A Return to Simplicity.

I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains Of ragged mountain ranges Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! This beautiful poem by  Dorothea Mackellar just about sums it up for Townsville now. Caught in the grip of a severe weather system. A couple of months ago we were suffering through a 7 - 5 year drought, on water restrictions ( which are still in place, ha ha) and getting a new pipeline to supplement our water supply from the bigger Burdekin Dam!  Now our dam is at over 190% and still filling! With every meter of water that rises in the dam, the further they raise the floodgates with potential flooding downstream! Having lived all my life in this region I have seen this often. Sometimes yearly in the small sugar town I grew up in. Our house would flood every year! Flooding was always in the back of our minds when we moved to Townsv...

 It doesn't have to be a new years resolution but inevitably there are some jobs that start out as such. Like cleaning out the pile of recipe books from Coles and Woolworths. I can't take all the blame for collecting as my daughter also collects these for me as well! This is not the first time I have cleaned out this type of magazine and after each frenzied episode I start to gather again. I say to myself that I'm not going to collect these as there are a myriad of  recipes on the net and pinterest. So with the intention of going through the mags and saving just the recipes I might cook,  I set about making a new folder cover in which to store these gems! Now I could have made an easy one like the folder above, but I need to trace and stick and applique then sew before I am satisfied! I can't take the credit for the idea as it came from Jennifer who is also making a folder cover, although her cover is for patterns and sewing. You'...

WOW! It's the beginning of another year and I really don't know where the last one has gone. I've been a little preoccupied with health, home and employment matters much of last year. Having had major surgery at the end of 2017 laid me up for a quite a few months with a gradual return to work for the next 6 months. Somewhere in your mind you think that it is holiday time and you plan all of the things going to get done! Well that's not exactly how it happened with 2 trips a week for rehabilitation and feeling weak and unable to return to normal life for a while. I guess it has taken a good 12 months to recover and get back to my old self. My oldest brother also passed away from Bowel Cancer in August and although we had about 3 months from diagnosis it is still difficult to reconcile this loss in my heart. I spent many a wonderful day with him in hospital and not one to skirt the hairy issues of death and dying we had interesting conversations on the matter. I ...