another birthday - Daisy's this time

21!
Unbelievable! Where have those years gone?

 

and doesn't she look gorgeous!

photo booth with grandparents

 

Alison arranged a party for her and a hundred guests at the Main Corner in Mount Gambier.

 

It was a terrific occasion! Good food, happy people, loud music, balloons, photo booth, life story in photos  - all the ingredients for a success.

Daisy made an emotional speech thanking everyone especially her mother and boyfriend Chris.


The tablecloth under her cake was made over a hundred years ago by her great-great-grandmother Daisy and brought from Perth for the occasion by cousin Judith. Thanks Judith!

Chris B and Daisy

Gran

 

Daisy's birthday week included the good news that she has a 2016 nursing placement for her grad year at Mount Gambier Hospital.

We celebrated (again!) at home with the first crayfish of the season, caught by David.  

a selfie: David, Christopher, Alison, Helen, Chris, Tildy the cat, Daisy

 

 

weekend in Adelaide

We had an enjoyable trip to Adelaide - it seems a long time since we left the beach...
Willow went to boot camp with 7 other cats.


I shopped, we saw a film, The Martian, which was refreshingly free from bad guys and sex, had dinner at The Apothecary, celebrated my birthday with High Tea and caught up with relatives.

It was hot - the first days of summer - so lunch at the beach with David's sister Tonie was a great option.
 

Tonie and David at Christie's Beach

 

 In company with Judith and Les from Perth we had dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. It's in a former bank building with high ceilings and a buzzy atmosphere: everyone was there to have a good time which is infectious.

 

David, Helen, Judith, Les

 

 

The toilets in the old bank vaults are well worth a visit:
David says it puts a new slant on leaving a deposit...

 

David and Judith hoping they can escape



birthday week

My birthday celebrations lasted 10 days - there are a few perks in reaching a Significant Milestone.

 

 

It started with a surprise dinner at Goodwood organised by Di Cameron who also made a superb Black Forest Cake:





Helen, Di and Mick Rudd

We went to Adelaide for the main event, a family High Tea at the InterContinental, where we also stayed.
High Tea was magnificent!




There were 27 of us including great-nieces Tigerlily, Evie and baby Beatrix.

 

You can see what a wonderful spread they turned on

 

My cousin Judith and her partner Les came from Perth, nephew Ben, Rachel and Tigerlily came from Canberra, Alison and Christopher, Daisy and Chris B from Mount Gambier, granddaughter Hannah and all the rest from Adelaide.

 

Cousins Tigerlily and Evie were pleased to get together

and so were cousins Isobel and Judith

and cousins Alison and Alex

 

 

baby Beatrix with Uncle Ben

 

 

Thanks to niece Rachel for the photos.  

 

 

 

 

birthday weekend

Surprise! Jon turned up unexpectedly for David's birthday which is the same date as Rory's so we all went to the pub in Port MacDonnell - which was unusually full of locals and tourists.


the birthday boys

The next day Julia and Stephen came to stay the night on the way from WA to their home at Ballarat.

For once there was minimum wind, perfect for a drive to the top of Cape Douglas and the obligatory photo shoot on top of the bluff: this one is a bit different as Stephen's long arms managed to get us all in a selfie:

Stephen, Julia, David, Helen


We spotted the beach stone curlew, which has been haunting Cape Douglas for 6 months, still on its own at Jones Bay.
It has had a lot of twitchers keen to see it, as it's way out of its usual habitat around Broome.

a lonely beach stone curlew

 

Jon took Alison's canoe, nicknamed Orange Roughy for obvious reasons, out on the bay and had a good paddle out to the breakers and back.

Jon in Orange Roughy

 



a taste of spring

For a few days the weather had us fooled into believing it is spring.

 

We were outside planting tomatoes in the tunnel house
and enjoying Happy Hour on the deck with Angela and Josef from next door and Marion and Steve who came wandering along the beach.

 

Then it rained again... not even enough to be worthwhile.

We've made it through an exceptionally cold and wet winter and have earned the right to a little sun.

 



major works

Geoff the carpenter arrived yesterday morning for stage two of the garage refurbishment. David has made himself an office in half of it and we are having a ceiling with insulation put in, the old clanky roller doors removed and a wider lift-up door on one side, window and wall on the other half.
 

 

He was hard at work on the ceiling when PJ Pumps arrived to drill a new bore. The old bore was never lined properly and sand has been dropping into the water and completely wrecked the new pump we put in on arrival. So a totally new bore alongside the old one is required, right out in front of the tunnel house.

 

 

 

And what a mess! A slurry of sand and limestone mixed with foam over my grass which has just been persuaded to cover the ground.

 

 

Next day the site supervisor was on hand to make sure the cladding stored upstairs went out the window correctly.

 

 

when the power went out

At 4.48pm there was a flash and the power went out all over Cape Douglas. Howling winds and torrential rain, tide lashing on the seaweed. A phone call elicited the recorded response that they already know and expect power to return at 11 pm. 

In an all-electric house that can be a tad inconvenient but fortunately I had turkey wings in the slow cooker ready to eat with salad so we declined Angela and Josef's invitation to drive into Port Mac for a pub meal. Then Di rang inviting us to share their wood fire - tempting but we reckon we can survive. If it gets too cold we'll just go to bed but meanwhile there's stored power to play iPod music and e-books to read.

 

Some of us ran around chasing a mouse-sized walnut. 

 

A strange thing happened: at 7 o'clock we were sleepy.
"Can't go to bed."
At 8 o'clock "Can't possibly go to bed yet."
At 9 o'clock "Give in - let's go to bed."
I guess it was the lack of stimulation from lights and TV

 

It did show me we needed more conveniences when the power goes out so I have bought a battery-powered lantern, some battery candles and battery lights for the pantries. The one thing I was ready for was lack of water with a 10 litre drum stashed in the pantry: because the pumps operate off electricity there was no water.