saturday, sunday...

Ok, this is like Tuesday night and I finally have enough time and connection to scribble a few disoriented phrases and photos.

Friday night I put a load of wash through since our hotel was so conveniently equipped with a laundry room. After shutting the lid on the washer I hopped into bed. Just as I was falling asleep, I had this hunch that we’d forget about the clothing and let them in the drying machine the next morning. So like a gracious mother, I sacrificed dear time of peaceful rest to drag the clothing out onto the floor. I chuckled to myself then… thinking about what my dear sis or mom would say about that. (No, I had no clue how much detergent to pour in. I just poured some in and forgot about it. The wash turned out just right. You know, all wrinkly and smelling that weird just-got-washed smell)

Saturday morning, daddy brought breakfast up for me. Bacon, toast, eggs, and coffee hit the spot, if I ever had one. Oh, the coffee down under is simply gorgeous. Nothing like the watered down see-to-the-bottom-of-your-cup tea that we often endure back home.


Anyway, after visiting the Opera House we hailed a taxi… well, actually, the taxi saw us standing by the sidewalk with our bags unlike anyone else and stopped so we hopped in and headed for the Sydney Airport. We flew to Sunshine Coast nearby Brisbane where we were met by Jason Kauffman and his wife and two of his kids. They took us to their part of the country into a small town named Gympie. Their one story house sits beside a train track on the east side of a hill overlooking ten acres of land with a nice sized garden and a creek running by. Daddy and Jason talked for a couple hours about immigration and everything else. And I, well, I was just me. Shy and bashful and just listening.

This is a view of the land surrounding Gympie just before we arrived at Jason's place.

And it was stress relieving to sit on the porch and stare at the tree for a while. I didn't get a picture of Jason's family but there is one over at their website. The little guy named Christopher and I hit it off really good. He's a fanatical fireman. I think he's put out eighty imaginary fires around the house in one day. I guess I was like him when I was a kid. ALWAYS wanting me to look at books with him. So that was alot of fun.

This is the view from the front of the house with a little vegetable stand beside the large garden. I didn't get a picture of the front of the house. Daddy got one of the back side, but I figured that wasn't appropriate and maybe a little vulnerable to post a picture of the backside of a house. And pictures aren't going to capture all the experience down here.

On Sunday morning a few families arrived for church. It was a beautiful time of singing and just listening for while. There was dinner for all the folks and the ladies made some wonderful coffee again. Ah, I think I might fly up there again for a cup sometime.


Sunday afternoon one of the men took us to visit his home. We stopped inside for a cold glass of juice and then toured his 10 acre property. He grows strawberries as a source of income.




They are a very sweet couple. He is a very laid back stable fellow and she's a firecracker if I ever saw one. So that made for some very interesting times.



Believe it or not, the sun is so hot... (ha, I'm a poet and don't know it) This is a picture of a water heating apparatus. They have it on the roof so it doesn't get stolen. Just Kidding. It is actually a solar water heater that works 360 days of the year, in other words when it's sunny. Amazing. Down here almost everybody catches the rain water from the spouting when it rains and stores it in tanks to be used to drink and wash... for almost everything. It is somewhat dry but they collect rain water mostly because the well water is brackish.


This is the storage tank for the rain water used for the couple thousand strawberry plants that he tends.

We stayed to enjoy a candlelit supper. And that came about when there was a fierce storm that cut off the power. That wasn't so enjoyable for those not "romantically inclined" as my dad put it. And since I'm not romantically inclined I didn't enjoy the candles at all. (just kidding there too!)

Sigh. It's probably bedtime for me. There will be more boring pictures and thoughts coming later for Monday and Tuesday.