Busy Bees

We have had a very good response to the marketing of our property in the past three weeks and have even been chosen by the Weekend Australian newspaper as one of the Top 5 Prestige Properties across Australia.  We were  just a little chuffed and even more surprised to find out that they want to feature us again in next weeks Weekend Australian Magazine.  We don't know exactly what this means but it is still exciting and can't wait to see it.

In response to all this attention, I have had a cleaning bug.  I have washed every wall inside the house and Philip and I together have washed all the outside walls.  The painters were here last week and re-painted all the trim so the house is really sparkling.
As a "pat on the back" for all our hard work in the past couple of weeks we treated ourselves to a night at the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas for the "Chefs in Paradise" degustation.

We arrived at the Sheraton around 4.30 pm and after checking in and walking the short distance to our room we opened the doors to this lovely room.  The complete renovation of the complex was completed a couple of years ago and they have done a great job.  The only complaint I had with the rooms was the over-use of mirrors.  I startled myself a dozen times during our overnight stay thinking someone else was in the room!

The dinner at Harrisons Restaurant inside the Sheraton complex commenced at 6.30pm with canapés and Champagne.  Our chefs tonight were Manu Feildel and Adam D'Sylva and the owner of Harrisons, Patrick Spencer.

L to R, Chefs Spencer Patrick, Manu Feildel and Adam D'Sylva

Harrisons Restaurant

From the very first bite of our first canapés we knew we were going to be in for a treat and not one course let us down.  Every single morsel was delicious. We were also served matching wines that, I must admit, are a bit wasted on me but in my humble opinion they were well matched with the food.
We were seated at a communal table and were lucky enough to be seated with some great people and the night was very enjoyable.

The four canapés

The four courses

We finally left the table around 10.30 and were tucked up in bed by 11.30 but, had it not been raining we would have gone for a stroll to walk off some of that food!
The next morning we once again headed to Harrisons for breakfast by the pool.  It is such a lovely setting and we are so lucky to have this right on our doorstep.

 I wasn't very hungry (obviously!) so I ordered the bacon "sanga".  Oh my goodness.  Just look at the size of this!  I humbly admit I ate the lot....

Philip woke early this morning and went for a bike ride before breakfast so he was famished when he returned but the breakfast he ordered was much healthier than mine.  I think we should have swapped.

Anyway folks that's a wrap for this week.
xx Judi

It's official.....

...we are on the market!
We bought our property "Kur-A-Mar" in 2002 and moved here Christmas 2006 when our new house was finished.  It has been the best thing we have ever done.  Living here is such a joy and it will be hard to leave but we have made the decision.
Owning 220 acres is a big responsibility and it is a responsibility that we just don't want or need in this stage of our life.  It really brought it home to us how much a responsibility it is when we went on holidays for two months.  The time I spent organising someone to look after the agistment cattle, someone to mow the lawns, someone to service the pool and someone to look after the house and dog really brought it home to us how much easier it would be to live in an apartment and just close the door behind us.  So that is the direction we are headed.
We feel it is going to take a very long time to find the right person to buy our place but I'm sure that whoever buys it will love it as much as we do. So, the photographers have been and gone and the advertisements have now been finalised.  We are running advertisements on both domain.com and realestate.com  and for the next two weeks we will be running an advertisement in the Weekend Australian.  The property sign will go up when the weather clears and also the drone operator will do his footage when there are no clouds.
Hasn't it been a funny old year rain wise.  It has not stopped raining here for six months albeit light falls and I actually love it but it does hinder property maintenance.  With us being away for all that time, the weeds have really got a hold on and Philip is anxious to get out there and start spraying.  If we did nothing at all our property would be back to rainforest so we have to keep it all in check.
After the dreadful jet lag we are now back into our regular exercise regime.  Philip cycles at least five times a week and I manage to get a walk in most mornings  I have only been attending the Julatten yoga classes but hopefully will get to Port Douglas class this week as well.
Meals have been healthy with lots of soup entering our diet.  It really has been the weather for it. We have feasted on Chicken, Freekah and Vegetable Soup, Curried Cauliflower Soup and Tomato Soup.  I have some ham hocks in the freezer ready to make a batch of Pea and Ham next week.  We did have a break away from the healthy on Sunday when we had friends over for a Pizza Lunch.  I made four types of pizza, Ham and Pineapple, Margarita, Meatlovers and Vegetarian.  I also made an unusual garlic bread that I wish I had taken a photo of.  I had a  Pane Di Casa loaf and I cut a circle out of the top and placed a Camembert wheel inside.  I sliced the top off the Camembert and topped it with dried apricots and rosemary.  I replaced the top.  The rest of the bread loaf I sliced and spread garlic butter between the slices.  I popped the whole thing in the oven for 10 minutes and presented it to my friends.  It was really, REALLY delicious.  (We won't talk about calories).
Well folks that's all my news for this week. Wish us luck with the property sale.

xx Judi

Slowly back to normal.....

After suffering the worst jet lag I have ever experienced I am now, I think, on top of it.  It was our own fault not breaking our return flight into segments.  When we think back we certainly should have had a day or two in Dubai before the long haul back to Brisbane but hindsight is a great thing!
It has been go Go GO though in the last three weeks. We are selling our property and the marketing of it takes a great deal of time (and money).  We had to give the place a good spruce up before we would allow photographers in.
We started with the gurney and washed the outside of the house until it looked like new but we have decided to call in the painter to give the handrails a bit of love.  For very little money I know the place will look so much better.
We continued with the gurney and hosed down all the paving.  That in itself took another full day.  And then the mowing.  Apparently it has not stopped raining the whole two months that we were away.  Although we had organised someone to come in and do the mowing it was just too wet.  They did manage to come a few times but everything needed a bit of Philip and Judi love.
So the house was prepared for the photographers, both still and drone, to come here on Wednesday last week.  Alas, the weather was not clear enough for the drone so he will have to come back another day but the photographers had more success.  There was a bit of a misunderstanding however between the agent and me because I thought they were only photographing outside.  To my complete horror they also did inside!
Look, my house is never untidy or unclean but if I had realised or known what they were going to do I would have put a lot of things away to give the house clean lines.  Now I just have to be satisfied with the photographs having a "homely" feel......
Other than that I have either been in the office or the garden.  The Rosella bushes were loaded with Rosella's so I have picked them and have turned them into Rosella Jam. I now have 14 bottles of Rosella Jam sitting in the cupboard. Many of those will be handed out to friends and family.
We have also been harvesting lots of oranges, lemons, mandarins and grapefruit.  Marmalade Jam is also on the agenda of this weeks job list.

We took a day off on Sunday for a movie date.  There was not a lot of choice at Smithfield and with me not liking any violent movies it narrows it down even further.  We settled on Hustle with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson.  It was not much of a movie but we did get a laugh in places.  The best laugh came at the end of the movie when Rebel Wilson was pronouncing Phuket and I'll leave it to your imagine how she pronounced it!
Anyway, short post and I promise I will improve over the coming weeks.
Take care my loyal readers,
Judi xx