Not Churchy!

Tonight, my X-mother-in-love (or Grannymus as she calls herself when commenting on my blog) and I had a little email chat to catch up on some news.

Just when I thought we were finished for the night, she sent one last message...

"One thing on your blog made me laugh in a knowing (smarty pants) sort of way.  It was your

comment that you are not religious.  I would agree if you said you weren't 'churchy' but I

reckon you ARE religious or you wouldn't go sitting waiting to see a particular bird while

being bitten by insects......  You have a very reverent attitude to beauty and find it in all

sorts of places and to me that means you ARE religious. Particularly when I see what captures

your imagination.

signed smarty pants :-)"

This was in relation to a recent post where I talked about my maniac bus driver who caused me to pray that I would arrive at my destination safely - and where I cited that I was not religious, but still, I prayed.

Coming from Grannymus, I take this as a huge compliment and in future, I will replace my 'I am not religious' statement with 'I am not churchy'.  :oD

The final four photos from the March Photo a Day challenge...

28. Trash

29. Feet

30. Toy
(A special tribute to Bubbles AND Chicklet, who both love ducks!)

31. Where I relax

April Fools Day tomorrow and the start of a new challenge.

It's also one of my boys' (from the Seat of Knowledge) birthday tomorrow.  April Fools day is such an appropriate date for his birthday .. and I mean that in the nicest way ;)

I had a lovely couple of hours with Chicklet and Vegan Chickie this morning.  Vegan Chickie was feeling a bit exhausted after Chicklet had a restless night.   Even though Chicklet was very tired and grumpy today, she still had trouble falling asleep for her nap.  Maybe a bit over-tired.  I have trouble sleeping when I am over-tired too!

Even when she is tired and grumpy, she is still the most adorable child ever!  In between her grumps, appear the most vibrant and beautiful smiles.

No photos taken today though.  Not of Chicklet and none outside the house.  My day was feeling so incomplete, that I got my camera out at 8pm and took two shots (toy and trash) for the last of my March challenge photos.

Now I can sleep in a 'not churchy' kind of way, knowing that I have fulfilled my psychotic photographic requirements for the day!

Nite all. 

In the nick of time.

I spent all afternoon trying a gozillion different ideas for the challenge and none of them were quite right.  There was always something just a little bit off and I was getting more and more frustrated as time was running out fast.

Adoring Husband was being anything but Adoring, so I had a little tantrum and took an enforced break from the job at hand.

Very sad that something that I love so much should be causing me such angst!

First attempt:

Adoring Husband balancing on a golf ball.

Second attempt:

Adoring Husband sitting on a bongo drum with a green lady.

Third and final attempt:

Adoring Husband trapped in a wine glass.

This is about when my brain started to hurt and I just had to make do, because I didn't want to have to think about it anymore!

There were other less successful attempts in between these, that aren't even worth sharing.

So, thank goodness, that challenge is now over.  This one will not be judged by our tutor, but will be judged by our peers.

I'll let you know the result on Sunday (I think).

Tonight, about ten minutes after Adoring Husband went to bed, he suddenly burst out of the bedroom door, naked, and carrying something large and black in his hands.

I called out "What are you doing?" and he replied "The TV just blew up!"

At that moment I could smell that horrible toxic burning chemical smell.

I called out "Yes, but what are you doing?" and he replied "I don't want a fire to start in the bedroom!"

"So do you think it's a good idea to carry a burning television through the house with your bare hands and while naked????"

Luckily the TV was not burning and Adoring Husband was not injured in this particular story, however, the smell permeated through the house.  Ugh.

Also luckily, there is a strong cool breeze blowing tonight so it carried the horrible smell out of the house quickly.

So that was a little bit of excitement for the evening and now he has taken the TV from the outdoor area and set it up in the bedroom to replace the broken one.

Tomorrow is Chicklet day, so it's time for me to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Still Wide Angling

Firstly a couple of photos from the pier yesterday.

It doesn't look THAT windy does it?!

I had a good morning with the camera today, but I STILL don't have anything for the flickr group monthly challenge.  Tomorrow is the closing date, so I really have to get cracking!

These are my wide angle shots from today, but none good enough for me to choose for the challenge.

An idea was suggested to me by one of the flickr group members today, which I am going to try tomorrow.  Hopefully, it will be a success and I can use it in the challenge.

The caravan parks are beginning to fill up with tourists.  The school holidays begin at the end of this week and my lovely little town is going to be turned upside down with the Easter Fishing Classic crowds.

If I recall correctly, the population triples at Easter.

Ugh!

So I guess tomorrow will be one more day of wide angling, finishing off the March Photo a Day challenge and after that, concentrating a little harder on the 104 challenge.

Thirteen more sleeps til the holiday begins!

Nite all.

 

Three Hours of Bliss

Chicklet and I spent three hours together today.  Poppy was with us for the first hour, and then he had to leave for an appointment, so we had two hours alone.

Vegan Chickie and the Bare-chested Chef went to the movies to see 'The Hunger Games'.

So Chicklet and I read books, danced with the dollies, put things into and out of boxes, sang 'Old Macdonald' and 'Incy Wincy Spider', played horsies, ate some cucumber and crackers, watched 'Chuggington' and 'Giggle n Hoot' on the ABC, made the ducky quack, found the key, the lemon, the nuts and the orange on the outside of the box and we had nice cuddles together.

At the end of the three hours when Chicklet was getting tired and clumsy, she fell on her face when she went to crawl and her head moved faster than her arms.  She cried a little bit.

Then she didn't quite have her balance near the coffee table and slipped onto the wall.  She cried a bit then too.  But cuddles make things all better.  No big deal really.

She stood up and tried to walk everywhere today.  She fell down a lot, but she didn't care.  She just got back up and tried again.  She's so cute!

She was very happy to see her Mum and Dad - especially her Mum - when they came home.  She practically threw herself into her Mum's arms.

I had a lovely time.  I was a bit worried that Chicklet wouldn't last out the three hours without crying for her Mum, but she was fine :D

I love my little baby so much.  She is such a joy and I can watch her for hours.  Every movement, every facial expression, every sound ... they are each a little miracle and she reminds me of the joy that I felt when her Mum was that age, learning new things every day.  Amazing little human beings.

I did get a couple of photos ...

and before Adoring Husband returned from his Drs appointment, I got to spend some time on the pier getting some photos.

The conditions were dreadful and I was almost blown off the pier.  My hair was blowing everywhere and by the time I walked off the pier, my hair was a matted tangled mess that I couldn't even run my fingers through without pulling some out.

I took a lot of photos while I was there and I will post a couple of them tomorrow.

For now though, the babysitting has worn me right out so it's time for bed.

Nite all.

The Big Walk in the Red Robe

Watch this!!

Still a little unsteady, but it won't be long before she is tearing all over the place!

I have a big babysitting job tomorrow which I'm very excited about!

I spent a lot of time riding around this morning and time got away from me ... it was almost 12pm when I got home.

I did do morning tea with the girls, but it was 10am when we finished our coffees, so I spent almost 2 hours riding and shooting, for not much of a result.

Dragonflies can be interesting.

Especially when the birds won't co-operate!

Wildflowers - Photo 77 of 104

... and that was the long and the short of it!

I do have to catch up on my March Photo a Day Challenge ...

23. Moon

24. An Animal

25. Breakfast

26. Key

27. My name (which I won't post here)

The April Photo a Day Challenge is ready to go too!

Adoring Husband spent the time very productively doing some housework.  How nice was it to come home to 'neat and tidy' :D

I hope you enjoyed Chicklet's big walk on video.

Nite all.

Remember the 70s?

I've just spent quite a bit of time on facebook talking to an old work mate about the 70s.

Her status update read "Contemplating ... what was my favourite song from the 70s.  What a classic time.  I'm going to start with my favourites ... feel free to share yours".

Ah the memories!

• Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin 1971)
• American Pie (Don Mclean 1972)
• Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd 1975)
• Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen 1975)
• Khe Sanh (Cold Chisel 1978)
• My Sharona (Knack 1979)
• Imagine (John Lennon 1971)
• You've Got A Friend (Carol King 1971)
• Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John 1973)
• Heart of Gold (Neil Young 1972)
• Black Betty (Ram Jam 1977)
• Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd 1974)
• Hotel California (The Eagles 1976)
• Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac 1979)

... and the list goes on and on.  The best era EVER for music!

What a great trip down memory lane.

A funny thing happened today in my facebook 104 challenge group.

One of the things on the list is 'A Nude Human'.  A few of us have taken the easy option and posted photos of nude babies and there has been lots of discussions on how to go about asking people to be nude subjects.

So it has been a hot topic and most of us are leaving it til last, trying to work out what to do.

Anyway, today I posted a photo of some mushrooms, using my new lens ...

The Mushroom Trail

... and after yet another discussion about nudes, one of my flickr friends made an addition to the photo and posted this ...

For those of you who don't know him ... that's my Adoring Husband's head.

I couldn't stop giggling!

So today has been a bit of cyber fun.

One more funny photo to finish off ...

I think one of our chooks has a calcium deficiency!

Enough frivolity for one day.

Nite all.

Multi-cultural Fun

The Multi-cultural Festival was on in The Bay today, so Adoring Husband and I drove in to check it out.

The parade started at 10am, so we made sure we were there for that.  One of the photos on my list is 'A Parade'.

A Parade - Photo 75 of 104 (Colombian Dancers)

The Polish Dancers

It was just like the Olympic Games' opening ceremony with a person walking in the lead of each group, holding a sign with the name of the country.

The costumes and traditional dress were so colourful and the people participating in the parade were all so happy - even though there was a light rain falling and the clouds were dark and heavy above.

The parade didn't last very long.  There were about 20 countries in all.

Then we headed over to the market stalls.  Another photo on my 104 list is 'A Colourful Market Stall'.

A Colourful Market Stall - Photo 76 of 104

There were lots of stalls, but the best were the food stalls.  Thai, Spanish, Japanese, Greek, German, Polish, to name a few.

I tried the Mexican because they had gluten-free soft corn tacos.  The tacos had been freshly made that morning and I had chicken with coriander and lime salsa and the 'secret recipe' chilli sauce.  O-M-G to die for!!

Then we got a coffee from Lisiana's mobile van, which was delicious.

We were there for about an hour and a half.  There was entertainment happening throughout the day, but we decided to head off.

We met Vegan Chickie and Chicklet for a drink so that I could give them some mail that I'd forgotten to take yesterday.  It was nice to have a quick catch up with them.  Three days in a row!!

Then it was time to come home.

The Childer's Multi-cultural Festival in July is much bigger and brighter than the one in The Bay, but it was still a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

Seventeen more sleeps til my holiday ... but who's counting??

Nite all.