A Grand Day Out

Our friends Tracey and Jen are up staying with us at the moment. They live about 3 hours away on the banks of the Clarence River.Today we all went out to Cedar Creek, below Mount Glorious for a picnic. We stopped at Andy Williams Park. I always liked Moon River and of course he was quite instrumental in introducing us to the Osmonds(!) so it is fitting he is celebrated with a a toilet block and 2 barbeque areas.I heard cicadas properly for the first time. I only heard one at first as I was walking along by the river, looking carefully where I was putting my feet. It sounded to me a bit like an angry rattlesnake...but they don't have rattlesnakes here...nowhere near dangerous enough for this place!

Cedar Creek

The sound of the cicadas came in waves. One would start off and then the rest would join in and the sound would seem to pass all around you and then slowly die down and stop.We had a lovely picnic, 5 different kinds of bread, houmous, tabbouleh, smoked salmon, pasta salad, etc. It was all very Famous Five...without the ginger beer.

The Famous Five

There was a kookaburra watching us and a bush turkey came wandering past.Koszi and Chomo, Trace's dogs, chased it off!!After lunch we had a game of Euchre before heading back to Brisbane.In the evening Will and I went with Ros to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) to see Taikoz and their show 'Crimson Sky.'Such rhythm, synchronisation and muscular torsos. It was real treat!

Spooky!

I thought Dulcie was pulling my leg when she read this out to me!

Australian Masterchef Bake Off Masterclass with Australia’s Answer to Mary Berry.

No cleaning jobs today!(Although I have cleaned some bird pooh off the side of the house and swept out the garage...I mention this only in the interests of full disclosure!)Today we made a ‘batch a biscuits’! (I will post the recipe separately)I accepted my role as Sous Chef happily and watched Chef at work. I did offer to do some of the mixing and beating but I was just called upon to get ingredients and measure them out.At a crucial moment of the procedure...the actual formation of the biscuit and placing them on the baking tray...the phone rang and Chef was called away.‘You roll them out’ she said, ‘You know what to do.’I didn't. Oh Heck! The pressure was on!I did the best I could and when the phone call ended and Chef came back. I stood aside proudly and said ‘What do you think Chef?’There was quite a long moment of silence as she leaned upon the counter top and looked at them, then she said,‘Oh, you've only used 2 trays.’Yes, I had used 2 trays because that was all there was on the counter top ready laid with baking paper.‘There are some more here’ said Chef reaching to the side of the microwave.We ended up tipping all my carefully formed biscuits back into the mixing bowl, which I had cleaned and dried and put away like a good Sous Chef does, and starting again!Chef was happy now and it’s always good to keep Chef happy.When they were baked I tried one.‘They’re good,’ I said. I was relieved I hadn't ruined them.

Dulcie’s Jam Drops and Sultana Biscuits

150g butter1 cup of sugar1 lid of vanilla extract (5mls)2 eggs2 cups of self raising flourRaspberry jamDesiccated coconutSultanas(Makes about 3 dozen biscuits!)Method:Melt the butter in the microwave briefly to soften it slightly (Not until it is all melted!)Add it to the mixing bowl with the sugar. Add the vanilla extract. Cream these ingredients together.(For best effects use the old worn spoon that your mother gave you.)When they are thoroughly mixed add the 2 eggs and beat them in.Fold in the sifted self raising flour.Rest the dough for about 10 minutes.Heat the oven to 160 C.Cover three flat biscuit trays with baking paper, cut to fit.(Jam Drops)Dust the palm of your hand with a little flour and taking some dough, roll a small disc in the palm of your hand, about the size of a 50p or 50c piece. Press a finger into the centre to make a depression...‘Like a little bird’s nest’ says Chef.(We made 26 jam drops and got them on 2 trays)Put a little raspberry jam in the nest and sprinkle with a little desiccated coconut.

  

(Sultana Biscuits)We added half a cup of sultanas to the rest of the dough left in the bowl and mixed them in.Roll them out again, in the palm of your hand but this time you do not need to flour your palm.(We got about 12 of these biscuits on our third tray)Press the sultana biscuits flat with a fork (see illustration)Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes then turn the trays round and bake for another 10 minutes until brown.Store in an air tight container.Enjoy at your leisure!

Man vs Wild

I went for my afternoon constitution.I had seen, on Google maps, a park nearby; Norma Croker Park.Norma Croker was an athlete who came 4^th in the 200 metres at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. She was in the winning relay team for the 4x100m. In 1960 she was disqualified from that race but came 15^th in the long jump. She went to Brisbane State High School so they have made a park for her in her honour.I didn’t have a map, just a rough idea of where it was. I was becoming a seasoned bush trekker now and this time remembered to take water with me. I set off down the road and soon came to where I thought there would be an entrance. The first thing I noticed was a sign...The helicopter I had seen yesterday was obviously not from International Care Home Search and Rescue...it was hunting Fire Ants!It stopped me in my tracks.How big are these ants if they are being hunted by helicopter? Where has Will brought me? I definitely think that when you arrive here they should show you a video at the airport and then you can decide if you want to stay or catch the next plane back. I thought King Browns were bad enough but now there were Fire Ants to deal with!I nearly set off back but then thought ‘What would Jenny Agutter do?’ So I carried on. The path was lovely, a clean, wide concrete strip. I spotted a lovely blue kingfisher sitting on a telephone wire. I paused to take a picture......then carried on. Suddenly the concrete path came to an end but a dirt path carried on. It dipped slightly into a gully with a stream. There were logs and piles of rocks and over hanging trees. It looked like typical jungle to me. I stopped again and gulped. Images of lurking King Browns and giant Fire Ants hiding behind trees played through my mind. I began to wonder how I was ever going to cope when we finally got to Frogknot!

Jungle!

The ‘Jenny’ in me urged me on and I crept cautiously forward. Once out of the gully I stopped again. The path stretched forward through knee high grass! Poor Norma Croker! Her park is a death trap! I looked down at my white hairy legs sticking out below my shorts. They might as well have had neon signs flashing ‘Bite Me! Bite Me!’ attached

Would you walk down a path like this?!

‘Be brave’ said Jenny. So I carried on. It was hardly aerobic exercise at the speed I was going but my heart was certainly beating fast!I was startled by a black beer can lying by the path and then spotted what looked like a large spiky beetle in the middle of the track! I was relieved that it turned out to be just a leaf.

It's not normal is it?

I came across a tree that looked like it was covered with bloody claws!I carried further on and came to a bridge over another stream that flowed down into Oxley Creek. There was a rusty shopping trolley lying in it. How familiar? It was just like home! I felt a bit better after that so continued on.I came upon a small wooded hillside and the path sloped up. So up I went. The grass here looked as if it had been mowed but I did not drop my guard. You can’t trust those King Browns.Suddenly I came to a road. That was it! That’s all you get for coming 15^th in the long jump! A gully, long grass, a spiky leaf, trees with bloody claws and a rusty shopping trolley. I’d be livid if I was Norma Croker! In fact I thought about writing to ‘A Current Affair’. They would definitely get another half an hour of awful television from this!I would have stood there outraged for a bit longer but I realised I had to head back. So, I girded up my magnificent loins and turned round, down the wooded slope, past the rusty shopping trolley and over the bridge, past the bloody claw tree, over the spiky leaf, through the knee high grass and across the gully, back to the concrete path. When I reached the main road I just thought I would see what lay over the bridge that the road went over....I decided it looked like the ‘wong’ way to me (sic) so headed back home through the now familiar wilds of the Archerfield Industrial Estate.I walked in the door and exclaimed,“I survived!”Dulcie was sat at the table. She looked at me as if I was mad and then blew out a cloud of smoke!