Day 249 in a Year of my Life

Before the family left for the big sports carnival this morning, I took a quick couple of snaps of Sporty Spice with her cockatiel and then had a play with the editing ...

The final product turned out much better than I expected and it printed beautifully.  I used it for the July Photo a Day for day 5 ... Love.

Another colourful sunset this afternoon and the misty rain stopped for the occasion!

After the sunset, I dropped the print off to the girl whose photo I took yesterday.  She was so excited, she came bounding to the front door and all three girls told me that they had been looking out for me all day and they had to go out in the morning, but checked the letterbox just in case I'd left it there.

They were all very grateful and thanked me profusely ... along with their grandparents who were very bemused.

It was a nice feeling.

I arrived home just before dark and was in the middle of preparing dinner when the family arrived home from their first day of competition touch footy.  They were very wet and tired.

A nice easy meal of home made hamburgers that everybody put together themselves, a glass or two of vino and then a big bowl of ice cream kept the masses happy!

I ordered a new camera bag today which should arrive next week.  I'm very excited about it.  I got Nellie Noo to unpack her camera bag so that I could pack all of my gear into it and take photos, to show the Nikonian, who is also considering buying one.

Everything fits beautifully with room to spare.

Well, I'm off to catch a bit of Wimbledon action before I head off to bed.

Today I am grateful for fun family giggles that come from a silly sense of humour that only family can truly understand.

Nite all.  

Day 248 in a Year of my Life

I pedalled over to the lagoon this afternoon, because the sunset was looking promising.

Once again the cloud banked over at the very last minute and blocked the beautiful colour that was trying desperately to spread across the sky.

There were three young girls playing in the park beside the lagoon and one of them climbed up onto a sign beside the water.

Just as I decided to give up on the sunset, she called out to me "Take my photo!"

So I swivelled the camera around on the tripod and took a quick shot through the almost darkness.  I didn't even change the settings on the camera, so when I looked at the image 'in camera', I could barely see her through the darkness.

Thank goodness for Photoshop!!

These girls obviously weren't afraid of 'stranger danger' because when I asked which house they were in so that I could bring the photo around to them tomorrow, they happily gave me their address lol.

I might even ask them if they want to participate in a photoshoot for me tomorrow, so that I can get some practise doing portrait shots.

I'll see how my day pans out.

Our three psychotic dogs are exhausted from chasing the kids around all day.

The men are exhausted from putting together a big garden swing, that converts to a day bed with flyscreens all around it.

The kids are exhausted from playing football in the back yard for most of the day.

I haven't done much except catch up with all the family news and organize a quick lunch today, so I might even try to catch some Wimbledon tonight.

Today I'm grateful for low maintenance visitors that just seem to fit right in.

Nite all.

Day 247 in a Year of my Life

I have family here for the next 4-5 days, so my posts will probably be short and posted late, which, come to think of it, is no different to how my posts have been for a while now!

It's really lovely to have them here anyway :)

I can't believe that the time is already after 12.30am.  I have to be awake reasonably early in the morning and there will be no watching Wimbledon tonight!

For day 3 of the July Photo a Day challenge, the theme is 'Cold' ...

Tomorrow's theme is Red, White OR Blue.  Hmmm nothing jumps into my head straight away.  Might have to sleep on that one.

Today I am grateful for happy, energetic extended family who breeze into my life every so often and help me feel the love.

Nite all.

Day 246 in a Year of my Life

I would like to start by first thanking Grannymus for my email hug this morning.  It was a lovely way to start the day.

Second of all, thanks to my friend, The Nikonian, for providing a pretty neat quote today, that eased my anxiety over some questionable exchanges I've had with people recently...

I think Vegan Chickie hit the nail on the head the other day on the phone, when she reminded me that the trauma of the tornado is just beginning to make it's mark on me.

In highly emotional situations, I  tend to stay reasonably strong for everybody else and then when it's all done and dusted and everything is fixed and people are back to normal, that's when I fall apart.

So I think I might be a little emotionally unstable at the moment.  Small things affect me quite badly, and big things knock the wind out of me and when you put them all together in a small period of time, I teeter precariously on the brink of a break down.

Sounds dramatic doesn't it!

Day Two of July Photo a Day ... Shoes

I was disappointed last night, (or should I say this morning) when the last Aussie, Bernard Tomic, was knocked out of Wimbledon.  I sat up til 6am to watch him lose!

At least now, I'll be able to get some more solid sleep, and considering that it's almost midnight, I think I will sign off now and head in the direction of my pillow.

Today, I am grateful for the loving people in my life who are helping me to heal.  Slowly but surely, this too shall pass.

Nite all.

Day 245 in a Year of my Life

Day One.

Happiness is ...

I confess, I forgot that it was the first of the month and didn't think of taking a photo for the challenge until about 4pm, which kind of limited me with time and location.

Also, my brain doesn't work so well after 2pm, so this will do for now.

I've eaten my Wimbledon tradition of strawberries and cream and am now waiting up for Bernard Tomic's match.

I don't think he'll be playing til about 3am our time, so once again, it's going to be a long night!

Adoring Husband and I drove to the plant nursery in Torbanlea this afternoon.

We got some plants for the hanging baskets in our outdoor area (the others got blown away in the tornado) and we also got male and female kiwi fruit plants.  I've never had kiwi fruit fresh from the plant and I can't wait to see how they taste!  Everything tastes better straight from the plant :)

A friend, 'Phar Lap', (that is also his nickname outside of this blog, because of his big heart) visited us this afternoon and asked me to create a community page in facebook for his remote control boating group.

So I spent the evening doing just that, and when it was all done, I got a private message from a woman, whose husband is also part of this boating group, abusing me because as far as she was concerned SHE was supposed to be in charge of creating the page on facebook.  (she had created the wrong type of page and had been reluctant to to change it, which is why I was asked to do this.)

I apologised and explained how it had come about and promised her that we didn't intend to upset her, but she kept telling me off and eventually said that she refused to upload any more photos or videos for the group and would no longer maintain the account.

My last message told her that I was happy to hand this account over to her, that I had only created it as a favour and that I was a lover not a fighter!  I put a big smiley face there, so that she would know I wasn't feeding off her anger.

So far, she has ignored my final message.

There are many members of the human race who have disappointed me in the last month and I'm feeling just a little disillusioned.  Sometimes people suck!

I think it's time to hibernate for a while.

Today I am grateful for the horrible people in my life ... because they make my lovely friends seem so much lovelier.  I love you all!  You know who you are!

Nite all.

Day 244 in a Year of my Life

We've got some crap weather forecast over the next few days.

A low has formed over Fraser Island, which means heavy rain and gale force winds.

I must admit I'm feeling a little nervous.

I'm ok with wind, until I see a warning by the weather bureau.  That always makes my heart skip a beat, and then I stalk the Bureau of Meteorology website, Willy Weather website, Elders Weather website and any other website I can find!

So, to take my mind off the weather, I've decided to focus on a July Photo a Day challenge.

The weather hasn't been too conducive to outside photography, so I hope this will give me new inspiration.

Today I am grateful to have photography as therapy!

Nite all.

Day 243 in a Year of my Life

It's well after midnight and I'm watching Wimbledon.

The Australian, Bernard Tomic, is playing the Frenchman, Richard Gasquet.

They are one set each and five games each.  I think I'm in for a long night!

When this match is over, the Australian, Samantha Stosur plays her match.

Pretty sure I'll be having a nap fairly soon.  Pretty sure it's going to happen without me even knowing it :)

Having sorted through three days worth of photographs, I was disappointed with most of them and really only have this one to share ... and I'm even reluctant to share it.

I think I need some inspiration!

Or I think I need to create some opportunities for myself.

A lady, who is a regular holiday maker here, stopped me today and asked "have you ever done classes?"

I thought she was asking if I'd ever attended photography classes, so I began telling her my education history with photography.

She was giving me a strange look when I realised she was actually asking me if I ever 'conduct' classes here in town!

Then she proceeded to tell me that she had been to my exhibit last year and absolutely loved my photography and that she would love to be my first student, if I ran a class!

Well it's a thought!

She said she'll be back in 11 weeks, so that should be plenty of time to get a class organised.  That made me LOL.

Highly unlikely that I can be organised enough or motivated enough to make this happen, but it's nice to know that somebody out there thinks I'm good enough to do that.

A little later on, I had another slight boost to the ego, when a local lady told me "You really have the WOW factor with your dress sense.  When there is an occasion, I look for you, to see what you're wearing.  I really love your style."

Nobody has ever said that to me before, so I was a bit surprised and bemused.

Today I am grateful, for the times that I'm not feeling on top of my game, and people step forward with interesting questions and statements, to slightly change the ebb and flow of my life and raise my awareness.  So, today, I am more aware that I'm ok.  Really!

Nite all