Lots More Rain

We’ve had lots of rain today but I haven’t checked the rain gauge yet.

There’s thunder rolling across the skies here as I write this. The storm developed right above us and just sat there, without moving, for a good couple of hours. The rain was heavy enough to turn up the volume on the telly sometimes.

Harley still got his playtime in this morning AND this afternoon.

I reassembled the water filter this evening and everything seems to working as it should.

I spent most of the day watching an old Big Brother series. My second favourite series of BB.

I did a bit more of my hummingbird while BGWLBH and Adoring Husband fended for themselves in the kitchen.

Pizza was on the menu tonight. Paleo pizza bases with mozzarella, duck salami, Cabanossi, mushroom, onion, tomato and pineapple covered in grated pizza mix cheese.

Yummy.

I’m watching the cricket from my bed right now.

Nite all.

TGIF

This weeks theme for 52Frames is “What I Ate”

This is what I ate …

How’s that!?

How brave am I?!?!?

No make up and very up close and personal!

The watermelon was delicious!

It was a struggle editing on my desktop computer which is soooooooooo slooooowwwww and freezes at least once with every use. I just cannot edit photos on it any more.

Time for a new laptop.

So it took about 1.5 hours to set up and take the photo, do the editing and then submit it. A job that should have taken twenty minutes, if that.

Adoring Husband and I pulled our water filter apart this morning, to replace the two different types of mineral rocks and beads and put in a brand new filter drum. Unfortunately, one of the bags of rocks need to soak in water for for 24-48 hours, which we didn’t know about. These particular rocks get replaced only once every five years.

So tomorrow will be the big day to finish the job.

We received a good drop of rain this afternoon and evening but it seems to have cleared now.

I watched the Hobart Hurricanes defeat the Sydney Thunder in BBL. Hobart are looking very good this season.

Time to sleep now.

Nite all.

Storm Warnings

I have been receiving storm warnings all day, but all we got out of it was a late shower at around 6pm. Just enough to wet the ground. This is what’s coming right now, but it seems to be dissipating …

I had a four hour ZOOM call with The Gypsy today from 10am.

As always it was insightful and inspiring. I love our calls.

I cooked honey soy chicken thighs, potato salad, coleslaw and bacon, green bean and goats cheese salad for dinner.

Afterwards I switched between the BBL cricket and the tennis “A Night with Novak”. I watch it every year and my cheeks always ache from laughing and smiling for three hours.

Adoring Husband was recently diagnosed with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) which I thought was very odd, because his lungs were tested prior to his DBS surgery and they were perfect.

So I did a little research today and discovered that DBS can trigger coughing and breathlessness because it stimulates the vagus nerve.

This makes me incredibly annoyed with his regular GP because he didn’t even run the usual test for COPD before diagnosing it.

So we will discuss this issue with the Parkinson’s professor at the next ZOOM appointment in February.

While I was watching TV tonight, I grabbed my art journal and had a scribble …

It’s obviously not finished, but it felt good to pick up a pencil after more than a year.

It’s raining again! I’m now going to fall asleep to the sound of rain on our tin roof.

Nite all.

Carried Away

So I may have gotten a little carried away this week.

I’ve signed up for three free courses via Facebook.

1. “Paint more in 2025”

2. “Getting started on your Novel”

3. “Time to Rise” with Tony Robbins 

Of course, all three courses lead to an invitation to pay a fortune to do the full courses and receive lifetime access to the material etc., which I am NOT going to get sucked into.

I need a little nudge and I hope these freebies will do just that.

They commence on 13th January, 21st January and 30th January.

Meanwhile, I found my old art journal. I thought I’d only filled two pages but I’ve done quite a lot. I haven’t touched it for two years so it’s time to get back into it.

Most of those are not even finished yet - I may, or may not complete them.

Today was a combination of productivity and laziness.

Next week, it has been predicted, by 4 meteorologists, rainfall of 300-400mm and if that happens, we will definitely get flooded in and it’s possible that delivery trucks won’t get through either, so I have prepped.

I prepared a double batch of Harley food.

I have a batch of chicken broth in the slow cooker as we speak.

I bought two weeks worth of meat and cleared a space in the freezer to accommodate it all.

For dinner I cooked crispy skinned chicken, sweet potato and potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce and a garden salad.

I had a cup of chicken broth.

When I wasn’t preparing or cooking, I was watching some old episodes of Big Brother.

Unfortunately, the cricket in Sydney was rained out tonight. I was so looking forward to the game with the return of Konstas to the Sydney Thunder team and they were playing the Hobart Hurricanes who are performing very well this season.

So I watched the Aussie, Kokkinakis, defeat Etchenverry at the Adelaide International tennis tournament.

Now I’m watching the 16yr old Aussie, Emerson Jones, play the number 3 seed Kasatkina. She’s losing, but playing well. She’s really going for her shots, but is inconsistent. She just needs more experience.

Falling asleep to the sound of racket on ball again!

Nite all.

Crazy Drivers

Another day in The Bay and a boot full of fresh fruit and vegetables to prove it.

I was very relieved to see Farm Gate open for business even though they didn’t have shallots or radishes on hand. They had everything else on my list.

I slept soundly last night until Adoring Husband slammed a door this morning at 5.52am and woke me. Lucky for him, I’d enjoyed more than seven hours of slumber so I didn’t wake up cranky enough to yell at him!

After play time with Harley this morning, we drove into town but it was on the return drive home that we encountered some crazy drivers!

We were driving at 80kmh along the road past Craignish Pub when a ute sped up and sat dangerously close on our behind. When he was ready to turn right at a side street, he overtook us to get to the turning bay, made a gun with his hand, aimed it at us in the front of the car and pretended to shoot us!

Why? 😳

The speed limit is 80kmh! What did we do to upset him?

When we hit the 100kmh zone, we were driving just over the limit but were overtaken by five cars, all of whom disappeared quickly ahead of us, so who knows what speed they were driving.

People are crazy. No wonder there are so many accidents on that road.

For dinner tonight I made sausage rolls, fried rice and a garden salad.

We played trivia and watched the Perth Scorchers lose a tight match to the Melbourne Renegades in BBL.

I think it’s time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Brain Storm

I’ve spent this evening brain storming ideas for the next 52Frames photography theme, which is “What I ate”.

There are more than 14,500 photographers in this group, so to stand out, the photo needs to be something special. To think of an idea that 14.500 people won’t come up with, is a daunting task!

I have a page of ideas, but nothing special or inspiring yet. Perhaps some hallucinogenic drugs might help!

I only have a week, so I’d best find some inspiration soon.

BGWLBH and I spent a few hours in The Bay today. We did some groceries but my longest list was for fruit and vegetables and Farm Gate was closed - due to unforeseen circumstances - until tomorrow.

Bugger.

I cooked fresh snapper and fried rice for dinner and Adoring Husband went back for seconds again! I’ve noticed his belly growing over the top of his trousers. We might need to monitor these seconds!

Brisbane Heat defeated Sydney Thunder in the BBL 20/20 match tonight. Go Heat!!!

Now I need to sleep.

Nite all.

A Few Hurdles

After a pleasant morning playing, eating, washing and watching cricket, I remembered that my photography challenge was expiring in less than 24 hours so I needed to get cracking!

I took a LOT of terrible photos of myself … and I mean TERRIBLE … actually it wasn’t the photo that was terrible, it was ME that looked terrible.

I am the least photogenic person that I know, which I stated in my photo caption, along with the information that except for one photoshoot, I haven’t used my camera for approximately seven years. I haven’t even taken a selfie with my phone for years … so I included my phone in the pic.

My first hurdle was having a flat battery in my camera remote. Luckily, we had a spare in the drawer (thanks to Adoring Husband).

My second hurdle was not remembering how to use the camera remote with my camera! Thank goodness for “Google”.

My third hurdle was discovering that my camera battery was flat!

My fourth hurdle was discovering that my two spare batteries were also flat!

My fifth hurdle was a slow computer.

My sixth hurdle was a frozen computer!

My seventh hurdle was two failed email attempts to send myself a copy of the photo to my iPad. Thankfully, the third attempt was successful.

Finally, I came up with this …

Still not great, but all things considered, good enough for submission. I’ve seen some of the other submissions and mine pales in comparison, but this is a good start as I dive back into photography.

I made Coconut Lime Chicken for dinner. I enjoyed it and AH went back for seconds.

We played trivia.

We watched BBL cricket. The Hobart Hurricanes defeated the Adelaide Strikers.

Now I’m sitting up in bed journalling and watching TV.

Nite all.