Greetings from Western New South Wales

Sorry about the long delay in posting - I have been at my daughter's in western New South Wales for just over a week now.  Our youngest daughter is here too, so all six grandchildren are together - a rare treat for Peter and me to enjoy.  


I have no minis to tell you about.  I did a mini bookcase with Kylie's two boys, Cameron and Luke (9 and 5) while waiting for Kirsten and the other four kidlets to arrive last Sunday but we haven't done anything else together yet.  We will be doing some mini books to go into them but it appears it will be after the other family leaves on Monday now, because they are all being very good keeping themselves well occupied and I have run out of ink for my printer at just the wrong time!  It is half an hour's drive into the nearest larger town where I can buy some more cartridges and I haven't had a chance to do that.


 I have done a little bit of mini petitpoint (for long-overdue gifts) in the evenings, but haven't been able to finalise them yet.  


So I thought I'd just let you know what is going on, and say 'hi' to you all!

If you want to see what I'm up to.....

Believe it or not - I have yet another new blog lol! I'm keeping it for our holidays.  Not the long trips like the one around Australia, just ordinary holidays.  And you can find it here - I do hope you will visit and join.


Of course I'll be doing minis on the trip too, and I'll post about those on this blog.  So I'll still be around, on both places, and will stay in touch. 

An eventful trip

Life is never dull

The thing about impromptu trips is that you don't plan for them.  Which is all well and fine if Peter did what we had intended and left everything packed in the caravan so that when impromptu trips happened, we had everything we need.  Just before we left Kylie's place he decided that we would have a few days' holiday together.  He thought Canberra would be nice, there are things there that we enjoy visiting.  However President Obama was also visiting so it was pretty well in lockdown at the time so we decided the Queanbeyan would be good.  For those of you who don't speak Australian, Queanbeyan is pronounced Queen bee ann, with the emphasis on the first syllable.  It is located near to our Capital city Canberra, but is actually located in New South Wales, not the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).  So we pass back and forward across the border several times a day for shopping etc without even being aware that we are doing so.  One of the shops we visit is only 11kms away, and it is in the ACT.

We left Kylie's house around 11am, on Wednesday, stopped for lunch at Parkes,(sidenote: so named in honour of Sir Henry Parkes, otherwise known as the "Father of the Federation". because he is recognised in Australia as having played an instrumental role in Australia becoming a unified country.)  This is a town that used to have family connections for my brother. 10 minutes after we left there we heard on the radio that there had been a huge accident in Parkes, and there were long traffic delays, so we timed that well.

We arrived at our younger daughter's town around 4 or so, and booked in to the caravan park in town because last time we went to her property we had difficulty getting the caravan into her driveway because of the angle needed to get in.  It had been a long day, getting up at 5 to pack the van so son-in-law Ray and Peter could remove the gates from the rear of the property to get the van out of Kylie and Ray's yard before he left for work at 7am.  We were both tired and Peter didn't feel like facing a tricky manouver to get into Kirsten's yard.

It is half an hour's drive out to Kirstie's property, so we simply unhitched and drove out.  We were met by our grandchildren and could really see how the 'baby', Michael, who has just turned two, has grown up even more just in the few weeks since Kirsten visited Kylie's.  He was most impressed with a 'ding' that Peter has put in the running board of our car, and kept telling us 'bang' (with hand actions) and 'ouch' and running out to look at it again.

We spent several hours with them that afternoon and had a great meal with them. Next morning we were hitched up again and arrived back at Kirstie's.  She had permitted James and Grace to stay home from school for part of the day because they wanted to spend more time with us, and they had baked some lovely biscuits in our honour.  They are growing up so fast - James is now 10, Grace will be 9 in December.  Chelsea has just turned 5 and we had birthday presents for her and also for Michael who had his 2nd birthday this week so they had fun opening them.  Michael was quite blase when he saw the caravan at the front of the property, he obviously remembers it from Kylie's.

We were reluctant to leave them all but had another four hours' drive to Queanbeyan, so left around 12.  We arrived here to find that the girl who took our booking hadn't written it down!  They were fully booked, but put us in an emergency site next to a store-room for the night at no charge.  And fortunately we still had power and water.

On Friday we were given our choice between two sites, chose our preferred one and moved.  We aren't on a slab, and that's when Peter told me that he had taken the flooring for the annexe out of the boot and left it at my brother's, where the van is stored at the moment.  So  off he went to the hardware store to buy some shade cloth to make a temporary floor.

Then another trip in the afternoon for a new stepladder because he had taken ours off the roof-rack (he needs it to reach to put the annexe up - neither of us is what you'd call tall).  And a third trip for a stiff broom because as I was helping Pete put the annexe walls up I discovered that the ground is covered in small 'things' that are sharp underfoot and hence would be uncomfortable under the shadecloth!!!  and guess where our stiff broom is?

Then he tells me that the side wall won't meet the long wall by a good 2" so it can't be done up! We have a new awning for the van, because the first one was damaged on our long trip. At least it isn't cold.  It is in the 30's degC most days, but hopefully won't reach the 38 that it was at Narromine. It would have been good to know that before his third trip to the hardware and he could have bought some more shadecloth to at least cover the gap so mossies don't carry Nathan off during the night.

That was just before he discovered that our sullage pipe has been damaged (again) on the trip - maybe on the miles of dirt road that go out to Kirstie's property, and broken off just near a bracket and that the water runs under the van through the annexe. Somehow this seems to be turning out to be an - eventful - trip!! Peter spent a couple of hours trying to fix it, and we couldn't let any water out of the sinks overnight, and we can't have a shower because he used liquid nails for the join and he doesn't think it is a good join anyway. .

On Saturday morning it worked really well - for about 10 minutes! 

I've googled and found a caravan parts place and we might  buy a shade cloth end for the annexe (we have wanted one anyway so it's a good excuse) and we'll have to see what we can do about the pipe.

And yes, I will get to that doctor!!!  I have a nasty cough and don't feel at all well, and the indications are that I have a chest infection.

And just to top it off, our satellite dish won't turn on lol!  We had a second satellite control box installed just before we left and could choose between two satellites.  They both worked fine, and we used the same satellite control to turn the dish on and off.  Of course when we packed up to move we put the satellite 'to bed' - in other words, told it to lay itself flat on the roof.  Which it did.  Now when we tell it to wake up - it won't turn on!  Isn't technology just wonderful?  Fortunately we can still use the normal aerial for television, we have religious DVDs to play on our DVR so we are not exactly hard done by.  But it is confusing.

Monday 30th August 2010

A little fluff ball has adopted me

Kylie and the boys were given a little ball of fluff about three months ago, and the boys insisted on calling her 'Fluffy'.  She is a cross Shitzu/Maltese and was the runt of the litter.  The breeders had to get rid of her because they had the maximum number of dogs permitted, but no-one had bought her so they gave her to Kylie. 

Fluffy was spoiled by the breeders and continues to be one very spoiled little doggie indeed.  She is very small even for the type of dog she is, but that doesn't stop her from thinking that she is a big fierce guard dog and she protects her family and property against all comers with defiant barking lol!

She has adopted me and loves to climb up on my lap, where she quickly learned to lie down and not fidget.  When she gets too warm she climbs off and this morning she squeezed between me and the arm of the lounge while I was reading the comments on the blog.  She was thrilled that finally someone sat still for more than a minute to cuddle her. 

Things are not good for our darling daughter, in fact they are more complicated and stressful than we even realised before we came to visit, so I just hope and pray that my visit here will be supportive for her and I can offer some help.  I won't talk about it, but I can show you photos of the gorgeous little Fluffy.  These ones are not the best quality because they are the ones that Kylie sent to my phone but they are a start. 

Right at this moment Fluffy is cuddled once again at my side, since my lap is occupied by the laptop.  Earlier she was draped around the back of my neck and licking my ear.  Not my favourite thing, I am more a cat person than a dog person but if I ever did have a dog one of these little white fluffy furballs would certainly tempt me.

Peter has just finished moving the caravan to a better spot on the wide grassed footpath outside the house.  We were planning on bringing it through the double gates into Kylie's back yard but when we measured the opening he decided that there really wasn't a lot of leeway (about 4 inches) and considering he would have to manouver around a tree to get into the gate we decided to give that a miss.  Instead we have moved it further forward so that when he and Nathan leave tomorrow I can access the gate more conveniently to go into the house.  And he is making the van more level by using the big wedges.  So I will now go and set up again. 

Sunday, 29th August 2010

Great to be with our family again

Nathan was up bright and early and over at the house with the boys this morning. We slept really well again in our ‘cocoon’ as I call the caravan. Once we were up and dressed of course the boys were over at the caravan to check everything out while I tidied up and got things organised. Luke thinks it is very 'cool' because there are lots of cupboards and everything has it's place.  He told me today that he really likes the wardrobe because the handles have buttons on them.


Peter took Nathan and the boys ten-pin bowling; it’s part of our ‘tradition’ when we see them. Usually I go with them too, but today I was feeling woozy with fatigue after the long trip yesterday, and planned to have a rest. When they returned the boys, Kylie and I spent some time on the bed with my laptop looking at photos of Luke’s birthday party yesterday.
Cameron made up a booklet from some paper I gave him and started a ‘book’ of his adventures. Our visit has already helped them slot into some of the regular things we do together, which I guess brings a little bit more stability into their life during a time that’s difficult for all of them. We love our daughter and grandsons so much and just wish we could help them all more.

I took photos of the interior of the caravan this morning to show you. First, looking from the rear of the van to the front, you can see here our bedroom, with the wardrobe and bathroom on the right. On the very left you can see the partial dividing wall, and the strap that is folded around it holds the concertina door in place when we are travelling.

This second photo of the same end of the van is slightly more to the left side and shows the side window rather than the bathroom side. Sorry about the mess on the bed – just as I was about to take photos Peter brought things in from the car and I hadn’t put them away yet. And of course my laptop lives on the bed during the day vbg.
The space between the end of the bed and the wall doesn’t show in these photos, it is about 2’6” and part of the wheel hub is there. That gives a handy support for a small shelf to fit over it so I can put the computer on there at night, along with anything else I want to put there too. On our long trip I had a couple of large crates stacked on it but I prefer to keep it uncluttered.

The bathroom on the right is not large but there’s room – these two photos show each side- because of the layout I can’t get it all in one photo. The little handbasin is fine for washing your hands, the loo is comfortable and the shower gives a great shower! There’s enough hot water in the tank for me to have a shower and wash my hair if I turn off the water while I scrub my hair.

There is a light in there and an exhaust fan. And just the warmth of the shower keeps you warm enough even in the cold. The hatch opens to let the steam out when you want to. And it’s great to open it wide in the warm weather and look up at the stars at night.

Next, here is the view of the other end of the van. The lounge at the end is wider than a normal couch because it doubles as a bed. It is where Nathan sleeps when we don’t put up the annexe with his camp bed in it. In cold weather it is much better to have him inside. You can also just see the back of the second seat on the opposite side of the table. The photo has come out dark because the sun was shining in so brightly – I always find that funny.

This second shot of thesame side of the caravan (looking
from the rear) also shows the back of the second seat, and the rest of the ‘dining’ area of the van. This side has the fridge, and a cupboard with slide-out wire baskets for food. The DVR, TV are on the sliding shelf and above it, the controls for the satellite dish. We can pull the shelf out and turn it so we can watch TV, satellite or DVDs from either the bedroom or the other end of the van.


When the ‘guys’ go back to Sydney the table will become my mini work area, if I do any in the caravan. Naturally my first priority will be my family but I’ll also be conscious of giving them their own space as well.

Standing at the rear end of the caravan and looking back to the left, it’s the kitchen. When we designed the caravan I chose the bedroom from one caravan on display and the kitchen from another one and we mirror-reversed the kitchen to fit our design. The makers liked it so much that they then released several others in two different lengths, the same design as ours. And a customer saw ours waiting to be picked up and ordered one in another colour as well. So I took that as a compliment vbg.

These two photos show the entire kitchen. We had a full oven put in, so we could have one of Peter’s lovely roast dinners if we wanted it while away, cook a cake or whatever. The fridge on the other side is actually larger than normal too but could be bigger. The large board you might be able to make out behind the hand towel on the rack above the sink fits over the sink and draining board to give extra work surface area if you want it.

The panel on top of the oven area lifts up and the stove is underneath that. It works on bottled gas, as does the oven. The microwave of course just works on electricity so if we are in a place without power we can’t use it.

The fridge works on AC or DC electricity or bottled gas, and the lights on AC or DC electricity. So we can stay at unpowered sites for several days, though Nathan prefers not to – he really likes to have his television.

So why am I telling you all this? Because lots of people have asked lots of questions lol! I know caravans are called by different names in different countries, but I think they are fitted out pretty much the same. Ours is several years old now, we bought it in 2003. So styles and finishes have changed but we are very comfortable when we are in ours and we love it.


The only way we would change it if we could is to trade it in a longer van so that Nathan could have his own room at the end, with space to set up his own things and an area that he could call his own. He is less independent than we thought he would be at this age, but fortunately he really enjoys travelling with us and at present wishes to continue to do so. And having his own area would be nice now he is an adult. Better than having to set up the annexe when we are moving on quite frequently or the weather is cool.

So although I won't publish photos of our darling boys on a public site like this, I can at least show you our 'other' baby!

Saturday 28th August, 2010

Happy Birthday, Peter - and Surprise!!!

Peter celebrated his birthday for the second year running by driving all day vbg! We slept well, and woke early, enjoying to the magpies carolling to greet the dawn then drifting off to sleep again. But by 6.30 we were awake and refreshed. For once before Nathan vbg. We did the ‘Happy Birthday’ thing with Peter, giving him his presents and coffee in bed and prepared for a reasonably early departure.

Our daughters phoned to wish Pete a happy birthday and when Kylie phoned I told her we had gone away for a few days for Dad’s birthday. She accepted it, but seemed surprised. We decided to just drive as much as we felt comfortable doing, and see how far we got. It was still 600 or more kms to Toowoomba because we left so late yesterday, but it isn’t worth pushing too hard when you are fatigued. When we left Scone the skies were blue and it was 13degC; within an hour the sky had clouded over and the temperature had dropped to 10deg. It didn’t rise above 13deg until late afternoon.
 We stopped for morning tea after a couple of hours at Tamworth, then at Guyra for lunch. We stopped beside a lovely park, quite small but nicely set out and I made some bread rolls for our ‘picnic’ lunch. Only we had it inside because of the chilly wind. Kookaburras are plentiful here and their cheery chuckling was a nice background while we ate. Several came and sat in the trees nearby as well and had a good look at us to see what we were doing.

I couldn’t resist taking some photos of the pretty garden that caught my eye when we pulled up. The splash of colour from the daffodils and the contrast against the silver trunks of the trees and the red of the shrub behind was very pretty. A Willy Wag Tail in the branch of one of the trees flicked his tail and made

 his sweet call too as though telling me how nice it was that spring is here, until I came too close. These little birds look so smart in their crisp black and white feathers - as though dressed in a dinner jacket.  And they never stay still, always hopping and wagging their tails. They are such busy little creatures.

I loved the daffodils and also the snowdrops in the garden – I wonder whether the ones I have in the pot at home will bloom soon? Probably while I am away.

Peter kept driving and driving. I took a spell after lunch too for a couple of hours. I could see that Peter really wanted to make Toowoomba even though he didn’t admit it, and we did. And once we arrived, we promptly proceeded to get lost!  Pete was so sure that he knew exactly how to get to Kylie’s house but it turned out we turned just one street too soon, then there was a street closed off and a detour and of course that meant we lost our bearings hopelessly. So he pulled in to the first service station and we were soon on the right track again.

 

The dogs came out barking, soon followed by our daughter (not barking). She seemed quite calm and unfazed but said she was in disbelief. She had looked out the window to see what the dogs were barking at and saw the end of the van. Thinking to herself that it was the caravan but that it couldn’t be, she ventured out to investigate. Luke had just fallen asleep after the excitement of his birthday party today and Cameron was snuggled up in the play room with his doona, half asleep also. He had heard our voices in the adjoining kitchen but didn’t believe what he heard and when I walked in to the room his eyes just got bigger and rounder and bigger and rounder! I said hello and he said ‘Hello Marnie’ (their name for me) with a great big smile then jumped up and gave me an enormous hug over the back of the lounge. What a wonderful welcome.

He was of course then so excited that it took ages before we could get him settled but he and Nathan ended up in the Play Room watching a video and he finally he went off to sleep again. It helped that Nathan told him that he was having an early night and we were having the same. It also took a while before Kylie could quite believe that we were really here vbg. She said she felt that she was dreaming.

 

Kylie’s neighbour and friend (and her daughters) also had to come down and say hi. Fiona also calls me ‘Mum’ and it was good to see her again too – it didn’t take her long to know that we had arrived as she and her husband Gary keep a good eye on Kylie and look out for her. They are good friends. Fiona had kindly brought down the photos of Luke’s birthday party so I could download them on to my computer because she had taken her camera to be official photographer for the day.

After such a huge day and the excitement of seeing our family we are of course ready for another good night’s sleep!

Friday 27th August, 2010

Feeling right at home

Yesterday, as soon as we got to the caravan it was as though we had never left it. We felt right at home. I haven’t slept so well since we moved out of the van into the house. Not even now we have our new bed.
 The estimate of a lunchtime departure was right on target, unfortunately. It would have been good to have left earlier but at least we are on our way. What a relief to get out of the city again! The freeway going north is ablaze with bright yellow wattle. 1st August is Wattle day but they are looking beautiful even now, and different varieties will come into bloom progressively throughout the year – virtually all year.

There has been a lot of rain through this northern New South Wales area and things are looking so green. Nature takes no notice of the calendar as we know, and in spite of spring not starting officially until September, it has already been spring for a fortnight. The magnolias are in bloom, the blossom trees are bursting out, azaelias are blazing with colour and everything is full of life. It is still cold at night and during the day a cold wind is taking the chill factor waaaaaaay down. But if you can stay out of the wind, Sydney temperatures today were 20deg and we were actually too warm in the car.

We stopped mid- afternoon to buy something to eat in a little town – can’t remember the name. We were parked outside an antique shop with some delightful and tempting things for sale – boy, did my mouth water at the sight of a beautiful marble-topped washstand with tiled back! And just beside it was a lovely old building occupied downstairs by a hairdressing salon. Peter took some photos of the building for me – can’t you see this as a lovely quarter scale mini project? I stood against the verandah post for one of the photos then he took some like this. It took him quite a few minutes to get several shots, partly because we were on a main highway so he had to wait for a break in the traffic going both ways, and partly because he was constantly being swooped by a magpie!

Fortunately it didn’t make contact even with its wings let alone pecking him, but I was a bit anxious for Peter – that maggie was quite determined to ‘protect’ his area! In spring Magpies become very territorial, swooping people who venture into an area near their nest. They might buffet you with their wings or even peck you with their very strong beaks as they pass by. I’ve googled a photo for those of you who aren’t Aussies to show you what Magpies look like. They are 38-44cms when mature, and become very tame around households, quite often coming to be fed tidbits of meat and such. Their beautiful carolling songs make up for their unpleasant habits during nesting time though!

We hit a lot of traffic before and in the Hunter Valley and the caravan parks were full. We pulled in to one hoping for a spot and while I was waiting in the car, Eastern Rosellas were swooping around the car. They are really pretty birds, I googled photos of them too. They are medium-sized parrots, around 32cm or 13inches long and are characterised by their white cheek patches. The females are similar to the males but perhaps a bit duller. When they fly you see these brilliant flashes of colour. I used to see lots of them in Sydney but don’t see them where we live now.

Nathan was really disappointed that there were no vacancies there because there were two figures outside the office, one of a full-size mare and one of a foal. I wish I had taken a photo for him but there wasn’t really time before Peter came back to the car. I was in the driver’s seat in the meanwhile in case the car and caravan needed to be moved to let other traffic through.

Finally we went on to Scone, which isn’t that much further on and calls itself the ‘Horse Capital of Australia’. It is considerably larger than the previous town, which surprised us. First caravan park we came to was full but the second one had a spot and we are all settled ready for another good night’s sleep.

Thursday, 26th August 2010

On the move again – briefly!

My ‘Sandra from Sydney’ blog is supposed to be the travel blog but since this is just a short trip I am writing about it here on ‘Snippets’. We actually are on the way to Queensland to pay a surprise visit to our oldest daughter Kylie so I won’t post this until we arrive. She needs a bit of family support at the moment, and I hope we can give that. Peter and Nathan and I are driving up and they will leave me and the caravan there for at least a couple of weeks then come back for me. They will stay a couple of days each time to rest (it’s the best part of 1000kms each way) and we will take a couple of days for the trip.


It has been a spur-of-the-moment decision, made last Saturday, so this week has been very busy indeed. Of course my packing started with choosing the minis I would take! I have packed a quarter scale ‘Petite Properties’ project (#1, The Corner Shop) – just in case there is time to start on it vbg. Also lots of Paper Minis things to put together in small bits of time. Flower kits, and more.


Then there are mini needlework projects. I hope that once I am with Kylie and not so worried about her wellbeing I will be able to concentrate a bit better and able to stitch again. And some full size cross stitch too – have to get a move on with those Christmas stockings for the grandchildren after all.


So I don’t think I’ll run out of things to keep my fingers and mind busy when I’m not doing Nana things with the boys and Mum things with my daughter!!!


After those essential things were dealt with – that took a couple of days to get sorted – it only took an hour to sort out my clothes. But I also needed to wash the curtains in the caravan, give it a quick dust to get rid of any that had come in while we left it airing, make up the beds etc. As well as tidy the house and clean it; appointments to keep; Peter’s birthday presents to buy (that’s on this Saturday); Church Bulletin to do and deliver ready for this week; Mum to visit then again just before we leave; other appointments to cancel; rearrange Nathan’s work schedule; and so on.

We had planned to leave first thing this morning but here we are in the caravan all of five minutes from home! At my brother’s house in fact, where the van is parked while the storage container is still in our driveway. We are spending the night here, will do a couple of last-minute things in the morning, do the last visit to Mum, and be on our way by lunch-time at the latest.
 I’ve included some photos of our caravan. It is a Regal brand 18’ long, and we tow it with a 4WD (Mitsubishi Pajero). We love our caravan! The photo at the beginning was taken last year in winter at our house, around a month before we left for our trip. The bare garden (lacking it’s usual winter colour) was mulched in the hope of keeping weeds down while we were away, and we were packing the caravan in readiness. My Holden just fits on the driveway with the caravan there, as does the Pajero. As you can see, we live on a small suburban block in your average small suburban house.

This next one photo was taken on our trip, at Coffs Harbour north of Sydney, where we stopped for the first night of our trip around Australia last year.