Saturday

It was a most glorious day today.  It was a sparkling sunshiny day to celebrate and this morning, by the water, was positively exhilarating!

Unfortunately, I had to spend most if the day inside studying ... but I did get to do some reading on the garden swing in the fresh air.

This afternoon, when it got a little warm, we spent the time on the couch watching the football, which was pretty relaxing.

So, with no news to share, I have some facebook quotes instead!

I'm all footballed out, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

That's My Team

I'm watching a very exciting game of NRL football between South Sydney Rabbitohs and my team, Brisbane Broncos.

The score is 28-26 to South Sydney with 30 seconds to go.  Ugh!!

Rabbitohs have won.

Some poor refereeing decisions .. especially in that last few minutes .. so there is a little controversy, according to the commentators.

Ah well, you win some, you lose some!

Not much to report for the day.

Oh I sold a photo!

Somebody who bought a photo from my exhibit in 2012, contacted me to ask for a photo of a pelican, so I took all of my pelican photos to their house today, and they selected the one they liked best.

While I was there, I got a shot of a lorikeet in their back garden ..

So, selling a photo .. that's pretty special!

We didn't win anything at the club tonight.

It's 10.30pm and I think I will go to bed and try to rise early for a sunrise.  I've heard that they've been pretty spectacular lately, but I have been sound asleep every time.

Let's see what happens tomorrow!

Nite all.

Late Night Feature

Adoring Husband and I are sitting here watching the movie "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

We've lost count of how many times we've watched this movie.

I think I had watched it at least 50 times before I met AH and we've watched it at least a dozen times in the last ten years.

We had a fancy dress party for AH's 49th birthday and the theme was Rocky Horror.   Everybody dressed up .. AH as Franknfurter.  He started out wearing an overcoat to cover the skimpy costume, but after a few beverages, he soon loosened up and discarded the coat!

It was a great night.

I think we should attempt another Rocky Horror night soon.

I received a very large pink box in the mail today, from the Chicklet family.  It was my birthday gift and when I opened it, this is what I found ..

.. it's to make my desk a happy space to study at :)  I LOVE it!!

Here is my herb garden, created by Adoring Husband for my birthday ..

I still have some herbs, rosemary, thyme and mint, to transfer from the back garden to the pots yet.

Aren't I the lucky one?!

Anyway, back to the movie!

Nite all.

Happy Birthday to Meeeee

LOVED the movie 'The Other Woman' - got some good belly laughs out of that one!

LOVED lunch at Aquavue ...

It's my favourite meal there :)

Tried to buy some clothes but couldn't find anything that I wanted .. don't ya hate that!?

Adoring Husband gave me my birthday present (a rather large hanging herb garden) earlier in the week, and Kaz gave me some delicious looking hand made soap yesterday, but luckily, I got to open a gift this morning .. from my friend Lady Lynn.  I loved the sentiment on the plaque AND the sentiment in her words on the card.

The highlight of the day, was a phone call from my little Chicklet, who sang 'happy birthday' to me, firstly on a voice mail on my mobile, then in a message on my home phone and then she sang it again when I finally answered the phone!  Sooooooooo precious!!

I got lots of birthday greetings on facebook from various friends and family, as well as phone calls from my kids and my little sister.  Texts from other friends.  All in all, a pretty great day!

I squeezed in just a little study this afternoon and now I am ready for bed.

Another birthday done and dusted .. happy to have reached 54 big ones!

Nite all.

Pre-birthday gatherings

I had a really nice day today.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to sleep until after 2am, so it was quite late when I woke and I missed my time at the Seat of Knowledge, but I did make it for morning tea with the girls .. two sessions of morning tea in fact!

This meant that I didn't get home until after 11am, but I hit my workspace immediately and got a few of hours of study in, before we gathered all of our goods and drove to the Lion's Park by the river for a pre-birthday barbecue .. there are a few of us that have birthdays in April/May, but the others won't be in town to celebrate, so we toasted everybody's birthdays this evening.

We were treated, by Mother Nature, to a beautiful sunset that lasted for a long time, with colour changes every ten minutes ...

Now once again, it's after midnight .. let's see if I can fall asleep before 2am!

Nite all.

Recovery

It's been a fairly lazy recovery day after our dinner party last night and the abundant levels of alcohol that passed 'our' lips .. and by 'our', I mean Adoring Husband's lips *insert cheesy grin here*.

I was awake at 8am, but chose to stay in bed, pretend it was Sunday, and enjoyed some idle stacked pillow time!  I didn't get out of bed til 9.30am and that was because Adoring Husband cooked a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato and smoked salmon for me!  What a nice surprise!

After breakfast, I sat outside with my ipad enjoying a take away coffee that he drove to the shops to get for me, before taking on the task of grooming what started out to be two dogs, but ended up being just one dog.  I spent too much time teaching Colli to 'sit' and by the time I'd finished with her, my level of dog grooming enthusiasm had waned sufficiently for me to concede defeat.

I will attempt to groom Ruby tomorrow afternoon.  She shouldn't take too long.

I had a lovely chat on the phone with my little Chicklet and Vegan Chickie this afternoon.  After they tried to phone me on my mobile and then attempted a 'facetime' call on my ipad, neither of which I answered because, as usual, I was blind and deaf to my mobile technology .. they eventually got me on the home phone!

When I answered the phone I heard Chicklet's voice shouting "She answered!  She answered!"

It's time for me to organise another visit.

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to morning tea with the girls and then a barbecue dinner at the park in the afternoon.

I'm surprisingly lethargic after my lazy recovery day, and I think I will attempt an early night :)  (have you noticed how often I 'attempt' an early night?  I have too many early night fails.)

Nite all.

The Party's Over

Here I am at midnight, sitting at my desk after clearing everything away from our dinner party this evening and feeling very happy.

I had such a good night.

We have lovely friends ... you know who you are!

My only fail for the meal was the crackers that I attempted to make for pre-dinner nibbles.  Somehow the buzzer on the oven timer went off without me hearing it and the oven turned itself off in the middle of the baking process.  My crackers were a very sad and sorry sight that could not be saved.

*insert sad face here*

I made a Baba Ghanoush (eggplant dip) and then had veggie sticks for dipping (instead of the crackers) carrot, celery and capsicum.  I also made little nibbles of celery with peanut butter in the curve and cucumber slices with smoked salmon and home made mayonnaise.

Entree was pumpkin soup with sour cream and sprinkled with walnuts and bacon bits.

Main was a little late because I forgot to put the chicken in the oven before I served the entree (I will never again make fun of contestants on MKR or Master Chef!  It's very easy to get distracted and miss steps in your plan!).  Lemon and wine chicken drumsticks with sweet potato/potato mash and broccoli and snow peas.  I made up a lemon, leek and tomato type gravy for the chicken.

Then, thanks to Pete Evans' cookbook, we had Raspberry Mousse Cheesecakes for dessert .. I added strawberries and cream on top.

I don't think there was any food left on anybody's plates, except my dessert .. I just couldn't fit anything else into my belly .. and I only ate half of it.  So I'm pretty pleased that I didn't fail at any other of the courses!

We had a little visitor during the entree, when a rather large flying ant (so large that at first, we mistook it for a dragon fly) landed in someone's bowl of pumpkin soup!  What we thought was the end of his life, was really just a brief nap.  While we were waiting for the main meal to cook, he began to stir and after giving him a bath to clean the pumpkin soup off his wings (yes you read that correctly .. a bath to wash the soup from his wings), some TLC and a little coaxing, he was soon hovering over our heads again!

His wings still have a bit of a pumpkiny colour to them ...

We listened to some great old music, with a couple of new songs here and there, while we all laughed hysterically at Adoring Husband's tales of disasters, broken bones, pub brawls and town exiles, caravan fires and car accidents.

Everybody shared some life stories and we had some good laughs.  Excuse the quality of the photo .. just a quick happy snap.  I didn't even think to take some food photos *forehead slap*

It's almost 1am, so I think I might head off to bed.  Tomorrow is dog grooming day.

Nite all.

Dinner Party

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and Adoring Husband and I are hosting a dinner party for six guests!

We've hosted parties, but this will be our first dinner party since we moved here 6 years ago and I'm quite excited about it.

It will be a three course meal .. entree, main and dessert .. along with some pre-dinner nibbles.

Everything will be home-made, from scratch.  Absolutely nothing out of a packet.  All gluten free, sugar free and hopefully delicious enough to satisfy our friends.

I won't tell you what's on the menu here, just in case our guests read this blog tomorrow.  I want it to be a surprise!  Also, a couple of the dishes are experimental and I'm not sure how they will turn out, so I have back-up plans .. you should always have a safety net!

My preparations and planning commenced on Good Friday when I planned my menu and then started on my entree meal.  It should only take another 20 minutes in the kitchen for it to be ready to serve.

Today, I've started preparations on the nibbles and the dessert.  I think the dessert is going to take some time, and unfortunately, it's one of my experiments, so I'm not sure on the timing and there are a lot of components to it, so it's the meal I am most afraid of failing.

I'm disappointed that I don't have an 8 piece dinner setting.  It's been ten years since we bought any crockery and in that time, pieces have been broken and now we have three incomplete settings.  Even cutlery could be interesting mismatches!  It would have been nice to create a restaurant feel like in My Kitchen Rules, just for the fun of it.  Maybe next time.

I came across these today and liked them enough to share ...

For many, your soul mate is not even a human being. It could be part of nature, an animal, an idea or another part of all that is. It could be several things at once.  It's whatever assists in your growth, helping you to ascend to all that you can be.  When you feel it, you'll know exactly who or what that is.

I'm off to watch the end of the footy.

Nite all.

  

It's a Good Friday

Adoring Husband and I have been quite busy on this Good Friday.

We started off watching the horror that is Easter at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, with all of the tourists lining up to use the boat ramp, with a bit of ramp rage here and there among the tourists, who have all obviously registered for the Easter Fishing Classic and were in a hurry to get out and start catching fish!

Then we did a little grocery shopping enjoyed a coffee outside the local shops before heading home to get started on our chores for the day.

Adoring Husband spent the entire day in the garden, setting up my new herb garden, pruning some plants and tidying up the pot plants around the water feature.

I spent time in the kitchen doing some preparations for our dinner party on Sunday night and cooking our main meal for lunch.  We had crispy skinned salmon steaks on potato and sweet potato mash with a side of zucchini and broccoli.  Quite delicious.

For a light dinner tonight, we had fresh king prawns on bed of salsa (cucumber, tomato, onion, grapes, coriander, mint and lime juice) and homemade mayonnaise.

I think we might both have an early night tonight.  I'm feeling quite weary after a restless night last night and a busy-ish day today.

Let me introduce you to our new "Helen"

Yes she is quite beautiful, but as yet, has not laid an egg!  I warned them today that if they didn't get a wriggle on and start laying, they would be the main course for the dinner party on Sunday!!

They've been very happily scratching around in the garden and I'm sure that they thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful of my bok choy, the remnants of which can now barely be seen :(

I'll get some better photos of Hector and Happy some time soon.

Right now, I need to wake Adoring Husband up and send him off to bed before his snores drown out the football game that I'm watching!

Nite all.



 

Short and Sweet

I found this in facebook today, and after discussing it at the club tonight, I just had to share it here .. such a beautiful sight .. and I've told Adoring Husband that he can train our 3 new chickens to do the same!  Imagine how nice it would be to get chicken hugs every morning!



and then I found this and it really tickled my fancy .. sick .. but hilarious!

I can't believe it's already after 11pm, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

World's Toughest Job

This is very interesting .. the responses and the realisations (It's only 4 minutes this time)



I don't know if you remember, 2 years ago, me telling you about a married couple that I met, who lived in the old service station in town.  The woman had a stable brain tumour and had survived 4 years, at that stage, although she wasn't strong.  Then, not long after I met them, he too was diagnosed with a brain tumour and passed away within 2 months of his diagnosis.

Well, yesterday, I bumped into her at the local supermarket and promised that I would visit her this morning.  She has new dentures and is having trouble with her gums and lips, so I took her a small bottle of coconut oil, with some instructions for 'oil pulling'.

She recently had a checkup for her tumour and it is still stable .. that makes 6 years in remission!  Definitely something to celebrate, but devastatingly, she had to have her dog euthanised two weeks ago, because she too, had a tumour!!

Personally, I think the vents from the old underground fuel tanks have a lot to answer for.  The outlets are right outside a bedroom window and the living room window, and taking into consideration that they have lived there for over 30 years, I think the toxins and fumes may have played a big part in their illnesses!

She also gave me some interesting information about the Childers Vet, who travels to Howard a couple of days each week to service that small town, but who also does house calls!  The vet travelled from Childers to our town, euthanised the dog, took the remains away and returned to Childers (approx 30 minutes away) for $200.

She was VERY impressed with this vet and how warm, sensitive and helpful she was in that very emotional moment.

More study for me today.  One of the things I learned today is that "the entire tract of our digestive system is replaced every three-five days"!  Who knew!?!?

I'm trying for an early night tonight, but I'm currently watching a documentary on Cannabis, on the ABC, which is very interesting!  Maybe I can stay up for an extra 30 minutes to see the end of it :)

Nite all.

A happy day

I started my morning at the Seat of knowledge, and it was a truly glorious morning, after the threat of horrible winds last night, that didn't eventuate, it was soooo nice to see calm water and clear skies.

I had morning tea with the funniest ladies in town, so I came home with a huge smile on my face and ready to hit the books for another day of study.

Then this evening I pedalled to the beach hoping to catch the blood moon rising.

Unfortunately, there was too much cloud on the horizon, which meant that the lunar eclipse was all over by the time it rose above the cloud and then the sky was too hazy to get a clear shot.

The sunset was a fizzer as well, but just before all of that, there were some nice rays illuminating the river ...

It looks like another midnight bed time for me tonight.

Nite all.

Health, Study, Cyclones and Ferris

I watched a couple of videos of Michael Pollan today.  He makes so much sense to me and I plan on watching more of his videos.

If you have twenty minutes to spare, please use it to listen to this man.



We've been a little on edge this evening, after hearing the news about Cyclone Ita which has been edging it's way down the Queensland coast over the weekend.

The weather report tonight, suggested that we would get winds in excess of 90kph.

It was the first we'd heard of this, even though we had been listening to weather reports and keeping our eye on various weather predictions on social media.

So Adoring Husband rushed outside at 6pm to clear the yard of anything that could become a flying missile in strong winds.  We stacked up the outdoor furniture and put all of our electronic devices on to charge (in case of loss of power like last time).

I cleared a space in our walk in wardrobe so that we have somewhere to shelter if anything sinister happens during the night.  My camera and laptop will go in there tonight before I climb into bed.

Since the news report, I've kept my eye on the BOM website and I must say that it all looks pretty clear.

There are no high winds anywhere along the coast, that I can see, and no heavy rains coming within our 500km radius, so I'm feeling cautiously comfortable about tonight.  I will still take precautions - just in case!

I got some pretty good study in this afternoon, while Adoring Husband slept in his recliner in front of the TV.  I muted the television so that I would have peace and quiet, then sat in my swinging pod chair and read all of the information that I needed for the first lesson in Naturopathy.

It was surprisingly interesting!

Who knew that Hippocrates (The Father of Medicine), Galen (The ultimate authority on all things medical), Lust (The Father of Naturopathic Medicine) and Avicenna (The Prince of Physicians) were so interesting?  I almost wish that I could have met them!

There was a LOT of information, so I'm going to have to go over it a few times to let it all sink in.

Right now, to go to the other end of the brain requirement spectrum, I'm watching a documentary on John Hughes and his movie "Ferris Beuller's Day Off".

It's very entertaining and very interesting but I'm not sure if I can stay awake til midnight to watch it!

Nite all.

Sunday Night Quotes

The cyclone is still a long way from here, but the rain has already started and has been falling steadily all day.

We had a visitor for a little while and we gave him a few basic computer and facebook lessons.

Otherwise a very quiet and relaxing kind of day.

Tomorrow is another big study day, so I'll be off to bed early tonight to rest my brain.  A relaxing day and an early night should make for maximum learning energy for tomorrow!!

Nite all.

Trifecta of Good News

The first piece of good news that I received today, was at 5am when Adoring Husband advised me that little Chloe Campbell had been found alive and well at 1am in her home town.

Chloe's reappearance.

The second piece of good news I received today, was at 8am when the Vet gave our psychotic dog, Jack, a couple of needles and some tablets and sent us home with a happy and much improved baby.

The third piece of good news I received today, was around 3pm this afternoon, when Little Miss Happy called me to say that she had just heard from my brother and he was alive and well .. though a little wind swept, and he'd asked her to call me.

Such a huge relief!!

Typically, all of the things that were driving me to distraction with worry, have all turned out with happy endings.

*happy dance*

Nite all.

Bad Start

It's a bad start to the weekend.

My brother, 'The Convenient Greenie', lives near Cooktown, where there is currently the second worst cyclone since 1918 bearing down on him.

He lives in a valley.

At this stage, he can hear the winds blowing above him and over the mountains, but rarely reaching low enough to affect him.

Unfortunately, there is still a couple of hours before the cyclone will be directly over him.

His plan B was to head towards his neighbour, 1 km away, who has a cyclone shelter, but apparently, the winds there are very bad and it would be impossible to reach them at this stage.

This does not please me one little bit.  That was my one reason to stop being concerned .. knowing that there was a safe place nearby.  That is gone and now there is nothing left but to worry.

It's been 47 minutes since my brother last posted on facebook.

When life gets so stressful, that I struggle to cope, my body shuts down .. meaning .. I sleep.  I have no choice but to sleep.  It just happens.

Adoring Husband has spent all day searching cane fields and the surrounding areas of Childers for the little 3 year old girl who went missing from her home in the early hours of yesterday morning.  Many volunteer members of SES from surrounding towns have joined in the search .. so far with no success.

Missing 3 yr old, Chloe Campbell, from Childers.

Then to top it off, one of our psychotic dogs has been very unwell for two days now.  We'll be taking him to the vet tomorrow.  He's not eating and is also having trouble keeping fluids down.

So, it's been a pretty stressful day today.  I can feel my body shutting down .. I sleep when I can't cope with what's happening around me.  I have no choice.

It's been an hour since he last posted.

It's going to be a long, long weekend full of worry.

I wish he'd just jumped in the car and driven south like I asked.  I could have given him a safe place to stay.

Ugh.

Nite all.

Two of my special girls.

It has just turned midnight, so I'm simply going to share some photos of two of my beautiful girls (and Dadoo).

Nite all.

Steady Pace

If you want to know something, you need to ask the right people the right questions.

I got brave and posted in the online student common room, asking the other students for advice on how to deal with this online studying and whether they had ideas to make it a bit easier for someone who hasn't studied for many years.

So far, I've had two excellent replies, with fantastic and helpful tips.

One of them told me about 'mind maps'.

I have NEVER heard of mind maps!

So I googled it!

WOW!

Hundreds of images of mind maps in all different colours and styles.  Hand drawn.  Computer generated.  There are youtube videos showing how to create a mind map.  There are even apps for mind maps!

While searching youtube, I discovered a whole series of video tutorials on how to write essays and how to complete assignments.

Things have certainly changed in the 25 years since I studied.

My first essay for Naturopathic Philosophy needs to be 500 words in length.  My first incomplete draft is already 600 words!

Clearly, I need to hone my essay writing skills.

I posted this revelation on Facebook which triggered some more helpful advice.

By the end of the day, I had gained new insights into methods of planning study and writing essays and creating assignments and sitting exams.

This is now a whole new ballgame!

I do, now, feel better prepared and I have some great ideas to put into practise.

I also made a 'to do' list yesterday and actually completed everything on the list.  Sometimes I amaze myself.

What a roller coaster ride this experience has already been, and I haven't even completed my first assignment yet.

They do tell me that it gets easier.  I just have to ride the wave of self discovery!

Nite all.

*sigh*

Another afternoon of study.

Far out.

Some of it, I'm excited to get started on and other parts, I'm scared witless .. and I'm not even at the scary bit yet .. like Anatomy and Physiology and Chemistry and Biochemistry!

It's a constant battle with myself to block the negative self talk.

I think I need to post some positive affirmations around my work area .. something that will keep my mind clear to focus on the studying, and not on failing, falling behind or losing my way.

There are moments that I am completely paralysed with fear, and I have to snap myself out of it.

Those are the moments that I move on to something else that is less paralysing!

I just watched an episode of 'Parenthood' and somebody there quoted "You're not in over your head, you're just out of your comfort zone."

That's pretty appropriate for my situation ... I might write that on a post-it note and stick it on my monitor.

It'll be ok.

I will be ok.

Really!

I've got this!

Nite all.

The Right Direction

I feel that this day has been very successful for me.

Adoring Husband spent 6 hours at the SES shed today, and I filled 5 of those hours in full study mode.

I had to change the web browser on my imac to accommodate the video streaming requirements for the study site.

I had to update the Adobe Flash Player.

I also had to order the third and final text book for the first semester - the tricky part was finding somewhere in Australia that stocked it, so that I could receive it within 1-2 weeks, instead of 6-8 weeks from overseas!

I printed masses of information (because I am 'old school' and need to 'feel' the reading material - I also like a change of scenery, so I can read while sitting on the garden swing, or down by the river).

I completed the five tasks that are required prior to commencing Lesson One.

I watched two video tutorials.

I read the three chapters plus the sheet material, making lots of notes, for Lesson One and then completed the review activities.

I tagged the chapters in the order that I have to read them in my 'Counselling' text book.

That just about covers it.

As much as I feel like I accomplished a lot today, I still don't feel confident with my organisational skills and my ability to keep up .. especially after reading the student forums for my group.

There are over 200 people studying this course online, 50 in my group, (I didn't see any traditional male names in the list - though quite a few non-gender specific names were there) and their information sharing and feedback is very comprehensive and full of naturopathic and medical jargon.

I feel a little out of my depth and very much an outsider, but I won't allow it to deter me.

Onward and upward!

After today, I feel like I've almost caught up - once I have, I'll need to commit about 3 hours per day so that I can complete the assignments by their deadlines (or perhaps my old brain will require an extra hour or two during the week???)

Anyway, it's been therapeutic for me to write all of this down.  Your boredom has been invaluable to me :D  Thank you for listening!

Nite all.