A Quick Trip to Cania

We have just had another relaxing week up at Cania Dam, the dam is still full and looking beautiful although the fish are still hard to find.

We stayed in the bottom cottage and this tree was full of red flowers and birds, but of course as soon as I went any where near it with a camera, they all disappeared.

The wetter weather means more feed around and for the first time we saw emu's. This father and his chicks were living just outside the dam gates.

We went for a drive up to Krombit tops again to try out the new 4WD and to have a break from fishing. There are 26 creek crossing to get to the plane crash site and only the week before all 26 had water in them. We only encountered two and they were only puddles much to the boys disappointment. 

I can't remember how may gates, enough! As I am the one that has to get out and open and close them, but it's all worth it for the magnificent view once you reach the top.

Here are  few pictures taken up the back of the dam. After couple of scorching days, the weather cooled a little and was just perfect with some wonderful cloud formations and a little breeze. We even found a couple of decent fish.

We did find one disadvantage to owning a white ute, we caused a right ruckus at one of those gates on the way up to the tops as the cows think it's feeding time and we had two herd converging on up as we tried to get through, luckily there was a fallen tree just inside one of the gates that slowed the progress of one lot at least. The noise was deafening. We didn't come home completely unscathed though. On an evening fishing session in the spillway, these inquisitive calves surrounded the ute and managed to chew off all the reflectors on the back. In the end one of us had to stand guard and shoo them away as they seemed intent on ripping off the reversing camera, so I got the camera out and shot some very cute cow pictures.

By the time we left, the jacarandas had all come into flower and that red tree was almost finished. We are still finding red flowers in everything as the cars and boats were parked under it.

I have been busy dyeing and printing and doing an online class or two, so next post will be textile related again :) Till then.

A Day at Main Creek.

I love going up to Main Creek, find any excuse I can to spend time in such a wonderful places with wonderful company.

On my arrival this time I was introduced to the newest arrival on the property, isn't she cute! not quite 24 hours old and everything is a big surprise, so funny to watch her amazed reactions to just about everything.

The reason for my trip this time was to guide a group of lovely ladies through the process of dyeing, stamping and sewing a covered book. I really don't like the term teach or teacher. The people that come to these workshops come with their own bank of knowledge and experiences which they use in their creative endevours. I provide the materials and products I know will work and give good results and share the knowledge and experience I have gained over the past umpteen years.  Each person adds to the whole experience and I come away from each workshop a little wiser for having met and worked with them.

So what did we get up to in that jammed packed day of colour?  By morning tea time all the fabric was sat in its little pot of colour, along with a few threads that the ladies had bought along with them. After ummming and arrrring over Marion's home made Devonshire splits full of cream and jam, other little delights and some good coffee, we had a chat about block printing and I explained how I went about it and showed off my lovely wood blocks I had purchased from The Indian Woodblock Company.  It wasn't long before the fabric had had it's allotted time sitting in it's puddles of colour and was rinsed and hung out to dry.  

In this glorious sunshine it wasn't long before the fabric was ready to be ironed and taped down ready to print.

Have to confess these fabric were printed in my own workroom, but I have very little time for photo taking once the action begins. After lunch, which was delicious as always, and I won't have you all dribble over your keyboards by describing it, the fabric was cut up, arranged and sewn to cover an assortment of little and not so little books. It was a busy day and not everyone got to the sewing stage, but all went home with some beautiful fabrics they had created themselves to play with at their leisure.

These are my two sample books.

While a few were finishing up, I had a chance to slip out and catch up on the backyard politics and goings on. A month or so ago I re-homed one of my chickens up at Marions. She was a bossy thing, giving my other two a hard time and laying shell less eggs.  Marion offered to take her to the next chicken sale and "move her on" but she has fallen in love! She was put in a run with some very lovely black and white chickens and a splendid rooster.  This scruffy little red chook looked so out of place but the rooster took a fancy too her and now she has become part of his harem and they go everywhere together

Dora and her fancy man.

Here a red chook from the other group, who have their own magnificent rooster, had slipped out and Dora took exception to another red head near her man! Did she give her what for! It reminded me why I had taken her away from the two at home.

While we stood and watch the complicated social order of this eclectic group, a couple of wallabies went hopping through the top paddock. You can just see them to the right of the tree. Well if you have good eyesight that is. I only took my little point and shoot camera, typical as it was such beautiful weather and plenty of good photo opportunities but I don't usually get much chance to take any pictures.

The chickens which provided beautiful eggs for all Marion's guests are on the bottom rung in the pecking order. The guinea fowl give the chickens the run around and this magnificent peacock presided over all.

When the girls started their dispute over the cockerel, the peacock had to make sure he wasn't missing any action so came over and gave us a wonderful display of feather rattling, the noise is quiet extraordinary and I did try and take a bit of video, but obviously didn't hit the right button as have nothing!

OK one more look at that little girl who is now twice the age she was yesterday and oh so much more confident. She even came close enough to get a picture of those stunningly long eyelashes!

 Can't wait for my next trip, hopefully in about three weeks time to dye up another storm of colour and catch up with the furry and feathered residence.

The Cougar and Black Adder go North Part 3

Here we go, part 3 and some serious fishing.
The next leg of the trip is up one of my favourite sections of the Au coast. It is spectacular in so many ways and has to be seen, driven to really appreciate it's diversity and beauty.
Leaving an uneventful Prosperpine behind us, we drove to one of our favourite camp sites at Tully Heads, just a short 460 km.

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We stopped just north of Townsville for a much needed break, and on leaving found that the boat springs, which we knew where getting near their use by date, had started making some horrible noises, but the The Frost Mango was calling so we continued on out way cautiously.  This is a must stop and the ginger ice cream is just wonderful, even if it is breakfast time.

We set up camp as close as possible to out favourite spot. Two severe cyclones have been through this area since our last visit, so the landscape had changed quiet dramatically. The campsite has survived well apart from loosing most of it's bigger trees and had added a few permanent sites, one of which was right on out favoured corner.

The first day we had a quick fish on the Hull, just to get the boats out and check everything was still in working order, followed by a trip into Tully and the compulsory fact finding mission to the local fishing shop. We also enquired about springs for the trailer, but as we had feared there was nothing available as they are not standard and of course had to be ordered in, which would take far longer than we planned to stay.

Later Steve and Brad went for a bit of a reccy to find the bush ramp onto the Murray. We weren't sure we would be able to find it again as it has been a long time since we have been back to Tully and the old motel that marked the turnoff from the highway seemed to have disappeared, a victim of the cyclones we thought. However the highway had moved about 50 meters to the West and with a bit or driving around, the old highway was found, the motel still standing and the road in much improved with more black stuff and less bull dust. Even the track into the ramp was signposted and much wider than it had been on our previous trip. The only negative was that the bilabong was right up over the road and the water was deep, although the cruiser made it through OK. So that was our destination for the next day, after checking tide times as this is a high tide only ramp.

Luckily the water was dropping, as you can see it was at the cougars limits to get through without having to do some serious waterproofing of some sorts.

The drive in was easy and although the ramp has not improved at all, in fact I think the drop off is even worse than I remember, out boat went in without too much trouble.  This was Lou and Brads first time here so Steve is giving them a few pointers as to where to position the trailer, it's a bit tricky.

The photo doesn't show how steep the entry is, but I can tell you when your sitting in the boat, it's not too pleasant.

We were soon cruising our favorite creeks in perfect conditions.

And we found plenty of fish, the Barra were only small but the Jacks made up for it. Here are just a few of what we caught over the next two days.

Returning to camp, hot, tired and fished out.