Look within

Tonight's my lazy night ...

Nite all.

Story of Stuff

Twenty minutes of your time .. just a reminder of how things are .. maybe you'll stop to think and make one small change in your lifestyle .. every small change makes a difference.  We can't all do everything, but we can all do 'something'.



A couple of ways that we can make a difference ...

• Buy Local - consider the amount of pollution created to get your food from the farm to your table.  Whenever possible, buy from local farmers or farmer's markets, supporting your local economy and reducing the amount of greenhouse gas created when products are flown or trucked in.
• Buy second-hand - consider buying items from a second-hand store. Toys, bicycles, roller blades, and other age and size-specific items are quickly outgrown. Second hand stores often sell these items in excellent condition since they are used for such a short period of time, and will generally buy or take them back when you no longer need them.
• Give it away - Before you throw something away, think about if someone else might need it. Either donate to a charitable organisation or post it on a web site designed to connect people and things, such as Freecycle.org. (This is world wide and Hervey Bay, Bundaberg, Sunshine Coast and Canberra are all part of the group (not Griffith or Wagga unfortunately) - everything on the site must be free and able to be used)

So that's my little bit of environmental sharing for today.

A couple of photos to share ...

Now back to my studies!

Afternoon all.

Success!

The muffins were a success and Gentleman Jim turned 77 today (not 76 as I thought).

The muffins were such a success that I had to make another batch of them today for Adoring Husband and I.  So yummy.

I think Vegan Chickie will love these and Bubbles has already put in her order for when she visits in August.

The alarm was set for an early start and a sunrise, but it was overcast and not worth getting out of bed for.

I got lots of study done today, and spent time on the garden swing, reading text books, so there is nothing new to report.

I did receive a photo of my little Chicklet on a scavenger hunt today.

Apparently this was item number three on the list.

Nite all.

Another Birthday

Not mine.

Gentleman Jim, from The Seat of Knowledge, is having a birthday tomorrow.  I think he is 76 yrs old.

Today, I made some 'Chocolate Maple Crunch Banana Muffins' so that I can take one each for the boys to celebrate his birthday for breakfast.

I have eaten four of them today!  They are so delicious on their own, but when you cut them in half and spread real butter on them ... O-M-G ... they are my new favourites!

Then this afternoon, while I was in the middle of cooking dinner, I looked out the window and saw a sunset in the making, so I turned the stove and the oven off, threw my camera gear in the back of the trike and pedalled to the river ... just in the nick of time.

Yesterday, when I got to the river for the sunset, I was eaten alive by sandflies, so this afternoon, I quickly splashed and rubbed coconut oil on my arms and legs.  I spent 20 minutes at the river and came away without a single sandfly bite!

It's now 10pm and I am off to bed!  I am going to set my alarm and get up early for a sunrise in the morning, then have birthday breakfast with the boys, and then spend the entire day studying with enthusiasm.

Nite all.

Motivation

Why am I so lacking in motivation?  I have been trying to study for 3 days and just can't get into it. It's happening in spits and spurts and it takes so little to distract me and make me lose focus.  Ugh!

Last night, the sky looked very promising for a beautiful sunset, so I pedalled to a new spot along the river, where I have never been to see the sun going down before.

The tide was out, so there was only a small channel of water left in the river, which reflected the light quite nicely, but the sunset itself was quite disappointing.

I met a man who was staying in one of the holiday rental properties with his wife.  He was from the suburb of Aspley, in Brisbane, and was keen to tell me about some idvds that he had been making for his family because his mother was turning 90.

He was disappointed that none of the younger family members seemed to want to know anything about her history and never asked her questions.  He said that she had wonderful stories to tell and that time was running out for the family to hear them.

It reminded me that I promised a friend that I would do a blog post about the sorts of questions you should ask your older family members before it's too late.

I've had the reminder to do this, sitting on my desk for about a month or more ... I just haven't had the time to sit down and think about it .. I could use that as an excuse to procrastinate when I should be studying!

So I hope to have those questions to post here soon.  Not today though.

Today, for the first time in about 4 weeks, I made myself a smoothie.

A bit over a week ago, I made packets of fruit and veggies to put into the freezer, to make it easier when I was ready for smoothies.  I used the first one today!

My study has put me into a new schedule and my smoothies seem to have slipped out of the morning routine.  I have noticed the difference in my energy levels and how my body is working, so it's time to bring them back into my morning schedule.

Started today and will continue from here on in.  Maybe my brain will work better and my motivation for study will return with the new energy!

No more coffee after lunch (which I stupidly did yesterday and couldn't sleep til almost 2am) and I must get myself into better sleep habits.

It's so easy to slip into bad habits if you don't keep focus on your own well being.

I think 'habit' is the operative word here.  It supposedly takes 3 weeks to create a habit .. I suspect it takes about the same amount of time to lose one.  That's exactly what I've done.

Time to get back on track.

Nite all.

Puddle Jumping

Oh how I love these photos of Chicklet jumping in puddles .. sent to me today by Vegan Chickie!

I adore her :)

There is a man in town who has bee hives and yesterday I asked his wife to ask him if he would allow me to take photos of the honeycomb for a photography challenge.  He wasn't at home at the time, so she said she would ask him when he phoned her last night.

This morning, she called me and told me that he was at home all day today and happy for me to photograph his bees!  So after my coffee, I headed over there...

He got stung 3 times pulling the beehives apart and we searched for the Queen Bee without luck. He was very passionate about his bees and I learnt a lot from him today.

Lucky for me, I didn't get stung and I left there, very happy.  He told me they can sense fear .. but I wasn't afraid.

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Cook Off

No study today.

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen though and really enjoyed it.

Chicken stock, pumpkin soup and curried sausages with rice.  We had the curry for dinner tonight.

I spent a little time in the garden and found a giant passionfruit which had fallen from the vine but was stuck on some branches very well hidden.  It had been there for a while because it was obviously old and quite shrivelled.

I wish I'd taken a photo of it before I threw it in the garbage, but I did take a photo of how much meat was in it!  Almost a whole cup!  It wasn't very sweet, but it was still ok to eat.

That was my #100happydays photo for the day.

There was an egg in the henhouse today.  That's 3 days in a row.  'Happy' is laying.  Now we just have to convince Hector and Helen to lay!

Adoring Husband arrived home safe n sound this afternoon.

All is right with the world.

Nite all.