Spring in Yeppoon

Time sure goes quickly! We are almost at the end of spring already here in sunny Queensland so I thought I’d share a little bit about what we’ve been up to lately. Really, just more of the same but it’s been a while so I figured a quick update was in order.

Spring in Yeppoon is glorious! The summer humidity hasn’t kicked in yet and there’s always a nice cool breeze off the sea. We try to get to a beach a few times a week for a good long walk. We are truly spoiled here with choice…there are beaches at every turn in this little area. The beach below is probably our favourite walking beach though. We can walk for two hours and still not walk the length of it!

I love watching the little crabs scurry about and also the clams making these cool trails in the sand.

Recently, we discovered a beach we had never walked before and found this cool little cave so the following weekend, we packed up a picnic and spent the most of the day there. And in typical Yeppoon style, I think we saw only one other person the whole time.

Spring here is full of different community events and festivals. We have been to car races and car shows and recently went to Pinefest. Pinefest happens on our local foreshore and celebrates the pineapple industry in our region. So many people come out for the parade. I’m guessing it’s for the free pineapples they hand out from the trucks.

I get excited about the pineapples every year. This year Rob used our pineapple to make canker burgers in honour of Zoe.

We might be able to eat our own home grown pineapple soon! I can’t tell you how excited it makes me to grow tropical fruits in our yard. I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of that!

I think Rob likes his gin and tonic tree best!

Thanksgiving is also a spring event in Yeppoon, well, for us anyway! Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday at any time of year in Australia, but we still celebrate it every year. Rob made us a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner and I used up last of our pumpkin to make a pie, which is also not a thing a here.

On Thanksgiving weekend, I also had the opportunity to participate in a podcast and talk about my work in social cognition and brain injury. It was great fun! The podcast was called Noggins and Neurons and they have some great chats about different things we can do to improve the lives of people with brain injury. They make a real effort to deliver info in an easy to understand way which is fantastic. Here are the links if anyone wants to have a listen.

Part One:

https://bit.ly/3vD7xt9

Part Two:

https://bit.ly/3b6iw4U

I’ve also spent the last month or so entertaining myself with Lego. In a bid to promote going green, Woolworth’s (our local grocery store) was giving out little packets of lego at the checkout. Rob always chats up the staff and would bring me home heaps of lego each week. I managed to complete my store but sadly, the promotion ended before I got a grocery cart. Rob thought it was hilarious how much fun I had with this, but look how cool it turned out!

We still aren’t really able to travel here but our Queensland state borders are supposed to open to the rest of Australia in mid-December provided our vaccination rate meets the target (80%). I am definitely missing the adventure of travel so hopefully in the new year, we will be able to get back to exploring more of Australia. Then it’s just waiting to see when we can safely travel overseas again. In the meantime, we are still loving life here and aren’t feeling too hard done by. It’s pretty hard to when you are able to have a gorgeous seafood lunch and walk by the beach anytime you want to!

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And when we’re not at the beach, we spend weekends relaxing by our pool.

My favourite way to end a day on the weekend is to enjoy a glass of wine or champagne while we watch sun set against the trees across the back of our yard. The lorakeets and kookaburras also come alive at that time of day so it’s a perfect way to relax and connect with nature.

Cheers to all of you!!