Stormy Weather Friends!

One of the songs the "After Five" vocal ensemble I'm a member of sang at our recent concert was "Stormy Weather", whose lyrics include the lines ...

"Don't know why ... there's no sun up in the sky, stormy weather ... keeps raining all the time."

That could have been the theme song for our weekend away, as south-east Queensland was drenched with bucketing rain and buffeted with gale force winds. (though someone else is probably still humming "Windy"! Tee! Hee! Hee!) But did that spoil our fun???

NO WAY! :0)

We set out Friday afternoon, after my Beloved Geek Boy finished work, to meet up with none other than the Lovely Lilly Linda and her beloved Tim at Mt Tamborine, about two hours south-east of us. They usually live on an island, but they had 'headed for the hills' for the weekend so Linda could have a stand at a big Christmas Craft Fair. (And a gorgeous, shabbily chic stand of loveliness it was, too! Tee! Hee! Hee!) It rained all the way to the foothills of the mountains making navigating a bit tricky ... then the weather decided that we needed ANOTHER challenge and the clouds descended ... or the fog came up, we weren't sure which ... they may very well have met in the middle! :0) Suffice to say visibility was VERY low. So low, in fact, that we were having trouble spotting the house numbers ... crawling along, peering at mail boxes, til GB decided to pull over and get out to have a close up look at numbers. And just as he reached for the door handle .. my phone rang  ... it was Lilly Linda saying dinner had arrived, why hadn't we?? :0) On hearing our dilemma, Tim braved the elements to turn on the hazard lights of their van to help us find them ... it was about 20m down the road from where we'd stopped! Tee! Hee! Hee!

So, then in quick time we had the car unpacked and were sharing a warm spot by the fire. Actually, we decided that it was GB's and Tim's fault that the weather was icky - they had both said they didn't care if they had to put the air conditioner on to cope with the heat ... they were going to light the fire to enjoy the AMBIENCE ... apparently no mountain get-away is complete without a fire! :0) So then, the weather CO-OPERATED!!! EEK!

After enjoying an evening of chatting in front of the aforementioned fire, we woke Saturday morning to a view that looked something like this ...

In fact, it looked EXACTLY like this, cos this is our view out the back door ... there was a nice wide deck out there that we had planned to relax on for a BBQ, but since the smudges in the foreground of the photo are raindrops that have been blown in ... we decided it was a bit too DAMP out there for BBQ's! And through that thick cloud/fog bank, you can usually see the Gold Coast ... APPARENTLY!! :0) Not that this stopped us from getting out and about, mind you! We piled in the van and set out to check out the craft extravaganza (uh oh to the budget!!! Tee! Hee! Hee!), we visited a lavender barn gift shop (more pain inflicted on the budget!!), checked out some vintage wares/antique shops and played a game of "Spot The Inside-Out Umbrella" ... we had quite a high count by the end of the day! Tee! Hee! Hee!

After all that gadding about, it was back to the cottage to forage for indoor picnic fare ...

As you can see, we were REALLY suffering ... NOT!! Tee! Hee! Hee! Cheese ball, dips, olives, crackers, some bubbles in a glass, candlelight, cheery crackling fire ... what more could you want to help pass a rainy evening? Apart from great company of course, which we ALSO had! :0) (We won't mention that we almost had to call the fire brigade to deal with the candle later on!! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

After packing up Sunday morning, we decided to head out to find a cosy coffee shop for brekkie, but ran into a bit of a problem. You see, we only have a LITTLE car and we had to get up a fairly steep driveway to the main road. THAT wasn't the problem! The problem came from the one metre  wide stretch of grassy verge between the footpath and the road. After all that rain, it was VERY wet and soggy and SOFT!! Uh! Oh!! The wheels spun, the clutch stuck, the motor chugged, the wheels spun some more until finally (after much positive thinking and a few recitals of "I THINK I can, I THINK I can!!) ... ZING!! We slingshot out onto the road, timing it neatly to miss oncoming traffic! WHEW! I think GB is thinking of taking up rally car driving! Tee! Hee! Hee! When we reached the coffee shop, GB checked out our little car ...

OH NO!! Look at the poor little Baby car!! Mud splattered all along!! Guess she'll be going through the car wash this week ... bet you didn't guess that a little two-door hatch-back Festiva was an adventurous mountain vehicle! Tee! Hee! Hee!

After spending a very pleasant morning over a leisurely eggs Benedict brekkie and an extra mug of hot chocolate to warm up, it was time to say our farewells. Lilly Linda and I braved the inclement mountain elements one last time to get a photo taken ...

Here we are, all rugged up ... layer, upon layer, upon layer! :0) See the foggy background?! It really was ICKY weather!! Still ... we managed to have a BALL!! Thanks for inviting us to join you in the mountains, Lilly Linda and Tim!! It was fabulous to catch up again. Maybe next time we'll make the boys wish for mild, sunny weather! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And since today here on top of our hill has been more of the same icky weather ... with even HEAVIER rain periods ... I'm off to pop the kettle on to have a warming cup of lavender tea. Hope your weekend was full of wonderful adventures too! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS