Self Educating

Today, after watching the final three episodes of The Great British Bake Off, I took Harley out to play for his afternoon session and remembered that I still had to submit my "Motion/Blur" photo to 52Frames.

For the blur effect, I have to use the tripod which keeps the camera still during 'slow shutter' photography.

This in itself was problematic because Harley came out of the pool from a different angle every time, so I I was rarely in the right place to capture what I wanted.

These are the three favourite photos of the three people living in this house.

I'm still not sure which one to use, although it really doesn't matter because the only prize is to be selected in the top three and none of these photos will be good enough for that. This will be my 7th week in a row ... yes, that means we are already 7 weeks into 2025!

Shock!

For 'fend for yourself' day, I made a coconut, lime and chilli soup with fish and prawns. OMG delicious! I made it for lunch but left a few prawns for later. There was enough leftover soup to simmer up and add the prawns for dinner.

While we watched the NRL preseason football, I edited my photos AND attempted to learn how to create Oracle Cards. I'm not certain whether to hand draw/paint them or use graphic design. I know which will be quicker, but will they be as satisfying to my soul?

I will think longer on that.

We had a lot of storms heading in our direction this evening and when I took Harley out for his final pee before bed, I could see lightning flashing in the distance above the Lily Pilly hedge, however, they seem to have dispersed significantly and/or headed north. 

The rain would have been nice.

Now I'm off to watch some YouTube videos on creating oracle cards.

Nite all.

Happy Val Day

I’m a sucker.

A sucker for the movie “Pretty Woman”.

Earlier, I watched Dolphins annihilate Cowboys in the NRL preseason trial.

I am now perched up in bed watching the movie.

BGWLBH and I had a day in The Bay.

We dodged some pretty heavy weather while we were there.

Adoring Husband cooked dinner - chicken wings.

My girl continued her birthday celebrations at the Aquarium today …

There is no other news.

Nite all.

Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to this amazing human - my love for her is, and always will be, beyond measure. She transformed from this ...

to this ...

for her birthday this week.

She certainly has her own special style and I have loved watching her evolution from baby to toddler to child to teenager and before I know it, she will be a young adult!

We FaceTimed this evening and she is hilarious.

I adore her.

Nite all. 

Less Slow

After I drank my tea while playing with Harley, I sat down to watch "I'm a Celebrity" with Adoring Husband when I received a text from BGWLBH asking if I wanted to accompany her into town.

I accepted her invitation, made myself presentable and we drove into The Bay.

We checked out "Mum's Charcoal Chicken" restaurant and decided to return there to purchase dinner before driving home.

We selected a whole charcoal chicken, potato bake, greek salad, pumpkin and beetroot salad and a mango chicken salad. All of it was nice and we'll go back, especially to try more of their MANY salads and their roast pork with crackle. 

Almost everything on their menu is gluten free. Wahoo!

You know those days when you want to spend money but can't find anything worthy of your money?

I hate those days.

Today was one of those days.

I think it's time to head over to the other end of town to visit the other boutiques. We haven't been there for a while.

Meanwhile, we ate dinner nice and early at 5pm, played trivia, watched MAFS and I'm now in bed.

Nite all. 

Slow Day

Early meditation was lovely, especially with a newbie who appreciated what was on offer and who will return next week.

No chat session with The Gypsy today because she was booked for a paid session with someone else.

So I did a little shopping and then pedalled to my “special quiet place” overlooking the water and sat for 30 minutes breathing in the fresh air and listening to the water lapping onto the sand.

A cheeky osprey came flying right out in front of me and dived head first into the water catching his lunch right before my eyes. No camera in my hand of course, but it happened so fast, I would never have been prepared.

It was an amazing and special moment that made me gasp in awe and then curse in amazement.

Right in the moment.

I was home by 10.30am, so I watched a couple of “I’m a Celebrity” episodes on TV and while Adoring Husband was loudly dreaming in his chair, I decided to retreat to my bedroom, catch up on some journaling and have a short nap before Harley play.

I made up a chicken recipe - in an oven pan I put a layer thick slices of potato, covered them with chicken thighs, covered the thighs with thick slices of Roma tomatoes, sprinkled garlic salt over that, drizzled a small amount of honey over everything then chopped fresh chillies over the top. Added two big chunks of butter on top and put it in a hot oven for 45 minutes.

It received rave reviews.

We played trivia and watched MAFS.

I’m very tired, so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

A Day Out

BGWLBH had her regular nail appointment today so I hitched a ride and spent a couple of hours wandering the streets.

We enjoyed breakfast at Arkarra Tea Gardens - just the standard bacon and eggs with a pot of tea.

They’ve been felling trees and have a fire burning in the back corner of the property, so that wasn’t the most pleasant of smells, but we were served quickly and the food arrived promptly, so we were in and out in less than 30 minutes.

The newsagent on Main Street is also a great little gift store so instead of rushing in and out doing lotto, I got to take my time browsing the shelves of goodies. I could have spent a chunk of money on lots of lovely, but useless crap, however, I showed restraint by just admiring everything and making a mental Christmas list.

I spent time in my favourite dress shop and even though I tried on some tops, I didn’t love any of them enough to purchase.

The local art and craft shop always draws me in, but again, nothing got me excited.

We discovered a great little food shop full of gluten free salads and combination foods which we’ll use some time in the future by grabbing a box for dinner.

We were home before 2pm and I got to the post office in time to send Chicklet’s birthday present in today’s postal run.

I watched a quiz show before playing with Harley and then making honey soy chicken with fried rice for dinner.

We played trivia, watched MAFS and now it’s time to sleep because I’ve got early meditation tomorrow.

Nite all. 

What Happened?

I don't know what happened to today!

It was another late start for me because I didn't get out of bed until after 9am but before I even put my feet on the ground, I'd made a ZOOM date with The Gypsy for 10.30am.

This meant that I had about 75 minutes to get dressed, make my bed, make my tea, play with Harley, make some breakfast, add the ZOOM app to my new laptop and get comfortable for at least a 2 hour meeting.

Turned out to be a 3 hour chat but we resolved and achieved a lot in that time.

I find it amazing that we still find so much to talk about, but at the moment, separately, we have new projects that we have just begun so we compare notes, keep each other up to date with progress and provide encouragement and support.

At 1.30pm we said our goodbyes but I stayed on my bed and spent time on the new laptop learning stuff that I didn't know!

Adoring Husband knocked on my door at 3.45pm and I can't even remember why - maybe to see if I was going to take Harley for his afternoon play.

So I finally got up, played with Harley until 4.30pm and came inside to cook dinner.

Barramundi steaks, garden salad, baked potatoes in their jackets with sour cream and coleslaw.

Sunday night MAFS.

That's my day ... suddenly over ... and nothing to show for it!

It's after 10pm and I'm feeling quite weary so sleep time for me.

Nite all.