MOVING SOUTH!

This is the house we left behind in Atherton, Far North Queensland....after 20 years with the last 18 months or so being rather stressful as the Queensland Governement (in their infinite "wisdom") closed Kairi Research Station. This left Ross virtually without a job. Luckily, because of enterprise bargaining he was not made redundant. However, he had to find a job "somewhere" in Queensland, within the department. Luckily a job became available in Gatton, SE Qld. The big move happened on the 17th November...almost 20 years, to the day, that we moved from Laidley (only 5 mins from where we are living now) north to Atherton. It has been so difficult to leave behind the strong friendships formed over 20 years, plus it's where our children grew up (being 7 and 5 when we moved) but it was a case of having to. No government house like the one you see here and it's much, much, MUCH smaller!!! We're finally relatively "settled" in the house and have had to convert the 2nd bedroom into my sewing studio and the 3rd bedroom into my office. Where visitors are going to sleep we have yet to work out! It's quite a nice little house though and the lounge area is very liveable now that we've taken over the 3rd bedroom for the office. I haven't taken a pic of the house as yet but have of the lovely view we have from the side verandah (verandahs all around which is lovely). We have some "neighbours" - 4 horses and a flock of geese as well as human neighbours as well. The rather aggresive frilled neck lizard was a random visitor! :) 1/2 acre of land which is rather dry but we're hoping to green it up a little. No town water but we DO have a grey water tank so here's hoping. I never seem to be able to get the pics to sit where I want them to but they're pretty self explanatory. The house is the one we had in Atherton and the views are from our new home here in Plainland. A terribly hot day here today with temps reaching around the 37C. It's been a bit lonely since we got here as all the quilt groups etc have closed for the holiday season but I'm sure things will improve as the year progresses. I'm hoping to do a bit of teaching - perhaps from home here as it's very pleasant on the side verandah...time will tell. Until tomorrow, Cheers and Happy Stitching,

Jan