End of March Already!

The year is certainly zooming by with lots happening as usual. The weather certainly took a turn for the worse going from drought to floods,in a few days over the Australia day long weekend in January 2013. This is a photo of our friend's driveway at Boolboonda after 32 inches of rain.

 

 The deluge continued south after drenching areas to the north of us. We were on our way to spend the weekend at Monto to watch Danielle receive The Young Citizen of the Year Award for  Monto at the Australia Day Awards there, but she advised us to turn around and head for home. Just as well, we did as we were cut off for 5 days at home. We were not too badly affected at Ivanhoe with damage like this in places. Mundubbera had severe flooding which impacted greatly on my sister and brother in law. Citrus trees washed away, my brother in law spent hours rescuing the neighbours washed away pigs that managed to survive along with dairy cows from upstream.

 The Stuart River and Boyne Rivers cut our access on The Proston Boondooma Road. Here is a photo of the Stuart River not quite at its peak of over 12 metres high. In 2011, it reached about 8m. All of this water flows into the Burnett, so no wonder all of the places along the Burnett had massive flooding. Danielle's friend, Lucy spent hours clinging to a paulownia tree before being rescued by her neighbour.  The remaining half of the umbrella tree in our yard, just could not take the moisture any further and toppled over with Craig cutting the last bit down. I have planted a Chinese Elm tree in its place. Hopefully it manages to grow.

 

I was trapped in Bundaberg when another deluge came through a few weeks later. Aunty Margaret Wagner passed away after a short illness and we dodged floodwaters to get to her funeral service.

 

I finally managed to get my blog printed into a book. Handed it to Mum and Dad to read as they do not read it here. Dad has requested that I mention where my quilting frame came from. He engineered it and had it constructed by a boat builder in Maryborough.

My sister does not read my blog either but liberally took it along to her patchwork day in Mundubbera as some of them were mentioned in it.They liked looking at the quilts, not the house renovations.

Speaking of quilts, my constant companion when I am overnighting in Bundaberg has finally got the applique finished. Just some thread tidying up to do. I was that impatient to see how much colour would come out of the applique onto the white background, I washed it in the washing machine for the 15 min cycle. None ran, so now I must tidy up the remaining threads, now in a huge mess cause I washed it. I was really that IMPATIENT.

 

The big news for us this year is the arrival of the first grandchild. I had the privilege of attending an ultrasound scan at 29 weeks with Danielle and was amazed at it swallowing and practising breathing happening while we watched. Dont know why Danielle was suggesting I not wear my glasses so I could not work out whether it is a boy or a girl as I could only recognise ribs and spine.

 I have been working on my baby quilt. Belinda thinks it is not "Beatrix Potter" enough but this is designed to be a floor rug quilt. Today I managed to get it basted as I think my domestic quilting is better than my long arming at this stage.

 

 

Am off to work for 2 nights later today, is Good Friday so I hope the roads are safe.

Bryan has had some success at the Sydney Easter Show in coming second in the Treefelling Championship. Craig won a handicap event last week so he is happy also. A real family affair down there this year with Amanda horseriding as well. Next week we are off to Sunshine Coast University to watch  Belinda graduate as an Advance Care Paramedic, she is enjoying her new career at Rockhampton, but I think she wishes she was a bit closer to here at times. Looks like we'll be busy for a lot longer.