Day 63 in a Year of my Life

It's been a hot day and the storms have skirted past us making lots of noise without touching us directly.

They did, however, drop the temperature by about 4 degrees, which we needed desperately.  Today was definitely a day for the air conditioner!

Adoring Husband spent the first half of the day in the garden, fixing the lawn mower, mowing the lawn and then fiddling about in the shed.

I have spent the day editing some old photos taken while down south on holidays last month.  Photos that I was tempted, at the time, to delete, but decided I would hold on to them 'just in case'.

Given a little time, you see your photos through different eyes and they can be salvaged.

This year, I have been paid for:

• Taking a portrait shot for a business card.
• Taking photos of a neighbour's garden.
• Taking photos inside a home for a real estate web site.
• Doing portrait shots as Christmas gifts.
• Repairing and restoring old photos for two different people.
• Approx twelve photos from the exhibition in September.
• One photo to be used as a painting on corrugated iron.
• A pelican photo from my flickr photostream.

This year I donated or gifted my time and photos for:

• An 89th birthday morning tea.
• An 80th birthday morning tea.
• A 70th birthday party.
• A 60th birthday party.
• A retirement luncheon.
• A fund raiser for a local charity.

Today, I am grateful to have had all of those opportunities above, which have added to my photography experience, and helped me to improve along the way.  I've enjoyed every second of it!

Nite all.

Day 62 in a Year of my Life

Another short post tonight.

It's storming all around us and I'm very tired after a big evening at the club.

Look what I found under the clothes line this morning!!

Freaking me out!

Now I'm afraid to let the dogs out the laundry door in case they find where this snake is hiding!

There are no markings on the skin and it looks suspiciously like a brown snake skin.

It's only small, about the length of one and a half iphones, but if it's a brown snake, the venom is just as deadly in a small one, as it is in a large one!

Makes my skin crawl.

I had a lovely talk on the phone with little Chicklet this evening.

She answered yes to every question that I asked - which is a big improvement on the silence that I usually hear on the other end of the phone when she calls me. lol.

I love it when she calls me.  Little treasure that she is :D

Enough of this frivolity!  I am off to bed.

Today I am grateful for finding a snake 'skin' under the clothes line ... and NOT a 'live' brown snake!

The skin is something that I can carry with me and show people and have interesting conversations about.

Less dangerous and less deadly than a live snake!

Whew!

Nite all.

Day 61 in a Year of my Life

The best our town has to offer ...

People have already started to dismantle their Christmas lights and it's only two days after Christmas!

We drove into The Bay today and braved the after christmas 'sale' crowds.  It was hectic and chaotic but I still got some shopping in and even managed to nab a few bargains.

My wardrobe is now pretty much complete for Summer but I'll have to cull a few more items out of my cupboards to make room for the new outfits.

Today I am shallowly (is that a word?) grateful for after Christmas sales - not so grateful for the crowds that I have to wade through to get to the sales - but grateful for the savings!

Today, we received a lovely gift in the mail from my brother and his 'non' girlfriend.  They sent us a beautiful hanging crystal with turquoise and silver beads.  I'm yet to find the perfect position for it, but I must phone tomorrow and thank her (my brother never sends gifts for any occasion, so I know it's Charlie Chuckles who I should thank).

So, Christmas is over and we are heading rapidly towards 2013.

How quickly 2012 has passed.  The older we get, the faster the years seems to speed by.  **sigh**

Nite all.

Day 60 in a Year of my Life

I'm very happy to announce that Adoring Husband's mother is doing very nicely, has no injuries and has returned to the nursing home.  She's a tough old bird!

Thanks for asking :)

Boxing Day = Test Cricket, Sydney to Hobart Yacht race and the Dr Who special to begin the new series = Happy Adoring Husband.

More Tawny Frogmouth photos = Happy ME :)

and my favourite photo that I took this year (submitted for the end of year flickr challenge) ...

Today I'm grateful for two re-runs of 'Friends' that I watch every night before I go to bed.  They send me to bed with a smile on my face.

So, I wake up every morning and spend time at the Seat of Knowledge for smiles to start my day and then watch late night episodes of Friends to end my day with a smile.

Simple but effective.

Nite all.

Crappy Christmas

2012 will be forever known as our 'crappy christmas'.

I don't mean that in a bad way because it has been a very pleasant day.

No tree, no decorations, no lights, no gifts for each other or anyone else, no family or friends.

Just Adoring Husband and I watching dvds all day, napping and enjoying this lunch ...

... and just to add a touch of extra crappiness, we got a phone call from the nursing home where Adoring Husband's Mum resides, to advise that she has had a fall this evening and has been taken to hospital.

Now we wait for the phone call after the tests.  Let's all hope that the outcome is the same as last time and she returns happy and healthy to the nursing home tomorrow.

I hope that you all lay your head on the pillow at the end of today with a smile on your dial and feeling the love.

Peace Love and Joy to all.

Nite all.

Christmas Eve - Day 58 in a Year of my Life

I've decided to recap my year, some time between Christmas and New Year, instead of tonight.  Christmas Eve just doesn't seem like the right time.

Vegan Chickie and I have a tradition.  Every Christmas Eve, no matter where we are in the world, we watch the movie 'Love Actually' together.

We set a time and then text each other when we are ready to press 'play'.

I'm not sure how long ago it started - perhaps 5 or 6 yrs ago?  She may correct me if I'm way off.

So tonight we agreed on 7.30pm as our start time.

It's been an interesting day.

It started at the usual place after I got coffee.  I had to buy two small coffees because they had run out of large take-away cups!  On Christmas Eve!!

After about an hour with my boys at the Seat of Knowledge, I pedalled down to say 'good morning' to my Tawny Frogmouth family.

While I was taking some photos, I attracted a crowd of about 8 people.  I don't like to do that, because I worry that others aren't so respectful of nature and I fear for the safety of my birds.

I took the uv filter and lens protector off my lens and discovered how much clearer my photos are without them!

I did some last minute grocery shopping and then after much difficulty, Adoring Husband got one of the printers to work and I printed out a couple of photos of Fergie to frame for his lovely wife for Christmas.

I hopped on the trike again and pedalled towards her house, but got pulled over by a lady who had bought two of my photos after my exhibition.

She pleaded for me to stop for a moment and go to look at the photos, now framed, quite beautifully, by her husband.

They did look quite fabulous!  I'm glad that I stopped.  Her two grown children will be the recipients of my photos this Christmas :D

Back on my trike and off to see Mrs Fergie.

She has 90% deafness in one ear and 75% in the other, so it is quite an ordeal getting her attention!  She always had Fergie to hear for her before.

She finally caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye and she welcomed me into her home.  She opened her present and cried.  I cried.  I knew it would be emotional, but hoped that I could stay strong.  It wasn't meant to be.  Ugh.

I stayed with her for about an hour chatting about Fergie and his final days and what she has planned for her future.

Then I left, promising to visit regularly.

Adoring Husband and I drove to the Bowls Club thinking that there would be raffles tonight, which there would have been if more than 7 of us had turned up!!  I won $300 on the pokies instead :D

We left at about 6.30pm and drove all over town in search of spectacular christmas lights.

We were very disappointed to discover that, like us, very few people have made an effort this Christmas.  Perhaps 4 homes lit up in full Christmas glory and another 6 made a small effort.

I didn't have my camera with me but we plan on going out next week with our cameras and tripods to get some photos.

We arrived home at 7.25pm, just in time to receive the text from Vegan Chickie to press 'play' for our movie.

We love this traditional viewing and text each throughout the movie when it gets to our favourite parts.

Adoring Husband made a nice easy, but healthy, dinner for us and then watched the movie with me too.

It's been a pretty good day and today I'm grateful to have found the strength to visit Mrs Fergie for the first time since Fergie passed away.  I have put this visit off for so long because I was dreading it.  It was as difficult as I'd imagined but I'm so pleased that I did it before Christmas.

She loved the photos.

Nite all.

Day 57 in a Year of my Life

It's HOT!

So early in Summer and already we are experiencing above average temperatures.

I love living in Queensland and in particular, here, but at this time of the year when it gets really hot, I struggle and question our sanity!

How nice it would be to have two homes - one in a cooler climate for the Summer months!

Perhaps a pool would help?????  :D

Today, I delivered some photos that I was commissioned to take of somebody's house and garden.  I walked under the main tree as I walked to the front door and looked up (for the first time) and saw this ...

So beautiful.  I think I would like a tree like this in my garden ... right beside the pool :D

Today I am grateful for air conditioning and cooling fans and afternoon breezes that stop me from melting and fading away in the hot Summer weather.

Tonight I am having an early night and will make a concerted effort to create a more Christmassy and detailed post tomorrow.

Nite all.

Days 55 and 56 in a Year of my Life

I've been reading over my posts for the year and working out how to recap my 2013 but it's taking me much longer than expected.

I'm falling asleep at my computer (gosh, what does that say about my writing?), so instead of rushing it, I will recap tomorrow.

I only have one thing to share with you today

I hope it rains tonight!

Nite all.