AN UNWELCOME VISITOR

 As most of you know our village is surrounded by forest.

I took this shot from a plane when returning from Melbourne some time ago and it gives you an idea of where our village is situated. We enjoy living here because we can go for forest walks and it is quiet being at the end of the road. We also enjoy wildlife that visits the village. We have lots of birds, and we have wallabies, echidnas, possums, bandicoots, and lizards. The visitors we are not fond of are the snakes.

Mostly they are carpet pythons, which are not venomous but we do have venomous ones too like the Red Bellied Black and the Eastern Brown as well as others. So I am wary of any snake until I know what it is.

A few mornings ago we were eating breakfast and looking out our window to the gardens opposite when I heard water running. 

I went outside to check what it was. It came from my neighbours garden and I went to her door and asked what it was. She had turned on the underground watering system in our adjoining gardens and the pump has become noisy. While I was there I looked across to our unit and saw a snake hanging a coil off our roof. It looked black so I was wary. The gardener was in the street and he came to check it out. He wasn't sure either because it was up so high. and against the bright morning light.

Damien the gardener got his pool net and encouraged the snake to get in and he pulled it from the roof.

Bill gets close to take photos I take them from the balcony just in case it falls and just in case its poisonous. Passers by stopped to watch.

Damien very patiently waited for it to crawl onto the net.

Its okay. It is only a baby python.

The morning's entertainment over we went back to breakfast. The gardner put it into the garden opposite our unit. So I hope it doesn't come back.

ST PATRICK'S DAY DINNER

 Our monthly dinner in the community centre had the theme of St Patrick's Day. Everyone was encouraged to wear green. Because it is exam time for the Year Twelve students, they couldn't come to help out. The dinner committee asked for volunteers to help serve the meals. We have a roster system for cleaning up. There were prizes to win, trivia questions and Irish sing along as well as Irish line dancing.

Being green.

Residents help the chef plate up.

volunteers serve the meals.

The menu 

I had the Corned Beef Fritter. It doesn't sound much but it was delicious. Bill had the Guiness Lamb Stew Puff Pie Crust. He said it was delicious too.(I forgot to take a photo before he devoured it)

Dessert was tasty too.

Our very own Irish Line Dancers.

We won a bottle of wine in a raffle and we won a box of chocolates for winning the table Trivia.

Bill knew most of the answers. I was so happy that he was able to come to the dinner. He hasn't been well for a week or so. He called his cardiologist who wasn't available but he was told to ring the emergency room at the hospital. He was told to go in. So he spent Wednesday night in hospital, where the cardiologist adjusted his pacemaker, which wasn't keeping the right beat rate. He came home Thursday and enjoyed dinner on Friday. So that was good.

We came home with the loot.

HOLIDAY ON A TROPICAL ISLAND IN 1984

 Now in our eighties, Bill and I are not enthusiastic about travel anymore. Instead I quell my travel urge by revisiting the many trips we have done in the past, which I also write about in "My Story".

Back in the early eighties my Dad died from bone cancer. He had been very ill for two years and my mother cared for him for as long as she could before he entered a palliative care hospital. After he died, I promised to take my mum to The Great Barrier Reef which she had always wanted to do before Dad got sick.

So in 1984 she flew from Sydney to Brisbane and then we flew to Proserpine, where we caught a ferry to Lindeman Island. One of the islands on The Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef (dark blue) is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres along the north coast of Queensland.

Lindeman Island is the most southerly of the Whitsunday Island group. It is a tropical paradise. From the top of Mt. Oldfield, 212m above sea level, the 360 degree view is nothing short of spectacular. So Mum, Carol, Sonya and I spent a week on this beautiful island in the school holidays. Bill couldn't get away from work but he had been to Fiji as a reward from his company but wives weren't invited. So now we were square.

Carol (left) Sonya (middle) had a great time. There was so much to do for children. Carol even went on a kids camp. Much of the island is a national park.

We went for lots of walks.

Giving Grandma a rest. It was winter so we did carry jackets.

It was a great place to recuperate. Mum from two years of being a carer and the trauma of losing her husband. I had had a bad year too. Bill had a heart attack. I travelled to Sydney in school holidays to support mum and I had the worst behaved class ever. Is it was nice to be able to recharge our batteries in such and idyllic spot.

We went on a cruise around some more islands stopping off for some exploring swimming and board paddling.

Grandma and Sonya love beach combing.

STOP PRESS

I forgot to mention that in 2011 cyclone Yasi destroyed the resort and everything else on the Lindeman Island and many of the other islands. Lindeman Resort owners could not afford to rebuild it so it lay abandoned in disrepair ever since. However, it was bought by a Chinese company to rebuild but that didn't happen. Since then it has been bought by an Australian developer but still it has not reopened.