Sunday, January 30, 2011

Offline for a while

Hope you all have a great couple of weeks - I will be offline - Disneyland is calling.

Will have lots of photos and things to share when I get home.

Hugs
Beverly

Friday, January 28, 2011

A new poem

I have had a few words floating around in my head for a some days now, so today I sat down to write them, the result is on Vesta-poetry.

Since I took the photos, the army has been into Colleges Crossing and is working daily to clear trees and debris, they have been amazing.

We will be back to normal one day, but until then, we will keep smiling and working together.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Happy Australia Day

It is wonderful to be celebrating our 16th anniversary as citizens of this wonderful country - it is indeed the 'lucky country.'

Today we had a lovely lunchtime BBQ with Mom and Dad and then have spent a relaxing afternoon watching the cricket on TV between England and Australia. What a great day.

Celebrations of the national day have been evident all around, with lots of people celebrating together, I think the recent tragedies have brought out the very best in our community and our State.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Oh my goodness!

Our beautiful river park looks like a bomb has exploded in it

This is the entrance to the park

The water was so deep over this area that the grass and gas BBQ was left in place, while trees and infrastructure was wiped out.

This is all that is left of our wonderful picnic spots


Colleges Crossing was under 2m of mud, volunteers cleared and cleaned it. The water is still very high, because there are huge trees underneath blocking the flow of water.

 Elizabeth and I went out for a drive as the sun set last night, we joined hundreds of residents exploring the park. The shock and sadness felt by everyone was palpable, so much devastation.

Monday, January 24, 2011

It's my birthday and I'll smile if I want to!

Yesterday we celebrated my 'Un-birthday' - today is the first day of school, Ivan and Elizabeth are working and as it was Sunday, and we were all together we decided to celebrate.

My lovely children spoilt me with a beautiful necklace "B", earrings, a purple teddy bear and music. Ivan gave me a Kindle and also another beautiful 'Fairy' tile.

Elizabeth chose this beautiful necklace for the children to give me.

This beautiful wall tile was from Ivan

Not quite 47 candles, but I still couldn't blow them out - we celebrated with a chocolate, Australia-day Mud cake, it was fun.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Before & After photos

As the water rose, the swings were threatened and eventually were under water

Yesterday 22/01/11 - just 11 days after the flood we visited our lovely park & the devastation was horrible.

As the water rose, the trees were submerged, but we didn't expect the following.

This is what the road now looks like.

This was the toilet block, under water.

This is all that is left of it, with another building from somewhere crashed into it

Trees were snapped off like twigs - a disaster zone and this is just one park out of hundreds.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

A new poem has been posted

Vesta-poetry

Has a poem about the floods - it is still a little rough and needs some love and attention. I did however, want to get it up while the crises is still so fresh in our hearts and minds.

I dedicate this to all who have lost everything - I wonder what would be on your list. Let me know?

Time for ironing

Today is ironing day.

Without electricity for over 5 days meant no washing and certainly no ironing.
As soon as we got the power back on, I began washing but have been too busy to do the ironing - so now I am drowning in un-ironed clothes.

It is 6.15am - the TV is on, the iron is heating and I am ready to start - will probably finish around 6.15pm tonight - only kidding - although it is a few hours work ahead.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Normal activities

Haircuts for everyone.

So beautiful

Short and cute -looking grown-up

Brotherly love
It was lovely to have our haircut on Monday 17th, Sarah decided to go for a big change. She is a little worried that she looks like a boy again - of course telling her that she doesn't isn't helping - but she looks beautiful - so grown up.  Matthew of course, wanted to keep his long and shaggy, but with school starting on Monday - he needed it short and neat - what an improvement. And Elizabeth had hers trimmed. I had mine trimmed to shoulder length - no photo yet.

Monday, January 17, 2011

My amazing brother

My beautiful, amazing brother sent us through a link to YouTube this morning - he has recently (in the last couple of months) bought a piano and has been teaching himself to play.

He dedicated and played this beautiful piece of music Watermark to all of us in Queensland who have now passed the high water mark.

Thank you Ian.

This photo made me laugh when I looked at it - Really 'No through road?'

And who said we didn't have a river view?
This block of land normally looks out onto a walking track with no river view.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Just a couple of walking minutes away.

Only way to get to this house that was flooded


Look at the lamp post - the gate posts went completely under

This is the estate just next to ours, less than 1km from our front door

Completely under

Water tank floated into the next door neighbours garden

Flood photos

I will be posting over the next couple of days a series of photos and thoughts. I was fortunate to have my family and my home safe during this terrible devastation that has hit our suburb.

These first few were taken of the same area just a few hours apart.

This photo was taken on Jan 11th at 3.46pm. The people in these houses were desperately clearing their possesions.

January 12th - 6.08am. A shed had lodged against this house - a double story under water.

What a disaster and this was only one house out of over 400 in our suburb.

We have power!

Not sure how long it will last - but we have electricity at last.

It went out at 11pm Tuesday night and today is Sunday 2.40pm.

We are all safe - no personal damage - just isolation for a couple of days.

Four hundred houses in our suburbs damaged.

Many completely destroyed.

Thank you all for your wishes.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Comparison photos

This photo was taken during our previous flood around Christmas when the flood was at 6 metres. The swings that Sarah is playing on, features in the following photos.

Park & Swings taken at 8am this morning.

Park & Swings taken at 4pm this afternoon.
These three photos show the devastation and the speed at which the rivers are rising.  This park is at the confluence of two rivers - the Bremer & the Brisbane rivers. The Bremer is due to peak at 11pm tonight and could reach as high as 18m.
Brisbane river is still rising and tomorrow we are going to have a King Tide at 3pm, as Brisbane is a tidal river this is going to make the situation worse.

Our good news is that we are safe and dry.

Rain and flood photos

One of our local roads - 1 metre flood water

The river has overcome all its banks.  Sarah was swinging on these swings a couple of weeks ago.

Flooded front garden - what a sight!

Ivan used his strength to move the water away from the front

Sarah helping clear the front patio

Major Floods

My header photo was taken in December with our local Brisbane river peaking at 6 metres, today it is rising and is currently at 13.6 metres - South East Queensland is in crises. There have been at least 4 deaths overnight and yesterday and many more.

Ivan and I spent yesterday flood proofing our house and digging our ditches deeper. Today it is just a time of waiting and watching and sending our prayers to all those who have lost their homes and lives.

Diggin our a tree root, Ivan hit mud!


Mud, glorious mud!

This is what was causing the problems.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New School Shoes

Today was the day we went school shoe shopping.

Each year the children need new trainers and leather school shoes and I take out a loan to pay for them. It is always funny to see Sarah with her narrow long feet and Matthew with his wide feet. Luckily we have an amazing shoe store 'Athletes Foot' and they keep a record of our previous purchases.

So now we are half ready for school, on January 24th.

It was a lovely morning out with the children.

Today is a day for relaxation, a little watching cricket and some fun together.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Before & After



 Starting to take down the tree.

Today I finally managed to think about taking down my Christmas Decorations, which are usually down before New Year.

This process is often a 3-day chore, as I do it by myself or just with Elizabeth, but today everyone helped, so with 5 pairs of hands it went quickly.

Elizabeth put away all the glassware, Sarah took down all the window decorations and Ivan and Matthew did the tree.
It took about 5 hours, but now we have a tidy clean house.
End result, my lounge is back to normal.

A New Year and a special One

New Year's Day and Elizabeth's 21st Celebration Party

As we will be in the USA for Elizabeth's 21st birthday on February 2nd, we decided to celebrate early and give her gifts to her beforehand. We had a Turkey and Salad lunch and champagne to toast her. It was such a lovely day and allowed Granny & Grandad to join in the fun.

A toast from Ivan and I for our special girl.



Now January 2nd, it is time to begin the tidy up.
This morning I woke early - around 4am, managed to stay settled and resting until 6am and then I had to get up. Started taking down the hanging decorations, did 4 loads of washing and tidied up the kitchen. Then Ivan woke and we began the morning with a swim - oh heavenly way to start a day. I did 10 laps of kicking - attempting to remove the Christmas kilograms.

Today I am going to pack away Christmas decorations and tidy up the house. If I achieve that I will be happy.

Then I will make a list for the days to come.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Goals and Dreams for 2011

2011 the first time that I will use the abbreviation. Last year I tended to say Two thousand and ten, but this year it feels right to say Twenty-eleven - what a strange thought.

I have a number of goals for 2011:
  • To write Book Three of the Guild Chronicle Series
  • To edit and re-write books One and Two
  • To continue with my university studies
  • To lose 5-10kg in weight and maintain a healthy balance in my life
  • To complete my 2010 digital albums
  • To be HAPPY
Now for my Dreams:
  • The first is to get one if not all of my books published.
  • The second to achieve Distinctions in my courses
Two dreams, that hopefully by the end of this year will have turned into goals.

I wonder what your dreams and goals are?