My first Probus walk (as leader)

Five members turned up, I hope the last one didn't put them off, cos that was one of mine too!
The first bit needed a bit of cutting back blackberry brambles so I was well organised with my secateurs. Then we came to the bridge to nowhere (yet) and here we had a little surprise for Daphne as it was her birthday. Couldn't afford a birthday card but a toilet roll, duly inscribed with greetings, bought a few laughs and we even managed to obtain the help of a passing dog walker, who took the photo for us.
The walk took us along a brand new footpath which follows the new stretch of by-pass which skirts Kingston. So it was new territory, very pleasant, and 6 km was the whole circular walk and took us two hours.

Today was a pink and blue sunrise!

If its not zucchinis it's tomatoes!

Tomatoes have been good this year, but what a lot of work! I've made tomato sauce, tomato relish, sundried tomatoes and now passata! Can't complain too much though, not too much effort involved here, and best of all, NO sugar.

I washed 'em, roasted 'em with garlic and herbs, moulied 'em then bottled 'em. Not a lot to show for nearly two kilos of Roma tomatoes.

Kaffeeklatsch

Nobody likes having their photo taken these days so here is a photo of the delicious Torte that Gisela made for last Friday's get together.

Alfred Wainright 1907 - 1991

And this is Alfred. Now read on.

Blencathra Lake District

I have just been looking on the net for more details of Arthur Wainright and found loads of images, including this one of yesterday's walk. What a fascinating can of worms I have opened. I am going to enjoy my armchair walks!

Wow I have just emailed a walk up to Scafell Pike

to Germany! I wonder if Heidi will get it!

I have been enjoying this series, which I came across quite by accident, and am I glad that I did. I always wanted to walk in the Lake District and this week I have already done three, last night it was Blencathra, otherwise known as Saddleback. This is a great series, almost makes up for having lived in England for 50 years and never having had the time.

There was a bloke named Wainright who wrote the most fantastically illustrated book of walks, his walks, which he loved with such a passion, and if you saw these you would agree, they are incredible, the scenery is so beautiful but the going looks very hard, you have to watch your feet as the way is very rocky.

I wonder how much walking Heidi did when she worked at Holiday Fellowship in Derwent Bank all those years ago. I hope she will be able to watch the video and enjoy it as much as I have.

The Milford Track

I had seen this walk on TV some years ago when we were still in England.   It was on a programme detailing the seven most famous walks in the world and I always wanted to do it.   So this was my opportunity to achieve my ambition.

This was the hard bit, the zig zag track up to the top of the McKinnon Pass, although coming down the other side was equally hard and sorely tried every muscle in my legs, so much so that it took days after to get back to walking properly.

When we got to Milford Sound I went up in a helicopter and we landed at the top of the Sutherland Falls, the next photo shows the magnificent  view down the valley.

Just look at the view down that valley.

 

The top of the McKinnon Pass!

 

I made it!

 

This is a blast from the past!

Don't we all look a bit younger?

This it what I came across this morning!

Bloomin' big roots, probably from the nearby camelia bushes. But they were not going to defeat me. With some help from Ken, the pruning saw and a couple of other "aids" we managed to get rid of as much as we could so now I can think about what to put in this nice sunny north facing position. Last year the sweet peas did well, but they grew all over the place. Maybe we will put some trellis up and train their wandering ways.

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to Line Dancing we go

With a basket full of lovely fresh produce!

Turk's Turban!

How's that for the name of a pumpkin?

This was one of our mini sales days at the local OPH. The produce looks good enough to eat but the pumpkin on the left we could have sold ten times over. Novel, isn't it but it worked, they came to look, and sometimes we made a sale.

My new desktop picture

is this beautiful but burnt Casuarina tree down at Dunally.

Wonder what makes this dahlia the best in Show?

Another day of total fire ban

It's not as hot as yesterday but it is so windy. There are bushfire warnings coming through on the radio. We are staying home and I am spending the time looking up book recommendations from a friend that I can get on Audible UK. I am listening to a good story at the moment, it is about a Welshman from the Rronda Valley who had an allotment. I am really enjoying it as it combines tips and tricks about growing vegies with some good old memories of growing up in South Wales near where my dad came from and where we used to spend our long summer holidays with my Auntie Florry in Pontardawe

Hope it will be cooler tomorrow.

Latest acquisition - just watch it grow!

Out with the old and in with the new! After a bit of googling we set out to find a bamboo which would be OK indoors and just hope this Himalayan Weeping Bamboo will thrive with us. The stand is just temporary, hope Tim or George will make me something a bit more interesting until it grows enough to stand on its own (two feet!)

Boo hoo!

Sybil died!

I finally decided I could not sit through another Midsummer murders so we turned over to Downton Abbey! Some of the characters looked familiar from years ago, and soon there was not a dry eye at no 28!

I was going to wait till my number came up at the library, as Heidi ordered it for me, but I was about no 96 so I guess unless they have a few copies I will be waiting for quite a while!

Whilst on the subject, we went to The State yesterday to see Anna Karennina. I am not sure what Ken thought of it, the costumes were great but the peculiar Theatre setting was weird, imagine the smell if they really had had that horse racing scene indoors! Trust me to get down to the basics!

It's up!

My succulent picture was ready to hang so Tim came over and put it up on the wall. It looks good and it will be interesting to see how it goes on over time.

Healthy lunch?

How's this, homemade sourdough toast with tomatoes, basil and garlic, drizzled with a little good olive oil, yum, now off to the community garden, it's Monday, although at the moment nearly every day is garden day as there are always things to harvest and not enough of us to do it!

It takes a lot of Roma tomatoes

to produce a few dehydrated tomatoes, but at least it is not so labour intensive as sauce and chutney making!

Thank you Mr Lovell

Wonder if he was looking down, watching me dig up his potatoes!

We have been here a year now, he has been dead about the same time, and still his spuds are alive and kicking!

I think I have got them all out now, but wait for next year, there are bound to be more "volunteers"

Bugger I still didn't get it right.

So read the next three posts in reverse order, then it will make sense. I give up with Google, I am sure they make it difficult on purpose!!

The flower show

Bit disappointed, no little old lady streaked in and and got first prize for dried arrangement!
Remember the joke about the two little old ladies sitting outside, one said to the other "life is so boring these days, for $10 I would strip off and run in there, just for fun." The other lady promptly produced $10 and off she went. Then the lady outside heard clapping and out came her friend, beaming all over and said "Guess what? I got first prize for dried arrangement"

But the flowers were beautiful, I would hate to be a judge, how can you chose one over all the others? The church was beautiful too, they had taken out all the pews to make room for the flowers, as they had lost their hall.

Lunch

We had lunch in the Riverside cafe where I had last enjoyed breakfast with Heidi when she was over last year. This was not affected by the fires and payed its art in feeding all the hungry firemen and workers who were helping out after the fires.

I had a very nice Parmesan tart filled with blue cheese and caramelised onions, with a beet root salad and Ken indulged himself with a seafood pot pie, all washed down with a local pale ale which had been brewed in the bottle.

We sat outside and had a pleasant time watching the activities on the little marina there.

Dunally bushfires

Today we decided to go down to Dunally, to the Dahlia and Gladioli Flower Show which was being held in the church as the Hall was completely destroyed in the recent fires.

When we got to Forcett we began to see the complete devastation, on each side of the road and far up into the bush, it was all brown. It must have been very frightening when it was all happening.

Even though we had seen pictures in the newspapers, taking our own photos really brought it all home to us.

Yesterday's Probus walk

was from Conningham beach to Legacy Beach. There were eight of us, I think a couple of them thought it was a bit of a testing walk, be interesting to see if they come again!

This is what happens if you forget to put the SR flour in!

So I had to do them all over again as it was Ma Jong at our place today.