Day 77 in a Year of my Life

New Years Resolution for 2013 "To become a little healthier and fitter".

Rule number one for bringing this to fruition:

DO NOT DRINK A BOTTLE OF WINE IN ONE SITTING.

Rule number two for bringing this to fruition:

THINK BEFORE YOU EAT AND DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY EAT GLUTEN.

Had a fabulous time with The Nikonian and surely all that laughter, that is so good for the soul, negated some of the toxins that I ingested?!

The psychotic dogs decided that she was OK ...

We missed the sunrise this morning and after The Nikonian left, I spent the rest of the day trying to recover.

Lots of water.  Some sleep.  Some food.  Some Panadol.  Plenty of rest.

Today I am grateful that the day is over and I am feeling less toxic this evening, than I did this morning.  I am grateful for the lesson learned - everything in moderation and pace yourself!

Nite all.

Day 76 in a Year of my Life

The Nikonian is here.

Two bottles of wine.  A failed sunset.  Chat overload.  Delicious dinner.

Found this early this morning.

Gotta get up early in the morning for sunrise and it's already 11.45pm.  So I'm off to bed.

Today, I am grateful for visits from friends.  Not so grateful for drinking two bottles of wine, but the friends bit is fabulous!!

Off to bed.

Nite all.

Day 75 in a Year of my Life

What a long night.

I set my alarm to wake early for the sunrise, but for some strange reason, I was awake every hour on the hour and couldn't seem to relax into a deep sleep.

So again, I was up at 4.20am and out the door within 30 minutes.

The sunrise still didn't quite reach my expectations and my Tawny Frogmouths were nowhere to be seen, so I tiptoed up to my favourite Cassia tree near the Seat of Knowledge and spent some time trying, with my camera, to capture a bee enjoying the pollen in the flowers.

Thank goodness for the bee, because it was my only real success for the morning.

I was almost eaten alive by mosquitoes and sandflies and spent a good 30 minutes scratching and rubbing my legs - until I picked up some dry sand off the beach and rubbed it over the bites.  They seemed to miraculously stop itching after that.

While I was pedalling along the river path, the strangest thing happened.  I stopped the trike to check my phone because I felt like Adoring Husband was trying to contact me.  There were no messages, so I continued on.

Just as I passed the next tree, I looked up and saw Adoring Husband on his bike waiting for me!

Very weird and very unusual for him to be out riding at this time of day (or any time really!).

So we went to the bakery much earlier than usual to get coffee and we were served by one of the bakers.  I don't think I'll do that again.  He was the worst coffee maker ever lol.

So after a long night of trying to sleep, it was then a long morning at the Seat of Knowledge and I was feeling very tired as I made my way home well before 8.30am.

It's now 8.25pm and I believe that I can be in bed by 9pm.  One more time with feeling tomorrow for sunrise.  A few showers are forecast, so perhaps there will be some interesting cloud about.

Today I am grateful to have received a lovely phone call from Number One Son, who was out walking and sounded much brighter and happier than I've heard him for a while.  There was definitely a smile in his voice.

Nite all.

Day 74 in a Year of my Life

Last night, I went to bed three hours earlier than usual, believing that I would naturally wake up around 3am or 4am, and would rise early enough to catch the sunrise and play with the soft morning light.

My sleeping history has shown that I cannot sleep longer than 5 or 6 hours, because my back doesn't like being horizontal for longer than that.

So, I woke at precisely 2.20am and needed to visit the bathroom.  This was just a tad too early to head out on the trike, so I climbed back into bed and promptly fell asleep.

The next time I woke, was 6am!  That's more than 8 hours sleep with only one interruption!  Unheard of!!

I missed the sunrise, which by all accounts, was a non-event anyway.  Didn't get to the Seat of Knowledge til after 7.30am.

Here are my photos from today.

There is a story that goes with the White Breasted Sea Eagle shot, but to cut it short, I didn't even see him until he was low in the swoop, so I only just got the camera up in time to press the shutter, hence the poor quality shot.

What's worse, is that he dropped the fish on that first swoop, but I didn't see that, because I was checking the back of my camera to see whether my shot was successful.

When I next looked up, he was swooping again, but this time I could not get my camera up fast enough and I completely missed the shot.

Soooooo frustrating!  However, it really was beautiful to watch.

I am off to bed earlier than usual again tonight.  I'll make it to bed by 10pm and this time I will set my alarm.  I WILL wake up tomorrow for sunrise!

My other plan for next week is to make an 'Inspiration Board'.

Apart from lots of weekend photography trips, we have nothing else 'big' planned for this year, so I am seriously going to think about what I want to achieve with my photography, among other things and create an inspiration board that I can look at every day and be 'inspired' to make it happen.

We will find out what is happening with Adoring Husband's health, at the end of next week, then we can focus on making him as well as possible and make some solid plans for our year.

Adoring Husband and I cooked a delicious Thai Green Curry together tonight, with a green curry paste that we bought in Maleny, while on holidays on the Sunshine Coast.  We used chicken and prawns and vegetables and thoroughly enjoyed the end result.

Today, I am grateful for our 'together' cooking times, even though AH has a little trouble letting go of control in the kitchen... but he is getting there :D

I think I should definitely leave the 'presentation' to him though - I simply have no presentation skills with food.  He, however, is creative and artistic and makes food look too good to eat!

Nite all.

Day 73 in a Year of my Life

I actually got out of bed at 4.10am, looked out the window to check the cloud formations, because we all know that clouds are important for a good sunrise!

There was some nice fluffy and wispy clouds forming above and toward the East, so I got ready and by 4.40am I was on my trike and pedalling toward the river.

I've decided that the light is just so beautiful at that time of day and I'd like to get out every day at that time.  Especially in Summer.

It means that I can get a couple of hours of photography in while the light is so lovely, then go grab my coffee and head to the Seat of Knowledge for an hour or so and still be home by 8.30 or 9.00am before the day gets too hot.

This, however, means earlier nights to bed!

So here I am before 9pm, already yawning, sharing my day and my photos, so that I can go to bed and begin the snore-fest.

The new flickr challenges for January are 'Sunrise or Sunset' and 'FUN'.  One should be very simple and the other might require some brain work!

Today I am grateful for Chicklet voicemails (have I been grateful for them before?).  When I don't hear my phone and later find voicemails from Chicklet, it brightens my day so much.  I love the sound of her voice :D  I had two voicemails today.

Nite all.

Nana's Pantry

NEVER go to Nana's Pantry on an empty stomach!!

https://nanaspantry.com.au/

... and make sure you have plenty of time to browse!

You will find everything from the healthiest foods to the least healthy foods - of which we bought an abundance of both.

I shopped there while Adoring Husband took the new car in for it's first service.

I had my arms full of goodies and decided that I'd best stop and go to the counter before it got out of hand.  I estimated roughly that I probably had well over $50 worth of stuff.  The lady tallied it up and I was pleasantly surprised to see the total was only $30.

So, I dumped the goods in the car and AH and I went back to Nana's and spent another $15, which again, was less than we expected.

Everything is priced per kg and even though they have scales so that you can calculate as you go, we didn't do that ... my head automatically and instinctively calculates as if I am in our usual supermarket.  So it's a pleasant surprise to find everything is so much cheaper than expected!

I got lots of gluten free stuff.  Pastry mix.  Bread mix.  Tri-coloured Quinoa.  Dried peas for our next pea and ham soup cook off.  Vegetable chips - which are just like potato chips except made with zucchini, carrot, eggplant, beans, potato etc.  Too many gluten free lollies and chocolates to mention.

Love that shop.  It'll definitely be a regular stop on shopping days.

I hope to be up bright and early for a sunrise tomorrow.  I awoke early this morning and glanced out the window to see a beautifully coloured pink sky with lots of purple and orange puffy clouds scattered about.  I was too tired to find any enthusiasm, but it's the third morning in the last week that the sky has looked pretty, so I'm going to take my chances tomorrow morning.

Which is why I'm getting this post done before 9.30pm - an early night for an early rise!

I've been trolling through heaps of other people's blogs tonight.  It's amazing how many blogs are still sitting idle that haven't been touched for more than two years.

Some of them are so interesting - I almost joined a couple of email lists, just in case the person came back to continue the blog.

Ok, I'm done with all this yawning.  See you tomorrow - hopefully with beautiful sunrise shots.

Nite all.

 

Day 71 in a Year of my Life

Well, the boys loved the photo of their belly buttons and only one of them could identify his own belly button!

More strange weather today, but I got these photos before the rain came again.

On my morning ride I ran into quite a few people who I haven't seen since a few months before Christmas, so it was nice to stop and have a chat and catch up.

Then another day of cricket.  Australia won the Test and there was another Twenty Twenty Big Bash game between the two Melbourne teams which was pretty close.  Tennis is finished for a couple of days.

An uneventful day really.

I am grateful for uneventful days because we have got quite a few appointments coming up in the next week or so and we will be 'on the go' and probably dealing with a little bit of emotional stuff.  We need days like today just to 'be'.

Nite all.