Winter Walk

As it is often too hot to walk in summer, we enjoy walking in winter. The Brisbane River has many walks along its banks. Last Sunday we just did a short part of the walk from South Bank to New Farm. One day we will start earlier so that we can do the whole 5km walk.

Today we started near the Story Bridge.

We walked under the bridge and onto The River Walk, which floats on the water.

When the River Cats go swooshing past the walkway goes up and down. It must be fun for the cyclists.

This is why the walk way has to float on the water.

There are houses and apartments on one side of the river and...

...marinas and apartments on the other side.

It was getting late so we turned around and headed back to the city of Brisbane.

Australia's National Flower is in Bloom

I walk past this beautiful Acacia Tree every morning but without a camera. Unfortunately it was late in the shady afternoon when I had my camera with me and it is hard to see the Wattle flowers. The Wattle is Australia's national emblem and there are many different varieties.

The whole tree

Tree top

Closer. Can you see the little yellow balls?

It has narrow green leaves

The green and gold of our national sporting teams.

Rocklea Weekend Markets

Last weekend we visited the Rocklea Weekend Markets for the first time. It was huge. It is held in the car park opposite the City Markets which operate during the week for retailers.

There were aisles and aisles of fruit and vegetables.

There were many many stalls selling cut flowers.

There were rows and rows of plants for sale.

Thenthere were many stalls selling all kinds of food. Breads, cakes, sweets, cheese and ....
German sausages.........BB's eyes lit up and he started salivating....so we bought a sausage each.....

......but we didn't eat it here we took it home and had it there.

The prices of everything was mch cheaper than in the shops and as it got later in the morning the prices fell again. Some stall owners were selling everything for $1:00 a kilogram.(2½ pounds). Rocklea is a suburb of Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

For more Farmer's Markets click here

Twice in one Week

Now I bet that title had you wondering. No its not what you might be thinking it is actually two visits to Ipswich in one week and we hadn't been there once in the last 20 years or so. Its funny how things often happen like that. We were invited to lunch with other friends that we made years ago in Papua/New Guinea. We all belonged to the same Judo and Scooter clubs in P/NG which I wrote about here.
Today two of our friends were passing through Brisbane after a trip to the northern tip of Australia. We picked them up at their hotel and took them to Ipswich where they had left their car with another friend from P/NG days. We were impressed with the views of Brisbane from their hotel room on the 24th floor.

North bank and CBD

There is a new foot bridge being built to link the CBD with South Bank, the cultural centre of Brisbane. There you will find: The Gallery of Modern Art, the State Library, the Museum, the Art Gallery, the Opera House, Theatres, Cinemas, restaurants, the Conservatorium, the Convention Centre and the Parklands.

Two other bridges upstream. The Old William Jolly Bridge sometimes called the Grey St Bridge and the rail bridge in the background. So after oohing and aahing over the view we took Diana and Graham to Ipswich where we met Del and Merle and went to the local Tavern for lunch.

Tomorrow Diana and Graham head home to Tamworth in NSW. We will all get together again in April next year for some more talk about the good old days.

A Winter Picnic

On Sunday BB says, "Let's go to a computer market at Ipswich." I think, "Boring, boring." So I rang an old friend who lives on the other side of Ipswich, a city 30 mins west of Brisbane. I suggested we meet in Ipswich and have a picnic after the computer market. So Joan and Norm met us at the computer market. The boys went shopping, and we had a chat. BB bought some Ram but it didn't go baa baa it goes into one of his computers.

Then Joan and Norm took us to the new big Riverlink shopping centre and then across the river to..........

....the River Heart Parklands, where we had a simple winter picnic. Soup, bread roll, cheese and apple.

It was warm in the sun. After lunch we walked through the parklands along the bank of the Bremer River. It is hard to believe we are in the middle of a city and just across the river is a huge shopping centre.

There were many native plants. Ginger above.

There is a board walk along the river edge. Old friends Joan and Norm. We met them in Papua/ New Guinea 45 years ago.

Australian rivers flow a lot slower than European rivers but when we have tropical rain for days they flood and surge to the sea causing havoc on the way.
Above you can see how the trees have been bent over with the torrent during the last floods.
We returned via a higher path and came upon this.......
...lovely little stream with the most gorgeous sculptures of children playing.



Then we came to an unusual fountain which was hard to capture. It was like a huge stairway of concrete blocks with water running down the steps. Taken from the bottom.

Taken from the top.

Then it was fairwell friends and Ipswich.

Another Day, Another Park, Same River.

In the last post we walked along the Brisbane River in New Farm. On Thursday we walked along the same river but in the city at South Bank Park lands. We had to go to the city for a seminar promoted by our superannuation company. The speaker, Michael Pascoe, was interesting and entertaining. He basically was telling us how lucky we are as Australia's economy hasn't been hit as hard as other western countries and I guess we were supposed to feel happy even though we've lost thousands from our superannuation but then everyone is in the same boat and we just have to manage as best we can.

After the seminar, where we got a free lunch, we went for a walk ...........

...along the river in the park lands.

Looking across the river to the CBD

Looking up river......

........ and down river.

We walked through the arbor........

....and the mini rain forest......

.....past the swimming pool. Then we turned back .......

....past the tourist wheel and the.....

.......Performing Arts Centre (street side)

Performing Arts Centre (park side)

At the back of the park is Little Stanley St. which is an eatery street under the shady trees, which is nice in summer but not today as it is very cold. (Brisbane cold 17C). The interior of the long apartment building was designed with the help of our daughter when she worked for Mirvac.

Down by the riverside........

On the weekend we went for a walk, "down by the riverside." It is the Brisbane River, which runs through the heart of the city and many surrounding suburbs. We drove to the suburb of New Farm and strolled along the river edge. It used to be a farming area in the early days of settlement.

A beautiful winter's day.

I became fascinated with the different types of housing along the river.

The extravagant.

The old and the new.

An old Queenslander (usually built up off the ground and with large verandas for coolness) This one has the verandas built in.

New yuppie apartments.

This lovely old house is surrounded by tall apartment blocks. It used to house the Navy Chief.

The posh and ......

.....and the poor.

We got closer to city but decided to turn around return along the picturesque riverside

Through New Farm Park to the Powerhouse Theatre, where our car was parked

This used to be a power station for the city tramway but inside it has been converted into a modern theatre where they perform avant guarde stuff. The outside has been cleaned but kept pretty much as it used to be except for the modern glass foyer. It is an interesting building.

A RACLETTE EVENING (For Denise)

Raclette is a fun meal to have in winter. We thought it would be nice to invite our friends Helen and Paul for a Raclette evening and reminisce about our holiday together when we visited Switzerland. So we bought some Raclette Cheese (see last post) and pulled out the Raclette Grill.

The table is set the guests are here so on with the fun. Denise asked how to make Raclette so I hope this post explains it.

The Raclette grill is in the middle of the table and each person melts their own cheese in a little non stick pan which slides under the grill. The hotplate on top can be used for an indoor BBQ meal with lots of different meats and sauces. Once again each person cooking their own. That is another fun meal too.

The little pans are sitting on top getting warm. Black on black is a bit hard to see.

You need about 100 to 200 grams of Raclette Cheese (or a soft melting cheese) per person.

A bowl full of hot, boiled potatoes in their jackets. These were the left overs after we had finished. (I forgot to take a pic before we started)

For side dishes the Swiss usually have Cornichons (pickled baby cucumbers) and sometimes Büdnerfliesch, for which we substituted Bruschetta. We also added a few other side dishes such as antipasto, tomatoes..........

.......pickled vegetables, savoury roasted mushrooms, olives and pickled onions. Pepper and Paprika for seasoning.

Take a hot potato and slice it on your plate, then put some cheese in your little pan and slide it under the grill (electric). Add some pickles to your plate then pull out your melted cheese and......

...pour it over your potato. You can use a little wooden spatula to scrape it all out. (But we didn't have any so used a knife instead, not good for non stick surface)

Sprinkle with pepper and eat...yum, yum. It is good with white wine or tea, it is supposed to help with digestion. It is not recommended to drink water as it could solidify the cheese in your tummy. Then you chat, laugh, keep warm and do it all over again and again until full.

Continuing with the Swiss theme, Bill cooked a delicious Apfelkuchen for dessert. You can see how to make one on his blog here. (Except he used apricots on his blog)

When we were in Switzerland we went to a restaurant in Zermatt and saw this fellow cooking Raclette, but he was using a different grill. He had a whole cheese cut in half sitting in a rack which he could swing under the grill (the black thingy) then he would swing it out and scrape off the melted cheese onto a plate and take it to the table.

Well Denise I hope that was helpful.

To Market, to market to buy a fat pig.........

I can remember my Mum singing this rhyme to me when I was little:
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again jiggety-jig.

Yesterday we went to a market to buy some cheese not a fat pig. We want to make Raclette, which is a traditional Swiss meal. To do this we need a special Swiss Raclet cheese. We know a Swiss cheese maker who sells at the weekend farmers markets, so we found out that he would be at the Mitchlton Markets this weekend. That meant a trip through town as Mitchelton is a northern suberb and we live in the south.
Blackwood St was blocked off and full of people buying fresh groceries. I wish we had markets closer to us.
BB found his Swiss friend Christian and they had a chat in their native tongue. We couldn't resist buying a few different varieties as well as the Raclette cheese.

Then we collected some fresh vegetables........

...and fruit.

There were some colourful characters entertaining the crowd.

BB couldn't resist some home cooked cookies to go with his coffee.

Before going home we had lunch at Des Alps the Swiss Restaurant in the same street.

Then it was...Home again, home again jigety-jig.

Up the driveway past the camelia trees in time for afternoon tea and cookies.

SPECIAL VISITORS

It was pouring with rain and darkness had fallen. The plane was delayed for two hours but at last our daughter, Sonya and Bernie arrived safely from Sydney after a bumpy landing in the bad weather. They came to visit Bernie's brother on the Sunshine Coast for the weekend, then Bernie had to fly back for work while Sonya came to spend a few days with us. We were excited to see them again.

Brisbane Airport

The Oldies

We took Sonya to our favourite restaurant. (same chin)

It is hard to believe that our baby is 35. (same nose and eyes)

Chinese BBQ Chicken

Coral Trout and vegetables in black bean sauce.

Noodles and Vegetables.

Too soon Sonya had to fly back to Sydney. Just as she was to leave for the airport, her bag handle broke. She quickly took everything out and tried to fix it.

Just as she was about to give up she and BB managed to remedy the problem.......

......Off to the airport

Bye Bye 'til next time. (snivvel, sob)

On Saturday they are both going to Thailand for a holiday. Sonya has a break from production managing at the Sydney Opera House and Bernie has a break from acting in the TV soap "Home and Away"