Day 306 in a Year of my Life

I started the day chasing Chicklet around the lounge room while wearing a dragon costume, complete with spiky spotted tail, while carrying a Snoopy doll.  Or maybe she was chasing me?  She is getting faster!

We ended the day watching 'Finding Nemo'.

Full, fun and exhausting.

She reminded me of all the things we did the last time I was here and educated me about Vincent Van Gogh.

I took her to the supermarket and gave her an education on the birds that we passed along the way.

I have a full day of babysitting ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to be energised!

A few photos from before I arrived.

Today I am grateful for an early night, so that I can feel excited about having a day with my girl tomorrow, while Vegan Chickie and the Bare-chested Chef have a break from their daily duties.

Nite all.

Day 305 in a Year of my Life

I'm here only to share two photos from my day with The Nikonian yesterday.

I have wasted the evening and now it's late and I need my energy for my first full day with Chicklet tomorrow.

Today, I'm grateful to have a whole week of Chicklet/Bozzy Wozzy fun ahead of me.

Nite all.

Day 304 in a Year of my Life

I have arrived, alive and well, safe and sound at the Sunshine Coast.

After only 4 hours sleep last night and a very long and full day, I am exhausted!

So, although I have taken a few photos to day, in the mountains and at the beach, I have no photos to share tonight.

I'm off to bed ... you know how exhausted I always am for the first couple of days that I'm here!

I've had a great day with The Nikonian.

Today, I am grateful tonight's delicious dinner of steak and vegetables, cooked by someone else's Adoring Husband!

Nite all.

Day 303 in a Year of my Life

Vintner's Secret vineyard.

http://www.vintnerssecret.com.au/

I highly recommend an outing to visit this lovely spot.

You can eat at Whisper's Cafe.  The food is divine and they source fresh produce from their own onsite herb and vegetable garden, and use seasonal fresh food from the local area.

There is a beautiful, creatively designed garden that you can wander through, with little nooks and crannies and alcoves to explore and many little resting areas where you can sit and enjoy the serenity, or contemplate life.

A few animals for the kids (and adults) to enjoy.  Alpacas, a pig, a goose, a cow, some chickens and a couple of dogs.

The owners are very warm and welcoming and so down to earth.  You'll never want to leave!

Apparently on the weekends they have live music on the grounds ... I'm looking forward to spending a Saturday or Sunday there with Adoring Husband some time in the near future.

I had a great day, as did the other 17 ladies with whom I shared the experience!

Today, I'm grateful for destinations that surprise and delight, especially when they are so close to home!

Nite all.

Day 302 in a Year of my Life

I came upon a blog today that listed "50 Things to Blog About" for the days when you get writer's block or lose your creativity.

So I've saved the list for the days when I have a brain freeze, and hopefully this means that you will be bored less often.

I won't bore you tonight because I'm going to make it brief.  No photos.

I could have had a great photo .. a lost opportunity.

I had a pedicure appointment today and I thought it was for 11.45am.  At 11am, when I checked the card, I discovered that the appointment was actually for 10.45am!

Honestly, there seems to be a trend happening here.  I'm having serious problems with 'times' lately!

So I phoned the salon, apologised profusely and told her I was on my way.

I was in the middle of cooking soup at the time, and I was wearing my daggy old house clothes.  I didn't even look in a mirror before I left.  I just grabbed my purse, jumped on the trike and pedalled my heart out!

At the halfway mark there is a large block of land and as I rode past, I glanced across to see a large bearded dragon lizard sitting in the middle of the block with his head held high and pointed towards the sky.

Not only did I not have the time to stop .. but I had left my camera at home!  A double whammy!

That was my lost opportunity.

I had my lovely pedicure and then came home and finished making Adoring Husband's tomato soup.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to attending the lady's luncheon at a Childers Winery.  We are all travelling by bus, so I imagine there may be a few tipsy ladies on the way home!

I'll be travelling with camera so I hope to get some good shots to share tomorrow.

Today, I'm grateful for pineapple/mint water.  Refreshing and delicious!

Nite all.

Day 301 in a Year of my Life

I soooo want to keep a food diary right here, but I think I might get booed off the stage if I do!

I've had lots of different fluids today and I'm going to share that!

I started with hot lemon water.

Then I had beetroot/carrot/apple juice with hemp oil and magnesium oil.

After lunch I made watermelon/strawberry/orange/pawpaw/mint/coconut, with the same oils as above.  Even Adoring Husband enjoyed that one (he didn't know about the oils)-(he will when he reads this).

For tomorrow, I've filled a jug with fresh pineapple pieces, mint and water.

All delicious.  All nutritious.  All clean and fresh.  All satisfying.

Only one photo to share today.  A couple of Rainbow Bee Eaters from the block next door.  How lucky am I to have such pretty neighbours!

Just four more sleeps til I see my little Chicklet family.  Can't wait to see my little girl again.

Today, I am grateful to Number One Son for showing me how to book my train ticket online!  It took me 5 minutes to do it myself, as opposed to at least 30 minutes at the agent.  All this time, and I didn't know I had this option!

Nite all.  

Day 300 in a Year of my Life

So I finally found the motivation and enthusiasm to climb out of bed at 5.20am when my alarm went off and try to catch a nice sunrise.

I wasn't feeling too confident when I looked outside and saw not a cloud in sight, but figured that if there was no colour in the sunrise, I would take advantage of the perfect morning light somewhere along my path.

I was so organised.

Last night I packed my camera bag, put my clothes in the main bathroom so that I wouldn't disturb Adoring Husband while I got ready.  Put my hat and glasses on the desk and put the lemon slices in my cup ready to pour hot water onto before I walked out the door.

Just before I left, Adoring Husband was awake so I detoured to the bedroom to kiss him goodbye and then rushed out the door.

Left my lemon drink behind AND my tripod!  Ugh!

Anyway, the sunrise was quite pretty.  I planned this morning's shoot because I knew that the tide would be out and I could get some nice 'still water' shots on the turn of the tide.

I took a detour to the lagoon on the way home and got this photo, before my battery went dead.  Silly me forgot to charge the spare one, which was still in my camera bag, alas, also dead.  So that was my cue to come home.

When I got home, I had my lemon water, which was still warm on my desk and then I made a beetroot, carrot and apple smoothie.  It was quite delicious, but next time I'm going to take Vegan Chickie's advice and add some ginger.

Sunday lamb roast for lunch with potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, beans, snow peas, zucchini, onion and an interesting gravy made from the chicken stock that I'd frozen last week.  It was very tasty.  It was nice to create the gravy off the top of my head without using the usual bought powdered concoctions and no flour.

Then this afternoon, after a nice relaxing time on the couch watching the footy with AH, the clouds were looking interesting over the western sky, so I hopped on the trike and pedalled to the park hoping for a reasonable sunset.

I was almost disappointed, but then at the last moment, just as most great sunsets happen, I got this.

Today I'm grateful that my early morning was rewarded and I thoroughly enjoyed being up at the crack of dawn .. it reminded me why I used to get up at that time every day!  I wonder if I can create a new habit?

Nite all