The week that was.....

We've had a busy week catching up with friends.  First at Palm Cove where our great friends and hosts cooked up a delicious meal for the seven of us.  Love, love, loved the salads that Kate made to compliment the bbq lamp chops, sausages and chicken.  And lets not forget that curry.  To die for.  It was such a beautiful balmy night sitting on the verandah at our friends Palm Cove apartment.  As usual, the conversation (and drinks) flowed easily. We stayed the night and next morning......ham and eggs.  What else!  Thanks guys!

The three amigos

Anyone for a bbq?

Friends.....

Sunday evening we were invited to our gardeners house.  Her parents were coming for a visit and she really wanted us to meet them as they are ex westerners (from the Hughenden area).  Boy, did we hit it off.  We had so many friends in common, it was quite amazing.  Trude's husband was home after doing a four week stint at his FIFO job in PNG.  He didn't get to have christmas with his family so Trudi cooked up a beautiful ham with all the vegetables and trimmings.  It was another fantastic meal.  After dinner we took our chairs downstairs and sat around the bonfire that the kids had built. Another memorable night.

Dinner at Trudi's place

There is nothing more relaxing than sitting around a bonfire.

Saturday morning I rose quite early to get down to the Mossman Farmers Markets to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables.  I made a resolution at the start of the year that I would do this and also to eat from the freezer more often.  By that I mean eating some of the frozen meals that I religiously place in the freezer to eat when we are short of time.  Of course, they don't get eaten!  I have enough frozen meals to feed us for at least a month.....

This lady was selling "red avocados" that I googled and they are in fact Mamey Sapote.  I bought two and will make them into a healthy dessert. 

A lot of the produce comes from the Atherton Tablelands at this time of the year.  

Last night we were back in Cairns for dinner at our friend Jane's home to check out her renovation.  What a great job the builders have done and kudos to Jane for her fantastic taste in furnishings.  It is a lovely home with a "heart".  We all took along a food contribution and started with a cheese ball, and crackers followed by garlic prawns with crusty bread.  For the main meal we feasted on Stuffed Mushrooms, Asparagus Spears with soft friend Egg, Potato Bake, Steak and Sausages.  To round out the meal Jane had made a lovely lemon tart.  We were as "full as googs" as we said goodnight to our friends.

Dressed to kill

Today we are watering the garden.  It is very dry for this time of the year, but then again January can be a horrible month as we await the start of the monsoon season.  I went around the garden and picked a few flowers before we started watering.  The garden is looking lovely at this time of the year.

Next week we are going to be extremely busy as we send all our cattle to our son at Gundiah.  We are starting to "wind down" as we head towards retirement.  Bring it on!