Day 3 of a Year in my Life

I'm grateful for extended family, who even though we see each other rarely and for very short periods of time, it feels just like we saw each other yesterday and it feels so comfortable and there is always love.

Best Cousin in the World

Kids of the Olympiad - see parents below.

The Beautiful People - more cousins and the parents of the above children.

Cousins, Uncles, Aunties and all of their children, grandchildren and beyond ... there must be close to a hundred of them, if not more!

I never feel unwelcome and the bonds that I formed with each of them in my childhood still feel strong and connected today.  Those connections are also special because they make me feel a little closer to my parents, who have both passed on.

So thank you ... family ... :D

Speaking of family.  We had a lovely day today with Best Cousin in the World and her hubby, Marco Polo.

After breakfast on the water front, then some touristy stuff in The Bay this morning, we came back home and spent six hours at the local pub, playing pool, drinking quite large amounts of alcohol (some more than others!) and then having dinner there, before walking home in the light rain.

We, 'the girlies', beat the boys at pool!!  Yay for us!!  We are the champions!!

Nite all.

Day 2 of A Year in my Life.

I feel incredibly grateful for our friends, Woman of Many Talents, and her partner, Bob the Builder, who were willing to take time out of their very busy lives to come with us to Bundaberg as our support team to drive us home after Adoring Husband had his medical procedure.

Our lives have been so busy this year, that we haven't spent much time together at all, so it's even more meaningful that they didn't even hesitate when we asked this huge favour.

This photo is a true representation of Woman of Many Talents.  Casual, relaxed and always happy.  She exudes a warmth and a vibrance that makes people feel welcome in her presence.

She is beautiful inside and out.

Thank you for being my friend and thank you for being there in our time of need.  I look forward to one day, repaying the favour in some way.

'Best Cousin in the World' and her husband Marco Polo, arrived late this afternoon.

We've had a great afternoon and evening catching up and drinking wine and getting each other up-to-date on family matters.  We have a whole day together tomorrow and I will hopefully get to share our favourite spot for dinner and a sunset, weather permitting.

Right now, it's way past my bed time.

Nite all.

Day 1 of 'A Year in my Life'

I have joined a few photography group pages in facebook over the past year and recently, in one of them, I've been watching a young woman in her mid twenties keep an album of things for which she is grateful, who and what she loves, and what fills her days for 365 days.

She entitled it "A Year in my Life".

She began this album on the 1st of September and as I was going through it today, and reading her blurb beside each photo, I felt so good, that I decided that I'd like to start one myself.

I considered starting the album in facebook, but I think I'd rather share my year of photos in here - because the people I care about the most, read this regularly.

Vegan Chickie recently put me onto an 'app' called a Gratitude Journal which I downloaded onto my iphone and have written in about half a dozen times, so that's where I will start.

I'm pretty certain that EVERYBODY knows what my first photo will be ...

A photo taken by Vegan Chickie.  Look at those little blond curls and that cheeky smile.

I am grateful for Crazy Crazy Chicklet.

I stand in awe of that beautiful, wonderful, amazing child as I watch her grow and learn and become a little person.  I watch how her parents are teaching her to be strong and brave and bright and adventurous, while I get to be 'Boz' and give her smiles and love and time.

She brings me such joy and I try to soak up every moment that I get to share with her.  She has me so starstruck that all I can do is watch her every movement and listen to her every sound and I am incapable of having an intelligent conversation when she is around.

I even have tears of joy as I write this!

While I napped this afternoon,  I got two phone calls, which I obviously didn't answer, because I was sleeping, so my caller left two voice messages.

The caller was Chicklet and she left the most adorable, talkative little messages for me.  I giggle to myself every time I listen to them.  Thank you my little sweetie possum ... I'm sorry I missed your call, but I'm glad I have the messages to listen to :D

I LOVE LOVE LOVE you to pieces and am so grateful to have you in my life.

Thank you for listening.

Nite all.

  

Things that make me nod

Here are some things that grabbed my attention today and made me nod.

I am happy BUT I'm feeling uninspired because there is nothing happening in my photography world right now.

I think I'm going to have to do the November Photo a Day challenge, just to force myself to get creative, before I lose my mojo altogether!

A photo from last week - the colour of the sun was pretty special.

I think I'm addicted to Home Ice Cream's - Fruit and Juice ice blocks.  I'm outta controlllllllll!!!

Nite all.

It's Official

I am pleased to announce that an MRI today, verified that Adoring Husband, does indeed, have a brain :D

We drove all the way to Bundaberg with Woman of Many Talents and her partner Bob the Builder.

Adoring Husband wasn't allowed to drive after his MRI, so they came along and drove us home after lunch at Sizzlers.

They made, what could have been quite a stressful day, very pleasant and much easier to handle.

Thank you lovely people :D

I spent the entire day without my camera!!  **Look of genuine shock**

After proving that he has a brain, Adoring Husband then ordered me a new camera - the Canon 5D Mark III - which will arrive in 5 days, just in time for our first road trip with the campervan!

That's very exciting!

Nite all.

Chicklet's Gift

So ... I got this t-shirt made for Chicklet, to remind her of me, because she has moved two and a half hours away and I won't see her as often.

I thought I might get 50 t-shirts made, of varying sizes, and send them to random addresses all around Australia - and then wait to see somebody walking down the street wearing one!

How weird would that be!?

Maybe Chicklet would see other people wearing my photo too and point and say "That's my Boz!"

If you are a random stranger who has just happened upon this blog today ... Boz is what my 20 month old granddaughter calls me, instead of grandma or nanna or granny.

Update on Adoring Husband's Mum ... happily, there was nothing more sinister with her injuries and she has now returned to the nursing home ... much to her relief!

We have a big day in Bundaberg tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

They've Moved

Poor Mama and Dadoo woke up with the flu this morning ... on the day they were moving.

We all arrived safe n sound at the Sunshine Coast and unpacked the trailer and the cars.

Here is the lovely Chicklet unpacking while Mama lies on the couch drinking a healthy fruit smoothie and feeling very much under the weather.

Let's hope they get well quickly and let's also hope that little Chicklet is strong enough to fight off the germs and stay well.

We had an uneventful trip home ... oh except when the fuel light began to flash and we were still ten kilometres from a service station!  Well done Adoring Husband :D well done for getting us fuelled up before it was too late!

By gosh, this blog post would have been so much more interesting, with a touch of comedy, if we'd been just a little further from a service station!

It's been a big day, so I'm off to have a dessertspoon of fresh honey from the bees, to ward off the Vegan Chickie germs, and then I'm climbing into bed.

Nite all

No Words

Here she is...

We had a fabulous afternoon together, mostly in the garden, and I've been feeling the love.

Tomorrow they move to the Sunshine Coast and our lunches and coffee visits come to an end.  

**insert sad face here**

Our visits may be less often but they will last longer!  We will look forward to those visits.

**insert smiley face here**

Adoring Husband's 95 yr old Mum had a fall at the nursing home tonight and she has been admitted to hospital.  She hit her head and injured herself badly enough that she has to have an MRI to check that she doesn't have a brain bleed or any other damage.

We hope that her injuries are superficial and that she can go back to the nursing home, without any lasting effects, as soon as possible.

Nite all.

Bloody Kids!

Today was a 'pupil free' day, so all the kids had a day off.

There were 17 pelicans congregated at the end of one of the boat ramps this morning so I pedalled down the track, parked my trike and rushed down to the end of the ramp to start snapping away.

There were three kids at the end of the ramp.  Two boys and a girl, ranging in ages from about 6 - 10 yrs.  The boys were the oldest.

They were yelling at the tops of their lungs and waving their bright red fishing nets around as they ran back and forth across the ramp trying to scare the pelicans away.

Then I noticed the carcass of a very large Cod floating in the water.

It was way too big for the pelicans to ever be able to pick it up and/or swallow/eat it, but they were having a darned good shot at it, while the boys were trying desperately to pull the carcass in with their plastic red fishing nets that were too small and not strong enough to pick up such a large carcass.

Finally, the boys won, and dragged the carcass through the water to the ramp, and they pulled it onto the concrete edge.

The pelicans all paddled close to the fish and the boys began yelling at them again, THEN picked up the large stones on the edge of the ramp and began throwing them at the pelicans!

I yelled "Hey! Don't do that!"

They looked at me as if I was speaking a language that they had never heard before!  They continued to throw rocks.

I yelled "Hey!  Don't throw rocks at the birds!"

They gave me a cursory glance and continued to throw the rocks.

I yelled louder "Hey!!"

The boys stopped and looked at me and decided not to throw any more stones, but the girl just laughed and picked up the biggest rock that she could handle and threw it at the birds.

That's when I saw her mother come running down the ramp and yelled at her to stop throwing stones at the pelicans.

She immediately stopped throwing stones.

Then the woman looked at me and said ... "Your photos on the wall in the Bakery are awesome!  I see now where you find your subjects and I can tell, by your photos, that you really love what you do."

That is NOT what I was expecting her to say!  However, it was nice, and I thanked her.

She wandered back up to her seat and continued to read.  The kids stopped throwing rocks and I continued on along the beach to take more photos of more pelicans.

As I was returning, about 15 minutes later, I heard the little girl screaming and the mother was carrying her up the boat ramp.  By the time I reached the boat ramp, where my trike was parked, the little girl was limping back down the ramp towards the water.

I asked "What have you done to yourself?"  She lifted her foot up to show me a cut under her foot.  It wasn't a bad one but it was still bleeding a little.

I SO wanted to say to her "See!  That's what happens when you throw stones at birds!"

What I ACTUALLY said was "Oh dear!  You need to be careful of those sharp stones and shells!"

Bloody kids!  ... Nice mother though :D  LOL

Nite all.

The Races (continued)

I promised yesterday to tell you all about race day.

Adoring Husband and Dirty Old Man drove over to Torbanlea early in the morning to take our gazebo and set it up on the grounds in a good position.

They were surprised by the lack of security.  They drove straight in and found the best spot on the grounds.  It was right beside the track, close to the amenities, across the path from the beer tent and the bookies tent and under a tree for shade!

They set up the gazebo and lined it with folding chairs and a folding table and Dirty Old Man hid his esky under a chair and blanket.

Then they came home.

The rule this year was 'no eskies'.  It was advertised that way.

To me, 'no eskies' means no eskies, no food and no alcohol.  So Adoring Husband and I, who are good law abiding citizens, took no esky.

Our friends, who are obviously NOT law abiding citizens, ALL either took eskies OR snuck alcohol in their folding chair bags or handbags or some other way.

They all got away with it because there was no checking at the gate!

Luckily, Adoring Husband and I had free passes, given to us by a local business, which entitled us to free food and free alcohol in the corporate tent.

This was lovely for Adoring Husband who spent a bit of time in the corporate tent which was set up in the centre of the race track.  He got his share of free food and drink.

I stayed at the gazebo and drank water all day, by choice, but the only gluten free food available was German Sausage.

The first race of the day almost ended in disaster - I guess the jockey probably thinks it was a disaster, considering that he was thrown from the horse and he broke his arm and some ribs!

While the ambulance took him off to hospital, the race meeting could not continue until the ambulance returned so they had to re-arrange the schedule and 'fashions of the field' was presented much earlier than planned.

The remaining races seemed to go off without a hitch, thank goodness.

Later in the day, there were tug'o'wars on the track.  Males and females.  One male wore a dress for the occasion and it wasn't a pretty sight ... but it was a lot of fun!

I was surprised by how many people really put in the effort to dress as if they were at a big Flemington or Randwick race meet.  Beautiful dresses and fascinators, men in suits, ties and hats and there also didn't seem to be a big problem with alcohol this year.

Usually, by the end of the day, there are drunk people asleep on the ground or being dragged by their friends out of the area, or physically fighting each other.  Most people were very well behaved this year.

There were lots of activities for the kids too.  Candle making, face painting, blow up castle, rock climbing wall, a merry-go-round and a circus workshop to learn circus tricks including juggling.

So it was a lovely day spent with good friends who all behaved themselves and didn't get too drunk ... although a few of them were going to the local pub after they dropped their gear off home, so I imagine there may have been some sore heads this morning.

It was Adoring Husband's birthday today.  He spent it mowing the lawn, searching for paperwork for our oven which has decided to set it's alarm off and it can't be stopped unless we turn it off at the main power board.  Luckily it's still under warranty, so it will be fixed.

Then he played with the campervan for a little while.  He cooked dinner and then did the dishes.

Nothing special - but I figure a new campervan and a new car are pretty good presents for a 55 year old man and of course, he is the luckiest man on the planet to have ME for a wife :D

Last thing this afternoon, I poked my head out the front door to be greeted with this ...

... so I grabbed my camera and ran outside with bare feet and no glasses to capture the moment before the sun quickly disappeared over the horizon.

Time to take my law abiding self off to bed.

Nite all.

Torbanlea Races

Here are a few photos from today's race day ...

I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Nite all.

Little Swift

Here are some photos of our campervan!

Yes that's right!  Adoring Husband's current obsession!

Tomorrow is Torbanlea Race Day

http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/things-to-see-and-do/torbanlea-picnic-races/index.cfm

... and I intend to spend the day wandering around and capturing 'moments'.  I've never walked around or explored at these races before.  I usually sit under our gazebo and there I stay for the whole day.  This year will be different!

Watch this space!

Nite all

Big Day In

It's been a big day.  Nothing exciting, just full on and I think I only sat down for about 30 minutes all up, today.

So I am exhausted and am struggling to stay awake as I write this.

This evening at about 5pm, we grabbed some wine, cheese, strawberries, dips and crackers AND our cameras and we all ... and by 'all', I mean Little Brother, Charlie Chuckles, Adoring Husband and myself, drove down to the Lions Park and watched the sun set.

It was a most pleasant 90 minutes and we only came home because Charlie Chuckles and Adoring Husband were cold.

I had put dinner in the oven before we went out, so it was ready when we came home.

Here is tonight's sunset shot.

Nothing spectacular, but still very pleasant to the eye.

Now we are ALL heading off to bed, including me!!

Nite all.

The Waiting Game

Tonight I am sitting up waiting for my brother and his girl to arrive.  They are staying for a couple of days, but they won't arrive til late tonight.

Today, Adoring Husband ordered the new car.  A Suzuki Vitara.  We won't get it til the end of the month-ish, so it will be here by the time we go on our holiday.  For now, we wait.

I'm 99.9% certain that Adoring Husband still hasn't read my blog for quite some time, as his obsessions with the camper van and the car continue.  I say that because he hasn't made any comments about my digs over the past few days :D  So I wait.

Bit of a waiting game happening around here.

Waiting for Saturday when we are attending the annual Torbanlea Races.  We've been twice before, but this time I plan on using it for photography.  I'm not going to dress up for 'fashions in the field'.  I'm going to wear jeans and comfortable shoes and my cowboy hat and I am going to spend the day wandering around and getting some interesting photos.

I'm actually pretty excited about it!

Anyway little brother is arriving any minute - gotta go!

Nite all.

Pumpkin Time

It's already after midnight!  So this will be short.

I really loved the light in this photo that I took yesterday afternoon at the lagoon.  I was hoping to get a shot for the other flickr challenge "Natural Light/Sunflare".  This isn't good enough for the challenge but I still like it.

We had some neighbours over for a barbecue dinner tonight so that they could have a look at the new campervan.  It has been a very pleasant evening, even though they left early because it's a school night and they have a young school age daughter.

Oh and Adoring Husband reports that the bed in the campervan is very comfortable :D

I can report that the kingsize bed in our bedroom is very very comfortable for one person!  That's where I'm headed right now.

Nite all.

He's home.

Adoring Husband arrived home much earlier today than I expected, but I don't think he rushed home to see me.

I believe that he rushed home to see the new campervan!

He arrived home and after a short obligatory conversation with me regarding our separate weekends as grandparents, he made his way outside and began to play with is new toy.

The campervan is now set up in the back yard, complete with cutlery in drawers, crockery in cupboards, tv installed, beds made, water connected and Adoring Husband all curled up snug in the bed!

I think they call that 'Quality Control'  :D

His suitcase is still packed and takes pride of place inside the family room door with the camera bag sitting proudly beside it.

If I hadn't mentioned it here tonight, they would probably stay there for a week, but if Adoring Husband reads this in the morning, they will be removed and unpacked ... however ... he may be so obsessed with the campervan, that he just may not even read this blog for a few days!

Watch this space :)

In the meantime, I have completed all five briefs for the Photo5 competition.

Little People/Scale

Tissue Paper/Strong Colour 

Wind

Fishing Wire/Black&White

Spaghetti/Portrait

I had a different idea for the fishing wire brief but my plans fell through, so I've used the back up photo.

On that note, I'm off to climb into my big king-sized bed, all alone, to sleep soundly for the third night in a row.

Nite all.

Early night

Even though I jokingly harassed Vegan Chickie about having more kids, I would like to announce that I don't think I would have the energy for two Chicklets!

Vegan Chickie will be snorting in her tea right now and thinking to herself "how does she think I feel dealing with this little ball of energy 24/7??"

Well I absolutely adored having them here for just under 48 hours and I loved spending time with my precious little Chicklet.

You have no idea how controlled I am - I could rave on and on and on about how amazing that child is ... probably worse than the average grandparent, but I know how annoying some grandparents can be when it comes to their grandkids, so I control myself.

You're welcome :D

Instead I will pummel you with photos ...

Adoring Husband will be home tomorrow, hopefully with a gozillion photos of his own little granddaughter with whom he spent the weekend, learning how to be a 'poppy'.

I hope I get to share some photos of her here tomorrow.

For now, I am taking my exhausted little self to bed.

Nite all.