Coldest day since 1922!

Queensland has a hit a cold spell, on Tuesday it didn't get above 10 degrees all day that is the coldest since records began. It went down to 5 degrees over night and when you don't have any heating and tile floors thats cold, I'm sure it's not because we've turned into Aussies! Trying to buy hot water bottles and heaters turned into a full scale search for the few that were left!

Neil spent the week working away at Woodgate, where it was cold too especially as he spent the week sleeping in the basement! He said it was a quiet seaside town with a beautiful deserted beach. The town was full of kangaroos, which Neil enjoyed bragging about on the phone, that wherever he was he could see at least 50 kangaroos! There was plenty of beer drinking done but no fishing, the aussie's thought it was too cold for that!

Woodgate Beach



Kangaroo at Neil's job



A trespasser on the site(where's his hard hat?!)



The local boat ramp



Saturday, we went up Eumundi markets for bits and pieces then carried on up to Noosa, we were on a mission for second hand furniture, our friends had given us some pointers of where to pick it up. The best one being The Tip Top Tip shop, which is at Noosa Tip where a guy rescues all the good stuff and displays it beautifully in a little shop. We picked up a large house shape book case, a wooden chair and child's stool all for Bradley's room for 16 pounds. Once Neil gives them a lick of paint they will be perfect!
This was followed by a stroll around Noosaville and a cup of coffee (the doctor says I'm allowed milk again as it will make no difference to Bradley!, he has been diagnosed with secondary lactose intolerance caused by an infection but it's temporary and is improving so will hopefully be out his system soon)
Believe it or not we left the house Saturday without a camera!!!! So no photos!

Sunday, after a morning of working on Neil's website (nearly finished), we went down for a walk between Alex and Mooloolaba. There was some stormy skies out to sea but we stayed dry and even got bits of sunshine. It was a lovely walk that had to have refreshments before the walk back, yum yum coffee and cookies today!

On the way to Mooloolaba





Snug as a bug in his beanie



A rest stop for a feed and play with a giraffe



and with Mummy.



The possums that were released in the garden to be wild haven't quite got the idea yet. We saw one trotting around on the patio last week and today we found one sleeping in a bucket on the patio. When I went out to get the washing in the dark(something that always makes me nervous in Oz in the dark but it's too cold for snakes and spiders at this time of the year) the possum was dangling upside down from the washing line. as we got the washing in he climbed onto the bins then tried to hide in my jeans that he had knocked to the floor.

The "wild" possum.

A quiet weekend

As the winter cold grips the whole family, it makes life a little slow in the Paskin house.

A pretty normal week, Tanky spent a couple of days at the garage having some small repairs, hopefully the last for a while and we had a nippy little courtesy car to run around in.

I have now caught Neil's cold and Bradley is sure to be heading the same way. So a leisurely Saturday morning playing with Bradley...

Bradley's tummy time.



Then we had a visitor



...was followed by an afternoon up on 'the range'(the Blackall Range about 20 mins inland). We went to some falls we had seen marked on a map called Gardeners Falls, it was a short stroll along the river to the falls.There were some nice scenes there so no surprises Neil took some photos! We had a lovely picnic in the sun as in the shade is pretty cool now. Who said we wouldn't need a scarf in Australia!

A scene from the river bank.



Mother and son



Enjoying the outdoors!



We then carried on to visit Mapleton Falls of course with a coffee stop (well for Neil anyway as I am cutting dairy out my diet to see if it helps Bradley's digestion) so boring old fruit juice for me!

Mapleton Falls can be viewed from a platform at the car park but we decided to do a little circuit walk nearby anyway.

The view from the viewing platform.



The circuit walk.



Sunday was even lazier, mid afternoon we headed out to the shops to get a few supplies for Neil has he is leaving us next week to work away about 3 hours north near Bundaberg, I'm sure he'll have a terrible time staying near the beach, fishing and drinking with his mates! We went home via "Dunethin Rock" which we read was the 2nd biggest monolith in Oz after Ayres Rock and its only 25 mins away, it's not much too look at but nice views of the top!

The Paskins standing on Dunethin Rock



As we were in the neighbourhood we went to see the new house and explored a few local roads, we found a lovely long road with some lovely houses and lots of kangaroos grazing at the side of the road and in people's front gardens, cool!

Local Roo's



We look to be moving in about 2 weeks, it's all finished on the inside just the drive and patio to do.

Back at home Bradley was feeling quite chirpy and having a good chatter and scream(with delight) while lying on his lounger.

Queen's birthday weekend

This week was filled with the usual comings and goings. Neil working hard and Cath working equally as hard at home with Bradley! My weekly mothers group is still going well and we're able to meet in the park as the rains seemed to have stopped for the moment, it's a nice way to start the week relaxing in the park with the babies on rugs. All 7 babies were born within 4 weeks of each other and Bradley is the oldest by 4 days!

As we start to make plans for hopefully our business we are gathering ideas and experimenting, so this week Neil had an image printed large to check out just how good his camera is and then mounted and framed. This will hopefully be a demo print to show his work off to people.

The finished product.



Saturday morning was a beautiful Queensland winters day, lots of sunshine and just a slight nip in the air. It had been an extra cold night reaching a low of 6 degrees- chilly! It was a great morning to for a leisurely family stroll at a place called Cotton tree which is only 15 mins from home.

Our walk



A cafe stop is essential on a cool Saturday morning.



The Paskin boys



On the way home as Bradley was fast asleep we did some exploring down a couple of new roads to find some great bush land and waterways, definitely photo potential there for another time.

The rest of the day was spent visiting our friends, Amy, Marc and baby Ryan for food and beer!

Sunday morning, Neil ventured out for sunrise alone, me and Bradley stayed in bed! Unfortunately for him there was no clouds but he took a few snaps anyway.





After a fry up to revive Neil we headed out for the day and to explore an area called Emu Mountain which we have driven past lots of times but never tried to climb it, it is a very small 'mountain' at 78m tall. It was a lovely walk and provided great views of the area. We had a family picnic on the top and did a long walk back down exploring the area fully.

The walk up





The summit



The picnic



A family snap shot



View of Coolum with Mt Coolum in the background



View from the top



The scenery



We were quite exhausted by our return so a refreshing coffee in Coolum was called for before heading home!

Monday was a public holiday here to mark the Queen's birthday, but Neil still worked and I still went to Mothers group so not much celebrating for the queen here! Neil is struggling along as he has his first winter cold, you even get them in Oz!

A wet weekend in Queensland!

After a week of sunny weather it got to the weekend and rained nearly all weekend, so it's not that different to England after all!

On Thursday before the bad weather set in I dropped Neil at work, after firstly going to Lake Weyba for sunrise. We'd had very misty conditions the last couple of mornings and there was lots of mist on the way there but sadly none on the lake which is about 40 mins north from us and was 10 mins from where Neil was working that day. Not much of a sunrise either but some nice light so Neil got some good shots.

Lake Weyba





Later that day, after picking Neil up from work, we had plenty of time so we headed down to Pincushion Island for a 20 minute walk along the beach, of course we went via Coolum for coffee! Again no real sunset but some nice light and Neil experimented with some different shots.

Pincushion Island





Rock Abstract




Mummy and Bradley, proving too much excitment for Bradley! ('Old Woman Island' in the background, we call it 'Whale Island')



On Friday me and Bradders had Amy and Ryan round to play and Bradley seemed to take an interest in another baby!

We'd planned all week to do a forest drive on Saturday, around the Conondales about 40 mins inland from home. Last time we tried it was closed due to wet weather, we found out it had been closed all week but due to re open at the weekend, after more rain Saturday morning it didn't look good but we went anyway and we were rewarded with a 'road open' sign. It was a great drive about 37km and Tanky even had to use his 4WD on some very slippy muddy hills and got thoroughly filthy! We did a couple of short walks, one down to Peters creek was the nicest and we saw a dingo run across the road in front of us. This little expedition of course involved a cafe and some tasty lunch and coffee!

A viewpoint



Peters Creek



Fig tree



A family snap



Sunday with even heavier rain we decided to go shopping for cot bedding and nappies! Bradley is now the owner of a lovely cot and will be moving out of his bassinette and into his big boy cot this week!
In the afternoon it looked like a break in the rain so we wandered into the woods that are behind our house, it was rather overgrown and during our walk the rain came down again. Bradley and I dashed home while Neil tried to take some close up photos but the rained hindered the shoot.

The wet Paskins!



Here's a shot of Bradley doing his tummy time!