Get your Christmas Greetings in!

Crows Nest Year 10 Graduation

The Year 10s of Crows Nest celebrated their graduation at the Metro Cafe in Toowoomba last Thursday evening. Here they all are looking dashing for their farewell night.

Missy gets put in her place

Missy has been put in her place. She may rule the roost in the Lomas Household but when it comes to backyard well she quickly gets put in her place.

 

December Events Calendar

Hey everyone. Unfortunately we have run out of room this week to put the events calendar in the paper so we have posted it here instead.

 

Spooky evening in Highfields

Check this out for a spooky photo, enough to send goosebumps up your arms. This was taken recently in Highfields as storm clouds loomed above.

What is it?

This photo was recently taken outside the Chocolate Cottage by Neil. Does anyone know what kind of flower it is?

Photos at Abbie Lane

These two photos were taken recently at Abbie Lane across the road from the High Country News.


Gottabee Country




Beautiful Hydranger outside Abbie Lane



Pic from the Crows Nest Care Services Fete

This picture was taken at the Crows Nest Care Services Fete. Mayor Paul Antonio and Mrs Judy Antonio pictured with Monica Blass, Head Diversional Therapist.

Ged and Trudy

Ged and Trudy Hintz recently won the 2012 Gidgee Coal Bush Ballad Award for Duo, with their song " I'll Be Home Soon." They were both very pleased to have won the award. Here they are pictured with Ginger Cox who won the New Talent Award. The HCN news would like to congratulate them on their win.

Police Pipes visit Brownsholme


A visit last week by the Police Pipes and Drums to Brownsholme Retirement Village had more than 40 of them tapping to jigs and reels, and swooning to The Skye Boat Song and Amazing Grace.
Even Irish tunes like Maggie, It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, and When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (played on Scottish bagpipes) had everyone smiling.

Duncan Stewart (centre) wearing his Royal Stewart cap, with two members of the Police Pipes and Drums, Derek Adie (left) and Pipe Sergeant Patrick Murphy. The band now wears the McDonnell tartan, to honour a previous Assistant Commissioner.



Police Pipes and Drums member Alistair Bremner (centre) with Brownesholme residents Allan Armour (left)
and Clem Kennedy.

Women on the Move Networking Night

Highfields LocalAgent hosted the monthly Women on the Move Networking Night last Wednesday evening and about 30-40 lovely ladies attended.
Women on the Move Incorporated is a networking group for women with the purpose of meeting new people, sharing new ideas and developing opportunities between local women.
Check out some of the photos from the night!

Tarlie Brownlie, Carolyn Brown, Judy Hobson, Zoie Andrews, Rene Pattini, Anna Pattini and Debbie Lankester.

Latoya Taylor and Georgia Kelly representing Lorna Jane



Narelle Donald, Kim Cahill and Debbie Lankester



Doreen Raccanello, Fiona Lyall and Rose Kirkwood

Tarlie Brownlie of MarlieB Designs in front of one of her pieces of artwork.

Check out some of the photos from the night!

How to become a follower

If you are wondering how to follow our blog post on here well wonder no more. To the right hand side of this page is a little icon which says "Join this site". Click this icon and follow the prompts. If you don't already have a yahoo, twitter or google account you may have to create a new account. Please do we would love to have some more followers to our blog!

Flame Tree

George from Meringandan contributed this beautiful photo of a flame tree. The colours against the blue sky look amazing. Thank you George.

Christmas at Grand Central

Ann Lomas recently took this photo outside of Myers at Grand Central in Toowoomba. The Christmas Tree is quite the site to see all lit up at night. Ann who is a regular reader of the High Country News (lol) did well to take such a great photo at night time.

Toowoomba prepares for rare astronomical event

The Toowoomba community is invited to keep their eyes on the sky during a viewing of the partial solar eclipse on Wednesday, November 14 at the Cobb and Co Museum.

Local astronomers will be providing commentary about this rare astronomical event and telescopes and special eclipse glasses will be provided so people can watch the partial eclipse without worrying about damaging their eyes.

University of Southern Queensland astronomer Brad Carter said he expected about 80 per cent of the sun to be blocked by the moon during the event.

‘People up north in Cairns will be able to see a total eclipse where all the sun will be blocked by the moon and everything should go totally dark for about two minutes,’ Dr Carter said.

‘However, even a partial eclipse is still a spectacular sight and the Toowoomba landscape will get noticeably dimmer during the early morning eclipse.’

Dr Carter warned of the dangers of looking directly at the sun without proper eye protection and said there would be telescopes available for safe observation, as well as $3 glasses that would allow people to view the eclipse without worrying about permanent eye damage.

A sausage sizzle and refreshments will also be available to purchase at the museum.

Dr Carter said the Toowoomba residents who couldn’t make the trip up north could wait until July 2037, when the city will be able to view a total solar eclipse.

‘A solar total eclipse can be a once in a lifetime event,’ he said.

If you’d like to join other Toowoomba sky-watchers on November 14, be at the Cobb and Co Museum for the duration of the eclipse between 6am and 8am (maximum eclipse is predicted to occur around 6.54am).

The CFM Sea Cruiser will be on site with lots of giveaways.

Download a QR Code

QR Code Scanner.

At its most basic, a QR Code is a barcode on steroids. They're used for encoding information in two-dimensional space -- like in the pages of magazines, in advertisements and even on TV and Web sites. 

QR codes are tailor-made for quickly and easily linking to content on smartphones. Simple uses include magazine advertisements that link to websites. Putting the codes to more complex use, start-up Pingtaguses them as a sort of digital business card for sharing LinkedIn accounts and contact info.

1.       Visit your app store on your smartphone and type in QR Reader.

2.       Select install – follow the prompts -  this may include typing in a password if you own an iphone.

3.       Once installed go into the app – this will bring up a scanner. Hold the scanner over the top of the QR code until it makes a noise, vibrates or begins to load.

4.       Once loaded the QR code will most likely link your phone to a website url, pdf, phone number etc. 

Favourite Photo of the Week

High Country News Editor, Neil Lomas has taken a beautiful sunset shot from outside the office for this week's favourite photo. The colours are amazing.

Still Life's by Catherine Reid

Melbourne Cup Day Photos

Hannah Jenson and Jasmine Kelly enjoying Melbourne Cup Day at  Infusions restaurant. 

Leanne Gillam from Pure Indulgence Day Spa and Kim Cahill from Highfields LocalAgent at the
Better Business Breakfast last Tuesday. 

Gordon looks dashing for the races

Gordon Alden from Highfields Automotive Spare Parts at the Better Business Breakfast (as you’ve never seen him before.) He looks quite the part for the Melbourne Cup Day celebrations. Good on you for getting into the spirit of the day Gordon. You sure made our day!

Jacaranda Day by Miles Noller

When the jacarandas bloom, Goombungee celebrates, and on Saturday, November 10, this year’s Jacaranda Day festivities will be held.

Amongst the mauve of the jacarandas will also be the gold of the Silky Oaks because they are also in bloom, and beneath them will be a street parade (from 3pm), the walking tours of the main street, market stalls, barbecue, and a host of other festivities.

The Silky Oaks were said to have been planted by a lone railway worker in the 1950s, and a feature of the festival will be the launch of a scale model of the railway as it existed in Goombungee in the 1950s. This will be unveiled at the Historical Society at 1.00pm.

The Kingsthorpe to Goombungee railway line was officially opened in January, 1912, but closed in 1964.

The day’s activities are being organised by the Rosalie Shire Historical Society, and it will be an opportune time to visit their museum, with many activities planned.

The Rosalie Gallery will be open with a special exhibition and squeezebox magic and Oakey school students will provide festive music.



Girls Night In

A Girls Night In was held at the Bunnyconnellen Winery with over 30 girls attending the night in an effort to raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation. Organiser of the event was very pleased with how the night proceeded.

" We raised more money than what i anticipated which is always good. I aimed for $500 and surpassed that amount," she said.

" The multi draw raffle was a great success. The support and contributions from many businesses in Crows Nest and Hampton were fantastic and i thank them all for their donations.

"It is such a supportive community when it comes to events like this which is great to see everybody was more than happy to help and the encouragement from people has been great.

"From the responses I have had by women who were there and also from people who couldn’t make it, I am sure it will become an annual event for Crows Nest."

Catherine Reid of Catherine Reid Photography and Designs donated to the High Country News the following photos from the event.