Royal Agricultural Show part 4

Here are some pictures of your regular show animals cows, sheep and goats.

We did buy 3 showbags, sweet, savoury and liquorice...mmmm

There is a large hall full of produce to taste, cheeses, chilli sauces, organic donuts, meat pies we watched being made, wines, jams and preserves etc.

We moved onto the Art and Craft Hall. Where decorated cakes, sewing, painting, knitting, homemade cakes and preserves are on display.

By this stage my foot and knee were screaming it was time to go home and as there were not to be any fireworks we headed for the train.

The weather was deteriorating and we made it home just as the rain started to come down. All in all we had a very pleasant day.

Royal Agricultural Show part 3

My favourite part of the show is the wood chopping (well I rather like the fireworks too but we were there on the wrong day so did not see them) .

These were fairly young guys but could split a log wide speed!

Royal Agricultural Show part 2

Mike's favourite exhibit at the Show has always been the pigs but since they changed the format some years back they are not on show very often the only way to see any this year was a novelty act of racing and diving pigs! These pigs seem to thoroughly enjoy their jump in to the pool!

Royal Agricultural Show

We went to the opening day of The Melbourne Royal Agricultural Show last thursday.

On the train into the city, swap trains on to the Show Express. It was crowded and as we alighted at the showgrounds we could tell it was going to be a long wait to get through the ticket gate! We had not pre bought our tickets so we had to stand in the queue and as subsequent trains arrived it got rather crowded on the platform.

Once through the turnstiles it was OK though.

We headed toward the dog judging arenas stopping on the way for scones and jam and cream at the Country Women's Association...they are rather famous for their home made scones. They were very nice though the cup of tea undrinkable:( After this we spent quite a long time watching different breeds of dogs being put through their paces in the judging ring. We fell in love with a cute French Bulldog puppy called Remy. Watched the Australina cattle dogs and could see where our beloved Morgan got his heritage. Then through the holding area to see all the other dogs waiting their turn to be paraded, these are not your average pooch these are the pampered spoilt type variety forever being groomed to within an inch of their lives!

Another chalked Cuttlebug card

I made this card today using the chalks on the cuttlebug background then I added some butterflies cut out on my Cricut Expression. I think they finished it off nicely. The top layer of butterfly actually sits up off the card but gets flattened on the scanner bed.

Chalk/Cuttlebug experiments

I have been reading through Mel's tips all 89 of them! You will find them under Techniques on Mel's blog.

http://melstampz.blogspot.com/

Thought I would have a go at using chalk on the embossed images and this is what I came up with. Thanks again Mel for the great resource you have provided.

Day 3 Noosa Jazz Festival

The Syncopators have been around since 1984 playing traditional/mainstream Jazz and wowed us enough to buy a couple of their CD's.
This young man and I mean young (he is only 16), has a BIG future, the only person we saw get a standing ovation at this years festival! He plays a mean guitar, won a TV talent show recently and has already been off to Nashville to record his first album! His name is Smokin' Joe Robinson.
Lucky last photo is one of Mike and I posing in the main street of Noosa :)

Day 2 Jazz Festival

How is this for a really cool bus...it can obviously take you upstream when the river floods!
Then Yvette Johansson who has a great voice was getting into the groove!
Catherine Lambert was performing with the Joe Ruberto Trio (from Melbourne) as did Yvette.

Day 1 Jazz Festival

The Noosa Jazz Festival starts with a small parade down the main street and ends in the "Noosa Woods". A bit of fun to kick the day off. We were treated to some real showmanship by Bob Malone an American who knows his way around the keyboard! Then we stood in the street and were entertained by Jan Preston who plays honky tonk style piano...she had the audience grooving along. You can't see them in this slightly blurry photo but she had brown suede boots on which were as glitzy as the top whe was wearing!!

Underwater World

Here are some of the critters we saw at Underwater World first a group of otters, a seal doing a handstand on one flipper and some pretty stingrays.

Photos from the Everglades

The first pic is of a lovely old "Queenslander" stlye house, high off the ground so air can circulate underneath and a nice wide veranda to protect from the sun.
Then some reflections on the water up the Everglades followed by a group of pelicans sunning themselves on a sandbank.
The last one of of the blue waterlillies, which have tasty roots and stems we were told.

Photos from Noosa trip

These first 2 are at Tin Can Bay, the tomatoes we saw growing wild in the carpark!

The tide was way out so the mangroves were quite obvious, weather a little overcast.

Thanks and a little travel tale

Hi and thank you to all the nice folk who posted comments about my first "moos". It encourages me to try again another time:)

We have just returned from a week in sunny Queensland ...for those who don't know this is a state of Australia. It is much further north than where I live so instead of cold winter days of around 15C we had 22C and when it rains it stays warm, tropical showers tend to be brief, though we did have one day of torrential downpours!
We went up primarliy to attend a Jazz Festival in Noosa but this year had the luxury of arriving a few days early and having a relaxing few days do nothing much but checking out the local sights, reading a couple of books, doing some knitting (even though I managed to only take one of the required knitting needles, something that is a tad hard to find up north, they aren't big into knitting, obviously too hot for such activities!)
We drove to a picturesque spot called Tin Can Bay ( no idea why it is so named) where we came across a mob of cyclists and a big tent city where they were obviously headed for for the night. There is also a miliatry camp up here and the boys and girls where having some sort of training exercise.
We stopped in the carpark that looked out over the bay, laid our seats back and had a lovely snooze in the sun. I did say we were out for a relaxing time didn't I?
The next day we went for a boat ride up the Noosa river and into the Everglades. It was a leisurely 4 hour round trip and there was afternoon tea of champagne and orange juice followed by a cuppa and some nice danish style pastries.
Lots of bird life to be seen among the mangrove swamps. The lakes we crossed are incredibly shallow and in some spots if the boat was not kept at a the right speed we would have been grating on the ground! There were some lovely blue waterlillies which I will show you some pictures of later (need to download from the camera).
Thursday was the day of the torrential rain so we picked an indoor activity...Underwater World. A great marine attraction with a cool tunnel under the water, so you can see all the sharks and fish etc swimming. There are seals and otters here too.
Friday was the start of the Jazz Festival so we put our 3-day passes to good use and listened to some fabulous local and international jazz. That night we had booked to go to dinner a a classy restaurnat who had 3 different female vocalists(with backing bands) and we were not disappointed. Great food, service and music!
We were expecting some friends to arrive for a 2 night stay and they finally made it just after midnight! A quick chat and time for some shut-eye before heading to the local art/craft/food market the next morning at Eumundi. Michelle and Haydn (particularly) are not morning people but they made an effort and we were out the door and at Eumundi by 9.30ish. Our stomachs were grumbling by then, so Mike and I snacked on a spicy debriciner sausage...WOW...needed an icy fruit cup after that, made of local mangoes and strawberries...yummo. We lost Haydn as he went off shopping (mobile phones are handy for tracking someone down....lol) I managed to buy a lovely light weight blouse,something a bit dressy to wear out to dinner one night:) Made of that great crinkle stuff that doesn't need ironing.
We seperated around 1100, Michelle and Haydn had plans to relax and even have an afternoon nap while we went into Noosa to hear some more jazz. We would meet again for dinner and some music. It was not to be...a text message from Michelle to say her babysitter needed her home straight away cut short their weekend away...boo hoo Drama with the babysitter leaving on an overseas trip the next day not anything amiss with the children thank goodness.
Sunday was spent enjoying more music after we had been to the local Farmer's Market. This was full of fabulous local produce, just wish we could have bought some of the stuff on offer but when you are flying home the next day no point:( The strawberries were humungous !
We were a tad disappointed in our last dinner/music event...twas the most expensive and though the food was nice,the servings rather small and the music a little dull...overall effect not up to scratch, we will choose better next year...I am hopeful aren't I...hehe
Monday was pack up and fly home day. We ate a hearty breakfast in Noosa (we had been good all week having just museli and yoghurt) of eggs, bacon and tomatoes...mmmmm
We drove down the coast to return our hire car and killed some time reading our books in the sun before heading to the airport and a 2 hour plane ride home. We had a no frills flight so took our own bread rolls and some yoghurt on board for lunch. Then we watched Dr Who (as Mike had recorded it on his laptop) ah the marvels of modern technology.
Back in Melbourne to a cool 11C reception...brrr
We picked up our car from the long term carpark and arrived home to dinner cooked by Emily (our daughter) very nice indeed.
Today it is back to reality, get the washing done, think about meals, work etc.
I have my monthly ATC group meeting tomorrow night so I had better do something, this month's theme is "collage".
I will post some photos later.