Welcome to Ridgy-Didge!

Ridgy-Didge is Australian colloquial for 'just right' or rather 'fair dinkum!'

When we bought the property over 7 years ago, it only had a number and no name. It needed a name as the place certainly has a personality. Well, it sits on a ridge with a grand view northwards to the Bunya Mountains, so what could be more 'all right' than sitting on the veranda with that view, whilst you have your breakfast or in the evenings with a glass of Australian wine? Or even watching the amazing stars at night or the tail-end of a storm as the lightning flashs in the vaste banks of clouds. Or maybe seeing a pair of Wedge-tail eagles as they soar in circles in the high thermals of the vasteness of the azure sky?

This house is a 100 year old Queenslander cottage. Quite small and unpretentious, but it has a gentle atmosphere and we have had many friends and family members come to stay and have enjoyed the peace and quiet of the place.

Sunday 21 November 2010

Books and Blossoms.



I am just reading "Eat, Pray and Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. A few weeks ago I went with a friend to see the film and enjoyed it very much. It was fun, happy and delightful to watch. Now she has lent me the book and it is SO much better than the film. More depth and and so many quotable phrases. I love the way she sees Loneliness and Depression as 2 characters who are following her; also it makes me wonder if everyone should have 4 months in Italy to taste the food! What and experience.

There have been 4 shrubs in the garden , the same sort, which have never flowered before. They are from the bottle brush family, but I don't know the name. The blossom has been outstandingly superb. It is snow white, and the spiky flowers are almost like snow crystals. Now the flowers are over and it looks brown and sad. Pity.

Monday 15 November 2010

Diesel and Petrol

Oh Dear- I did a stupid thing on Sunday. We were early going to the Quaker Meeting for Worship in Toowoomba so decided to put some fuel in our diesel car. The nozzle on the pump wouldn't work even though I fiddled with it. So I put it down and talked to the people at the next pump. Picked up the nozzle and it worked- hurray! After starting to fill the car I found glanced at the dial and thought the price was very cheap!! Then I realised it was Unleaded petrol! I had picked up the wrong pump nozzle!! Panic-panic. I have filled a whole tank in a diesel car with petrol in the past, so I knew what I had done.
As it was a Sunday the RACQ couldn't take the car straight to the garage, so it had to be towed to a 'holding'. John was given a taxi to collect a hire car (thankfully we have Ultra so could have this assistance.)
Monday morning the car was towed to the garage where the engine was flushed through, fuel filter changed and the correct fuel put in. Quite an expensive weekend. We could have had a few days away for that cost. At least it wasn't a crash and accident.
All well now except for a slightly out of balance bank account!

Sunday 7 November 2010

Reading and Relaxing.


We had some friends visit us yesterday in the evening for a meal and after sauntering around the garden we had a delightful time sitting on the veranda and drinking Aussie wine. Though there were clouds around we were warm enough and could see the Bunya Mountains in the distance. Often when we are forecast rain we don't get it but can see the heavy clouds in the north. John says it's a great place for gliding as the thermals develop over the mountains.
It is cool today but the farmers who are harvesting the winter crops will be pleased that there is no rain. A great deal of local crops have been spoiled by wind and rain. There will be plenty of mulching bales around!

I have finished reading Barbara Erskine's supernatural novel set around Glastonbury, Somerset: 'Time's Destiny.' I didn't think it was as good as some of her previous novels, the haunting was not as 'spooky', but maybe that's a good thing. With the first book of hers which I read many years ago,I couldn't sleep until I had finished it

My reading is rather harrowing, as it is a biography of Joice Nankivell Loch. An Australian woman, who, with her husband Sydney, a Scot, where writers. They spent their lives helping the traumatized people of Poland in the 1920s and then in Greece. They also helped many women and children to escape from the Nazis. I had not realised in what desperate circumstances these people had lived. This couple worked with the Quakers' Mission in these countries as often the Quakers where the only people who were allowed to give aid there. The Lochs had huge respect for the Quakers and their work, but where not Friends themselves. They were an amazing couple

Monday 1 November 2010

Scents, perfumes and fragrances in our garden.


It is almost overwhelming, the vivid colours and perfumes in our garden at the moment. Almost every angle is a photo shot! The China Star jasmine is in full flower and the perfume just hits you as you go round the corner of the house or go out on the the veranda. The bottle brush flowers hang like lanterns and are full of bees, insects and birds all clamouring for a share of the flowers' booty.

Also the evenings are lengthening and it is so pleasant to sit out side and enjoy the peaceful, fragrant atmosphere.