It's winter, but not as we know it

As I write this it is day 5 of spring in the Sunshine State and already temperatures are in the high 20s and even early 30s.

I have nothing against blue sky and sunshine, but I do miss the rain, grey clouds and chilly temperatures. I have a couple of drawers dedicated to winter clothes and no chance to wear them. The locals though were spotted on occasion rugged up with scarves, gloves, beanies and puffer jackets like you wouldn't believe...and the coldest it has been is 5C...one morning !!

Anyway, I decided that while "real" winter was happening in the southern states that  it was time to go and get bone-chillingly cold; to remind myself what it was like. We booked a weekend in Canberra, but ended up with one night in Sydney as we couldn't get direct flights at reasonable prices.

familiar landmarks

a rainbow walkway

lived here for 10 years, never saw this building before !

look at THAT light

...and THIS building facade

terrace houses - my favourite of all time, will I ever get to live in one ?

rainbow bike outside an INDEPENDENT bookstore

check out that window box !

waiting for pizza, in an authentic italian pizzeria

corner Oxford Street & Crown Street

Convicts built this bridge, on the original roadway to Goulburn at Towrang

Bungendore houses, did convict ancestor Joseph Dickinson, the plasterer, work on these ?

The entrance gate to Willeroo, Lake George; place of birth of Joseph's daughter Sarah

floating sphere sculpture - reminded me of Welly, just a bit, capital city art

Little National - perfection

St John's Church, Canberra

School house at St John's, built by the Campbells to benefit the children of the Scots shepherds working his land and which looks like it has been transported straight from the Highlands

Great-great-great-great-great-grandparents

Rainbows in the spray

So as you can see - gorgeous days - definitely chillier than home, but not as freezing as we had prepared for. Also, not enough time to do everything or go everywhere, so next year we will be back...maybe earlier in the season too.

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...

So we've been settling in and finding our way around our new neighbourhood. We have been moaning about the severe lack of winter too, but that is another story.

I have had another temp stint with the same firm I was with just as we moved. It was another of those two week assignments that stretched to four weeks and it was good to be doing something again. 

In the weeks in between there had been the usual job application process taking up much of my days, but I did manage to catch up with some of the other Yellow Pages family who now call Brisbane and Queensland home. Hopefully we will be able to do it all again soon.

I also went to the Brisbane DNADownUnder event on EKKA Day and soaked up all the knowledge imparted by the speakers who included Blaine Bettinger who has been visiting our shores from upstate New York. (Random fact: we have some upstate New Yorkers in our tree - from the same and neighbouring counties !) It was great as well to meet up some alumni from UTAS. Now to use some of that new knowledge and enlightment to wrangle all those DNA matches we have been accumulating since testing.

We also went for a drive one weekend to Lamington National Park. We thought we should start checking out places we could take visitors (when they come). It was a long drive, but eventually we started the climb up the mountain and into the rainforest. 

The road was one way in a lot of places but there wasn't too much traffic. Signage wasnt great either, but our destination was at the end of the road so we figured we would get there eventually. The bird song in the trees as we drove was delightful.

At the end of the road is a resort. It is almost on the border between New South Wales and Queensland. O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat.

We had heard about bird feeding opportunities but when we first located the only place where visitors are permitted to feed the birds there were far more people than birds and not a lot of encouragement to join in. I had heard about Echo Point which apparently has the most amazing echo, again information wasn't well displayed so we didnt even attempt to find our way there. But we had also heard about a tree top swing bridge walk (the first in Australia when it was built some years ago). So we went to investigate. It was a bit underwhelming though and could have offered so much more. There were extra climbing challenges along the way, which we didnt do, but there was no information about them either. We wandered through a mountain garden also bereft of information but filled with birdlife and some pretty shrubs and flowers. On our way back we thought we'd try the bird feeding again and what a treat it turned out to be.

Not sure I would put it on my list of places to take visitors though - even though almost every Queenslander I have spoke to seems to think it is the best place in South East Queensland.

What is your favourite food ?

I will tell you something I just learnt.

Possums like parsley. 

In particular they are loving ours ! 

In Bendigo it just grew and grew and was out of control. Here it has been more of a struggle. The heat we thought.

Since moving though, it has just been decimated. I couldnt work out what was going on - I even bought a new plant.

Next day. No Leaves. Just stalks.

Pesky little devils.

Time to look for a cloche or something to stop them having a feast.

Other than that revelation, things are going well. We are enjoying exploring the new neighbourhood and deciding where to hang artwork and photos on the walls.

Winter has arrived. Well winter in a Queensland manner of speaking. It is definitely nowhere near as cold as what we are used to, but it is cooler. A decidedly bitey cold wind some days, but we still haven't felt the need to break out the puffer jackets, gloves and beanies to look like a local.

I have been back on the job search treadmill again since the end of May, but have a temp assignment to start in a day or two and run for a couple of weeks. Hopefully there are some other more promising roles on the horizon.

I've been enjoying going to a regular trivia quiz night since moving and hope to get to a few more of the walks with the walking group I have joined. I have also been trying to organise a regular meet up for current and past students from the UTAS Diploma I studied. So far we have had three meetings and it is fun to share study stories, research and help each other. I've joined the Genealogical Society too and been to a couple of meetings.

Last week I caught up with several friends, some who live here and others who were visiting. Some from past jobs in New Zealand and some from jobs here. And there are more in the pipeline.

It's all about networking - right ?

All I really need now is a job....so that I can have holidays - lol. Isn't the ultimate purpose of working a means to fund your out of work life ? If it is something that you truly love as well, surrounded by great people it is even more perfect.

Surely it is my turn soon.

Birthday Treats

Lots of things have caught our eye since we have been living in Brisbane. Finding the time to go to places, or do things gets a little tricky; the hum-drum of life pushes them down the list.

So what better timing than to try to do some as part of Birthday Day activities. That’s what happened.

Favourite dinner and a cake decorated with edible flowers from our garden and then a day full of surprises.

Food, discovering laneways, more food, playing with kittens and cats at not one, but two cat cafes and then watching the sunset on one of the shortest days of the year.