Bird Show

More glorious Winter weather today and some birds that put on a great show for me this morning!

The Seagulls were telling the Ibis, in no uncertain terms, not to touch the food!

This is NOT usually Ibis territory.

Mine!  Mine!  Mine!

The Indian Miner bird got much closer than I expected ... right in my face ... and even posed for the camera!

I'm a boring Miner Bird, but photograph me anyway!

The Heron was the unexpected star.  Riding past the flood-formed lake and there he was.  He didn't even attempt to fly away as I got closer with the camera.

OK .. maybe the REAL star of the show, as always, was Chicklet, with her bright smiling eyes as she sat in the morning sunshine with her lovely Mum, Vegan Chickie.

Yes!  I'm still just as cute today as I was yesterday!

Adoring Husband is sitting beside me (I wish I could say quietly) with his brand new Lamborghini laptop attempting to set it up and transfer files from his old laptop.

You all know that I love Adoring Husband, but his frustrations are eating away at my patience and tolerance and it's possible that I could use tomorrow's blog post to set up an auction where the highest bidder will get to take him and his laptop to their lounge room for approximately 1 - 2 weeks.

The other alternative is that I pay SOMEBODY OUT THERE to take him and his laptop off my hands for a short period of time :o)

I also know that he will be cranky with me for making comment about his frustrations here. **sigh**

Well, I've had a good week of birds and I think the only one left to photograph now is the Kookaburra, who I know is sitting out there laughing at me as I cringe in the presence of my frustrated Adoring Husband.

The week has provided a great bird show for me, but if I'm not careful, I think Adoring Husband might be giving me 'the bird' from his spot on the couch beside me!

Nite all.

The Cruisy Life

What a glorious day!

Blue skies, sunshine, birds singing, soft breeze, coffee in the morning with friends, walking in the afternoon with Vegan Chickie and Chicklet.

Delightful.

I got some great photos in the morning by the boat ramp, of three pelicans on the water.

Triple Trouble

After coffee, I stopped at the lake and spotted a pair of cormorants building a nest.  The male appeared to be protecting his mate and the nest from my view.

Cormorant and partner

Late this afternoon, Adoring Husband and I drove down to the river to try and catch a great sunset.  There was a little smokey haze in the air from cane burning and some light cloud, so we expected something spectacular.

Sunset

It was a little less than spectacular, but still quite pretty.

I think that if I hit the lake very early, perhaps at dawn, there may be more animal life to photograph.

The light would also be better for photographs at that time of day too.

Life is pretty cruisy for me and I'm lovin' it!

Nite all.

Rain Check on the Lake

I didn't get to the lake as planned today but ...

We received our new macro lens in the mail today!

Adoring Husband was not at home when I picked up the package from the post office, so I opened  it and got to test out the lens before he even knew it was here!

Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet wandered around the garden pointing out bugs and water droplets and flowers so that I could practise, and here are a couple of the results...

Regular garden variety spider

Pink flower (no idea of it's name!)

Let's attempt the lake tomorrow!

Adoring Husband is champing at the bit to have a turn with the macro lens, so he has big plans tomorrow.

I am looking forward to taking some portraits with it.  How adorable is this one of my cherished Chicklet?

Cherished Chicklet

We had fun shopping for a stroller, high chair and bouncer for her today.  We think she might be teething again **sad face**

But now she can come for walks with me!!

Anyway ... watch this space!!  Walking around the lake tomorrow!!

Nite all.

Around the Lake

There is a lake, about a five minute walk from my house, that apparently is abundant with flora and fauna.

Tomorrow, I am going to walk there with Bob (the camera) and see what photographic opportunities I can find.

Everybody loves the moon!

This photo of the moon was taken about a week ago, on my first day out after being quarantined for a week.

I'm looking forward to the full moon next month.  I hope to get something a little more spectacular now that I have the new, more powerful lens.

But who owns the boat?

The boat was another photo taken on the beach trek the other day.

It's after midnight and the dogs are looking at me through the gate to the lounge room and I'm sure they are thinking to themselves ... why aren't we all in bed yet?

So this is another short post, which sometimes, is a good thing!

Tomorrow I hope to have an interesting tale about my walk around the lake.

I also hope to have been for a walk with Vegan Chickie and Juniper with the new stroller.

Photos to follow ... of course!

Nite all.

Daddy's Little Angel

This morning I went mud walking (well I kind of walked around the edge of the mud really).

I was amazed at how many birds were enjoying the mud!  There were Ibis, Collared Kingfisher, Shags and some long legged birds that looked a bit like Herons.

Collared Kingfisher

See the little wet marks where his feet were on the stick?

The Kingfishers are so pretty and colourful ... almost as pretty as the Bee Eaters.

But the Ibis!!!  OH MY GOODNESS!!  Has anyone seen them bury their heads in the mud???

They were plodding around in the mud, and at first I saw them just putting their beaks into the mud, but then I watched them for a while and they were putting their whole heads into the mud!!

Ibis burying his head in the mud!

It was disgusting!  When they lifted their heads out of the mud, they had a thick brown coating of sludge glistening in the sunlight.  EW! But I didn't get a photo of the muddy face.

Little Chicklet was a happy little vegemite again today.

Happy Little Vegemite

Bare-chested Chef being a wonderful Daddy.

She loves her Daddy :o)  and she's his little angel.

Nite all.

Signs of Spring

Saw my first Bee Eater of the season today!

Eating a very precious bee!

They are truly beautiful birds, but the problem is,  they eat all of the bees in the garden.  Any good gardener knows that bees are very important in your garden ... especially your vegetable garden.

Question is ... how do you keep the balance?

It was a perfectly glorious day today and the tide was out this morning, which left lots of sand for people and their dogs to run on.

I think I'll wear my old 'mud slopping' shoes tomorrow morning so that I can go for a walk out on the sand banks and explore.  You never know what kind of marine wonders you might find at low tide!

My beautiful little Chicklet was in such a happy and chatty mood today.  She must love her Daddy because she spent most of the day singing  Dadadadadadada!  She is so cute :o)  and so happy!

It's still Winter, but these last few days have felt gloriously like Spring, which is my favourite time of the year.  Tomorrow will also be glorious and will require my full and complete attention, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I spent the morning riding around town in the sunshine and catching up with a lot of locals!

So much fresh air and sunshine ... I'm surprised that I'm not already completely healed!

I took some photos of our front garden today ... for those of you who saw the photos of the new garden on facebook last year, here is an update.

Actually, I will show the before and after shots here as well.

From this ...

to this ...

and now it's this ...

We are considering entering it into the Howard Garden Festival for gardens under the age of three.

The hedge along the front is going to look pretty spectacular in a month or two because they will be in full flower.  Purple and white flowers.

I'll take photos again in Spring.  The Geisha Girl will also be in full flower, along with the two Frangipani Trees and the Kangaroo Paw.

It will look and smell wonderful!!

Ok now I am free to go to sleep!

Nite all.

My Last Day of Quarantine

I am making today my last day of quarantine!

Tomorrow morning I am going to get out of bed, dress immediately and go out on my trike to greet the day!

I will have my trusty camera (Bob) with me and I will get my coffee and find my way to the boat ramp and my boys!

I'm a bit excited about being back in the land of the living!

By The Sea

Fly Away

A couple of photos that I haven't shared with you yet.

Tomorrow, I hope to have some new, fresh photos to share.  I may even be brave enough to get up at dawn, if it's cloudy enough, and catch some sunrise shots.

Adoring Husband cooked me another delicious dinner tonight and is now sleeping silently beside me in our king sized bed ... which is a bit of a worry, because he is not generally a 'silent' sleeper, but he IS breathing and that is always a good sign :o)

Time to get some beauty sleep in preparation for my big day out tomorrow ... unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to cuddle Chicklet ... there may be some residual germs to shake off yet, but the fresh air and sunshine will fix that in a few days.

I noticed on the news tonight, that they discussed a higher number of flu cases in Queensland than usual, so I guess I am just one of many others.

I reckon my immune system will now be strengthened up for at least the next three years, so I should be healthy as an ox for a while!

Joy to the world!  Quarantine is over!  Let me at 'em!  Wahoo!

Nite all.

Up and About!

This morning, I woke up feeling like my health had taken a step backwards and I was feeling very sorry for myself.

By about 10am, I was feeling good enough to get out of bed, have a shower, get dressed (in actual clothes instead of pyjamas!) put on a little make up and find my way outside to enjoy some sunshine!

This afternoon, when my lovely visitors arrived, I was able to greet them at the door (eventually) and have a little social time with them in our outdoor area.

The wonderful men of the house, Adoring Husband and The Bare-chested Chef, cooked us all a delicious dinner of salmon with a tantalising variety of vegetables and salads to choose from.

So today has been a huge improvement on the last four and that makes me extremely happy!

The lovely Quilting Queen and Little Genius have now retired to their motel because they are heading home early tomorrow morning.

Thank goodness I at least got a few hours of time in with them before they left!

Next time, when Quilting Queen brings her husband, Monty Python Fan, with her, I plan on being incredibly strong and fit and healthy.

The other thing I did today was take a photo to submit in our photographer's group challenge.

I think I mentioned yesterday that the theme was 'glass'.

There have been a lot of photos posted for it and everyone has had some great ideas.

There are no prizes.  Just a boost to our self esteem and the closing date is tomorrow.

Anyway, it's good to be up and about!

Nite all

A Little Ray of Sunshine

This morning I snuck out to the back yard and sat in the sunshine for twenty minutes.

Some Vitamin D can't go astray to aid my healing process.

My photography group on the Flickr website has been issued a photographic challenge entitled 'Glass' and the closing date is 20th July.  I have my thinking cap on and there are a couple of ideas floating around in my head.

Tomorrow, I hope to find the energy to set up my idea and take a couple of photos to enter into the challenge.

Tomorrow is also our visitors' last day here.  The Quilting Queen and her Genius Daughter are on a road trip and have got to spend some quality time with Vegan Chickie, The Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet while I have been quarantined.

I hope to be able to spend a little time outside in the sunshine with them tomorrow, but I am definitely not well enough to go anywhere, and I don't want to spread my germs.

There are so many things that I should be doing by now.

Seeing my boys at the boat ramp on the weekend, Christmas in July on Saturday night, golf yesterday, swimming tomorrow, followed by morning tea with the ladies, and most importantly, cuddling my Chicklet!!

Things that made me smile today ...

How cute!  Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Isn't this adorable?!

Vegan Chickie was my Mother's 'Little Ray of Sunshine'.  Chicklet is my 'Little Ray of Sunshine'.  There is a song by Brian Cadd, and sung by the 1970s band 'Axiom' ...

This is the song that my mother dedicated to Vegan Chickie when she was a baby and now I think of it when I look at Chicklet.

Just thought I would share a Little Ray of Sunshine :o)

Nite all

I'm Home but still Missing my Family!

I have quarantined myself in the bedroom and Adoring Husband is waiting on me and providing me with sustenance so that I don't share my germs with little Chicklet.

My symptoms are, a very raw throat, headaches, aching joints, increasing congestion, coughing, sneezing and lethargy.

These are not symptoms that I would like to share with anyone, let alone a five month old baby.

This is the first time that I've been sick since moving here three years ago and the last time I fell ill, was when I visited BGWLBH the time before last.

I caught that virus at the airport though, because I had seven hours there between flights.

I am generally very healthy and I can nurse Adoring Husband through flus and colds without falling ill myself.

This is really annoying.

I've been home for three days and haven't been able to cuddle my little Chicklet once.  I miss my family and I am willing myself well with every ounce of my being!!

I am even missing out on spending time with our visitors from down south, who have come to town for a few days.

Just another day or two (please?!) for me to be well again.

I promise not to whinge about being sick anymore ... just had to vent one more time.

Thank you for listening!!

Nite all  

It Got Me!

While on holidays, I came into contact with many, many people who were carrying some kind of virus.  They were coughing and voiceless and lethargic.  Even BGWLBH was ill for a time.

I fought it as best I could by taking regular doses of Olive Leaf Extract, Manuka honey, Vitamin C, drinking lots of water, eating apples and onions.

Unfortunately during the night of my first night home, I woke up feeling like I had swallowed razor blades.

I have spent the day locked in my bedroom, hoping to keep my nasty germs away from little Chicklet ... we all know that she needs to build her immunities, but I am NOT going to be the one who causes her to feel this crappy!

Hopefully if I take it easy for the next day or two, I will get well quickly and be able to give her big kisses and cuddles again.

So my posts between now and when I'm well again, may be brief or non-existent.

Just thought I would let you know, in case there is anybody out there who cares.

I fought a good hard battle, but in the end, it got me!!

Nite all  

The End of my Holiday

Sadly, I have to farewell BGWLBH tomorrow.

I fly out early tomorrow morning and will be home by lunchtime.

I'm all packed.

I had to mail a big box home, full of most of the stuff that I bought while here.  It cost me $21 to post!!

I am also leaving behind, my big wool coat, a pair of slippers, some winter pyjamas and a tracksuit ... and STILL, I will have to sit on my suitcase to get the zipper shut!!

It has been a really great week.  Even though we did nothing spectacular, it's been so nice to spend some time with my friend.

We've laughed and whinged and bitched and gossiped and moaned and sniggered and giggled and teased and debated and argued and smiled and shared and dreamed.

I hope that we get to do it all again next year if she decides to come up and spend some holiday time with me at my end of the world.

It will be sad to say goodbye tomorrow.  It's always sad to say goodbye and there are ALWAYS tears!!  Ugh!

On the other hand ...

It will be wonderful to be back in the arms of my Adoring Husband and I am so looking forward to seeing my little family again ... Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef and little Chicklet.  

I am also looking forward to soaking up some of the warmer weather!

The weather here has ranged from a minimum of 3C degrees to a maximum of 12C degrees for the past few days (did I already mention that in another post???) and the cold is beginning to set in my bones.

It might take a day or two to completely thaw out.

Anyway, it's now midnight and I have to be up in four hours!!

Nite all.

My Little Sweetie Possum

Another trivia packed day, along with some shopping, gambling, cooking, eating and knitting.

I thought it was time to bring you some updated photos of my little sweetie possum!

Looking a little bit grumpy

But not for long!

Too cute for grumps!

Vegan Chickie has been emailing me photos every day while I've been away.  I'm looking forward to some big cuddles when I get home ... from everybody, but especially from my sweetie possum!

Pretty colours to look at

Ready to move, but just not quite sure how!

Won't take me long, just you wait and see!

Gotta make sure she gets her vitamin D every day with twenty minutes in the morning sunshine.  We'll have to cut that back to ten minutes when the weather starts to change for Summer!

She's such a cutie pitootie!

Nite all.

Trivia Queens

A few years ago, BGWLBH came on holidays with Adoring Husband and I.

At the end of the holidays, she and I decided to extend our stay an extra week and Adoring Husband returned home because he had to work.

During that week, we attended a trivia night at one of the local hotels.  It was a regular weekly event that was attended by quite a few locals who filled tables with six and eight people per team.

BGWLBH and I only had each other, so we sat at one of the tall tables and joined in the fun on our own.

By the end of the night, we were victorious!!  The two of us, on our own, defeated about six other teams!

We walked home from the hotel carrying our prizes (which were silly little tokens not worth much) and singing the Queen song 'We Are The Champions' at the tops of our voices.  We were sober!

It will always be one of the highlights in our friendship and something that we brag about to others and reminisce about with each other often.

We have always enjoyed trivia.  Our brains are full of useless information!  In our younger days, we often held trivia parties on the weekends (along with pictionary, balderdash among many other games).

Years ago, we found a trivia site online, where we competed against other people from all over the world.

BGWLBH had the fastest brain and I had the fastest fingers on the keyboard, so between us, we did pretty well and developed a bit of a reputation.

The reason I tell you all of this, is because it's been a good while since we played trivia regularly together (a good six or seven years) and today we found a new trivia site online and spent about eight hours playing trivia!

It was fun ... although I must say, we are not as fast as we used to be!

We spent a lot of time yelling things like "You know!!  That boy!!  In that movie!!  The movie with that young girl in it!!  You know!!??  Yes you DO!!"

A bit more frustrating than it once was!

If anybody out there is interested in a bit of trivia fun, try this site ...

www.sporcle.com

We've had many enjoyable trivia hours on it and expect that soon we will be Trivia Queens again!!

Nite all
 

A Bird is a Bird is a Bird.

Here we are safe n sound.

All of those lovely birds that we saw on the drive over on Friday, were nowhere to be seen on the drive home today.

The first fellow that caught our attention, drinking out of the gutter??

They were all right between the river and the road.

Stretching on tippy toes and stretching his wings!

I have a couple of photos of ducks, geese and other feathery creatures to share with you, but photographic opportunities have been rare.

Feeding time!

I do believe that this is a shag on a pole!  A goose and a galah in the background!

27 Top Notch (or crested) pigeons on the power lines. 

BGWLBH and I spent the evening playing trivia online.  She trotted off to bed at midnight and here I am trying to create a new post with a frazzled, sleepy brain!

So, at 1am, it's time for this bird to slide between the sheets and get some beauty sleep myself.

Nite all.

Shots in the Night

How convenient that our motel is situated within walking distance of Maccas!

That's how we started our day.  We walked to Maccas for breakfast.

We all slept restlessly last night.  Our motel is right on the main road and we each live in areas that have absolutely no traffic during sleeping hours, so the traffic disturbed our sleep through the night.

At one point during the night, we all three heard what we thought were gunshots.  There were about 20 shots and I heard some yelling in the distance, but then silence.

When we woke this morning, it was the first question we asked each other ... had we each heard it?

There has been nothing on the news and I found nothing online to indicate that there was any disturbance reported.

It definitely happened, but perhaps it was something innocent like a cap gun or fire crackers or any number of less sinister things.

We are right next door to the hospital, so we would have heard further commotion if it was serious!

The rest of our day was filled with a trip to the local markets early this morning, hospital visits, shopping for important stuff (I only bought a pair of socks today!), lunch, deciding to stay one more night and then dinner at Hog's Breath.

Sorely disappointed in Hog's Breath for the second time in a row (two different locations) so it's now crossed off my list of social eating establishments.  Poor and slow service.  Very average food and not reasonably priced at all for what it is.

So now BGWLBH and I are watching the end of a movie (Copycat) before hopefully falling into a deeper and more relaxing sleep than last night.  (Although the movie, Copycat, is hardly conducive for relaxation!)

Looking forward to the trip home tomorrow and hopefully getting some good photos along the way.  They will be happy day shots instead of scary shots in the night!

Nite all!