Mundane news update.

We had a little trip out today in search of a Boysenberry plant. Will must have one.We had a drive out to a lovely little garden centre at Eight Mile Plains but unfortunately they had everything but.....Will got a thornless blackberry, a raspberry and a strawberry plant as consolation.His garden is looking great and we have already had eggplants, snow-peas, garden peas, kale and the pumpkin from it.We had 40 mls of rain in a storm on Thursday......I have never seen rain like it........but it only lasted for half an hour or so. Last night, as Will and I were out for a river walk in Brisbane, another storm passed over. We took shelter under the verandah of sailing club for about 20 minutes until it had passed over then carried on. There was thunder and lightning, the works and it absolutely tipped it down but when we arrived home we, disappointingly, only found 4 mls in the rain gauge.There are still bees flying around the garden and a small swarm still clinging to the branch of the Buckinghamia tree....Will has texted Jonathan. He might have to come back!We saw Joanne, next door today, she has been in hospital at the start of the weekend for an operation but is home now and despite feeling a bit sore looked good.In other news......I have taken my camera for a sensor clean.....to get rid of the dust spots on the lens."Ah, well some blokes just stuff their cameras in their pockets and it's no wonder lint gets into the lens," said the camera man."Guilty," I said.Blue care seem to be finally on the right track. Lizzie has been most often for the showering and she has been remembering to ring before she comes and has not been coming too early in the morning.Respite has been regular and at the right time......give or take 15 mins.....the last few weeks. There have been a few different people on the Tuesday but Andrea, from the UK, has been on the Thursday. She is nice if a bit loud!We have been on a wild 'Vimto' hunt having heard that a 'Foodworks' at Morningside had some in 2013......it didn't when we got there.....disappointed but we have since discovered that Will took me to the wrong 'Foodworks'........hope remains. If the worse comes to the worse 'Loud' Andrea says that they have it at 'Britain by the Bay' in Birkdale.....I googled it.....it is over $17 a bottle, that's about £7 a bottle........bargain?........gulp!Wendi, Will's sister, is nearing the end of her European tour and is currently in Venice....as is the newly married George Clooney....coincidence?The seventh whale this year got caught in shark nets on the Gold Coast but managed to get itself free, Big Brother has started here and is bombing apparently.....we don't care and we haven't watched it. The 'Footy' Finals are coming up and excitement is almost at fever pitch.....we couldn't give two hoots! Tony Ferguson (who?) has a new diet out which includes all the food groups and portion control......so what? A local Mosque was vandalised by an idiot who thinks being Muslim makes you a terrorist.And what have we to look forward to?........er............hmmmmm.............er.................ah, Yes! Deranie and Phoebe are on their way up the coast to see us.........Brisbane is hosting the G20 summit in November....chaos!.........and in 11 days we will have been here for 1 whole year.Hopefully I will have some Vimto by then!

Riverfire!

It was 'Riverfire' tonight.....the spectacular end to the Brisbane Festival.We watched it on the TV, eating an ice cream cone........it wasn't the same as being there though....I imagine.

Sad news.

We had a phone call today to say that Dulcie's friend Iris died last night from stomach cancer.The last time Iris rang us last week she did not sound well and said that she was having tests done and that the doctors did not know what was wrong with her.I'll never get to hear the story of the little pig and the molasses from the 'horses's mouth.'

Swarm!

You never know how a day will turn out.Today started as usual with the same old, same old routine.....pretty much like the last few days.....when nothing much happens apart from medication, breakfast, 'News', medication, 'Ellen', lunch, 'The Virginian', 'News', medication, dinner, medication and bed.Today being Saturday the routine was slightly different as the TV schedule is different. Will eventually got round to doing some 'Man Cave' clearance and we discovered that the long deceased mouse/mice had created a lovely fluffy green nest from the pile on the green rug we had brought back form Frogknot months ago.....yes, that gives you some indication of how long this stuff has been sat there waiting to be sorted!Climbing the back stairs in the early afternoon, Will suddenly said 'Look at that!'At first I didn't know what I was looking at because everything looked the same in the back garden but then I noticed the swirling mass of insects flying around at the bottom of the garden.It was a swarm of bees!We went in quite quickly as Will has developed an allergy to bee stings and another sting could kill him. Luckily he has an out of date epi-pen just in case.We watched the swarm from the kitchen and noticed it soon settle into the Buckinghamia tree at the bottom of the garden. There were still quite a few bees flying around but a quick 'google' assured me that they would not be aggressive. The swarm is made up of workers who follow a Queen who has left another hive and gather around her when she settles. Once settled, apparently, 'scout bees' head off in search of a suitable place to create a new nest. This can take from a few hours to a few days to locate and once they have found it the 'scout bees' head back to the swarm and do a dance which tells the other bees exactly where the new nest location can be found and they all head there.I was a bit concerned that the Man-Cave might prove popular with its smart TV and stash of crisps!Will phoned a 'Jack' who was apparently coming to the Kindy where he works in a few weeks to give a talk on bee keeping. Jack said he would get in touch with someone else to come and collect the swarm from us.That someone else was Jonathan.I swear when Jonathan stepped out of his truck I heard Angels singing! He was not what I was expecting at all. I don't know what I was expecting. It was probably a middle aged man, with a beard, possibly made up of bees and wearing suitable protective clothing.Jonathan looked like he had come from Summer Bay, young, blonde and drop dead gorgeous......in shorts and t-shirt! I tried not to hold onto his hand too long when he shook mine.There was little Will could do except standback because of the deadly bees but I was able to observe Jonathan close up at work."Are you not going to put on any protective clothing?" I asked, wide eyed."No," he said, "I'll be alright."He sprayed the swarm with something first of all....I think it was water..... I hope it was water.....I was so close some of it sprayed on me!"This will keep them busy," said Jonathan, "They will be busy trying to clean it off."Then he picked up a large plastic bin and cut a few small branches off the tree and put them in the bin."You might want to stand back a bit now," he said, "it will send them a bit crazy."He then carefully lifted the bin up over the swarm on the branch and then shook the branch roughly about three times and most of the swarm dropped into the bin. He put the bin down and covered it with a sack."That's one sting," he said, pulling an angry bee off his bare leg, "Oh, and another."I was now standing back with Will. Jonathan taped the sack onto the bin."I'm 99 per cent sure we got the Queen," he said, " look at the way the bees are hovering around the top of the bin, they can smell the scent of the Queen." I understood how the bees felt.....like Will and I hovering around Jonathan.It was over all too soon. He fastened the bin onto the back of his van and then was off with his new collection of bees for their new hive in Summer Bay.You never know how a day will turn out.....but I like the ones with a Jonathan in them!

Coming soon!