Going back home...

It's a long weekend here in Queensland to celebrate the Queen's birthday, so we have three whole days to relax! Instead of our usual ride with the Ulysses Club this weekend, Mr E took me for a ride today - 'back home' to Charters Towers so I could visit Kezzie and the boys.

We picked a great day to visit as it is also the Annual Restorers Swap Meet this weekend, and after visiting our son Sam at his work, we took some time out to watch the old cars parade up the main street of town...

 

 

Next stop was over at Kezzie's house, which used to be ours until we moved away in January. I always get a bit emotional in the old house because it was the very first house we'd ever lived in where I felt at home - like I could live there forever.

Kezzie bought the boys two baby chicks a while back, with the plan that they'd enjoy fresh eggs each morning once they'd grown into hens. Mmmm...didn't exactly work to plan, though. Both of them are roosters!

Mr E tried to strike up a friendship with them by pretending he was a rooster too...

They came-a-running fast when Kezzie brought out their grain...

Both our grandsons were excited to see us. Deegan has grown so much! My little boy is losing his baby features and becoming such a handsome young man...

Kezzie took this photo of Calab and I just as Mr E and I were putting our bike gear back on for the ride home. I love it, and will be framing it! Thank you Kezzie darling!!

I missed them all as soon as we rode out the driveway, so it won't be long before we come back. Actually, if it be in the Lord's will, we wouldn't mind moving back one day.

Once home, our Sophie settled herself next to her favourite person...

Tomorrow I might take things easy and stitch a bit. I have these two patterns to choose from...

...a really cute cross-stitch of a girl named Rosey, and a pretty stitchery village of Rosalie Quinlan's.

Decisions, decisions....

Hope you have a wonderful weekend too, and -

"Happy Birthday your Majesty!!!"

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

Another ride, and what's on the sewing table...

It's Labour Day long weekend here in Queensland. 

It's an annual thing for our Ulysses Club to meet up with the Mackay Ulysses Club so the ladies of both clubs can compete in the Annual Thong Throw! 

We rode down to Bowen, and the Mackay group rode up to Bowen, as that is the midway point to meet for both clubs - a 220 klm ride for each club to meet in the middle. 

Our Townsville crew always start off with coffee and catch-up at the McDonalds in Aitkenvale before heading off on our Sunday ride...

Near the end of our first leg of the journey south some of us rode up to the top of Inkerman Lookout. It's an extremely steep ride, with signs forbidding any caravans or trailers to make the ascent. Mr E and I had never been up there before, but will visit again as the view down upon the farmland below is breathtaking...

We actually watched a few of the tail end riders on the highway and they were as small as pinheads! 

Mr E and I always have fun on a ride, with new places being top of our joy-list.

Back down the mountain (going down a steep gravelly mountain is slightly more exciting than going up!), we all stopped at the Inkerman Roadhouse for cool drinks and more chatter.

 Another 100 kilometres later, and we arrived in Bowen for lunch at the Horseshoe Beach cafe...

Once our tummies were full and we'd chatted some more (yes, we're a talkative bunch!), we headed off to the camping ground to meet up with the Mackay Ulyssians. 

Look at the view they had from their tents!

Below are all members of the Townsville and Mackay chapters who attended on the day. What a perfect picture, standing under the palm trees in the shade as it was too hot in the sun. Can you believe we're only 3 weeks away from winter?

It was time for the 'games to begin'!

The ladies of both teams had three rounds of thong tossing to make it to the 'throw-off'. 

 

At the end of the rounds it all came down to Di from Mackay, and me from Townsville. 

Di beat me by a toe! Well done Di!!

Mr E presented Di with the trophy. Isn't it cute!?

 Next year I am going to get our girls out for a few thong-tossing practices before the rematch.

Size 11, double pluggers...must use the regulation thong. ;-)

~~~~~

Back at home, my fingers have been very busy stitching projects for the next magazine!

The theme for Issue 12, due out May 29th, will be "Flowers in Pots". What do you think?

The May Issue will have seven original Elefantz stichery designs in three projects, but you could use any of the stitcheries separately in different projects of your own. I wonder what you would use them on?

~~~~~

I'll leave you with this picture of Blossom, who is secretly stitching one of her own designs for my June issue of the magazine, 'The Kids Issue'....

What a big weekend it has been!

I hope yours was fun too. :-)

Now I must be away to the kitchen and bake gluten free oatmeal and raisin cookies for Mr E, and spicy pumpkin soup for Blossom who is on day 6 of a nasty head cold. Good food, prepared with love, always has a soothing effect, don't you agree?

Hugs

Jenny

xx

Off to Tully....

It was a great day for riding today, so we were surprised only a few turned up for the Ulysses weekly Sunday ride. This week we rode 210 kilometres north to Tully. For those who remember the 'super cyclone' Yasi that hit the coast as a category 5 last year, you may also remember that Tully was one of the small communities right in it's eye.

With a population of around 2,500, Tully is banana and sugar cane growing territory, but it's also known as the wettest town in Australia! I guess that is made clear by 'The Big Rain Boot' on display as you enter the main street. I got Mr E to pose for a tourist shot.

We all had lunch at the aptly named 'Ulysses Cafe', but this cafe is named after the Ulysses Butterfly, not our biker club.

I discovered a beautifully refreshing drink here - organic Peppermint and Ginger soda....

An Irish backpacker working as a fruit picker was kind enough to take a group photo of us. I was the only girl today, but the guys are lovely so I never feel left out.

On the return trip to Townsville we stopped for gelato at the Frosty Mango, just past Ingham. 

Mr E had mango and passionfruit, and I drooled over a coconut and pineapple. The Frosty Mango make their gelato from fruits they grow themselves.

We were all pretty hot at this stage so the grassy acreage around Frosty Mango was perfect for a rest....

After our rest it was home again. A really great day - thanks guys!!

~~~~~ 

In our home this week we've had to make huge changes to the pantry. 

Mr E is definitely lactose and gluten intolerant, a side effect of a medical condition, so we could no longer manage life with wheat and dairy. I also have health issues with wheat and milk fats.

I overhauled the pantry supplies...

...and delved into my bookshelf for menu ideas.

I have a LOT of food intolerance cookbooks due to the year our son had to spend off gluten and dairy, so I will pull them out as well this week and begin a master plan. 

Pre-made foods are so expensive, so I've been and stocked up on plenty of base ingredients and will begin cooking most things from scratch every day.

I baked a gluten/dairy free apple teacake yesterday to satisfy Mr E's sweet tooth...yummy. A cherry and almond crumble also went down a treat. 

So that was my weekend. What did you do?

Hugs

Jenny

xx

A Sunday ride...

On Sunday morning Mr E left home early to meet up with some fellow Townsville Ulyssians for a ride to Lucinda for lunch. We stopped at the Frosty Mango, just south of Ingham for coffee along the way, then met up with some Ingham members who joined us for the remainder of the ride.

Lucinda is a very small beach side community, with a 5 klm conveyor that carries sugar cane from the shore (the conveyor begins on the right of the photo below)....

...5 kilometres out to sea where it is loaded onto ships.

It goes as far as my eyes could see!

Now that beach looks lovely doesn't it? It was such a hot and humid day yesterday, and a dip in rhe ocean would have been lovely, BUT - we live up in the tropics, and over summer you do NOT go swimming at the beach. The waters are filled with deadly jellyfish and crocodiles. 

One of our Ulysses members told us how was out fishing in his boat a month ago right here at Lucinda, and he spotted a croc in the water, about 300 metres from the shoreline - but there were some very stupid people jumping from the conveyor belt into the water below.

Yesterday we saw two young women ignoring the many large signs forbidding swimming in the water and lolling about in the waves. 

Why do people always assume it won't happen to them??

ANYHOW, we left Lucinda and headed back to Ingham for afternoon tea at Ray and Julie's before riding home again. It was a great day because these people are fun to be around. 

Later that night Blossom, Mr E and I went to a different church with a couple of Christian friends from the Ulysses, and what a blessed night it was!! About 25 people were baptised, and their testimonies were life changing. Blossom re-committed her life to Jesus, and we stayed afterwards for a pizza party the church put on for everyone. What a truly wonderful Sunday we had. :-)

~~~~~

 20% OFF my patterns and magazine issues!!

It is autumn here in the southern hemisphere and I LOVE this season more than any other.

To celebrate, I am having a 20% off every pattern and magazine listing in my Online Shop!

Just type the code AUTUMN at checkout (before you pay) to receive 20% off your entire order.

Visit my Shop HERE. 

The offer is only valid until midnight Friday 9th March.

~~~~~

If you weren't a follower last year when our southern autumn arrived, you will have missed out on my free autumn stitchery.

Feel free to download it HERE and stitch away!

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Later this week I am going to do a couple of short stitching tutorials. 

See you then!

Hugs

Jenny

xx

Home, sweet home...oh yeh.

We are home!

Our 1000+klm Far Ride in 24 hours was fantastic, but oh, my tired behind is happy to be home. Same boots, same jeans, same socks...you get to a point - at about the 800klm point - where you just want to hit the shower and scrape off the sweat, dust and cinders (we rode through a bushfire).

Home was soooo appreciated when we turned the last corner and caught sight of our front gate. But let me start at the beginning...

We rose at 4.30am, had a quick coffee, some strawberries and yoghurt, and rode off at 5am. It was dark and cool, but an hour into the ride the sun made an appearance...

..and quickly we warmed. I had relished the early cool air because I knew it was only a matter of hours before we'd be scorched in the tropical sun.

And we were! It was a long hot ride down the coast before turning west from Mackay to our mountain destination, Eungella. This was only our second short stop in 6 hours. We just had to hydrate with some long cool iced teas!

We also needed a break before the ride up the mountain!

It is a very steep ascent with hairpin curves all the way and sheer cliff drops along the road side...

 It was so worth it, though!

The view from the Eungella Chalet was breathtaking. They even have a ramp for hang-gliders to leap from!

The rules of this Far Ride were for all participants to arrive at the Eungella Chalet between 11.30am-midday. 

 There were so many riders arriving with us, and I was glad to see a couple of other pillion wives as well.

 

 We even caught up with John and Andrea, fellow Ulyssians from the Townsville chapter. We had camped with them at Mt Surprise in July! (you can read about that trip HERE)

Once the formalities of signing in was over it was time for lunch and socialising....

then a good peek over that cliff drop...

 John and Andrea had their camera, so Mr E and I were able to get a rare photo together...

The bandana helped with the helmet hair for the first 600 klms, then it was useless. However, long rides like this don't happen all the time so I'll be wearing a bandana for our regular 250-300 klms rides on Mr E's days off from work.

In case you wondered, there were a couple of riders that arrived 20 minutes late and couldn't be counted in. Poor guys! We heard them roaring up the last of the mountain, only to discover they hadn't made it before midday.

All up we had around 60 people who had ridden from Victoria, Northern Territory, ACT, NSW, and of course Queensland. Mr E finally met many of the people he knows through an internet riding forum, and stories were shared back and forth over the 90 minutes we all spent at Eungella.

Of course, the time ended too soon before we had to ride back down the mountain and off to our various locations to complete the 1000 klms.

A few hours later Mr E and I were heading back up the coast between Mackay and Proserpine when we hit a roadblock. Bushfire!

30 minutes later - hot, thirsty, and covered in cinders, the road was opened and we continued on our way.

I was glad to see the bush firemen had saved a sugar cane crop, and averted the fire from claiming the home of the plantation owners. Our bush fireman certainly are amazing men and women, and with Spring temperatures around 36C (97F) all day, they had it tough.

Today we are sunburnt, sore, and tired - but happy. Can't wait to do another Far Ride in the future!

Hope your weekend was just as great!

Hugs

Jenny

xxx