Lovely Start

Until proven otherwise (4 minute video)

Researchers compare the risk of myocarditis between Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines (article with option to download pdf)

Pfizer rep admits that the vaccine was never tested against COV transmission (2 min video)

New Covid Strain This strain is resistant to all vaccines BUT they still advise you to be up to date with your vaccinations - even though the strains that you are supposedly vaccinated against are no longer in existence!

The weather was beautiful this morning for coffee in the park with the girls and there were six of us enjoying each other’s company.

BGWLBH stayed at home nursing her tender mouth after yesterdays visit to the dentist.

From the park I rode to the supermarket to grab a few items before going home.

At home, I discovered BGWLBH sitting in the art space creating some lovely little pieces of arty, crafty wonderfulness.

I really wanted to do art too but I just couldn’t decide what, so I boiled 8 eggs and used half of them to make curried egg and the other half to do mashed egg with shredded lettuce and diced onion. I put the latter on some toast for myself for lunch.

I sat in the art space with BGWLBH until almost 2pm and we discussed when we will have all the girls over for an art day.

Soon.

Tonight’s dinner was duck with salad for Adoring Husband, and for BGWLBH, lettuce cups with curried egg and pumpkin soup because she’s not allowed to chew hard food for the next week.

I wasn’t hungry.

I’ve been watching the 8th series of  “Portrait Artist of the Year” and feeling inspired to try a portrait. I’m going to watch all of the other series until I feel like I know how to get going.

It’s 10.30pm and I don’t have any social plans or errands to run tomorrow so I can take my time getting out of bed.

Nite all.

Wizard of HB

BGWLBH had dental work done today so she’s not feeling on top of the world.

Adoring Husband and I took not so psychotic dog, Colli, to the vet for a check up. The wound on her belly is almost all gone but she has been licking her feet a lot so Dr Amanda took a swab and discovered that she has fungal/yeast between her toe pads.

Yet another prescription.

Now she has heart medication every night, medication for the insect bite twice a day, cream for her belly and now cream for her feet!

We are hoping that the difficulty that she’s had with walking can be attributed to the fungal infection and NOT to arthritis - otherwise she has to start injections which will more than likely put her on the downhill slide because she’s old and her organs may not cope.

In dog years she’s 119 so she has done very well and we have been very lucky because I thought we would lose her soon after the others. It has been two years since we lost Jack and Ruby. How time flies.

I met up with BGWLBH after her dental appointment but we didn’t get to do much because she wasn’t feeling super energised after 90 minutes in the dentist’s chair and we were home by 12.30pm.

She slept the afternoon away, I watched my quiz shows and just as I was dozing on the couch, Mrs Bucket came knocking on the door.

We chatted for an hour which took it to dinner preparation time.

Snapper and salad for us. Chicken soup for BGWLBH.

It’s now 11pm and it’s another early morning tomorrow having coffee with the art/meditation girls so I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Down Time

Well I was asleep by 7pm last night but woke up for a little while some time around 9pm and fell back to sleep until 11.15pm. I was awake for an hour and slept until 7.30am.

The retreat really wore me out and I spent today with my feet up - well first of all I was roped into making a fruit platter for Adoring Husband and BGWLBH before making my own lunch but eventually I got to be my true lazy self.

I watched the movie ‘Enola Holmes 2” which I quite enjoyed.

After my quiz shows I prepared honey lime chilli chicken, sweet potato chips, butter garlic asparagus and charred zucchini for dinner.

I sat down to watch an episode of “Portrait Artist of the Year” before the new show “My Mum, Your Dad” started.

Tomorrow is going to be big with BGWLBH having an 8am dental appointment and Colli a vet appointment at 9.30am and it will mean an early start so even though it’s just after 8pm right now, I’m feeling tired enough to sleep.

So, nite all.

Touch of Paradise

The Gypsy’s property is a touch of paradise.

It’s lush and green with beautiful trees and wind chimes singing in every key, planter pots full of healthy herbs of every description, crystals and glass beads in the little gardens scattered around the structures.

Little areas sectioned off with seating where you can sit silently taking in the view of the mountains or watching the ducks play in the dam, admire the raised vegetable gardens, close your eyes and feel the wind in your hair and the sunshine on your face.

At one end is the small donga beautifully decorated as a retreat for meditation classes with seating for ten lucky people to share her space. It’s immediately welcoming and calming and where I would spend my time if it was my place.

Two shipping containers set apart but side by side in another location which provide a protected space for their two cars and storage inside.

The beautiful white yurt with bushes of fragrant herbs surrounding it.

Beside that, a little outhouse better known as the ‘twinkletarium’, beautifully painted, spacious and clean.

Next, another donga designed as a kitchen, dining and office space with a sliding glass door as an entrance and a full length porch for protection from the elements. In front of that a double garden swing.

The design is fresh, clean and filled with love.

Then there is the caravan protected by a carefully designed shed and providing an alfresco area surrounded by clear perspex to take advantage of the views.

It is still a work in progress and only The Gypsy’s health has slowed her progress, but everyone who attended today felt uplifted by the location alone. It was magical with little surprises around every corner and I loved the seven hours that I spent there today.

Very healing.

There was crystal bowl meditations, native drumming meditation, Qigong, discussions about the 8 powers of raja yoga meditation, beautiful calming music, so much delicious vegetarian food for lunch with tea, coffee or home made kombucha, Drishti and lots of sharing.

It was a great day - exhausting - but very enjoyable and I look forward to the next one.

Now I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Bath Time

I was up at 9.30am making bacon and eggs for BGWLBH and I.

Adoring Husband had already eaten his breakfast so he missed out.

After breakfast I gave not so psychotic dog Colli a much needed bath. She’d had her medication for the morning and her wound needed cleaning before I administered the prescribed cream to her lower belly.

She wasn’t too impressed with her bath - she never is - but I could tell that she felt much better for it afterwards.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be arty or just return to bed.

In the end I returned to bed and watched a stack of YouTube videos. When it got close to dinner time, I searched for some recipes on YouTube and found a delicious honey garlic chicken which I cooked and it was very well received.

I served it with big mushrooms stuffed with onion, tomato, spinach, kale and chilli. Also, I baked vegetables - carrot, potato, sweet potato, cauliflower and beetroot. Green beans and asparagus on the side.

You can’t say we aren’t healthy! 

Home made choc fudge with fresh berries for dessert. GF, dairy free, refined sugar free so also very healthful.

We watched the T20 cricket between England and Sri Lanka. Australia needed Sri Lanka to win but even though they put up a great fight, they couldn’t quite make it so Australia are now out of the World Cup.

I found a great little Facebook page called I Love My Bed and found some fabulous beds and decor that have inspired me to make some changes in my bedroom. 

I have some ideas so watch this space!

Tomorrow I’m off to a women’s day retreat out past Childers. I’m really looking forward to it. I NEED it!

It will be an early start for me so I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Not so Psychotic

Not even ten minutes after BGWLBH and I had left home for a trip into The Bay, I received a phone call from Adoring Husband to say that Colli had collapsed in the back yard and wasn’t able to get back up on all fours.

While he was checking her over he found a terrible red raw blistered rash on her lower belly.

So he called the vet and took her straight in.

Dr Amanda said that Colli had a very high temp and asked AH to leave her at the vets office for an hour or two so that she could check her over (they were incredibly busy with a full waiting room and people waiting outside) to figure out what was wrong.

Apparently Colli howled the whole time she was there 😳

They shaved her belly and groin area, checked her over for ticks and came to the conclusion that she had been bitten by something (perhaps a spider) so prescribed medication and a cream, both of which have to be administered twice a day for a week.

Dr Amanda said that AH had done the right thing because her temp was in the danger zone and she needed help immediately.

She lives again. I swear she was a cat in a previous life … nine lives and all that.

Meanwhile BGWLBH and I ate breakfast at Dan & Steph’s while AH dealt with the stress. He handled it very well and proved himself quite capable.

We had a big day with a long list of errands to run.

I purchased a bag full of macrame rope and I’m going to teach myself how to macrame!

OR 

I’m going to give up before I begin and have BGWLBH do it for me!

We’ll see.

I also bought myself some charcoal pencils, blending pencils, a titanium sharpener and a ‘Layflat’ visual journal.

My imagination is a little out of control at the moment so I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to start with the charcoal pencils. I need to meditate and slow my mind.

We arrived home after 3.30pm in time for me to make the spicy chicken sauce for the wings that AH was cooking.

Colli was looking pretty happy to see us home and seemed quite content.

To get her to take her medication, I crushed her 1/4 tablet into some honey and put the honey on the back of AH’s hand.

Colli licked it clean but one of AH’s biggest ‘creep outs’ is getting sticky so he was grunting, groaning and complaining loudly through the whole process.

You can imagine 🤣

Anyway it’s time for me to sleep now.

Nite all.

Resonate

I found this yesterday and it really resonated so here I am sharing it …

*** My grandmother once gave me a tip:

In difficult times, move forward in small steps.

Do what you have to do, but little by little.

Don’t think about the future 

or what may happen tomorrow.

Wash the dishes.

Remove the dust.

Write a letter.

Make a soup.

You see?

Advance step by step.

Take a step and stop.

Rest a little.

Praise yourself.

Take another step.

And then another.

You won’t notice, but your steps will grow more and more.

And the time will come when you can think about the future without crying.

Author: Elena Mikhalkova 

***

I received a phone call this morning from Lovely Laine inviting me for a coffee at the local shops.

Both of our husbands have Parkinson’s so every so often we provide support and a shoulder for each other. We had a pleasurable 90 minutes together - both drinking coffee, when in fact we both prefer tea!

I bumped into Aggie and Beauty both of whom I rarely see these days.

When I arrived home I debriefed with Adoring Husband and BGWLBH and made a tropical smoothie for lunch.

I searched for some free macrame patterns online to show BGWLBH what I would like her to make for me … then I felt inspired and decided that I might teach myself how to do it myself! My inspiration could disappear in a puff of smoke at any time of course, but we’ll see how things go.

I watched my quiz shows before cooking a lamb roast with potato and sweet potato straight out of our garden - delicious - carrot, onion, beans and home made gravy.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow night (Friday) when I don’t have to figure out what to cook and AH does the dirty work.

Time for me to sleep! It’s almost midnight!

Nite all.

Wind Swept

It was a windy gusty day.

My sleep was broken so I was tired from the beginning.

BGWLBH and I walked and triked to the Lions Park for morning coffee with the art/meditation girls and there were seven of us today.

Klokka brought a home made loaf of cranberry and banana bread while BGWLBH and I brought chocolate fudge. Everyone greedily gobbled up the goodies.

We all compared art stories and shared photos, talked trashy TV, discussed results of a couple of medical issues, followed up on last weeks kid stories and planned a big “thank you” lunch for next week.

BGWLBH left for home and I rode to the post office and supermarket.

Riding the trike was easy with a strong tail wind but boy that head wind was almost my undoing! I considered getting off and walking the trike home but I persisted and finally arrived home to find BGWLBH sitting out in the alfresco area.

Adoring Husband had left to pick up the FROG box and had locked the house. BGWLBH didn’t have her key so she had used some time to pick some produce from the garden and then waited patiently for one of us to turn up.

I was the first home to let her in.

She made bacon and eggs for her lunch. I made fried rice with the leftovers from last night. AH had the leftover curry chicken.

AH and I watched a fluffy Netflix movie together and one of my quiz shows before I prepared dinner.

I was quickly running out of energy and was feeling incredibly lethargic, so much so that I lay on the bed for 15 minutes before getting to the kitchen.

I prepared lemon honey chicken with chilli salt and a side salad but I didn’t join the others at the table. I came to bed and dozed for half an hour. 

Now I’m signing off to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Choc Lovin’

Found this today on the web … 

Is it too good to be true? Is the hype real?! Could cacao really be one of the most nutrient dense, essential mineral rich, chemically complex foods on the planet? And yet be so decadent and delicious?!?

I started drinking whole bean cacao without any idea about the health benefits. I loved the taste and the way it made me feel. 

When I heard it might be a superfood I wanted to do my own research. Being a postgrad student has its perks - access to all the international scientific journals containing the cutting edge research on cacao. 

The science is impressive, and extensive. For example...

🫐 cacao is full of antioxidant flavanoids (by weight it contains forty times more than blueberries)! Antioxidants boost our immune system by preventing cell damage, which in turn protects against heart disease, increases beneficial gut microbes, and helps with disease prevention.

💗 cacao noticeably helps our brains produce dopamine (the “feel-good chemical”, serotonin (the “happy hormone”, anandamide (the “bliss molecule”), and phenylethylamine (the “love drug”).

🥦 cacao is the highest plant-based source of magnesium and iron. Magnesium is chronically deficient in western diets. It helps relax our nervous system, and reduce anxiety levels (among other things).

🥛 cacao contains more calcium than cows milk (!!) Helping build strong bones and support the functioning of the heart, muscles and nervous system.

☕️ unlike caffeine, which is a nervous system stimulant (= Jitters! Anxiety! Mental agitation!) cacao’s remarkable stimulant theobromine acts on the cardiovascular system. It is a vasodilator, meaning it opens up our blood vessels, helping blood flow, relaxing our muscles, and reducing blood pressure. (Beta-blockers, used to treat anxiety, are vasodilators).

*****************************************************************

This is the 2nd article I’ve found regarding the benefits of cacao - the other was from Paleo Mom who’s a scientist and provides links to the studies she finds and she does her own studies as well.

I use cacao a lot.

It’s not even lunch time. I’m still in bed and it’s a lovely grey rainy day - perfect for staying in bed - I may just stay here ALL day. But I’m hungry so I might get up to eat.

I plan on watching the new season of Wild Lotus today.

I finished watching The Vatican Girl last night - which was frustrating as hell but I won’t hit you with spoilers in case you want to watch it.

That’s it from me today and I can’t even say ‘nite all’ because it’s only 11am!

Morning all.