Carting Cane

On Monday as we drove back into Cairns I spotted a cane train, well the carriages, filled with freshly cut sugar cane.



You could see the dust of the tractor whizzing through the cane field with a new trailer of cane to be loaded into the carriages before you could see the tractor, but then he came, shooting out the edge of the field.

The haulout driver left a trail of dust behind him. Cutting and hauling cane is all about speed.



It is cane season, a time for looking out for cane trains and watching fields of cane decrease in size as cane is carted to a nearby mill.

Note: they cut a certain percentage of every farm before doing the next round and cutting another percentage.

Brightness, Bits and Bees: Tableland Weekend

A beautiful, sunny Tablelands weekend last weekend that gave me a taste of winter.




 

Giving

On Friday a lovely lady left us at Nova after 2 fabulous weeks. We hope she had fun because we know we did. Before her farewell BBQ she gifted us teachers with a photo card with some photos of our time together. It was absolutely lovely.

Unfortunately I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her during her second week, just a few hours on Thursday and all of Friday due to other lessons happening at the same time but I enjoyed that short time all the same. We organised a super special tour of a local primary school for her during the second week which she loved. It was one thing she really wanted to see as she is an Elementary Teacher in Japan. I think that may have become the highlight of her stay here in Cairns.

 

She was part of a larger group that came over from Japan, all from different locations, some of who knew each other from past Nova summer schools. We had a great first week together learning about this that and everything from how to ask for and give directions to Australian animals to cooking an Australian BBQ which is a lot different to a Japanese one.



On the Monday after the larger part of the group (who were so much fun) left I was gifted with a cute little wiggly animal decoration for my house that was left at the office for me. It is so sweet and thoughtful.



Also that Monday a new group arrived and with them a teacher who bought us a tasty gift to try. I loved it. It is Imagawayaki (or Darayaki which is similar but two seperate pancakes) and looks like a pikelet. It has an azuki bean paste filling made by boiling and mashing azuki beans (red bean) which is then sweetened. The azuki bean filling was in a way similar (especially texture) to cooked dried dates. I wish I could get more of these as it was so tasty.
 

Nova Cairns has also blogged about the group before this, Mums and kids, here.
 

Growing on Something

What started off as taking some photos of pretty flowers growing on an orange tree ...
 

 

... turned into taking photos of other small and dainty plants growing upon various trees close by.
 

"Grow where you are planted"

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”

Amelia Earhart 

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” 

Wayne W. Dyer

I can imagine a fairy hiding here, what about you?

"Find joy in the ordinary."

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." 
Confucius

"The bigger your challenges the bigger your opportunity for growth."
 Karen Salmansohn

"Spread love everywhere you go."
Mother Theresa

“A seed planted in the ground does not feel its lack of roots, stem and petals as a ‘weakness’ or being ‘less than.’  It simply sees an opportunity to grow and then does.” 
Michael Stevenson

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things."
Robert Brault 

Another Tablelands weekend is coming to a close (yes, I am aware it is Monday ... thank goodness for 3 day weekends) so I'm doing some photo-relaxing, meaning taking and blogging photos.

Strawberry Farm Fun

A fortnight ago now (yes, I have been slack on the blogging front) we did our pretty regular trip to the Atherton Tablelands. When we head to Atherton we always pass Shaylee Strawberries a local Strawberry Farm. We always think of dropping by and that weekend we finally did. It was definitely worth it. 



It is only a fairly small farm but they have a great set up that means you can buy farm fresh strawberries along with jams, ice-creams, tea and coffee AND scones with that tasty jam and cream. You can also organise to pick the strawberries yourself if you contact the farm.

 We walked away with two jars of jam



and 1kg of strawberries.



They were sooo tasty

 
and big

and very few (meaning about 3) were left by the time we made it to Mr Sparky's mate's farm (more on that later, I promise). 

Mr Sparky's mate's classic comment after a taste test was "they taste like REAL strawberries!"

They did, not too sweet or tart and perfectly ripe.



They were sooo tasty that we just had to stop by on the trip back to Cairns and get another kilo punnet and the only reason enough made it back to Cairns to put in with out work lunches was because after a bit of feasting we hid the rest.

http://www.shayleestrawberries.com.au/