Bees and the Honey Pot

Steve is on holidays. I still have two sleeps to go before I start. He gets to sleep in (well not really) and Chloe and I have to get up and go to work. Steve has been holed up in here the last couple of days




busy doing this.
He has to do it in this little tent, otherwise the bees are everywhere trying to steal all the honey back. Robbing the hives was a bit of a chore this year, it has been so wet and we have had so much rain that he had trouble getting into the paddock to rob them. The ground was still covered in water and real boggy. Needed to take the 4WD just incase. I was a little worried. The grass around the hives was that high that you couldn't see Steve or the car and we have a four week drive, so the car is high. Consequently, we got only half as much honey as we normally do this year. Bees don't like to leave the hive in the rain, and with the constant rain, there is not much pollen in the flowers and the flowers aften fall off the trees. It was a pretty quick job this year.
Still beautiful honey. Will keep us well supplied for the next 12 months.Frames are full.
Spinning it all out. He then had to spend the afternoon returning all the empty frames back to the bee hives. All done now for another year.


Chloe has been busy again this week making more of these.
They have been very popular at work. She forgot to take them in Monday morning, so they sent her home to get them at morning tea time, and she had them all sold as soon as she got back. Both Chloe and one of the other girls at work are baking mufins and Cupcakes as a fund raiser for "Relay for Life". Their whole office plans to participate in the 24 hour walk in May. Chloe has four hours of the walking to do.

These beautiful dolls arrived at our place this week.
I have always had a love affair with these beautiful dolls. My ironing lady is really talented and made these gorgeous dollies for my two girls. I just love them.Chloe chose this one - she is still to be named yet. Anyone got any suggestions.
And if you are reading this Sarah - this pretty one is for you. Brings back lots of childhood memories.

My friend Gayle has started up a new photography challenge blog for adults called "Capture that Word" and you can find it HERE. She started one for kids earlier this year and it has become so popular that she thought she would also set athe challenge for the adults too.
Don't forget to check it out and come play with us too.

Looking forward to my holiday and spending time relaxing with friends.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

It has been pouring down like this again for the most part of today. Rain rain and more rain. We have had a constant stream of rain all year this year, we have gone from having a back yard that didn't have a blade of green grass in it, to an absolute jungle now. We have spent two full Saturdays in our yard in the last 5 weeks, and looking at it again today you cannot even tell. The grass is high, the weeds are even higher.
There are puddles everywhere
And all the plants and trees are covered with these rain drops. Whilst I am sick of the mud and slosh squigging between my toes, I still love seeing seeing the rain, and hearing it fall. I love the coziness of being indoors on a wet day.
What I am sick of though, is the great pile of dirty washing that is sitting around because of all the rain. This is the pile of towels we had after our visitors last week - when the cyclone was hanging around. Finally got them washed and on the line where they sat for a couple of days because before I could get them off dry, another shower would come along and wet them again.
The dryer is working overtime where our clothes are concerned.

I have managed to scrap a couple of layouts in the last couple of weeks. This first one was for an encouragement challenge at SofF, and I am pretty happy with the way it has turned out. I feel so blessed in my life and I never want to take it for granted. Doesn't mean to say that bad things don't happen, in fact they do all the time, but I want to look around and be thankful and grateful for the many blessings we do have in our lives.
This next one was about Chloe's Australia Day weekend away. They had a lot of fun tubing and knee boarding on Fairburn Dam, - just had to document this one. Double click on it to see th bigger version of it. I've been a really slack blogger this month - Life has been hectic, not with big things, but just the mundane, busy at work, busy at church, busy with visitors, busy with meetings, busy with girlie afternoons - good busy but just busy. We are also enjoying spending time with our adopted grandkids who are home in Rocky for 4 months. The time is going way too quickly and a part of me is sad that it won't be long before they head back to PNG and it will be another few years before we see them again. They are such great kids, totally unspoiled, such helpful kids, and just love being outdoors exploring - they are not kids to be stuck in front of a computer or a TV all day. Chloe spent the afternoon with them today helping them catch guppies out in the creeks. They all had such a ball. I had dinner with them on Thursday night and just had t snap them doing this.
There was no arguments, just happy chatter - just beautiful and I treasure these memories.

I did manage to wander around our garden this morning during a break from one of the showers and I managed to capture these photos. I love the wandering around the yard, it helps me to appreciate God's beauty in the little things that I often walk past in the busyness of life and don't appreciate. Be prepared for bulk photo share. You need to double click on these photos to see the rain drops and to appreciate the beauty.
This was flowering just outside my back door. Not only is it beautiful but the fragrance is just divine. Wish I could capture it too.
As I was photgraphing the rose, I noticed this old hook hanging on the tomato trellisses , just loved the rain drops on it and love how I also managed to capture the bit of cobweb too. Quite like these couple of shots.
Just love these pink frangapennies too which are flowering down the side of our house.
Love the photo of this toadstool we found growing in our front garden. Had to take these photos as well.
Just a few more peeping out from under the log.
Just a few more random shots of flowers in my garden - flowers I don't always notice cause they are just isolated amongst the greeny of other bushes, but when you get up close and personal with them you marvel at their beauty.
I love these exquistite flowers. They only flower once a year, usually around Febuary but they are a little late this year. They only last for about a week and then die off, but the colour and texture of this flower is just breathtaking and I look forward to seeing it every year.
We have a passionfruit vine which is just overloaded with these tasty fruits.
And lastly just a couple of random shots - looking down our street - it is so nice to see it all green, to see it looking so fresh. I need to get out with this camera more. I haven't played with it enough lately.

Things to be thankful for this week - where do I start:.......

1. For the rain - for the freshness it brings to the earth
2. the colour green - to see all the lovely green grass again.
3. Safety for Steve today as he robbed the bees - in overcast weather. Not the best weather to do it in.
4. For all the sweet honey he has bought home
5. My lovely husband who is always such a tower of strength and support and who has such a servant heart. Love you babe.
6. Cool breezes.
7.For the verse in 1 Thess 5: 17-18 " Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus" May it always be a life verse for me.
8. For clean fluffy towels
9. Chicken Pie

And finally
10. For this gorgeous family and the opportunity we have to practice our grandparenting skills.
Love you guys.

A Beautiful Wedding and now getting ready to Batten down.

Ah I have been a slack blogger lately - Life is oh so busy this year. We attended a beautiful wedding on the weekend and this lovely family stayed with us.Lloyd is my second cousin and is the brother of the Brides Mum. He is also a pastor at Maroochydore Baptist on the Sunshine Coast and he had the priviledge of marrying them. He and his lovely family have been staying with us and we have had such a good time together.
I have a huge photo share - got so many great photos at the wedding it is hard to pick out favourites -
Camille looked stunning - her dress was just gorgeous and she looked radiant as she walked down the aisle on her dad's arm.
Ben and Camille - the happy couple.
Introducing Mr. and Mrs Ben McIntyre.The Bride with her Mum and Dad.The Bridal Party.
The Wedding Cake was stunning - so much detail and even better it tasted wonderful.

The Bridal Walz.

Lots of Great Collages of the Wedding too.

The Ceremony - the kiss- signing of the register.

Greeting the families after being pronounced Man and Wife - the wedding cars.

The Bridal Party and a glimpse at those shoes.

The Cake - The Reception Centre - all just gorgeous.

The Bridal Party arriving at the Reception Centre.

The Food - a tri drop - beautifully set out and tasted divine.

The Speeches - and the Bridal Party. A few embarassing moments.

Cutting the Cake and the Grooms Speech.

The Bridal Walz.

Father Daughter Dance.

It was great catching up with lots of old friends and family that I haven't seen for years. Had a very late night - or should I say an early morning and am still recovering from the lack of sleep,

These guys had a good time catching up too.

What else have we been up too - well not a lot of scrapbooking that is for sure. We have been spending time most weekends getting the van ready for our holidays.

Our caravan included an annex, so we thought we better hava a practice run putting it up to make sure that all the bits and pieces were there. It took a little time to set it up, but hopefully now that we have done it once and kind of know what we are doing , it will go up a lot quicker next time. We do have to invest in some flooring though. The thought of using it now it starting to get exciting. We just have to finish rigging it out inside now.

The other news is that we are all on standby at the moment - getting ready to batten down just in case this cyclone continues on its current path. Lloyd and Simone have taken a weeks holiday and stayed so that the boys can go fishing this weekend. Their fishing trip is not looking too hopeful at the moment because if this cyclone continues to come it will cross the coast somewhere close to us - quite possibly withing a 100km radius of where we live. Quiet scary when you think that at this stage it is a Category 4 cyclone. We are praying like crazy that we don't get it - our river is already in flood, and it wouldn't take much more rain for us to end up have a serious flood here as we have had continuous rain this year.

Well his post is now way too long but I couldn't end it without sharing the many things I have been thankful and grateful for this week.

1. Marriage - commitment to love, honour and cherish each other.

2. Getting up with friends and family we haven't seen in a long time

3. Sunny days and cool breezes - makes life so much more enjoyable.

4. Some really lovely Grade 7 students who have been coming and offering to help me at work.

5. Shopping with girlfriends and finding bargains.

6. Picnics in the Park

7. Lovely faith filled discussions with close friends and hearing about how God is working in other peoples lives in different parts of the world.

8. Scriptures that really touch my heart.

9.The fact that I can be anywhere, at anytime and talk with my God. I think that's pretty cool.

10. The colour of the sky - such a perfect blue.