Way Out West

We took off for a road-trip out west of Ipswich last weekend to have a look at land and daydream about living in the country.

It's amazing that within an hour's drive of the Brisbane CBD, you can find places that seem a lifetime away.

Like Marburg, where the antique dealer leaves his stock on the footpath all night. (This photo was taken about 8am Sunday and the shop was locked tight). Crime obviously isn't much of a problem in Marburg.

 

And then, on the way home again- having decided that a farm west of Ipswich perhaps wasn't quite our place in the world-  we drove via Lake Manchester and Kholo and eventually found our way to Upper Brookfield. This little mountainous suburb is part old farm and part goat track up into a mountain range, with a liberal smattering of overgrown jungle, wildlife reserve, and derelict farmhouse thrown in for good measure.

There's even a gorgeous little primary school.

Of course, I really want to live there now.

More photos? Why didn't I take more photos? I will go back and take more photos.

Upper Brookfield, you are my latest obsession. I hope I can find a way to make it work between us.

Olloclip

Since getting the olloclip, I find myself grabbing flowers from people's hedges and flowerbeds (so sneaky) while out walking, whisking them home and then spending great chunks of time trying to get a good angle.

It's quite addictive.

Here's this morning's effort.

 

A Photographic Round-Up

I got an email today from the lovely E from Dig In and she mentioned this thing called a 'blog' and for a minute my brain was hunting for an insight into what that word meant... and then it all came back to me.

And I felt INSPIRED.

So here, without further ado, is a bunch of photos from my iPhone masquerading as a blog post. I got a little toy called an Olloclip, which is great. You clip it onto the iPhone and it adds various lenses--macro, fish eye or wide angle. The wide angle and fish eye I can take or leave, but the macro is great.

I've been using it to record flowers and plants...

In other news, it's starting to warm up again now and I've become overwhelmed by the urge for COLOUR and plenty of it. I really hate the cold, as I am reminded every Spring when the first balmy breezes of the season waft through the house and I remember again why I moved to Queensland to begin with.

Then I go and sit on the back deck and stay there for the next eight months.

Lucinda is growing bigger by the minute, speaking and singing and generally morphing into a girly girl before my very eyes.

Dan's make-shift veggie patch is yielding some not-so-makeshift results. We're hoping to try the first lettuce next week.

There has also been road trips and night trips and parties and plenty of social time lately too. After mourning the loss of my social life for a while, I now just permanently keep a port-a-cot and sheets in the back of the car. Every weekend of late, we've headed out and about to friends' homes around the place. Lu, token child of our group of friends, runs around parties showing off until she collapses happily into the cot -- where she conveniently dozes until morning while Mummy and Daddy have a glass or two (..ahem...) of wine with friends and then collapse into a spare bed.

It beats the 10pm babysitter curfew.

The gal on the go...

Oh, the places you'll go...

Now, bring on Summer...

Bits and Bobs

So, I'm having a go at Molly's Maison Bits and Bobs challenge (gathering?) today. 

Look, it's not great, but it's a first go and I was running late for work this morning. Next week will be more creative.

Here, in all its glory, blue thread!

Timberiffic

Something comes over me when Dan goes away.

I become project-crazed. Determined to fit as much into those hours as possible and seeing a window to tweak and arrange things to my tastes without his man-input. Manput, if you will.

I remember hearing once about a mother who lifted a car when her baby was stuck underneath it. That's what I become like when home alone. Superhuman. I can lift couches with my pinkie fingers. Arrange whole rooms in an hour.  And, in the case of this weekend, paint three coats of decking oil on hundreds of metres of timber, with a baby strapped into a carrier on my back.

There's still a lot to do, but we definitely made some good progress.

 

A Party

The weeks are just flying by so quickly at the moment. Last week was Lucinda's first birthday, which we celebrated with friends and family on Saturday. 

Now, it's nearly Saturday again. Dan's away for a few days so the bub and I are holding down the fort. It's nearly 10pm on Friday night and I've just come inside because, for some reason (possibly involving half a bottle of red) I decided to oil the outdoor furniture and some decking tonight.

I have no idea why. Oil is really hard to apply neatly in the dark.

I will post some photos tomorrow (unless it looks disastrous). We have  a lot of thirsty timber in this place, so I've got plenty of work to keep me going until Dan gets back.

She arrives...

Look what arrived today, delivered up the stairs with a waft of leather scent in her wake...

I pulled the plastic wrapping off and carefully slid her into her new spot... Only to notice she didn't have any feet on.

So, yes. The feet are on their way separately apparently. Footlessness aside, I think she is settling well into her new place.