A day out / a day at home

A day out.................

Yesterday we took daisydads Aunt and Uncle from England out and about. They are going up to reef next week but we wanted to show them something of the diversity of our country.

We headed off to Caboonbah Homestead the gorgeous 130 year old home of Henry Plantagenet Somerset (Somerset Dam is named for him) and his wife Katharine.

This shot is of the Stanley River (which flows into the Brisbane River) from the front porch of the homestead. It was here in 1893, as Katahrine lay labouring to give birth to one of their eight children, that a great wall of water - the torrent from days of cyclonic rain - roared down the river and hit the cliff face just below where this photo was taken. It shook the house, and tumbled children from their beds. Henry sent one of his men to ride into Brisbane to warn everyone a great flood was on its way - they didn't believe him.

From the Homestead we went into Esk and had some lunch and wandered around I bought a lovely lidded enamel pudding basin from the local second hand dealer for $8 - haven't seen them that cheap in ages. When renovating old houses was all the rage in 80s here in Brisbane things like that sold for $25 or more.

Then we came home across the wall of Wivenhoe Dam and up the Parkway to Mt Glorious.

This photo is of the Caboonbah UNDENOMINATIONAL CHURCH (I kid you not UN not NON) - designed by Katharine Somerset it is where she and Henry are buried and from their grave you can see their home in the distance.

Quite a distance mind you I wonder why they didn't build the church a bit closer to the house - with 7 kids and by buggy it would have taken a good 45 minutes to get to church and back again even by car then it would have been no quick trip.

A day at home......

We have a fence - photos tomorrow!!! And the fencer didn't even destroy my rosellas that I planted on Sunday putting the wire up. It looked like they were tramping all over them when we left yesterday but they missed all the plants thank goodness. So now I have to move the branches they cut down to the fire pile.

Today I have a formal dress to alter and some pants to repair and a pair of suit pants to take in.

Then there are those seeds to get in, some weeding to do, ironing, washing, changing sheets and cleaning. And hopefully a start on some sewing things of my own.

With one day a weekend taken up with my part time job, more to do in vegetable garden and a few days out there has been no time to sew at all and I am falling way behind with the present list. Mind you all this time in the car has given me three new dishcloths!!!

A quick word on finances:

I noticed today that one of the news headlines was that borrowing was down by 7% in August the 7th straight month - bad??? - well a little but when you read the whole report that that sound bite came from it breaks down to personal lending is 4% home lending is 2% and commercial lending 1% (roughly) but people hear that and think there has been a 7% downturn in home lending only. And bear in mind personal debt(personal lending) is the thing the economy needs to slow down.

Be mindful when you hear bits and pieces of reports - they are all there on the internet to read

so if they panic you - read them fully you may not understand it all but you will see the figures are usually a combination of things not just one area.

Don't make hasty judgements or decisions based on what you hear on commercial news reports, or in some of the papers - they are selling product like everyone else so if they grab your attention with a headline you will more likely see what their advertisers are selling. They don't care what irresponsbile journalism does to the public's confidence.

Don't listen to Real Estate agents, mortgage brokers or so called experts who are based in one town they will give you a slanted view and not the whole picture of what the National situation is. Bear in mind most morning tabloid tv shows are made in Sydney.

So in your quest for simplicity take the time to read about things before you panic, be better informed by searching out the real experts. And remember it took 2 years for the markets to get to this point it may take that long for them to get back to where they were or longer. The bounce we have seen is great but there will be people out there who will take this as a sign that it is a good time to sell while the prices are up so expect another slump - the market will be a bumpy ride for some time to come. So the only ones really affected are the people who buy and sell regularly for income so they buy low sell high these guys will have some uncertainty. But for most, shares are always a long term investment they will come back, just be patient.

daisymum