May, 2020 Mum & Dad’s place, Qld

1^st – Cooling off, 28 max and 23 for min, might need the light blanket

  

2nd -  Daniel and Steve are working on the new camper’s base. Steve is very impressed with Daniel’s welding skills.

Queensland are relaxing the CoVid19 restrictions and we are able to travel in a radius of 50km from our homes. Jon and Annalise are heading up to Tinaburra to take the boat for a spin.

3rd – The camper base is completed. The step down area is where out door for the camper will be.

I made some fudgie wudgies for Daniel to say thank you – these are the boys favourite cookies. He had made a comment to Steve about the Cornflake and sultana cookies Steve had taken down for morning tea saying ‘where are the fudgies’. So nice to think they still want their mother’s cookies.

6^th – rain early in the morning. Sounds so heavy under the trees with the big drops falling on the van. When I checked the rain gauge we had only had a couple of mls. Cold day – 28 degrees with a strong wind so dug out the long pants and jumper.

7^th – more rain. CoVid restrictions starting to ease with visits to family and friends allowed now of 5 people at a time.

10^th – Mother’s Day. Nice morning doing the usual with Mum and Dad.

In the afternoon Daniel called in with a beautiful rose he made for me from stainless steel then painted. What a lovely though and with the weight of it I can use it as a weapon too! 

We were having a cuppa near the bird’s nest and Daniel heard some tweeting. He zoomed in with his phone camera and spotted a baby. How exciting. As his boss had a kidney transplant and Fran works in Aged Care they are still being careful about CoVid contact so they won’t be joining us for dinner.

Jon and Annalise joined us for dinner and brought me chocolates and wine which was lovely. I had bought a bottle of Asti Riccadonna to celebrate with too. Greg, Tracy and Kate came too so we had a great night then my NoBake Cheesecake for dessert and a few games of cards.

12^th – Notified Suncorp that ‘Smokey’ is now a 6 x 4 for our insurance policy as Steve will be trying to get to Townsville to get it certified and I want the car fully insured.

We are enjoying coffee outside watching Mum and Dad bird darting back and forward feeding the babies (yes there are two) and they taking their poo away.

13^th – Steve took the camper base off ready for his trip down to Townsville tomorrow.

14^th – Steve headed off early to Townsville to get ‘Smokey’ checked and certified by the chap in Townsville. All good, he was very impressed with the quality workmanship. Steve had no problems driving down and back.

15^th – Michelle and Annette’s 60^th birthday. They are having a joint celebration with a few friends at Palm Cove for lunch tomorrow as we can have 10 people now for outdoor gatherings.

16^th – The baby birds poked their heads out when Mum flew in to feed them. So little and just skin at the moment.

Nice lunch with Michelle and Annette for their birthdays at Palm Cove. It was lovely to be out and chatting with friends again.

17^th – Steve did the paperwork with Dept of Transport to change ‘Smokey’s registration now we have the certification completed. On the way home he noticed a sign outside a second-hand store about a back-load to Brisbane. $500 to take the camper base down to Brisbane for us which saves us a lot of trouble as with CoVid we still aren’t allowed to be driving south yet, but as they are a business they can travel.

18^th – Daniel turns 31 today, boy I am feeling old! Sent him a text as he is already at work. He, Fran, Jon and Annalise are coming for dinner tonight. Luckily I went shopping yesterday as Rochelle texted early to see if I could come in to work. As they still only have the Year 11 and 12’s they haven’t needed me but one of the girls is sick so I am called in. Good to get back into it before all the kids come back next week. They have Perspex screens to protect the girls whilst serving and we aren’t allowing anyone into the Tuckshop now, eg teachers which is even better.

Lovely night with our boys and their ladies and Mum and Dad. We all had a great time reminiscing and laughing about things. So nice to feel free again and not so worried about CoVid19 now that Cairns has only one active case now.

19^th – Very wet night and the rain continued all day. Checked the gauge at 5pm, 41ml.

20^th – more rain all night. 9am – the gauge had 82ml from 50m yesterday.

Had our cuppas outside watching Mum and Dad sunbirds feed their babies. They are growing quickly.

Light rain during the day, 5pm 7ml in the gauge.

21^st – More rain overnight – 5pm to 8am another 42ml. The sky is clearing now.

After dinner visited Valerie and Russell for a cuppa and yummy nibbles. Lovely to catch up with them.

22^nd – Lunch with Kaylene, Wendy and Andrea though only 10 allowed in a café/restaurant and you only have 50 minutes to order and eat so they can put more people through so it wasn’t the nicest way of having lunch but it was great to catch up. We went to another place for coffee and cake so we could chat some more.

23^rd – It was 23 degrees when we went to bed and 22 degrees when we got up at 8am. Dark and gloomy. The rain started again at lunch time making it feel colder, 19 degree top today. There is a big cold front moving across the south so we are getting a bit of it here.

6pm, 27ml in rain gauge from last night and today. At least the grass isn’t drying out yet.

24^th – Lovely morning catching up with Wendy and Steve.

Rang Bob and Margaret to see how they are as there is a big cyclone which came from the north-west about to bring strong winds to WA coastline. They are ok though it is only 9 degrees so Bob was just about to light the fire.

25^th – 14 degrees at 7am with a clear sky. I started back at work as all students can return to schools after weeks of doing online learning due to the CoVid19 pandemic. My legs have to get used to being stood on again!  

Steve rang to say they had some excitement. He, Mum and Dad were having coffee outside watching the babies birds when they noticed a big snake on the wire frame out back. Mum wasn’t keen to have it around so they rang the snake catcher to remove it. It was a lovely big python. Steve went to help the guy by picking up the bag for him when the chap said not to open it as there was already a snake in there. That was it for Steve as he doesn’t like snakes at all. He took some great photos which I put on Facebook and we got lots of comments about it.

Steve and I had our afternoon cuppa outside so I could enjoy watching the birds too. They have grown so much.

28^th – The babies have flown the coop. Mum and Steve were heading out to watch them with their cuppas when they realised they weren’t there. Steve heard some tweeting and managed to spot them and got a few photos too.

 

31^st – nice afternoon cuppa with Kaylene and Rick. Last day of autumn and it is a beautiful day.