News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 74

My plants mustve loved all the rain weve had the past couple of months. Would you look at these beauties! This yellow hibiscus is bigger than my hand. It is nearly the size of a dinner plate and there were several flowering at once.

The double red hibiscus always look stunning but these too came out in giganticsizing. The bush looked fantastic. The purple hibiscus was also considerably larger than what it normally produces too. So the big drink from all the rain has definitely benefited them all.

All these bushes are over 15 years old and Im not a great gardener so firstly the fact that they are still growing and producing is a miracle but secondly to see just how huge these magnificent flowers are is awesome.

I might need to tend them and see what else they can produce!

Last Monday night a car pulled up outside our place around 9pm. I saw them stop, turn around and shine their headlights into our gateway, turn around again, and then slowly drive away.

Wondered what was going on but as theyd left didnt think anything of it.

A lot of cars pull up out the front as its the one place people can get mobile phone coverage so put it down to that.

On Tuesday morning about 8am, the neighbour rang and told us there was a carpet snake in our yard near the water meter as hed seen it when going to work.

So hubby went for a walk up the front yard to take a look around.

About 15 feet from the water meter he found a big carpet snake curled up in the yard.

It then occurred to us that possibly it had been run over on the road and that is what the car was looking at. (Whether they had run over it or not we dont know but possibly they had and it had slithered off into our yard and they had been looking for it).

We couldnt see any obvious injury to it but then neither of us was going to go and take a closer look.

I came down to the house and rang our local wildlife rescue to get someone out to pick it up and look at it or take it to the vet.

While we waited there were magpies and a couple of hawks hanging round so we decided…….well I decided …….that hubby should try and get it into a bag and bring it down to the house for safety till the wildlife carers came.

When they arrived, they got it out of the bag, decided it was a she and looked closer at it.

It had an injured eye and signs of blood on the body, so definitely been hit/run over. They asked us to name it as it helps identify the animals if people want to follow up on how they are.

As the snake was hit in our street, we called her Maddiva (street name but different spelling) and they took her off to the vet to be checked out.

I havent rung to find out how shes doing yet but will later today. She was a carpet snake which arent venomous but they can bite, although this girl was pretty placid. I do hope shell be OK as much as I dont like snakes.

Zac, my grandson, had his 12th Birthday on Thursday so next birthday he will be a teenager. I find it hard to know what to get the grandkids as each year they are into something different.

We asked his father what he wanted/needed this year and what his interests were and was told he needed pyjamas and he liked Pokemon cards and Yugi oh cards.

Well Pokemon wed heard of but Yugi oh wed never heard of! Upon searching for these cards, apparently they were huge in the 80s and are now making a revival. So off we went to the shops looking for PJs and these cards.

We brought him the PJs and found the packs of cards and that and a stashed a bit of surprise cash hidden in the present was what he got.

So to do a card was the next challenge. I always make cards for the grandkids in line with their interests so of course it had to be a Yugi oh card.

That then lent itself to more research into seeing what all these cards were like and personalising just for Zac.

I used one of my dragons, put it on a background, then recreated the design. Instead of the name of a creature I put the Happy Birthday, 12 gems (for him being 12) and in the description box I put an inspirational quote.

The symbol was Fire as Nanny and Poppy are firefighters. By the look on his face he loved hi Yugi oh card and was happy to receive the Yugi oh playing cards.

Guess next year will be another challenge as he becomes a teen and will have new interests!

Well weve seen our first day of Winter and temperatures have dropped to around 8 degrees C but the days have remained mild around the mid to low 20 degrees C ………… and I hate winter.

First day of winter is also my Birthday and Im not sure which I look forward to the least, another year older or the first day of winter!

I didnt do anything special but life goes on and we had to go do the food shopping so I got treated to a very scrumptious Pavlova.

Hubby very sneakily managed to raid my craft stash and thoughtfully made me a card, which I will treasure being that he did it all by himself.

I was surprised as to how he managed to do it without me knowing. Well……. He waited for me to have my nanny nap the day before, printed it out then went on the hunt for stickers.

He said every time there was a noise he hid things and came out to make sure I was still asleep lol.

Love him to bits for what wouldve been a huge effort for him. I also received a beautiful bunch of flowers my daughter and her partner, phone calls from all the kids and generally enjoyed the day.

Id like to say a big thank you to a lot of the crafters from CUP for the birthday wishes on Facebook too.

The fact that people take a minute out of their day to send greetings is appreciated.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being able to catch up with a couple of friends I havent seen in about 15 years.

Dave used to be a firefighter with me when I was at Jimboomba station in SE Qld.

It was while he was there he met his wife Debbie and about a year before we left they were married across the road from the station in the Little Brown Church.

It was a fantastic day to see them so happy, Dave in his uniform and Deb looked stunning.

I will never forget their wedding…… and I may or may not have been party to wrapping their house in toilet paper a couple of nights before their wedding while they were not home.

They moved to Perth and we moved to Bowen and we havent seen them since then. But last weekend they came over for a friends wedding here in Hervey Bay. They flew over and hired a motorhome for the drive up from Brisbane.

Debs Mum and sister also hired a motor home and made the trip as well. We had Dave and Deb parked here most nights and we sat and talked until way past bedtime. I found out I dont do late nights/early mornings well these days !

But the baggy eyes were worth it to sit and talk and talk and talk catching up on everything and everyone.

The wedding they had to go to was on Monday and then they left on Tuesday to drive back to Brisbane and catch a flight home.

Dave did not want to hand the keys back for the motorhome as they loved it.

They both do a lot of camping and I can see the camper trailer being sold/traded in for one of these vans in the future.

I really hope its not another 15 years till we can catch up again. It was fabulous to see them.