ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

As much as I don't like getting old, I guess its better than the alternative. So I celebrated another birthday yesterday, number 78. It is so nice having lots of friends in the village. Jan invited me to a morning tea in her home with a few other ladies. Then Bill and I with some other couples from the village went to our local cafe for lunch. It was so nice to be able to go out to celebrate. (We haven't had any Covid cases for two weeks in Queensland.)

In the morning I wake up to see that the Balloon Fairy has left birthday balloons on our front fence. (A village tradition)

 Then the post person delivered a present from my wonderful Swiss husband. So we can have traditional Swiss Raclette again.

 After morning tea in the village we had lunch with village friends at our local "Cafe 63".

 Cafe 63 also sell flowers so I got a bunch from Bill.

When we arrived home there were more flowers on the doorstep from daughter, Sonya and family. I got a book from Carol, a biography, my favourite. I also got many other lovely gifts from my neighbours and loads of birthday cards.

In the evening I had a zoom party with all the family, who live in other states and cannot visit us because our border is closed. So I feel blessed that I had such a lovely day even when the world is in a bad way. I'm so glad we moved here where we have lots of friends who are like family. 

A WATERCOURSE GARDEN

Besides our village having a beautiful Zen Garden we also have a Watercourse Garden. It runs through the middle of our village, which is built on a hill. A creek bed has been built to channel the rainwater down the hill and beside the channel, gardens have been established with meandering pathways and stairs leading to each road. Here is a map of our village. Can you see the watercourse down the middle?

In case you are wondering we live in Tranquil Avenue opposite the red car. I'll take you for a walk down through the gardens from Spirit Place. This is the newest part of the village so the gardens are not properly established yet.

This is Spirit Place. The house on the left is where the CEO lives. We walk to the middle......

 ...where we come to the stairs that lead down to Tranquil Ave.

 Here you cans see how there is one apartment is on top of another. The top one enters from the street where I am standing and the bottom one enters from the street below,  so there are no stairs in any buildings. Well down we go.

 Looking back up to where we came from.

Tranquil Avenue, my street. See the forest at the end of the street. We are going to cross the road where the crossing is.

Down the stairs to Joy Place.

Joy Place.

 We cross the road and stop to smell the roses.

 Down the stairs to Serene Ave

Serene Avenue

 Stop to admire the butterfly before going down the stairs to Harmony Street.

 Harmony Street and a Curlew who lives in the garden on the right. The main road, Dennis Rd, is behind the garden on the right.

ZEN

During lockdown it was good to be able to walk or sit in our village Zen Garden. It was a place where the troubles of the world disappeared and I could relax and enjoy the beauty around me. Our restrictions are relaxing every two weeks. We have very few cases of Covid 19 in the country now and no new cases for a few days. However, after the 'Black Lives Matter' protest marches, we have to wait to see if the cases escalate before there is more freedom.      This is the gate to the Zen garden.  

DINNER TIME with covid19 restrictions.

 Our village is an independent living place so meals are not usually provided. However, our CEO, Chiou See Anderson, organises a monthly dinner for us in the community centre. Naturally, these dinners had to stop during the lockdown. But our CEO, concerned about our mental heath being isolated in our units, decided to provide meals for small groups of us in our units when the restrictions started to ease. She cooked the meals with her staff's help and they delivered them to our units one street at a time. One each week for five weeks. The residents were organised into groups of 4 or 5 and were hosted by one of the group in their unit. It was a quite an effort for Chiou See to cook for 30+ and organise getting the food to the units.
Each week the organisation improved. The first time she and her partner and staff delivered the meals from the boot of her car. The next time they plated up the food and delivered from the back of a village buggy. After that she turned one of the empty units into a mobile kitchen and plated up there but the staff still delivered by a buggy. It was fun for us to get dressed up for a change and go to dinner with friends. As we are the village photographers we were given a meal each week. We didn't take photos of the first street but here are some from the other streets.

Chiou See cooking salmon rolled in tea leaves and seasoning and eye fillet steak with blue cheese topping on a bed of mushroom risotto. There was a side dish of vegetables as well. Dana, a staff member, cooked orange and almond cake for dessert.

They plated up from the back of the work buggy.

Staff member and daughter of Chiou see delivers to the unit.

Residents enjoy.

The next week Chiou See cooked garlic and chilli prawns with linguini and beef ribs. Bill taste tests the marinade for poached pears.

Single ladies really enjoy these nights where they can enjoy friendship.

The next week it was our turn. Another lady took the photos so we had a night off. 

We had fish or brisket and cheese cake

The last week the last two streets combined for a street party lunch. Chiou See and her daughters prepared traditional Chinese fare. She cooked in her own house which is in one of the last streets.

Brendan, Chiou See's partner dishes up Won Ton Soup.

Just one of the many dishes.

Just one of the happy couples. We were invited to join them for lunch too.