News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 38

Well it was so good to be able to finally spend Christmas with the family after 15 years. But because of the virus we decided to do some family on Christmas Day and some on Boxing Day due to some peoples work requirements.

Unfortunately one family couldnt be with us so we will do a lunch in the next couple of weeks. My sons housemate found out early Christmas morning that his boss had tested positive which meant the whole household had to isolate.

Bens first test was negative on the Tuesday but the whole household wasnt well so until the family got their first test and Ben got his second test they couldnt go anywhere and all needed a negative test, which fortunately all tests were negative now.

Best Christmas gift ever I guess. We had lunch each day with the families and exchanged gifts. I absolutely loved putting up a Christmas Tree and decorating it and even made a centrepiece for the table.

Our Christmas decorations have been in storage tubs for many many years and surprisingly they were all still in good order.

A wreath on the front door that the kids made over 20 years ago I added a couple more baubles to it and a Merry Christmas hanger also about 20 years old!

Some things just never go out of fashion.

To our son Brad. What a way to end the year for him.

After a myriad of personal issues through the year, he was in Tasmania to attend a wedding and have a bit of a holiday when he got a phone call to say hed won two Mustangs in a lottery.

Classics for a Cause raises money for Veterans by raffling off various classic cars. Brad had brought tickets earlier in the year for an Elanora but obviously didnt win but he continued to buy tickets as a VIP (buy tickets in each lottery) when this time his number came up.

A 1968 Shelby and a 2018 Mustang were his. He was shocked and thought someone was playing a joke on him with the phone call but soon realised it was no joke when they showed the winning ticket in a live draw video and he rang his Dad to tell him.

Yep there on FB was the draw and ticket. Last Wednesday he and his Dad went into the warehouse and he was presented the keys. He is a Ford fanatic and you couldnt have wiped the smile off his face if one had tried. What a fantastic way to end the year!

I would like to also thank everyone who purchased off me during 2021 and hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and wish everyone a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year.

We have two plovers that live in our backyard but they like to wander up to the road at times and will hang around under two trees at the front of the yard.

Normally they are docile and will stay clear of humans although they will swoop and carry on if someone is walking up the road with a dog.

Lately their aggression has been more frequent and we found out the reason, they have two babies. (Photo only shows one of them with a parent just outside our kitchen window about 4 days after it hatched.) They can have two clutches per year.Plovers or Masked Lapwing are native to all over Australia and often very misunderstood.

They have a spur on each wing and despite some theorys, they are not poisonous and very rarely used to make contact with anyone.

Their defensive mode is more screeching and swooping but they rarely make contact.

They breed after heavy rain and will lay their eggs in an open area in an indent in the ground.

Takes about a month for the eggs to hatch and the babies can feed themselves within a couple of hours of hatching.

The babies cannot fly for about 6 weeks so the parents protect them during that time. Born as little balls of fluff, they grow quickly and ….well…….

They really are very cute. They are protected and although they are protected people do destroy nests and remove eggs because they have a bad reputation yet weve had no problems with the pair here apart from the screeching noise they make.

I remember as a kid going to high school, wed walk across a park and come across their nests out in the middle of nowhere basically.

4th December got us excited. Coming from where wed not had a decent storm for years, and I mean a full on storm with all its elements, we watched the clouds build to the SSW and the massive and frequent lightning bolts get closer and closer.

Weve seen a few storms around us previously but got nothing more than lots of rain so when the wind picked up and the lightning got closer accompanied by huge claps of thunder we were enjoying a good old summer storm.

Forecasts and warnings said massive hail with it but the hail we got was only small. The cat decided that our bed was the safest place but each crack of thunder saw her wondering where else she could hide.

While sitting on the bed with her we head an odd noise after one simultaneous lightning bolt and crack of thunder so we knew it had hit something very close.

Searched around the house and found that the clock in the lounge had fallen off the wall. No other damage thankfully. We lost power for about 5 minutes but it did come back on thankfully although about 10klm down the road we found out a transformer had been struck.

Temperature dropped about 10 degrees in a matter of minutes which was a welcome relief after the 34 deg C day wed had.

We had 67mm of rain out of the storm in less than an hour. Its nice to be back where we will get these summer storms.

The photo shows the rain (black is the heaviest on the BOM map and dark red on the other) as it approached where we are (heart) and the other photo shows all the cloud to ground lightning strikes so you can see there was a lot.

Roll on summer!

Last Friday was our granddaughters 19th Birthday so we all went to celebrate at dinner with her. Was a great night at Feast Restaurant with a smorgasbord dinner. Its probably one of the best smorgasbords Ive been too with something for everyone no matter what your taste.

From roasts, seafood, chinese, gluten free, to salads and not to mention the expansive desert bar. They had a great playground and kids room which little Axl preferred to eating! We had a mix of what was on offer but I couldnt resist going back and getting a second small pavlova (they were all small individual servings not pieces from a large one).

Besides hubby any myself, Zoes boyfriend and her dad and partner and young brother plus other friends attended. Im loving being so close to family again and being able to help them celebrate birthdays. Will never make up for all the ones we missed but just to be close again is fantastic.