isn't it exciting, it's a new year. Welcome 2010 - i hope you'll be a good one!

We've had a lovely holiday so far. First of all, we went up to Agnes Waters for a few days. It was lovely. Poor Clinton was a little unsure when he first saw how small Agnes Waters/1770 is, but he soon warmed up to having a slower pace... We stayed at the Agnes Waters Beach Club which was amazing. We had a self-contained unit, which had an amazing little kitchen, as well as a huge balcony. To make things better, we were at the back, which meant we had a view of the bush and to our left the salt water pool. Mmm, that pool was lovely too, and it had a spa!!

We had a choice of either going on a LARC tour, or out to Lady Musgrave Island. Clinton choose Lady Musgrave, which was a lovely day out. The boat trip took a while to get there, and it was rather rough, but when we got there it was great. There was the pontoon where you could just sit and relax, a guided tour of the Island which included some local history, snorkeling (we saw a small ray, turtles, reef sharks and soo many fish!), lunch, semi-submersible, and coral viewing. It was really worth the sunburn! If you've ever up that way, it is really worthwhile going (http://www.lmcruises.com.au).

We then headed back down to Hervey Bay. Not as keen on this place. I thought we'd go all fancy and stay at the Mantra. Bad move. Our "King Size Bed" was two single beds pushed together... our "View of the Marina" consisted of a very smelly view of only half the marina and our balcony was the smallest possible size... our room was above the cafe downstairs which had live music until VERY late at night.... I wasn't impressed!! As for Hervey Bay itself, when it isn't whale watching season, there is actually very little to do!

We then drove down to Cooranbong to stay with Sonja's parents. Was a lovely Christmas. Got to see a couple of friends while we were down, which was really great! While down there we bought a really cool coffee table!

Our lovely "gift" waiting for us when we got home was a power outage... which resulted in a fridge full of off food that was putrid!!! Wasn't nice. We spend Friday evening cleaning it out, trying not to gag the entire time. Sadly we lost the top tier of our wedding cake, which made me rather sad. I know it's a rather silly little tradition, but still.... Second lovely gift was no hot water. The switch is broken. I do not like cold showers! Hopefully that will be fixed tomorrow!!!!

We're now working on the garden. Lots of rain while we were away, which has made everything green. Amazing! Going to have to put up a "crow barrier" of some description, because they're eating/pulling up everything we plant so far. We went to Bunnings to get some plants, and Clinton hurt his back trying to pick up some soil for our garden. So he's now flat on his back. Looks like it'll be up to me to get in and do some gardening!

Sorry!

We've been quite slack! Wow, last update was quite a while ago. Hmm, what has happened? Well, a lot really. Let's see:

• April 19 - We got married! Was a lovely weekend event spent with family and friends, with the ceremony finishing it all up on the Sunday.
  

• Our honeymoon was spent at Uluru and Alice Springs. Amazing places! Warm? Yes, particularly when wandering around during the day. Sonja has always wanted to see Australia, so it was a wonderful surprise from Clinton.

• June/July we took 15 kids to the Solomon Islands on a Sonship trip. Brisbane Adventist College and Darling Downs Christian School (Toowoomba) combined to take students across to do up the high school dormities during the afternoon, and kids clubs in the morning. We've already selected our 2010 team and will start up again once school resumes.
  

Kids Club

Painting begins

Finished product

Heat....

February 2009... what a month it has been already!

Bush fires in Victoria, and floods up north! Some of the stories that are being told cannot help but touch your heart. I hope that there is never another bushfire like this one. What amazes me is the response of Australians, and the rest of the world.


Donations are streaming in, banks are pledging $1 million, Coles are putting all their proceeds this Friday towards the need, people are opening their homes to the now homeless.



May we always remember this day, and learn from it.

Christmas Break

Christmas break this year was a busy one. We decided to drive to Melbourne... inland!

First major stop was Dubbo. By the time we arrived we were quite happy to eat tea and then crash. Next day was our adventure to Dubbo Zoo. It was good to see all the animals in large paddocks, even if it meant you always didn't see much of them. We learnt how to tell the difference between a White and Black Rhino, and that a White Rhino is a mis-translation of the original word "Wide" because of their wide lip. It was an exhausting day because of the size of the Zoo, but it is definitely a must-see!

When we arrived in Melbourne we spend time with Clinton's brothers and father, as well as their relatives. We traipsed around the City, went to Lygon Street, but no, we didn't see any gang wars play out. Clinton and Sonja discovered a second hand bookshop that they desperately wanted to relocate to Brisbane.


Clinton went to the Boxing Day cricket with his brothers and dad. While they were up really high, they all enjoyed it. Clinton loved watching Bay 13 and the antics that went on there.

Sonja went to Puffing Billy with her parents.
While up on the Puffing Billy adventure Sonja went and looked at the model train display. It was amazing! There were lists around the room and you had to try to find the objects in the different scenes. Every now and then the lights would be turned off, and all the house, street, shop and train lights would come on.





After Christmas Day, Clinton and Sonja went off with Sonja's parents to explore the Great Ocean Road. The scenery was beautiful, pity that it was windy, cold and rained on and off. It was interesting to read about how the landscape formed and continued to change. The towns were quaint and the things to see never ended. One thing that in particular amused Sonja, was these signs. She wondered how the tourists got to this point, if they were unaware that we drove on the left from the beginning of their journey....

It was then time for the journey back to begin. Stopping by Canberra gave us a change to catch up with Lachlan & Clansi and see a bit of Canberra. Clinton went with Lachlan to see his Lab. He took a whole heap of photos that I'm sure make sense to them, but perhaps not the rest of the world! We also visited Cocking Green Gardens, which was wonderful! All the small details amused us to no end!

Then we were off again, to Cooranbong this time. We left Clinton's car there and flew back to Brisbane to mow the lawn... well, to do some other stuff as well. Our poor little garden hadn't faired well while we were away. Brisbane had some very intense heat and not enough rain. We then flew back to Cooranbong to go to Clinton's housemates' wedding.

Peter & Karina's wedding was lovely. But, as all weddings are, it was a great excuse to catch up with friends. Our table at the reception had a wonderful time. It was certinally good fun! Apparently, Clinton is worse to hit than a Kangaroo, and Braden is seen to be an MC eater. Very educational! After the wedding we then flew back home.

Garden

We are developing a veggie garden at Clinton's place.

Stewart, Clinton's father helped build the structure. We looked around around at the garden beds that were already made, but none of them seemed that good. After a few pieces of wood and some black plastic we had our own structure.

Next came the filling. First went in a layer of tea tree mulch that expanded as you put water on it. Next, a layer of straw and then bags of potting mix. A friend got us some manure which we mixed in.

The potting mix wasn't the best quality, so we took to pouring on some liquid fertilizer, which seems to have done the trick. We have a worm farm, so we're able to add the 'worm pee' to the garden as well.

At present we are growing corn, capsicum, broccoli, beetroot, silverbeat and trying to grow carrot. We bought small seedlings for all this, except carrot. We got some seeds, and while we could get them to sprout, the heat would zap them before they could get any strength up.