Noosa, Brisbane, Sandy

It's been a week of warmth and sunshine, reconnecting with extended family and lots of seafood lunches!

This was one of the best seafood lunches this week - at the Marina looking East towards the mouth of the Noosa River - a favourite childhood picnic/swimming spot.

It was pretty hard to say goodbye to our lovely apartment 12 on Thursday, with its spectacular Noosa views.

 .....and on to Brisbane. We stayed at West End on buzzy Boundary Street just a short walk from Southbank..so different from when we lived here in the 50s & 60s...

We crossed the river over the Victoria Bridge and admired the old Treasury building and this gorgeous building that used to be the Q'ld State Library. I used to spend a fair bit of time here (such a nerd) and loved the books, the architecture and the ambiance. I am so pleased it hasn't been demolished in amongst all the frenzy of Brisbane city newness.

It's NAIDOC week so we were pretty stoked to catch some of the family fun day celebrations at Musgrave Park on the way back to our West End apartment......hipster buzz, city sights, great food and bars and NAIDOC .....this is a great inner city suburb!

We ended of our short Brisbane city stay with a family catch up breakfast at the Gunshop Cafe. It was our first chance to meet gorgeous baby Charlotte..the latest addition to Granny Bobbie's collection of exceptional great grandchildren. She is just a divine honey bun (of course) and lucky enough to have a Mummy and Daddy (and extended family) who all absolutely adore her.

We're ending off our winter break at Sandy Beach..with more great company with family, gorgeous seafood and sparkly blue ocean views ....

Travelling warm

It's been a welcome relief to find ourselves in a warmer place in the middle of July winter.  We've had a night with Ros and Pete at Sandy Beach and squeezed in a Saturday morning at Sawtell to celebrate their annual Chili Festival.

......Then a two night stay at Kirra Beach, house guests of the L family in their penthouse holiday apartment with 360o views of this spectacular coastline - North to the Surfers Paradise high rises - and South down to the Tweed.

On Sunday there was time for a long morning walk South towards Coolangatta and an opportunity to soak up 23oC worth of brilliant winter sunshine and beach side sparkle.

We walked as far as Point Danger, overlooking Duranbah Beach and the mouth of the Tweed River (in NSW).

Sunday afternoon we drove down the Tweed River Valley through Tumbulgum to Murwillumbah and the beautiful Tweed River Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre. The views from the gallery looking out to the beautiful Tweed Valley and Mt Warning in the distance were a huge distraction from the excellent art work on show on the gallery walls. 

But we'd come to see the Margaret Olley Art Centre, primarily.....and the wondrous recreations of areas of her home studio at 48 Duxford Street Paddington.  The interiors (The Hat Factory and the Yellow Room) are filled with over 20,000 items that were subjects for her still lifes over many many years.  The rooms created here have a very strong presence. It is so easy to imagine M O living and working here in amongst this tactile and evocative chaos.......

Both nights in Kirra we enjoyed eating great meals with all members of the L family.... My Gelato on Douglas Street proved to be the most popular dessert spot both nights.

I woke up early this morning and attempted to catch the sunrise over Kirra Beach from our rooftop terrace, eleven floors high......the start to another perfect day in sunny Queensland.

We dropped off the young things at Dreamworld on the way up to Brisbane this morning, picked up Rob's Mum and made our way further North to Noosa by way of the beautiful Blackall Ranges and a lunch stop at the pretty village of Montville.

We're booked into our favourite apartment block (number 12 this year) overlooking the beach where the Noosa River meets the Pacific Ocean.  The sunset views from our living room are to die for.