What A Weekend!!

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Posted on November 4, 2025

I have finally come back to earth after a huge weekend. It was the 50th Maldon Folk Festival which is is held in our small town. The whole event is organised by a small committee and an enthusiastic band of volunteers. It is spread over 4 days in multiple indoor and outdoor venues with dozens of artists from Australia and overseas. For the third year in a row, GMan and I both did some volunteer shifts but that left plenty of time to see some amazing talent.

Here are some photos I took during several performances.

The Royal High Jinx – high energy and lots of fun.

The Bushwackers – an Australian institution since 1971 – with numerous line-up changes but as authentic as ever.

Eric Bogle – a Scotsman who has called Australia home for many years and his iconic song, ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’.

The cleverly named group, The Tequila Mockingbirds, including local legend Mick Coates and their special brand of Cowboy Swing.

The Sweet Sorrows, an Irish/Australian duo with haunting and delicate harmonies.

There was definitely something for everyone and the weather added a touch of drama on the last evening. Just after 7pm a storm rolled in with wind, rain and torrent of tiny hail which blanketed the town in what looked like snow but was in fact, ice made up of millions of tiny hailstones.

This is a view of Main Street.

Home Again

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Posted on January 8, 2025

We are safely home after being away for 3 weeks. It was fun to spend time with family and friends in different surroundings but it is also good to be back and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

Here is a quick round-up of what has been happening.

The gifted quilt is now in its new home.

A final farewell to some of the family.

A couple of shots of an approaching storm yesterday. We had to pull off the road as there was a short burst of wind, very heavy rain and some hail. Thankfully, there does not appear to be any damage to the car.

It was a hot, sunny day here and I was able to do 2 loads of washing when we arrived home and get them all dried this afternoon. Now the folding and ironing awaits…………

After the Storm

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Posted on December 1, 2016

Today was hot and sunny until about 2pm when the cloud rolled in heralding the approaching storm.

We had a couple of hours of rumbling thunder and some rain but no lightning strikes, hail or wind damage which occurred just slightly to the north and west of us.

Most of the activity had gone and the sky had lightened up just before dusk when I looked out of the kitchen window and caught the most amazing view. I grabbed my camera and captured this shot before the moment was lost.

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Prepared

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Posted on February 18, 2015

Just a quick post this evening as I have doing some preparations since arriving home from work. Yet again, there is a tropical cyclone (hurricane) heading south-west towards the central Queensland coast. It is not particularly severe as cyclones go and is expected to cross the coast well north of where we are, however, we are already experiencing steady rain and gusty wind.

Storm surges are just one of the risks that we are being warned about.

I have cleared things off the verandah, boiled lots of water, charged the phones, know that the car has a full tank of fuel and know where the wind-up torches and radio are. I have 9 ice-cream containers of boiled water which will be frozen in the camp fridge once it has cooled. We have plenty of food and a gas cooktop which can be used for cooking.

We are not at risk of being flooded. The most likely problem is the loss of power. We could also suffer damage from falling branches or other debris, although this is not as likely.

Are you in central or southern Queensland? Are you prepared? Do you have any tips or advice?

Stay safe and if there are a lack of posts in the coming days it may mean that I am offline.

Make & Mend – A New Garden

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Posted on November 13, 2013

Today I made a garden bed, or more accurately refreshed an old one. Unlike most of my gardening posts this one does not include growing food.

This is an area between the side of the garage and the front steps which originally had a selection of fairly unappealing shrubs and plants. They had been cleared out some time ago and the space badly needed revitalising. I did have a before photo, however, it is on the desktop computer which seems to have some issues so I took it to be looked at/repaired today.

We bought the plants at a local garden centre on the weekend. They are Australian natives – low-growing shrubs and ground covers. The area has quite a considerable slope so I move some more rocks to build up the edges to prevent the mulch washing away in the first heavy shower of rain. We were lucky to be offered a large pile of mulch by our neighbours who had several large trees lopped and mulched. We moved 3 loads in the back of the ute last weekend so some of it was used on this garden with several layers of newspaper underneath to help suppress any weeds.

I thought we may have had some rain late this afternoon as the storm clouds were building rapidly and the thunder was rumbling in the distance as I put the finishing touches to my new garden.