Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Friday, September 27, 2013

Day 333 in a Year of my Life

No photos from today.  I did take some, but I haven't looked at them yet.

The highlight of my day was having a nap on the garden swing this afternoon.  It was very pleasant until a massive gust of wind almost blew the garden swing AND I over the fence!  That was most definitely a heart starter!

I made some gluten free, refined sugar free and lactose free chocolate brownies.  Delicious, but very very rich.  Adoring Husband only had one and didn't ask for more, so I take it that they weren't to his liking.  All the more for me!

I had a great night at the club with the girls tonight.  No luck on the pokies though.  At least last week's win paid for my Christmas getaway with the girls in November.

Today I'm grateful to be living on the coast, away from the stifling heat that is making Spring almost unbearable for inland and central Queensland.  We complain about the constant wind, but the wind is keeping our temperatures down.  40C and higher inland.  Ugh!

Nite all.






Thursday, September 26, 2013

Day 332 in a Year of my Life

Well ... with 5 days to go til the closing date of the photo competition, I got two of the photos done today!  Woot!  Woot!

The 'Jelly' brief (Jellyfish) ...


The 'Cartoon Eyes' brief (Death by Blending) ...


So that's three down and two to go.

Best Cousin in the World left today.  It was a brief, but very nice visit.  Now she gets to spend a night with my little sis, 'Squirt'.

We didn't even get a photo of each other this time!  For photographers, we are not very good at recording memories of our lives!

An interesting little development with SEB and OB (the cockatiels)!  SEB spent quite some time in the nesting box today and created a little nest inside with the shredded paper that Adoring Husband put there.

OB spent the entire time sitting on the perch right outside the little entrance to the nesting box and didn't even move to eat during that time.

Something interesting could happen any time now!

I'll keep you posted!

Today, I'm grateful that the 56km per hour winds have finally dropped back to 30km per hour!  I'm a bit OVER the wind.

Nite all.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Day 331 in a Year of my Life

I feel a bit tired tonight.

Best Cousin in the World and I have had a day cycling, photographing, shopping, eating and sleeping (well, she slept and I cooked).

A couple of photos from this morning.



Today I'm grateful to have two guinea pigs (Adoring Husband and Best Cousin in the World) on whom to test my cooking experiments.

Nite all.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Day 330 in a Year of my Life

How is this for cuteness??


She is so special.

That's all I wanted to share tonight ... she deserves a post all of her own.

Today I'm grateful that Vegan Chickie and Chicklet share so many little snippets of their lives from afar.

Nite all

Monday, September 23, 2013

Day 329 in a Year of my Life

Adoring Husband and I have a favourite lamb and rice dish that I cook about once a month.

It's a recipe handed down to me from my last partner believe it or not!  Personally, I think he cooked it better than I ever could, but I keep trying.

Every time I cook it, it turns out different to the last time.

He used to call it Mongolian Lamb, however, there is nothing 'mongolian' about it.

It's layers of browned lamb barbecue chops, tinned tomatoes, leeks and rice, all covered with stock and then cooked in the oven for 2 hours.  Really simple, and really tasty.

I've got a pot of it in the oven right now ... but I've tried something different this time.

When I cleaned out the fridge earlier today, there were some old vegetables that I knew wouldn't last much longer and I didn't think I'd use them in the next couple of days, so I threw them all in a saucepan with some filtered water, some herbs from the garden and some himalayan salt and cracked pepper and made some vegetable stock.

I had a small amount of home made chicken stock left in the freezer, so I added that when it was finished and used the whole lot as my stock for the lamb dish (I usually use two containers of bought liquid chicken stock + the juice from the tinned tomatoes).

The other change I made, was using fresh tomatoes.

Everybody has an abundance of tomatoes in their gardens at the moment, and because ours aren't quite ripe yet, our friends have been sharing theirs with us.

All types.  Egg, cherry, grape, ox heart, beef steak, gross lisse, mini roma etc etc.

So I chopped a good lot of them up into big chunks and I also threw a good lot of them in the blender and pureed them.

I didn't add anything to them, because when I tasted them, the flavour was so delicious and strong, I didn't think they needed anything else.

I used all of this as the tomato base for my lamb dish (I usually use 3 tins of whole tomatoes and one tin of diced tomatoes).

I won't finalise this post until after dinner tonight so that I can tell you if it was a success or not.

While I've been creative in the kitchen, Adoring Husband has been creative in the shed.

He made this to house our often-used shoes in the garage.


and he made this nesting box for OB and SEB.


One of them laid an egg last week and we found it smashed on the cage floor.

It is Spring, so I guess the birds and the bees get restless at this time of year!

Anyway, the only thing that this has confirmed, is that one of them is a female!  We figure, if the other is a male, perhaps we should accommodate the possibility of little OBs and SEBs in the future.

So it's been a very creative day for both of us.  This was our lunch ...


Today I'm grateful to live in this very lucky country.  I feel so lucky to have been born here and that I've never had to suffer the injustices, the cruelty, the torture, the poverty, the starvation, the violence, the fear, the sickness,  the trauma of war or any of the hardships that so many others in so many countries have endured.  Australians have so much to be grateful for and we should never take this lifestyle for granted.

Nite all.

PS Dinner had so much more flavour than usual - Adoring Husband had two helpings!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Day 328 in a Year of my Life

Well, we had our first storm of the season this afternoon and we survived intact.

Very heavy rain and then hail coating the ground and then the wind picked up, giving Adoring Husband and I a bit of a heart starter.

No doubt, our level of panic, will decrease with each storm.  Fear is a terrible thing.

I was somewhat distracted mid storm though.

I thought it was a good opportunity to get some good hail shots with the camera, but as I pressed the button, the battery went dead.

I got my spare battery out of the bag, but discovered quickly, that it was also flat because I'd forgotten to charge it last week, when I removed it from the camera.

So I got the battery out of my old camera ... but yes, you guessed it, it was also flat!!

Adoring Husband came to the rescue with a battery out of his camera, but alas the storm was almost over and the hail had almost melted, so my shots are less than spectacular.





At least the battery dilemma took our minds off our fear ever so briefly!

Today, I'm grateful for the smell of fresh rain on the grass and I'm sure that our vegetable garden is grateful for the well needed rain that fell this afternoon.  The hail didn't damage any of our produce - thank goodness.

Nite all.