Dalveen Winter Wonderland with Music

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Friday 17 July 2015 and I woke up to snow at Daveen. We've lived there for 13 years and this was our first snowfall. In fact, the last time snow settled on the ground at Dalveen was 1984. How lucky was I to be up there for this fall. I'd gone up there on the Tuesday and was returning that morning, so just managed to squeeze it in.

Goodness me, it has been a long time since I last posted to this blog. Once you get to 60 it's hard to keep up with how quickly time flies. What's happened since I last posted a blog - everything and nothing really. My days at Dalveen are filled with mowing, chain sawing, mending the odd bit of fence, chopping wood for the fire, brush cutting, poisoning blackberry, laying more and more fallen timber on the wood heap for burning this coming winter, taking the dog for a walk, filling in rabbit holes, entertaining the occasional guests, etc. etc. Brisbane days are spent finishing off all the renovations we've done to the house over the last twelve months - or rather making a list of what has to be done and then finding a reason not to do it. I have made New Year's resolutions however, and the dreaded 2014 list has resurfaced as a 2015 list. I'm very into Ancestry.com.au but I've come to a bit of a standstill with my family tree and over the last year have done two family trees for friends and also a family tree for my brother-in-law Peter. I've become quite adept with it now and can practically complete a family tree for a friend in about two weeks. All I need is details of their parents, their grandparents and hopefully some details of great grandparents. We are so lucky in Australia to have so much information digitised and available via the internet. When I think of how hard it was for me trying to complete a family tree back in the 1980s I have to shudder. I look at how far I managed to get and it was past Great Grandparents. Nowadays my tree buckles under the weight of Great Greats, Great Great Greats, Great Great Great Greats etc.

Dalveen is in the throes of a drought at the moment. Our dam is wasting away and we really need about 200mm rain in a day to bring it back from the brink. We've lost a lot of trees to drought this year. Our last Silver Birch finally curled up its toes in 2014 and died from lack of water. Thankfully the Japanese Red Maple managed to survive so we'll still have a bit of colour in Autumn. A Claret Ash died but we have two left; our Chinese Pistachio continues to thrive and look beautiful in Autumn; as does the Liquid Amber. The saddest event for us this year was the loss of our 80 year old Fig Tree. I'm pretty sure the drought did the dirty on it. There are a few suckers growing from the roots of the old fig tree, so am going to wait until Autumn when I'll cut down the old Fig Tree and hope that one of the suckers is strong enough to grow into a replacement fig.

Photographs below show dead old wattle which fell over while we were away - this led to half a day of chain sawing and carting branches away, and finally pulling out the big root system and towing it across the paddock to the pile for eventual burn off; our dead 90 year old fig tree; fence posts rotting out and needing replacing; dam falling away during the drought and opening up a land bridge to the other side; summer storm rolling in across the flowering black wattles.

The Old Wattle died

Thanks to Global Warming the 80 year old fig is no more!

Next trip I'll have to mend some fences - so to speak

Damn Drought has brought a land bridge to our dam

Summer Storm approaching over the flowering Black Wattles

25 Amy Street, Donnybrook, Queensland - SOLD!!!

It is with much regret we have put our mother's house up for sale at Donnybrook, a little fishing village a short 18 km drive (approx 21 minutes) from Caboolture (that's the city Keith Urban used to call home).  Or just 10 minutes to the Bruce Highway where you can head north to the Sunshine Coast or south to Brisbane.  The drive from Donnybrook to Brisbane is approx 65 kms or 54 minutes drive - although this is to the CBD.  I live at Wavell Heights which is in the northern suburbs of Brisbane so the distance is only 55 kms and takes a mere 43 minutes.

Donnybrook House Circa 1960

Swimming in the Pumicestone Passage Circa 1959

The house was built in 1959.  In those days you reached Donnybrook via Caboolture along a dirt road (corrugated) and the trip from Brisbane to Donny say at Easter took approximately two and half hours.  Even longer if you stopped at the pub at Caboolture to have a few reviving ales before setting out on the last 18 kms.  Of course the highway from Brisbane to Caboolture had two lanes in those days - one going north and one going south.  These days it's three lanes in both directions most of the way and really only reduces to two lanes either way just as you bypass Caboolture. 

My mother had this house built as a holiday home.  In those days there were three bedrooms with two sets of double bunks in each room.  There was no lounge.  Just a small cramped "l" shaped dining/kitchen where you tried to cram about 5 kids and at least 8 adults at peak periods such as public holiday weekends etc.  There was no electricity, no town water, no telephone, in those days.  We did have a wood stove so if you wanted a hot bath you could get the boiling water from the tank on the side of the stove.  The water tank at the back of the house wasn't very big so it was at Donnybrook that we learned to conserve water - only turn on a tap when you were ready for filling a container and never leave it on while you were cleaning your teeth.  The toilet was of course in the back yard - much to our chagrin.  A hot day soon taught you it was a much better idea to trek down to the camping ground and use their septic toilet block than sit out in that hot smelly little piece of "hell" in our back yard.  Of course nowadays we are connected to the sewerage system and have a toilet in the bathroom and also we have town water and electricity and the phone connected!!!

The job we kids all learned to hate the most was the cleaning of the "grease trap" before we returned home.  If I start reminiscing about that I can still recall that pungent odour of greasy water my mother would ladle out of the trap into a bucket we had to then transport to the back of our garden to tip into the swamp that lay just behind our house.  Of course in the early 1960s there was quite a bit of building going on at Donnybrook.  Slowly small fibro fishing shacks began appearing magically up and down the streets of Donnybrook between one holiday and the next.  By the mid 1960s, my mother had come to the conclusion that the small cramped kitchen just didn't work.  So she had the wall between the kitchen and one of the bedrooms knocked out and this became our open plan bedroom lounge dining kitchen area.  She kept one set of double bunks, installed a fold out divan which became a double bed at night and also placed a couple slightly more comfortable chairs to make up the lounge with the divan.  The other set of double bunks were cut in half and one placed in each of the remaining two bedrooms.  There were now enough beds for 14 guests - and still there were occasions where doubling up of children or married couples in the single bunks were required.  The beds in the lounge area were kept for those who could sleep through a cyclone.  When there was an all night Euchre party involving six players, the backups (which usually consisted of three or four adults) would take their turns to have a "camp" in one of these beds for a few hours returning to the game when someone else needed a "camp".

Fishing on the Donnybrook foreshore Circa 1963

What this home was all about was "extended family" and "fishing" and "eating" and "drinking" and "singalongs" and "darts and quoits" and "euchre" and "reading books and comics" and listening to "portable transistor radios".  Downstairs in the laundry area where the dreaded "grease trap" pulsated were the "ice boxes".  The local shop sold ice by the block and every couple of days we "kids" would drag our soapbox go cart down to the shop to pick up a couple of blocks.  I believe there was a lot of "child slave labour" practised by my mother and also my mother's adult friends and relations in those days.  If we weren't dragging the go cart down the shop, we were sent down the shop to collect the milk and loaves of bread, we were dispatched about 250 metres to the water to get fresh sea water onto the yabbies which had been pumped out of the mud bank earlier that morning by - you guessed it - me - apparently I did such a great job.  I still seem to fall for that line even in my sixties. 

When we came to Donnybrook for the school holidays we always stopped off in Caboolture.  Mum and my Aunty and sometimes other Aunties and Uncles who weren't necessarily blood relations but good friends could quite easily while away a couple of hours in the beer garden.  Donnybrook was tantalisingly close but there was no shifting adult bums from around tables having a refreshing ale or two.  No matter how much we whinged and complained our pleas just fell upon deaf ears.  Sometimes my Aunty would give us a few shillings to go to the bakery for a pie or cream bun to sustain us.  We usually spent all our pocket money on comics which were inevitably all read by the time we left Caboolture.  To this day I still think of Caboolture as the most boring town in the world - even though it has grown in size to claim city status.  It was always a very boring stopover as far as we were concerned.  I'm sure this is not the case it's just the memory of a 10 - 15 year old.

This story will be continued in the next post.

Donnybrook House for Sale - see below link

http://www.ljhooker.com.au/KYJF2E/2-bedroom-house-for-sale-donnybrook?

The House Circa 2009

Moreton Bay Regional Council - Donnybrook Master Plan Report

http://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/uploadedFiles/common/projects/Donnybrook-Master-Plan-Report.pdf

 

One of the Double Bedrooms







Looking through the Dining Room/Kitchen area

Towards the stove and dishwasher in the kitchen

Downstairs from the kitchen into the large laundry area etc

The Other Double Bedroom

Looking from kitchen area through the dining area to the lounge

Looking from kitchen down to laundry area and back door

Large shed and rainwater tank in the back yard

The Puppy Who Came In From The Cold

Catherine thought she heard something squealing, but I didn't, so I didn't investigate.  We were just about to sit down to dinner and on my way to the dining room, I could hear Tilly barking and barking.  It was her excited bark, the one she does when she wants someone or something to play with her.  I put down my plate, pulled back the curtain and peered out the window.  I could see Tilly with her head stuck under a table and her tail wagging and lots of excited barks going on.  Further investigation definitely needed.  This could be anything from a snake or lizard, baby rabbit, bird, possum or some other such creature.  So out the back door and onto the verandah.

Imagine my absolute surprise to see a very small puppy whimpering and looking very scared under the table.  I scooped it up and proceeded to bring it inside.  "Catherine, look what I found outside!!!"  It looked like a border collie pup about 6 to 8 weeks but probably closer to 6 than 8.  Considering we are a very long walk from other houses etc., we had no idea where this little one had come from.  I gave it some water which it ignored, so then fetched a saucer of milk which it finished in no time.  And then lay down and started to nod off.  After we finished dinner I rang round the closest neighbours but noone had any idea where it had come from.  One neighbour suggested it might be a dingo pup because she had a splash of white on her tail.  But this puppy was quite friendly and came when you tapped the floor and definitely didn't seem like she'd been bred in the wild.  So nothing we could do that night, we tucked her up in a box in the bathroom to keep her away from Tilly who we knew would just terrorise her wanting to play a game or some such thing.  The next day there were no messes in the bathroom.  She finished off a hearty meal and we took her outside where she did her business.   

She was sooooo cute.  A little blue and white border collie - or what we thought was a border collie.  I headed off to the post office to put up a "Found a Puppy" sign.  On my way down the road, I could see a man walking down the road appearing to look under houses etc.  So I drove up to him and said have you lost a puppy.  Of course he had, so within no time puppy and owner were reunited.  He took her home to mummy and daddy border collie and her two siblings.  Do pups have siblings.  We were very sad to see her go as she had been perfectly behaved and no trouble at all.  Her owner said she was about 7 weeks old.  She had walked about 500 metres to our house through very long grass.  She could never have climbed up onto the verandah.  That must have been the squealing we heard.  We think Tilly must have grabbed her with her mouth and placed her on the verandah to have a game.

Who else is over the overuse of the word "NOW"

Is anyone else over the use of the word "NOW" by Australian television reporters and journalists.  Nearly every sentence these days - especially by reporters in the field - begins with the word "NOW".  Today I heard Melissa Clarke on the ABC Morning News show say "Now, coming up later......"  How can it be now, if it is coming up later.  You'll hear journalists saying things like, "Now, yesterday I talked to Mr ...."  or "Now, we're hoping to speak with .... in the next cross".  Now, Now, Now.  It is being used as a segue and I would just like to say I'm over it.  Please listen to what you're saying and stop, stop it now.  Now that's all I have to say on that.  Now, I'm going to end here.  Now that's your lot.  Now let's stop using now frequently and switch to using it every now and then, like it used to be.  Now try to keep it off the beginning of your sentences.  Thank you and now I'm going.

Christmas 2012 has come and gone

How quickly did 2012 go by.  Even New Year's Eve (which in the past has gone on interminably) seemed to fly by this year.  Those last few weeks in December travelled over the speed limit as far as I was concerned.  Unfortunately there was no time to send cards this year.  I just hope the few friends I have left, don't drop me because of my failure to send out Christmas Cards.  I'm thinking of mailing everyone a January newsletter to give my reasons for being so remiss. 

The lazy days of summer have arrived in Brisbane.  The buzz of the Cicada chorus is present all day and then at night the crickets and mossies take over.  We also seem to be getting more than our fair share of large cockroaches which are drawn to the night time lights and fly in through the windows.  The quickest way to despatch these is with carefully thrown thong.  Tilly gets most excited when she hears the sound of a thong thwacking the floor or a wall - she likes to rub her face on whatever remains of these obnoxious creatures.  Who knew cockroaches would have a delicate aroma which is extremely attractive to German Shepherds.  Tilly is now 10 months old and adult sized.  Of course she is a wild as ever and has managed to destroy all our pot plants, and anything plastic or metal left lying around the garden.  Her latest foray has been to get stuck into the number plate on our car.  It now has a couple of teeth marks and has been badly mauled around the edges. 

Christmas was wonderful this year with all the extended family returning home to Brisbane to celebrate.  My niece and her husband and four small daughters returned from Singapore, my nephew returned from London, and my other nephew came with his partner and young son and daughter from Sydney.  On Christmas Day we all gathered at my sister Dianne's home to celebrate - 23 including children.  Boxing Day we went to my sister Vicki's home for another feast and about 30 guests this time.  I think I must have put on a couple of kilos over this period with way too much delicious food consumed.  The weather in Brisbane has been glorious.  There have been a couple of very hot days but mostly the days have been 30 degrees Celsius or less.  Perfect for languid days by the pool or at the beach.  I'll try to post a few pictures to highlight this period, but for some reason I'm having trouble bringing up the browse box to load them up from my computer.  Happy 2013 to anyone who happens to read this blog - good health and happiness in the coming year is my wish to all.

Vicki's Christmas Tree

Tilly's fully Grown now but still acting like a crazy puppy

Festive Season down under and a full moon as well

Charlie possum stalking

We were very lucky a week ago.  A couple of hail storms passed through our property at Dalveen.  It makes a change from our normal weather pattern of misty rain, light rain, heavy rain and torrential downpours intermingled with lots and lots of very dry days.  The storms crossed our path on Sunday 9th December.  The first storm was accompanied by lots of thunder and lightning with pea sized hail stones falling for about 10 minutes.  About 40 minutes later the second hail storm came through - this time there was no thunder or lightning.  Just a little bit of rain for about 3 minutes and then the hail came pelting down for about 10 minutes.  This time the hail was the size of marbles.  The noise as these stones bounced off the old corrugated iron roof was deafening.  We were most impressed and at one stage it looked like we might get a complete covering of hail on the ground, but sadly it wasn't to be.  Tilly went a little crazy during and after the storm.  She's a great fan of ice as it is and always wants an ice cube if I'm getting any from the refrigerator.  She saw these hail stones as manna from heaven.  During the pea sized hail storm she ventured out onto the grass to collect a few.  She was shocked when they kept pelting down onto her and jumped back onto the verandah and the partial shelter offered there.  The look she gave Catherine and I was one of complete disbelief.  I'm sure she thought we were pelting her with the hail stones whenever she ventured out onto the grass.  When the second storm passed through we brought her inside as I'm sure the larger hail stones would have done considerable damage to her if she'd gone out onto the grass.
 

Marble sized hail pelting down

The storm is over and this is the result - not quite complete coverage

Tilly's excited

These ones were still there about 3 days later

Why are my feet so cold?

Tilly eating all the hail stones that landed on the verandah

When the sun came out the mist started rising as the hail melted

Metamorphosis - butterflies have emerged from the Chrysalis ship

Last time we were at Dalveen I took a photograph of a very interesting web.  In among the downhanging branches of some mistletoe, a butterfly - or possibly a moth - had laid her eggs.  By the time we saw it, the caterpillars had entered their chrysalises (probably that should be chrysalides) so we had no idea what would come out when they finally metamorphosed into winged creatures.  This is what the original chrysalises looked like.

And this is what happened while we were up there this week. 

Not sure if they are butterflies or moths.  The underside of the wings have the bright colours and the top of the wings is a whitish grey.  Whatever they are, they're very beautiful and what's interesting is they seem to be hanging around until they all emerge.  We had to come back today and there were still about half a dozen that hadn't emerged yet and about 15 were clinging to the web waiting.  There were a a couple of magpies sitting in the tree but they didn't seem interested in them.  Maybe the colour is designed to look like something that would taste terrible??  Mother nature - you've got to love her.

Postscript - Aha, I've got a name at last. This butterfly is an Imperial Jezebel or Delias Harpalyce - mostly found in Victoria and Eastern NSW