Day 271 in a Year of my Life

I woke up early enough for a sunrise this morning, but when I looked out the window, there was not a cloud in the sky, so I climbed into bed for a little while longer, knowing that there would be no colour for anything interesting.

I did get up early enough to catch some nice morning light on that lovely boat on the beach, but when I arrived, there was no sign of the boat!

They were either out sailing in it (I hope), or their holiday is over and they've gone home *sad face*.

So I hung around on the beach and got quite a few shots, which I will share here in the coming days.

Because it was low tide, I decided to pedal out to the end of town where the mangroves grow, with hopes of seeing a Kingfisher.

The beach there is quite badly eroded, so to get down to it, there are 'cliff-like' walls that are just a little bit too big for my old body to climb down or slide down.

So, I decided to follow a path through the scrub along the edge of the cliff, to see if there was easier access further up the beach.

I was feeling a little nervous because the path is a little overgrown and I was worried about snakes.

I had just reached the beginning of the path, when behind me, I heard a Whistling Kite.  It was close.

If you know me, the sound of a raptor will immediately grab my attention.

If I am talking with you and I hear a Kite whistling, I will stop talking and search for the bird in the sky or in the trees.  I will head in the direction of the sound every time, til I find the bird.  I am just a little obsessed.

So today, I turned around and walked away from the path to search for the bird.

There he was sitting way out in the open, on the dead branch of a tree, whistling his heart out!

So I found the best spot I could and took a couple of shots.

Right in the middle of the shoot, a female appeared, landed on the branch below him and in an instant, he jumped on top of her and they began mating!!  Right in front of my lens!!

It lasted all of 15 seconds and it was over.  They sat beside each other on the branches for about a minute, preening themselves and then flew off over the scrub.

Right place.  Right time.

So then I found the path again and followed it a short way to discover easy access to the beach and the mangroves.

I found a Grey Fantail but didn't get a shot.  I found 2 Pale Faced Rosellas mating, but they were way too quick for me to get a shot!  I also found a Striated Pardalote and got a poor shot of it.

Certainly nothing that I can share.

Then I had a little accident.  I wasn't watching where I was going and hit a mangrove branch with my shin.  It snapped the branch and gouged skin out of my shin.  It bled quite a bit and stung like billyoh!

I decided that it was time to come home and Adoring Husband played nurse, cleaned my wound and put disinfectant and 2 bandaids on it.

Today I am grateful for 'right place, right time' shots and for Adoring Husband's excellent first aid skills that I'm sure will prevent my leg from having to be amputated!

Nite all.

Day 270 in a Year of my Life

Nothing much to report.

Spent a good portion of the morning at the lagoon and got quite a few shots, but I only have one to share for now ...

Nothing spectacular, but pretty cool for a Spoonbill.

It's just after 10pm and I am now going to sign off immediately and climb into bed.

If I sleep well, I will head out early for a sunrise.  Wish me luck.

Today, I am grateful that my football team won by two points, against the odds.  Wahoo!!

Nite all.

Day 269 in a Year of my Life

Another beautiful morning.

I attempted to pedal around town again, but seemed to bump into all sorts of people for long chats, so I got nowhere fast.

It was nice to catch up with those people, but I ran out of time for photography as the light changed after mid morning.

A photo from yesterday.

I'm pretty sure that this boat is here on holidays.  It was here last year at the same time and then disappeared.

It's beautifully made and I'm a bit besotted, so I expect to get a few photos over the next few days.  The tide will be very low tomorrow morning, so if I get up early enough for some nice light, I could get something special.

I've got a funny feeling that the weather might work against me .. if the weather forecasters are correct!  I know .. they are rarely correct these days.

Today I am grateful to finish updating this blog before midnight .. I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

Day 268 in a Year of my Life

Well, it's BEFORE midnight .. in fact, it's not even 11.30pm yet .. it will be, by the time I finish writing this post though.

I didn't wake up til almost 8am today, after a very late night.  I think it was close to 2am when I finally fell asleep.  I'm creating a bad habit of waking late in the morning and missing what I consider to the be the best part of the day.

In the past, I always liked to be out of the house before 7am, but now that I don't visit the Seat of Knowledge, I'm not so motivated to get moving.

I need to change that, because I'm also missing the best light of the day for my photography.

Despite that, I went for a long ride on my trike this morning, because it was the most beautiful morning we've had for weeks.

The sun was shining, the air was clear, the water was a deep blue and twinkling in the sunlight, it was high tide and people lined the river banks with their fishing lines dangling in the water.

With not a cloud in the sky, I sat on my trike on the riverbank and just soaked up the beauty of the day and felt the warmth of the sun on my skin.

Then I rode to the other end of town to the lake, hoping to see some birds.  The flickr challenge this month is 'birds' so I really hoped for something special.  Unfortunately it wasn't to be, but I did stumble across this ...

I've posted the photos on facebook hoping that someone can identify this lovely little fellow.  So far, we've got Keelback, Brown Snake and Brown Tree Snake on the list.

Today, I am grateful that this snake was a long way from me and that I had a long lens to get the shots!

Nite all.

Day 267 in a Year of my Life

Firstly, because I know she will read this tomorrow (well, I guess, since it's after midnight, officially it's today) HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBBLES.  I hope your day is amazing!

All I have to share with you tonight is a couple of photos of our delicious dinner, the recipe for which, I found on facebook!  Who knew facebook could be so useful for something other than wasting time and procrastinating!

I added a layer of eggplant as well.  I also added chilli to the tomato sauce mix.

Adoring Husband and I weren't keen on the top layer of Ricotta cheese and egg.  It was a bit bland.  I would probably add some feta cheese to the mix next time and maybe even toss in some of the chopped toasted walnuts that I keep in the cupboard.

As you can tell by the caption in one of the photos, we served it with roasted duck breast and roasted red capsicum.  It was quite delicious!  We'll have it again.  Apparently, the vegetables used, are good to boost the immune system.

It's heading close to 1am again.  I really should work on this blog during the day, instead of stupid o'clock at night!

Today I am grateful for cold wet Winter days that are good for curling up on the couch and watching dvds with Adoring Husband.

Nite all.

Day 266 in a Year of my Life

Way after midnight again and I have been engrossed in a movie with Michelle Williams and Seth Rogan in it, called 'Take This Waltz'.  I really enjoyed it ... but I was so mesmerised, I didn't touch this blog til now!  Ugh!

So briefly, here are a couple of photos ...

Nice morning with the camera.  Nice day on the computer.

Today I'm grateful for 'nice' days.

Nite all.

Day 265 in a Year of my Life

It's very late, and I almost decided not to post tonight, but knew I would take longer to fall asleep if I didn't post SOMETHING.

My jewellery party was very successful today.  I had a nice time, although I almost felt like it was an 'out of body' experience.

One lady, whom I had never met before, came as a +friend, because she wanted to meet me!

She admires my photography and even attended my exhibit in Maryborough last year!

So we had a long conversation about photography - she is an enthusiast, and a member of the Maryborough camera club, but she lives locally.

I had set my new large screen monitor up so that my flickr photos ran as a slide show, so she got to see some more of my work.

She was lovely and was very good for my ego - which needs a boost every so often.

So it was a nice crowd and I got to have a chat with most people individually, but like I said, it felt a little surreal and 'out of body'.

I had enough sales that I could buy three items at 50% off, so I bought some lovely shiny, sparkly bling.

Tomorrow's big task, that will require some focus on my behalf, is to write up a quote for a number of my photos.  If this person accepts my quotes, it will be my second international sale!!  Sounds good doesn't it?  "International sale"?

I haven't taken any photos for almost a week, so I'm hanging to get out tomorrow morning with my camera.

Meanwhile, it's almost 1am ... I must go to bed.

Today, I am grateful to have so many lovely people attend my party and spend up!  They were all happy smiley faces ... naturally ... retail therapy, good for the soul.

Nite all.