We have certainly had some interesting weather here in Palm Lake Resort over the last week!
The recent hailstorms reminded one of our residents, Dawn Campbell from Villa 8, of a very severe hailstorm that hit Carnation Court and Magnolia Drive in 2011.
All of the Colourbond roofs needed to be replaced, and a big cleanup was required.
Dawn sent in some photos of the aftermath of the 2011 storm.
Fingers crossed that we don't see this sort of damage again.
GARDEN VISITS
WEDNESDAY 28 Oct 2020
The October meeting to be held on 28th October will involve garden visits.
To check the locations refer to the Resort Map at: Link to Resort Map
1. The first visit will begin at 9:15 am at Don and Lois Willet’s Villa 18. (Carnation Court)
2. The second visit will be at Robert and Sue McDonald’s Villa 269 at 10:00 am. (Hovea Drive)
· Following these visits (approx 11:00 am) we will look forward to enjoying morning tea at the Oasis. Gold Coin donation appreciated.
The November meeting will take place in the old clubhouse at 9:00 am on Wednesday 25th November.
Robert
Barlow
Villa 219
Bob Briggs from Villa 186 has a IONMAX Ion612 Dessicant Dehumifier (7 litre) for sale.
It is 'as new' complete with user manual. It usually retails for $469 but will sell for $150.
If you are interested contact Bob on 0419 654 050.
According to Bob it was 'only ridden to church on Sundays'.
This is a “step through” bike which accommodates both male
and female riders.
It has suspension
in the seating, 21 gears and rear rack.
The brand is
“Specialised” and is still under warranty.
Just a quick note to let you know that the Resident's Phone List has been updated.
You can find it under the Info and Support tab towards the top of the Blog screen.
When you click on the link it will open in a new window. From there you can download it and print it, or save it to your computer.
Thanks to Karen Banks in the Palm Lake Resort Office for sending it through.
The annual Golf Day event of the Lennox Head Lions Club was a great success. Sunday 4th October was a perfect day for golf at Byron Bay Golf Club where 107 golfers enjoyed the event in support of the fund raiser. We were incredibly pleased to have several groups playing from Palm Lake and hope they enjoyed their day.
Our efforts resulted in raising a net total close to
$8,000. This was a fantastic result achieved with support by local businesses including
Palm Lake, Blaze Projects (Doug and Lesley Stinson’s son) and Paul Denmeade
Solicitors who contributed so generously despite the pandemic.
A major portion of the funds raised goes to OrangeSky who provide laundry and shower facilities for those in need. The balance will be distributed to other local charities and causes through the Lennox Lions Club Charity Funding program. OrangeSky now have a vehicle in Ballina and are looking for volunteers – they would love to hear from anyone who wishes to work with them.
Should you wish to learn more about OrangeSky please visit
their website at orangesky.org.au
Pictured are some of our residents posing with the John
Mitchell Trophy. Maybe they will win it next year!
Derek Audus
Villa 204
Beverly Barlow from Villa 219 sent in the following information about cleaning our dishwashers:
DISHWASHER HEALTH AND YOUR HEALTH
You load your dishes in the dishwasher, select a program and
trust that they come out clean, without any residual bacteria which could
affect your health and that of your family and friends. The cleanliness of your
crockery and cutlery, coming from the dishwasher will depend on three things:
·
Whether
or not you rinsed them before loading them in the dishwasher. (This is a
personal choice. Some people like to rinse – others don’t mind loading items
without rinsing.)
·
The
program selected. Again, a personal choice. Some people like to run a short
cycle to conserve water, others prefer a longer, hotter program.
·
How
clean your dishwasher and its filters are. This will have a great impact on the
health of your dishwasher and as a result, your health in the future.
In your Construction Handover Pack there is a
section on the operation of your dishwasher. On page 37 of these dishwasher instructions
is a section on how to clean the filter unit. On the next page of this text is
a copy of page 37 and I would like to draw your attention to the top half of
the page with the diagram.
From time to time (on a regular basis) you should clean the
plastic filter labelled C in the left-hand picture. When you push out
the centre filter D you will feel how slippery and slimy it is. This
represents fats and other soil which have collected here during the dishwashing
process. Don’t worry – everyone has it. It will only be a worry if you don’t
clean it regularly.
The far right-hand diagram relates to dot point four in the
section: “Cleaning the Filter Unit”. This is a silver perforated metal plate
which you can remove by pulling it gently towards you. Make sure that you
examine the underside for accumulated debris. You will be amazed and even shocked
at how much has accumulated there. If you don’t clean this, your water will be
recycling through this and over your crockery and cutlery.
You should clean this in your sink using a stiff brush.
You should refer to the general warnings in the grey shaded
section at the bottom of page 37.
I hope that you will enjoy clean and safe dishwashing in the
future.
Beverly Barlow
Villa 219
Notification from Vern and Catherine Bechaz
For those of you that have been saving plastic lids and taking them to the Oasis Clubhouse for collection, please note that the Lids 4 Kids project has now finished. See notice below:
We were expecting
much better month weather wise, but it didn’t really turn out so well. We seemed
to have a lot of windy days and our attempts to fish the beach were often
thwarted by big swells, a lot of current and winds that would blow a dog off a
chain.
Fortunately the
blackfish in the river kept our interest up and we managed to get a few bream
and flathead off the beach at Flat Rock towards the end of the month.
Now Ken wasn’t too sure what to do at this stage and all he could think of was to do the “flathead waltz” around the now released fish and call frantically for help. Apparently the Patch’s crew took no notice of him whatsoever and a wave came up and the flathead was last seen headed for New Zealand. As a result we decided to nickname him “Missem” and I’ve since had it on good authority from his fellow golfers that the name is appropriate as that is what happens to most of his putts.
Hammerhead and I went along to the sand spit near the waterslide with Commodore Barry (of our Palm Lake Rescue Vessel) to pump some yabbies for bait. We did quite well and soon had plenty of bait for the next day’s fishing so we decided to give it away.
Just as we began to walk along the beach to retrieve the Commodore’s
shoes a playful Labrador decided to run off with one of his shoes. It was quite
funny to see the chagrin of Barry and the consternation of its owners all in
hot pursuit. Seemed like everyone was chasing the dog around the beach but
now-one except another playful lab could catch him. Next thing you know the two
dogs are playing tug-of-war with the Commodore’s best shoe.
We went down to Flat Rock one morning to fish the beach. It wasn’t long before John had a nice flathead and I had a bream. As there was a lot of current we were drifting north and finished up some 100 yards along the beach. The ever helpful Hammerhead Ian decided to move the gear along to where we were fishing and being fearful of the tide coming in he put the gear above a fairly sizeable bank in the sand that had been created by the sea.
Soon after I had a good bream but when I went to take it to our gear I was confronted by this 2-3 foot bank. I stood there for some time with the fish in one hand and my rod in the other trying to work out how to get up the bank. The sinkers twigged to what was happening so they broke into laughter and watched as I tried to negotiate the hill.
 |
| Now how am I supposed to get up there? |
I placed my rod on the bank with the reel over the edge as I didn’t want to get sand in the reel and then I had to lie over the bank and roll myself up keeping the fish securely in my grasp. As you can imagine this provided wonderful entertainment to the sinkers and as we didn’t get any photos I was forced to return the next day for a re-enactment with a little bream Anchors Away had caught.
We still haven’t
taken the SS Vaucluse or the Tiny Tinnie out due to the consistent winds but
hopefully we will get a chance this month to drift for some flathead and try
for some crabs as they should be coming on soon.
I had an
interesting catch off Sharpe’s Beach one afternoon so I thought I might share
it with you.
 |
| How is this for a pretty Catty? |
Message from Rick Stewart, Resort Manager:
Below is some information from the Ballina Council website. Obviously as we
live next to a creek, next to vacant farm land and swamps around us, and a
thriving wildlife , we are always susceptible to seeing snakes, lizards,
echidnas, toad, frogs etc. amongst all the other little critters scurrying
around.
There
is a chance that you will see snakes, throughout the warmer times, like we are
having now.
Be
aware that there are snakes around and be careful when walking around the resort.
Please
read the below information. If you do see a snake, and have concerns, please
call the number on this attached information flyer. (WIRES Northern Rivers: 6628 1898)
Resort
staff are not Snake Catchers and are not trained to remove a snake.
Thank
you and stay alert.
Palm
Lake Management.
Irene greatly appreciates all the love
and support that she has received from the Palm Lake community at this very sad
time. Please accept this as her personal thanks.
A celebration of Rob's life will be held at the
Lennox Head Community Centre on Thursday 8th Oct 2020 at 10.30am.
Refreshments will follow at the Cherry Street Bowling Club at 12 midday.
Both venues can accommodate 100 people under current COVID guidelines.
If you have any queries concerning the service please contact:
Rhonda Rawson, Villa 201, Phone: 2201 Mobile: 0438 005 503
The Garden
Club had a very successful monthly meeting on 26th September. Twenty
members were present. We discussed communications and came up with the
following:
·
Monthly
meetings will be notified via the monthly Social Calendar
·
A
copy of new will be posted on the blog as well as a hard copy on the notice
board near the Indoor Pool
·
A
list of members’ email addresses has been compiled by Helen Halpin and those on
this list will be notified by email.
We decided that the October meeting to be held on 28th October will involve garden visits. The first visit will begin at 9:15 am on that date at Don and Lois Willet’s Villa 19.
We will plan to arrive at Robert and Sue McDonald’s Villa 269 at 10:00 am. Following these visits we will look forward to enjoying morning tea at the Oasis. Gold Coin donation appreciated.
The November meeting
will take place in the old clubhouse at 9:00 am on Wednesday 25th
November.
Terri Clark
was reimbursed for her purchase of a Green Waste bin for the garden outside the
old clubhouse. This will allow us to store our green waste neatly until
collection occurs.
A small
committee was formed with a view to planning a resort-wide garden competition
in September 2020. Details will be reported to the November meeting to see if
this idea is viable.
Investigations
will also take place with a view to holding a community trip to visit the
Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers in 2021.
Robert
Barlow
Villa 219
Spring has arrived and there is a lot of birdlife around Palm Lake at the moment. There are a few things you can do to help our wildlife.
1. If you have a cat please make sure that it is kept inside your villa. There have been reports of birds being killed in residents' backyards, possibly by a visiting cat. This is very distressing to see.
If you see a cat in the Resort on the loose please report it to Rick.
2. Take care when driving around the Resort as there are a number of new families of ducks and Swamp hens that now call Palm Lake Resort home. Unfortunately they don't have much road sense!
3. If you have a bird bath in your garden keep it filled with fresh water - the birds absolutely love having a drink and a splash each day. Great fun to watch.
A big thank you to Brian Reddy who sent photos of the babies that have hatched near his villa (276).
 |
| Photo of Pacific Black Duck family supplied by Brian Reddy |
 |
| Photo of Purple Swamp Hen chicks supplied by Brian Reddy |
18 golfers from Palm Lake ventured to Chinderah Golf Course
on Friday 25th August in beautiful conditions to see who would win
the coveted monthly trophy.
Wardell hole-in-one specialist John Cross won the day with
42 points from Gerry ("if anyone can Gerry can") Wilde with 40 points.
The women’s competition was won Julie Maynard on 39 points
from Carol Wells with 34.
Nearest the pins went to Sue MacDonald and Bambang Pramana.
Notable score was Bob White with 38 points. Bob also won the B
Grade Vets Championship at Ballina recently.
If you want to join in this sociable and great fun golf day contact Bill Oliver Villa 185.
Everyone is welcome.
Lynne Pramana in Villa 191 is looking to buy a Suzuki Swift, Kia Rio or Mazda 2 for her grand-daughter.
It is important that it is a safe and reliable car as it will be her grand-daughter's first car.
It needs to be automatic, low mileage, mechanically sound, well looked after, not older than 2014. They are not in a hurry, and can wait 3 mths if necessary for the right car.
If you are thinking of selling your car, or you know someone who is please let Lynne know.
Her phone number is 2191.
Movies
October 2020
Saturday
3rd Bad Education
Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney
Wednesday
7th Love Sarah
Shelley Conn, Celia Imrie
Saturday
10th Most
Dangerous Man in America
Peter Arnett, Ben Bagdikian
Wednesday 14th A Dark Place
Andrew Scott, Bronagh Waugh
Saturday
17th Remember
Christopher Plummer, Kim Roberts
Wednesday
21st Lost in Translation
Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson
Saturday
24th My Left Foot
Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker
Wednesday
28th Stage Mother
Jacki Weaver, Lucy Liu
Saturday 31st The Birds Hitchcock Classic Screening
Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren
Note: Social distancing and hand sanitising will be maintained in the cinema. This will decrease the numbers permitted for each screening.
A change has been made to the movie to be shown in the Palm Lake Cinema on Wed 23 Sep 2020.
It will now be "The Boat that Rocked".
The PLR Ballina Tennis group will hold its annual challenge during October. This is a fun competition – “not playing for sheep stations”!
All matches played are four games of doubles. We attempt to have every combination of pairs from players who nominate.
Points are allocated for each
game won and the female and male with the highest points by the end of October
gets their name on the trophy! Games not played by the end of the month are
forfeited.
Games are played during the normal tennis times between 7:30am and 10:00am on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday mornings.
Anyone is welcome to
nominate – if you are not a regular with the group or have not played for a
while please contact Derek – Villa 204 before the end of September.
Resort protocols involving corona virus will be in place
including sign-in, hand sanitising and social distancing.
The agenda will include traditional items such as problem
garden plant samples as well as a follow-up to our August meeting and
foreshadowing possible visits to gardens in the resort in October. A financial
statement will be presented and the possibility of holding a resort garden
competition during Spring 2021 will also be discussed.
All residents of the resort are welcome.
PLEASE JOIN US FOR MORNING TEA/COFFEE. A gold coin donation
will be appreciated.
Robert Barlow
Villa 219
Except for some
continuing success with the blackfish August has been a very quiet month. No
reports of anyone going out in the boats, and the beaches have given us little
opportunities.
It has been a very
quiet year for the tailor and the weather on the beaches has been against us
most of the time. Even the dynamic Patches Duo has had little to report this
month.
Report on the Sinkers
The Sinkers and I
went down to Flat Rock one afternoon to fish the beach and gather some cabbage
for bait for the blackfish. We managed to get the cabbage okay but the wind
would blow a dog off a chain on the beach and the fishing was both
uncomfortable and unproductive.
We returned to
Nugget GT as it was getting dark and we were both cold and thirsty. You
wouldn’t want to know but the new you beaut Nugget GT Fishing Wagon wouldn’t
start for us. As the darkness fell on the Flat Rock Car Park we tried
everything we could think of but the dam thing just wasn’t going to start.
Eventually we gave up and rang Patches (our resident mechanic) to come down and
get us out of trouble.
Unfortunately Patches
was in the middle of a session with the Runway Crew which had put him over the
limit so he was unable to drive down to save us. Thankfully Hammerhead rang his
wonderful wife Joy who went around and picked up Patches and took him away from
his boozie mates to Flat Rock to save us from a very cold night in the Car
Park. The only thing they didn’t think of was to bring us down some coldies to
quench our thirst (it was Friday night after all).
Anyway Patches
being the master mechanic that he is was quick to diagnose the problem and
pretty soon we were on our way back to Douggies Den for a well-earned coldie.
 |
| Nugget GT on Patch's Beach before the closure |
Four Wheel Drive Access to Patches Beach.
Further to my
report last month that the Ballina Council planned to close the four wheel
drive access to Patches Beach in September I was invited to attend a meeting of
the local Fishing Clubs concerned at this decision. A letter was drafted during
the meeting requesting the Council to make arrangements for authorised Fishing
Club members (including Palm Lake) to gain continuing access. The letter was
signed by the representatives of all six Clubs in attendance and the following
is an extract from the Council’s reply.
As the beaches at
South Ballina are not under the control of Council, any decision to further
restrict 4WD access must be made by the State Government through the NSW
Department of Planning Industry and Environment (DPIE) – Crown Lands.
Based on the
concerns expressed in your correspondence, for South Ballina, I would make sure
you are conveying your views to the State Government through Tamara Smith MP as
the State Member for Ballina and Mr Silas Sutherland from DPIE.”
It seems we are into the hurdy- gurdy of getting various agencies to agree at the same time. Patches will be meeting with Tamara Smith shortly as a start so we’ll see how that goes.
You may recall that
I mentioned the problem of Carp in Emigrant Creek and local waterways. We planned
to take a team along opposite the Church Restaurant at Tintenbar and catch some
of the blighters. It promised to be an enjoyable outing for the sports fishos
amongst us. Well Patches took along a few of his team to give it a go but they
never got a bite so we need to do a bit more research before we try it again.
Tight Lines Douggie
They particularly like the birdbaths - they prefer them quite shallow so that can hop in and have a good splash.
They are cute little creatures that have a range of different facial expressions, as they hop around the various ponds, rocks, logs and sticks I have put around the garden for them to play on.
Link to more of my photos of the Red-browed Finches
Julie Pallant
Villa 283
Sadly we have lost a special member of our Palm Lake community:
Harry Weller
Villa 235
The service will, however, be live streamed at 2pm on Thursday 10th September, making it available for anyone who wishes to view it via the internet.
If you wish to view the service on the day click on the link below - this will take you to the Parkview website.
Helen greatly appreciates all the love and support that she has received from the Palm Lake 'family' at this very sad time. Please accept this as her personal thanks.
To those who purchased paintings and photographs or simply gave a generous donation to support the Rural Fire Service, I hope you enjoyed your visit.
Thank you also to the wonderful people who helped in the setting up and during the weekend. I could not have done it without you.
We were able to give $2,000 to the Lennox Rural Fire Service who will now be able to buy more equipment before the fire season begins.
Thank you again,
Patricia Wilson Villa 105
 |
| Silvereye |
Spring has definitely arrived in Palm Lake - there are lots of cute little birds around at the moment taking full advantage of all the flowering grevilleas.
I was lucky enough to have a small group of Silvereyes visit my garden this week. They love the bird baths!
These birds are only around for certain parts of the year so keep an eye out for them around Palm Lake. They are tiny, but easily distinguished by the white circle around the eye. They feed on fruit, nectar and insects.
Breeding season is from August to February - hopefully a few of them will set up home in the area. They construct nests made from grass and hair and typically lay 2 to 4 eggs.
If you are interested in attracting birds to your garden consider installing a shallow bird bath, preferably near a bush or tree so that they have somewhere to hide while they dry off from their bath.
Planting a few small grevilleas or bottlebrushes will also encourage the smaller nectar feeding birds such as honeyeaters to visit.
If you would like to see my other bird photos taken around Ballina click on the link below:
Julie Pallant Villa 283
Pauline Suffolk in Villa 150 has a number of items for sale:
Stereo system Panasonic CD player with SONY speakers.
No longer used. Excellent condition PRICE: $70
Manbag: Black Leather
Made in Australia by professional saddler. Original purchase price $250, but selling as new for $100
If you are interested in either of these please contact Pauline on 2150.
A warning note from Andrew the Happy Helper for those of you with computers:
I am being called out to more residents being caught up in a common computer scam technique. It can be very distressing as people go through a process they are not familiar with, mostly not even required, and normally at a considerable cost.
Typically something will suddenly not work properly or your system will become very slow or may not even start properly. You may be shown an Australian phone number to call, or you may find one in a Google search.
This phone number is simply redirected to an overseas call centre. It will be answered by a highly trained and coercive operator who will convince you they need to have remote access to your computer to fix it.
They will also charge you exorbitant
amounts, a typical figure is US$400 or AU$600. PLEASE DO NOT CALL THEM.
The frustrating part of all of this is that most of the time they caused the
actual problem in the first place! They place programs called malware or
spyware onto your computer which can cause various problems to your computer or
peripherals.
It is important to know that most, if not all, of these malware and spyware
programs can be removed using off the shelf antivirus and anti malware
software.
Please ensure you:
Use a verified antivirus and antimalware program. Windows 10 includes the Defender antivirus suite and is often enough for basic security. Other software (eg. McAfee, Norton, TotalAV, AVast, AVG) offer further safety and maintenance options.
Do not click on links in emails sent by unknown people or companies in unsolicited emails. These are often how the viruses are downloaded onto your computer.
Do not give remote access to them or anyone else you do not personally know.
If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call.
Andrew the Happy Helper Ph: 0490 327 610