Growing Season

About a month ago I had a photo on the blog page of a new shoot just starting to grow on one of the pot plants around the pool. Well it has received a little feed and it has been watered pretty regularly. The photo to the left is the photo from back then! You may need to click on it for a better view. The new growth was quite small at that stage and you may not even spot the new bud!.


The photo below was taken a couple of days ago. It has really grown in the last month!! And what was a just a bud back then is now a 8 cm new shoot. Again, click on the photo for a larger view.


Friends from Drouin in Victoria (Irene and Russell Dawson) have arrived here with their caravan. They are happily set up a local caravan park beside the beach. Trish arrived back from Melbourne yesterday (with a camera full of grandchildren snaps and movie files) and it wasn't long till we were all enjoying each other's company and a few drinks. After a meal at the local Thai Restaurant it was to the RSL we headed and enjoyed a guy who did lots of Roy Orbison songs. He was quite good actually. We all enjoyed ourselves very much.

Russ and Irene expect to be here for at least a week.

I have altered the blog page setup to now only show the latest three entries. It seemed to take ages to load when I had the Blogger settings to show 5 posts as the blog page was opened!

And it seems my new router modem has a fault and needs to be returned to the manufacturer for warranty reasons. It would not save some of the settings which would ensure the wireless signals were secure and would not be received by people outside the network.

At Last A Few Showers Of Rain

Just as we are about to leave the wettest time of the year in this part of the world we have had a few showers of rain today. A total of 9mls fell this morning, the most rain we have had for over 6 weeks. There was no need to water the 'pots' today, the first time for quite a while.

It doesn't look too much like the 'Sunshine Coast' does it! Click on the photo for a larger view.

Our elderly next door neighbour passed away at the end of January. She would have been so proud today to learn her grandson Aaron Jeffery won a Logie last night as the "Most Popular Actor" for his role in McLeod's Daughters.

I managed to work out the "Shared Printer" issue on my Wireless Network. I still await a reply to my email to DLink Support on fixing the Network Security issue.

Caravanning Friends From Victoria

I am pleased to tell you my networking problems have been solved. I can now swap files between the two computers and all seems to be operating reasonably well. A few small hiccups to work out but we will soon see about those. I recently set up a new 'toy' so I could wirelessly send Pay TV signals from the lounge room into the "office" where the new router modem lives. It seems the signal channel was the same as that trying to use the Wireless Network. I swapped the channel on the AV sender and now all things seem to be working OK. I still have to work out how to share the printer and to get the security enforced on the network.

We have known Irene and Russell from our Hampton Park days for years. They have recently joined the caravanning fraternity and are having a 2 month trip to check out the caravanning lifestyle. Cooler wet weather down south saw them arrive here in Queensland a few days ago earlier than expected. Irene's sister now lives in Brisbane so they are enjoying the sights of Brisbane for the last few days. I drove down to catch up with Russell recently while Irene was investigating some of the shops around the city.

2000k's in less than a week towing the van to get here now sees them enjoying a much slower lifestyle. They expect to move on to Caloundra early next week. The weather here has been unseasonably warm and dry with temps in the high 20's all week.

Trish is enjoying her "Nanna" in Melbourne and is due to fly home on Wednesday.

We have both got cheap flights down to Melbourne via the internet which will allow me to get to some of the AFL finals. They work out to be under $60 one way for one person. It is always cheaper to fly mid week when there seem to be more specials available.

I Hope The Bad language Hasn't Upset You!

It has been a day or two since I got onto my Blog Page.

I have decided to move from my internet dial-up to DSL Broadband. To do this I need a modem and with a laptop about the house too I should link it to the internet as well via a home network. So I was looking for a router/modem with wireless capabilities. We make calls to family in Melbourne so the idea of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone calls is attractive too. An untimed call to Melbourne 24/7 for 10 cents is good to me.

I found the router modem I needed and I had to buy a wireless card for the laptop.

Trying to get it all setup (remembering I won't have the broadband connected till after we return from Melbourne at the end of July) has had the inappropriate language flowing up here on the Sunshine Coast.

The router modem has a red light flashing all the time (probably because it can't find Broadband) and the laptop has minimal contact via wireless with the router.

This photo shows the laptop trying to open the configuration page from the router. It just can't quite get it all just yet. The wireless connection speed is so slow!

But we will get there!

Latest News For Where We Live

Things are really moving here where we live. The developer continues to churn out blocks of land and these seem to sell very quickly. Most new blocks now have sold or Under Contract signs on them, many seem to be being bought by builders for later resale. Some of the bigger companies buy four blocks and then build on those simultaneously.

While blocks are being prepared, new areas of the estate are being cleared and ready for further development. Here the land is being cleared and levelled ready for new blocks of land.


This unit complex has just been completed too. It has both single and double storey units for sale. The original developer went broke and the development has been bought and completed by a new developer. The tower in this photo overlooks the pool one way and provides a great view of the Glasshouse Mountains looking the other way. The double storey units sell for high $300,000.

And at long last the new road at the back of our court has been opened. No fanfare or special occasion, just removed the barricades and the traffic started to use it. This will now provide an easier less complicated access to our place. The map for download on the right has been updated.

This photo shows what has been done at the end of our court. We now have direct footpath access to the new road with this gateway now available for use.


Friends Russell and Irene have headed away from Drouin in Victoria on Saturday on their latest trip in their new caravan. Yesterday when we spoke with them they were in Moree in northern NSW. Rainy weather has seen them continuing to drive north so they are a little bit further on than they had expected. They are due to catch up with friends south of Brisbane on Friday but are a little further along than first anticipated.