Post Christmas Wrap-Up

Christmas 2018 is now done and dusted and as I now sit down and write this blog I wonder why there is so much commercialised hype surrounding this day.  We really have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas and I was reminded of this by listening to Katherine who comes from a very strict Catholic background.  She described how her family celebrated Christmas in the Philippines with the whole day very much celebrating the birth of Jesus.  They have their Christmas celebration dinner on Christmas Eve and attend midnight church service.  Christmas day is very laid back but certainly another visit to church is expected. The gift giving is limited, as are the decorations. So different to what we can expect in Australia.
Having said all that, I think it is lovely to be able to get together with friends and family, many of whom we only see once a year.  It was that way for us this year with Philips step-brother and his wife joining us for the Christmas break.  Our son and DIL were also going to join us but a last minute change of plan by their caretaker meant that they couldn't leave their property.  They are going to try to come here in July for "Christmas in July".

Here are a few photos from Christmas Day.

Table set and ready to go!

The compulsory selfie....

Roast stuffed turkey, Roast Pork with the best crackling I have ever made, Roast Potatoes, Hasselback Pumpkin, Steamed Beans, Asparagus, Carrots in Creme Fraiche Sauce and last but never least - Pork Gravy!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas......

It's just two weeks until the first of our Christmas guests arrive and I'm feeling just a little bit excited/nervous!  Excited to see the family but nervous at how busy it will be with all the cooking.  Fortunately for me my daughter in law is very proficient in the kitchen so I will be delegating. Something I'm not very good at :-(
To me it is not Christmas without a Ham, Turkey (it used to be chicken) and Pork.  I've already ordered these three things and have intentions of preparing everything on Christmas Eve.  The ham will be already glazed and I will set the alarm early on Christmas morning to pop it in the oven so that we can have ham and eggs for breakfast.  My DIL makes a smashing Passionfruit & Champers cocktail that we will also have for breakfast.....just one glass for the cook!
Lunch is Roast Pork and Turkey with all the trimmings.  I found some great recipes in last months Better Homes and Gardens magazine so I will be following that to the tee.  After lunch it is a nap for some and lazing by the pool for others.  I bought the Catch Phrase game a couple of months ago so maybe we will play a game or two.  We shall go with the flow.
For Boxing Day our son has invited a few friends around for a BBQ lunch.  The men will do the cooking and I shall simply prepare a large tossed salad and potato dish.  Of course we will also have plenty of cold cuts so that will also be on a platter.
I don't do much in the way of decorating for Christmas.  When our Christmas tree fell apart a couple of years ago I never replaced it.  Now I just "throw" some tinsel and baubles at a tree (not a christmas tree) that I bought at the "cheap shop".

I love fairy lights and they adorn the front of our verandah and anywhere else I can put them.  I rather like this christmas tree string...

I spent a ridiculously short amount of time making a Christmas wreath to hang at the front door.  I had stumbled across someone making one from Magnolia leaves and as I have three Magnolia trees I decided to give it a go.  I already had the framework that my gorgeous gardener had made into a
Christmas wreath many years ago so it was just a matter of threading the branches through the frame. I also used Budlea and Grevillea flowers and then, once again, threaded fairy lights through the garland.

 Next week I have three Pre-Christmas parties, one that I am hosting, so it's going to be busy.  But hey, isn't that what Christmas is all about!

This Week....

This week has broken temperature records right across tropical Queensland.  Cairns recorded it's highest ever temperature at 42.3 degrees and here at Julatten it got to a smouldering 40 degrees.  Our summer temperature rarely gets above 30 degrees so this was staggering.

But the strangest thing for us was that there was almost zero humidity and so very much like living in Julia Creek again!  However it was really only one day that was uncomfortable and we spent most of the day in and out of the pool to cool down.  We never stayed in the pool for more than 5 minutes because our skin would have burnt badly.  We don't have any air-conditioning in our home because we designed the house to have cross breezes from any direction making ceiling fans adequate. This has been perfect for the past 12 years but we did ever so slightly regret our decision for that one very hot day.  The garden has really taken a hammering with the hot dry conditions and we have been watering non stop.  We are now just praying for rain to fill our almost empty dams and to give the garden a really good drink!

I brought these lovely roses inside to enjoy and the next morning there looked like this ☟

 There was a couple of storms around on Wednesday.  We weren't under any "bad" storms but there was plenty around.  Hail, Wind and extremely heavy winds meant that we lost our power from 2pm until 1.35am.  Thank goodness we have a generator!

Storms in the distance...

We had to go to Cairns on Thursday to have the car serviced and for an appointment that I had made to try cold laser on my very arthritic right hand index finger.  Wow.  We couldn't wait to get back to Julatten!  Even though the temperatures were about the same as home, the humidity down there killed us!
We had lunch in Cairns at Noa Restaurant.  We have eaten at this establishment quite a few times and it never fails to please.  The food is always fresh and ever so delicious.  I chose the Mackeral on an Asian Salad with a prawn and coconut mousse and Philip decided to have the Crispy Soft Shell Crab Burger with a side of Lotus Chips.  Yummmm!  I of course helped him eat all those lotus chips....as you do...

Has anyone ever tried Cold Laser Treatment?  It felt so good while I was having the treatment and I had a little more movement in my finger for the next 24 hours.  I guess the object is to get the blood circulating in the finger and it will take many treatments so we made the decision to purchase a portable machine recommended by the physician.  I will let you know how it goes.  My problem with the finger started after surgery to have a large fatty lump removed from the knuckle.  I let it go way too long before having surgery so it is entirely my fault that I now have this problem.

On Friday night here at the Julatten Community Park we had Santa arrive with gifts for the local children!  What a joy it is to see the look on the little kids faces when Santa arrives. Before Santa's arrival we were lucky enough to be entertained by the local "Sing Australia" group who serenaded the crowd with Christmas Carols, and you know that there is nothing like a Christmas carol to get you into the Christmas spirit.  We also feasted on steak burgers that were ever so tasty, particularly when washed down with an icy cold beer!
Well that's a wrap for my week.  I hope that yours has been a good one also.

A night with Carlotta

What a great night we had in Palm Cove last night at the Surf Club where Carlotta was performing! Many would remember the LES GIRLS revue that started in Kings Cross and took their performance to many places across Australia.  Shortly after joining Les Girls, Carlotta became their witty compere.  I first remember seeing Les Girls at the Rolling Surf Cabaret in Caloundra sometime in the 80's.  I remember back then laughing until my sides hurt and it was no different last night.  Carlotta is now 75 and still as witty and politically incorrect as ever.  In fact she opened the night by telling anyone that can't stand her incorrectness to get the F.... out now!
I didn't find anything she said or did to be offensive and as she said, why do we all have to be so politically correct.   We seem to have lost our Australianism somewhere along the line.  As she also pointed out nothing she says could ever be worse than what has been said to her as a Transexual.
Most of the night was spent taking the "mickey" out of people and not one person I saw was offended or walked out.  She spent a bit of time at our front row table and I kept waiting for her to take the "mickey" out of my new look orange hair, but she kindly left me alone however she picked up Jane's handbag asking " Darling is it antique?" (it wasn't!)

Her voice is as good as I remember and I particularly enjoyed the tribute to her good friend Peter Allen. Carlotta now lives on the Gold Coast and just does a few shows here and there.  Up until a couple of years ago she was on Studio 10 with Jess Rowe, who she speaks fondly of.
It really was a great night with a delicious three course meal served to us at our tables.  It was one of the best restaurant meals I have had for quite awhile. Would I go and see her again?  In a heartbeat!

Quiet Time......Finally!

Our life has certainly slowed down after a very hectic October, and we're loving it!  Easy afternoons lazing in the pool have been the order of the day.......... until.... the pool heater stopped working!  You may laugh at this, after all we live in the tropics,  but our overnight temperatures drop dramatically and cool the pool to an un-swimmable (is that a word) temperature.  Hopefully it will be fixed before Christmas!

So what have we been up to.  

We've had a couple of trips to Cairns for shopping AND we did manage to fit in a trip to the cinema to watch Bohemian Rhapsody.  We loved it!  If you are a QUEEN fan you will also love it.  I know that plenty of critics have given it a low score but believe me when I say you will come away a "happy chappy" singing "We are the Champions" or "Another one bites the dust" and you know what, I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that Freddy Mercury had died.  I was just so sad.  What a great loss to the world he was.

Anyway...moving on....  What else has happened in our lives.  

We made our annual trip to the Cooktown Races with our group of friends.  It's always great to catch 

up with each others "annual" news!  Isn't it great to have friends that you don't see regularly and still pick up where you last left off....

No wins at this table!

Gosh we take terrible selfies!

We have been heads down butts up around the property.  When we are away for any length of time everything falls behind.  Philip had a mountain of garden trimmings that had to be put through the mulcher, the garden was desperate for water, lawns needed mowing, cattle (and dogs) need attention and so much bookwork to catch up on, but finally we are on top of it all.  

Sadly we said goodbye to Fisher and Paykel (our freezer steers).  Paykel went to Mareeba Saleyards where he fetched a very good price and Fisher is in our freezer for twelve months of delicious eating. 

I know it sounds hard and cruel but as my father-in-law used to say....."there is no such thing as a sacred cow"

Goodbye Fisher....

Conquering Cape Belford at Elim Beach.......

.....well attempting to conquer!
Our friend Joan has been obsessed with climbing North Cape Belford ever since she has been visiting Elim Beach.  One of the things that stopped her was actually getting to the base of the mountain as it entails traversing around about 10km of sand dunes.  That little problem was overcome by Philip and I offering to tow the buggy up to Elim Beach.
Elim Beach is an easy drive north of Cooktown and it started it's life as a Lutheran Mission in the early 1800's.  Now the mission is based in Hope Vale.  Elim Beach is well know for it's beautiful coloured sands and hundreds of tourists visit here each year to photograph (and climb) the sands.  The only camping ground is owned by one of the Aboriginal Elders - Eddie - and if you take the time to talk to him he will regale you with some incredible stories.
We arrived at Elim Beach mid afternoon on our first day and after setting up camp we made our way towards the beach and our first glimpse of the hulking Cape Bedford - elevation 300,000 metres - no, not really, but very high!

I had already decided that I would not do the climb at Cape Bedford with the other three.  I know my capabilities and this was way beyond mine!  So bright and early the next day the team set off....

They had packed lunch and said they would not be home until mid afternoon.  I wished them luck.  This is where I end the story and Philip begins...

"It took us about an hour to travel the 10km across the sand dunes before we reached a point at the bottom of the mountain where we stopped as I could not take the buggy any further as it was too steep.  Even at this point the drop off to the right was a sheer cliff drop to the waters edge. Cape Bedford is usually very windy but on this particular day it was dead calm and very hot.  This was not what we wanted.  Joan had mapped out our route on google maps (no tracks here) but it was clear right from the start that what Joan had thought was grass was actually scrub trees that were covered in green ants!  This was not good but we continued our upward journey.  The scrub deeply scratched our legs and the green ants bit continually. It was not comfortable but Joan was determined.  We eventually reached a point where we could not go any further.  There was a sheer rock face in front of us that, with our ability, could not be climbed.  By this stage we were all exhausted and we still had to face the downward journey that is probably more treacherous than the upward journey.  After three hours of climbing we eventually made it back to the vehicle.  Joan was disappointed but we all agreed that the only way we were ever going to reach the summit is via helicopter!"

If you follow the road in the middle of this photo you can "just" pick out the buggy as a tiny black dot.

I could see the disappointment on their faces when they arrived back at the camp but I could also see complete exhaustion.  It was extremely gruelling.

The next day Philip took me back to where they started there climb.  I am completely in awe of how far they got!

There are so many places to explore at Elim/Cape Belford.  We drove across many sandunes and along the shoreline.  I was absolutely disgusted at how much rubbish has been washed up onto these pristine beaches. Plastic.  So....much...plastic.  I don't know how we as a population are ever going to tackle this huge problem.

So much rubbish.  Someone had made a "thong tree" from ones that had been washed up

Everybody always had their cameras ready for a photo opportunity - and there were many.  It's just such a beautiful place but we were told by Eddy that they are planning to mine the sand dunes for silica in the not too distant future.  Bloody mining companies!

Gorgeous foliage contrasting with the sand dunes in the background.

Typical sand road.  They are looking for the tea tree orchids.

Some of the roads we traversed were quite difficult...

 We, of course explored the Coloured Sands.  They really are magnificent and quite different to the ones further south.  These are not huge mountains of colour, just nature at it's very best.  They are still forming and every time we come back to Elim Beach the sand hills have changed shape and colour.

Ah.......really??!!??

Can you spot Beryl on her climb across the coloured sands?

This as far as you can drive along the beach.  The sign says it all!

We took long walks along the beach looking for star fish and the very unusual black sea cucumber also known as the lollyfish.  

Black Sea Cucumber

This is fresh water pushing up through the sand. 

There are crocs in this area but we didn't see any.  We are always aware and careful to take our beach walks at low tide and certainly to keep away from any inland streams or lagoons.  This is a really spectacular unspoilt area of Australia and I know we will return here again and again.

The sun sets on a perfect day

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