Birthday Bear Joins the Choir.

Birthday Bear sings for the CWA with Helen. 

Bear joins the CWA Choir with helen.

Bill helps bear with the lyrics. Mary was the clever person who dressed Bear in a beautiful outfit.

Mary, Bill, Paul, Bear, Helen, Ann and George.

Bill's favourite lunch. Sausage and Mash.

My favourite fish Snapper.

Helen is happy to have a companion to go to choir.

Berrinba Wetlands

We live in Logan City, it is the area of urban sprawl between Brisbane City and The Gold Coast City. These three cities together with the Sunshine Coast area to the north of Brisbane and Ipswich City to the west make up the densely populated South East corner of Queensland. However the councils do try to keep some green areas for the community to enjoy. I recently read about a new area in Logan that has been opened to the public called Berrinba Wetlands. So off we went to explore. It took some finding as the roads to it are so new they were not in the GPS but Google Maps came to the rescue. It only took about 20 minutes to get there.

Pelicans

There were many pathways and cycle tracks.

A wattle tree in bloom

The path passed between two sheoak trees, which are also in bloom.

It is a very tiny flower.

 It could be a cormorant. We walked a short circuit but I would like to do the longer one another day.

We returned to the back of the new interpretive centre.

Then around to the front.

There were nice picnic spots and a big, children's playground. I thought it was a lovely area but Bill reckons it will be better when the plants are more developed and the water is clearer.

Swiss National Day

Today is Swiss National Day. We don't always celebrate but this year we did. Bill comes from Switzerland but has lived in Australia longer than in Switzerland and he is an Australian citizen. However it is sometimes nice to remember your heritage, so he did today.

Bill has an Alp Horn, which usually adorns our stairwell wall. Today he took it down, brushed off the dust and gave the neighbourhood a rendition of haunting mountain music. He rarely does this as he is a bit shy.

Then we hunted the wardrobe for our Swiss souvenir T-shirts, jackets and hat, jumped in our matching red car and drove to the northern suburb of Mitchleton, where there is a very good traditional Swiss restaurant called Des Alps. We had arranged to meet some Aussie friends who wanted to celebrate with us especially as they know how good the food is there.

I have a Swiss cow on my shirt and the Swiss crosses on our jackets? It was such a hot winter's day that we had to take off our jackets.

Des Alps is a small cosy restaurant with a function room at the back.(Look how these patrons are dressed for winter, she has a strappy blouse..yahoo I think winter is over)

Nick and Monique, the owners were there to greet us and cook for us. They had pulled out the 25 Canton (state) flags of Switzerland to decorate the restaurant for us.

Paul, Bill, Denis, Colin,Val, Helen and Peter enjoyed lunch with us.

I had the special set menu. Cheese Tart appetiser.

Smoked trout entree (absolutely delicious)

Veal in a lovely sauce with Rösti potatoes for main course (Half eaten, I nearly forgot to take photo)

Rice pudding, cinnamon ice cream and ginger biscuits for dessert.