Morning Tea

This morning I went to the Salvation Army Ladies Morning Tea. Once a quarter the ladies have a time of getting together called “Time Out for Women”. Our first Sunday at church, I was invited to the Beach and Chocolate Time Out to be held at South Bank today. We were to have a time of gathering at Max Brenner’s an ice cream and dessert café and any who wanted could swim in the man made beach there then have lunch later. But due to the flooding they postponed that until October and decided to have a morning tea at the church and a time of fellowship and catching up on what you did over the summer. They also were receiving donations for flood victims for their Corps family.  It was a nice time and I met even more women from the church and got to know others a bit better. I even got to meet and chat with the Divisional Women’s Ministry Secretary. Her husband and she are the Salvation Army Divisional Commanders for the Southeast Queensland area. I wish I would have taken a picture of the table of goodies but I was busy visiting. They had yummy cakes, cookies, muffins, scones, breads, tarts, pavlovas, and jelly slices which was really a small square of cheese cake with Jell-O on top. It reminded me of Mom’s Jell-O pie, YUMMY! I’m really getting to like this tradition of morning and afternoon tea!

I Guess I Look Like I Belong!

Last week I did not go out to see anything specific just getting out and exploring. I love to just go out with no specific plan in mind. It’s fun to take a different street and see where it takes me and go wherever it looks interesting. I was heading toward the visitors information at the Queen Street Mall in a round about way and a gentleman stopped me and asked me if the next street over was Queen Street, he even called me miss! Luckily I was able set him right and he was on his way. I called Bob to see if he would be free to have lunch and he was, so we had a nice lunch at one of the many cafés. We had discussed what to do for the weekend so I needed to go back to the visitor’s information booth and then headed out again. This time a young woman needed directions and I was able to set her off in the right direction as well. I guess I look like I belong here!

Some sights I saw on my walk!

I thought these were interesting names.

This is the street just behind St. John's Anglican Church

Fruit stand at Queen Street Mall

Trees

(Cyclone Yasi update- Amazingly as of 7pm there have been no fatalities or injuries reported and three babies were born during the cyclone. 180,000 without power, many homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, sugar cane and banana crops destroyed. Rain, winds and localized flooding are still expected. It is now a Category 1 Cyclone going across Australia. The news of the snow in the United States was the third story tonight.)

I know I already have two posts about the City Botanic Gardens but I just love the variety of trees they had on display and I thought they were interesting. Some trees in the garden were planted at the time Brisbane was established. The gardens were originally created for food crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement and established in 1855 on the site of the Government Garden. The Old Government House and the Parliament House are right next to the gardens.  Many people use the gardens to walk, run or ride bikes. The gardens are open 24 hours.  It is surprising how peaceful and quiet it can be when you are so close to the city center.  (some information from the Botanic Gardens pamphlet)

Eucalyptus or Gum Tree shedding its bark.

Grass Tree

Dragon Tree

Banyan Fig Tree Trunk

Hoop Pine

Peepul Tree-a native tree of India
regarded as the tree of wisdom.

Tall Palms are Queen Palms, shorter Palms are Date Palms

Winter Storms and Cyclone Yasi

We have been watching the weather and we pray that you are all safe and warm during the winter storms. While most of you back in the states are dealing with snow and cold that has been traveling across the nation, far north Queensland is facing another crisis. We will not be directly impacted. The public and private hospitals in Cairns were evacuated and many if not all the patients were brought down to Brisbane. Cyclone Yasi is heading for far north Queensland and is as wide as Hurrican Katrina was with winds 30 mph stronger. This cyclone is coming as a category five cyclone, probably the worst Queensland and Australia has seen.  As of 7:00pm it is expected to hit land at 11pm WednesdayA.E.D.T with 180 mph winds or more and a storm surge of 20-25 feet, with heavy rains as well. The eye of the storm is almost 22 miles wide and will take an hour to pass over. Even towns 250 miles inland could still experience Category 3 intensity.  The officials have been warning and preparing people for this all week. Many evacuation centers were set up and most are filled to capacity. Please pray for the safety of the people, emergency workers and all the rescue operations that are in place to help as soon as it is safe to do so.

We will continue to keep you all in our prayers that the temperatures will warm and the snow will not stay for long. Stay safe!

 Pictures taken from our TV of ABC News Channel 24

Stained Glass Windows

The churches I was able to go into had beautiful stained glass windows. St. John’s Cathedral has over 150, but they are so high up, I couldn’t get many pictures to come out clearly. But they are so beautiful. When I visited the churches the sun was shining brightly which made the colors so vibrant, but it made it difficult to get pictures. Not that I want the rain to come back, but maybe they would have come out better. I wanted to share some of them with you.