The members of Caffeine and Chapters Book Club embrace the concept of the Short Break, and at least once a year we plan a weekend getaway. The search for suitable venues has taken us from Possum Park (loved it, but it’s a long drive) to an (alleged) eco retreat near Maleny (great markets but proprietors and facilities reminiscent of Wolf Creek) and then to Lake Maroon in the Scenic Rim. It has now become our destination of choice, with a cosy, unpretentious old Queenslander boasting plenty of bedrooms, multiple toilet/bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, lounge/dining area with generous seating – and best of all, a wraparound veranda with views over the lake and bush. Caff’n’Chaps heaven!
So, as always Robyn C. has done an amazing job of organising the details, sending out emails re dates, prices, and menus – warning us with no concession to democratic process and in bold capitals NOT TO BRING TOO MUCH FOOD. Geez, anyone would think we’re gluttons.
The convoy is sorted (who’s going in whose car?) and the RedRob direction is to meet for op-shopping in Canungra, so we converged on our first shop and successfully emerged with bargain clothing and cute knick-knacks. The op-shop etiquette is to be very generous pointing out suitable items to each other (that is just YOU, look, only $5!) BUT – if you spot something you really want for yourself, better grab it and hold it firmly to repel predators; it’s brutal.
Onward to Beaudesert for a brunch break at our favourite and ever-reliable café, where the coffee and food are DEE-licious. I discovered fresh hot homemade pumpkin and walnut patties that should be on every menu in the world. Well fortified, we decided on a quick look at the local op-shop – a quick look that lasted the best part of an hour and must have boosted the shop’s daily profit considerably.
The next stop was everyone’s favourite small town, Boonah, which always seems busy and buzzing with some form of community activity and which boasts three op shops! We supported all of them and then picked up a few last-minute supermarket items before heading out to Maroon.
Once out of Boonah, the drive is just a panorama of farm country, bush and the magnificent mountains with blue and grey colours showing the contours of rugged escarpments and deep valleys – this is the Scenic Rim, and it is balm to my soul.
We finally rolled in to the weekend house to be greeted by the owner in typically informal friendly bush style – just go on in and get settled, we’ll sort the money later- and trooped in and out with our gear. Everyone migrated back to the beds we’d occupied last trip, and we just dumped stuff and gathered on the veranda. The realisation dawned on us that a 1 1/2 -hour drive had stretched to almost 6 hours via the Op-Shop Route!
One disappointment – they’ve taken out the open fireplace, so dreams of toasting marshmallows with supper were dashed. Workplace H&S strikes again, or did they just get sick of providing firewood?
Everyone slipped effortlessly into lazy mode, no food to prepare as The Plan specified ONLY soup and crusty bread for dinner. Time for catch-up gossip and news from our separate lives; and a discussion of the book read – the theme set by Maxine was ‘anything by Walt Whitman’ and it quickly emerged that nobody could make head nor tail of this literary icon’s poetry. Really? I mean, we’re all voracious readers, and his name crops up in almost any American book you pick up, he must be good! To my mind, a lot of his poetry reads like the random thoughts of counter-culture hippies of the ‘70’s, sitting around a fire and smoking strange substances. However, Rob rescued us by finding ‘Oh Captain, My Captain’; as she read it aloud, everyone could feel the moving lyrical power of Whitman. I resolved to dig further into his prose works in search of more gems – after all, who am I to judge an icon of his stature, especially in the hilarious mood of our discussion.
The ‘just soup and crusty bread’ dinner somehow expanded to include lamb wraps with extras and a dessert of pecan slice with cream - obviously we’ve cut back severely on food! Afterwards we gathered around the heaters and gossiped some more before drifting off to bed – second disappointment was the absence of a DVD player, so we couldn’t watch ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ as a cheat on our current read.
First to stir next morning, I took my camera to try to capture some of the frosty, misty morning – the steam exhaled by local dairy cows as they trooped back to their paddock mingled with the valley mist, and the frost crunching underfoot glittered in the rising sun as it climbed over the hills to paint the dark waters of the lake, just momentarily, bright gold. It was beyond my powers of description and beyond the capacity of my camera to capture – I commend it to anyone who’s feeling jaded with life.
Only one of us was energetic enough to drive to Boonah for the markets –so Di was immediately bombarded with requests to ‘just pick up’ a couple of things for those of us too mellow to move.
Lunch was the highlight meal of the weekend – we were celebrating our year’s birthdays in the book club, including 3 ‘big zero’ days for a 40, a 50, and (yay, that’s me!) a 70. So there was a flurry of table decorating and sharing oven space to reheat our set-menu dishes, bubbles chilling for toasts, and waiting for Rob S. to arrive with her offering – the birthday cakes! We missed having Rob to stay, she was unable to stay because of family commitments, but was Trojan enough to come for the day, and looked a million dollars. Also, our popular Club leader, Maxine, was joining us for lunch and we were all excited to have her there. Maxine is a reader of mind-blowing breadth and depth, and is well on her way to completing the ‘1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'. Wow.
Lunch was huge and delicious and disjointed and funny and we all had a lot of fun. Nobody was motivated to embark on any of the activities we had tentatively planned, though Bianca helped some of us to achieve some rudimentary origami and we admired and discussed Jen’s furniture restoration projects and Rob S,’s mosaic tiling skills. So the afternoon drifted into snacks and drinks after we’d photographed another pink-gold sunset and retreated inside out of the chill – and so, seamlessly, onward to dinner of leftovers and a mountain of garlic bread (albeit severely charred) and sundry biscuits and chocolates.
Does it sound as if we did nothing but eat? Certainly felt like it! But it was also about fun and friendship and complete lack of everyday tension, bad jokes and giggles and exchange of book recommendations and condemnations.
After Possum Park, we vowed to compile a recipe book , and it simply got lost in our other lives – I think we need to discuss reviving the idea, because on every adventure we seem to put together food, not only of ridiculous quantity but also (in all modesty) of fantastic quality!
We said our goodbyes and drove home –I for one wanted one more day- and in my case, returned to work feeling refreshed and certain that I will never eat again.
Helen
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