Play School Day

We saw the Play School concert today and I know that I promised to tell you all about it, but I've been so busy editing the photos, it's too late to do anything except share the photos tonight.

Tomorrow night I will try to remember all the details and share the day.

Nite all.

55 Minutes Late!

That's how late my train was today!  Not that it mattered to me, but it did to some people who needed to catch a plane and were very concerned about getting to the airport on time.  Personally, I think it's pretty silly to give yourself such a small window of time and expect public transport to get you there within it!

There were only 8 other people in my carriage and all but one of them had a horrible cough and cold.  There was sneezing and coughing and nose blowing for two whole hours, all around me!  It will be interesting to see if my body is strong enough to withstand such germ warfare!

Anyway, I arrived safe n sound and my little Chicklet was happy to see me and my bag full of goodies.  We've had a lovely afternoon and read lots of books this evening.  Tomorrow will be a big day, which I will tell you all about at the end of it.

I have lots of quotes to share with you today .. because we all know how travel days are not newsworthy and they tire me out.  The first few are serious and the last few cracked me up!

Nite all.

Packing

How nice that I don't have to get up at 4am to stand on a cold train platform waiting for my ride tomorrow!

I booked myself onto the later train, so that I can sleep in and then take my time getting ready and finishing packing in the morning.

Considering it's already midnight as I write this, I'm feeling even more relieved that I chose to do that.

I got a fair bit of studying done today, as well as all my washing and ironing and most of my packing, so I'm not feeling any stress at all.

There'll be no photo shoots this trip, so I only have to take a couple of lenses for the family and Chicklet pics.  That will reduce the weight of my baggage by a couple of kgs.

My next #100happydays photo ...

Happiness is studying while enjoying a pot of liquorice tea :D

... and now I'm outta here!

Nite all.

Not Gunna Happen

It's been a very productive day, but not for studying.

Time with my boys at the Seat of Knowledge, morning tea with the girls and then straight home to the kitchen!

I'll be away for 4 nights, so I've prepared some meals for Adoring Husband.  He can cook for himself, but he would eat steak with mushroom sauce for every meal if he had his way, so I've prepared some meals packed full of nutritional vegetables.

Savoury Mince and Veggies,  Hot Chilli Chicken and Veggies, Beef and Veggie Casserole and I prepared some sweet potato chips, coated them in coconut oil and himalayan salt and bagged them in meal sized portions, so that all AH has to do is spread them on a tray and cook them in the oven.

I got my washing done ready for my trip.

At 4.45pm, the sky was looking promising for a nice sunset, so I packed my camera gear into my trike basket and pedalled down to the river.

It was less than impressive, but sometimes you can make something out of nothing...

I returned home and made some chocolate bark with premium dark chocolate (sugar free and dairy free) and macadamia nuts, pistachio nuts and hazelnuts.  Adoring Husband had a hankering for some chocolate, so the bark should last a few days (I hope).

Tomorrow should be free for mostly study.  I know that I won't get my assignment finished, but I'll be able to get a lot done .. all going to plan.

AH photographed a spectacular sunrise this morning .. while I slept soundly under the warm doona.  It was a cold morning and I didn't want to get out of bed until almost 8am AGAIN!  I'd be willing to get out of bed for a sunrise like that .. let's see what tomorrow brings.

Nite all.

Too Perfect

It was a very cold morning .. just 6C .. so I stayed in bed until almost 8am!  No need to get up any earlier when it was so nice and snug and comfortable in bed.

A nice hot shower got me moving and I still made it to the Seat of Knowledge in time to spend fifteen minutes with the boys.

From there I headed to the shops and after checking the mail and getting some meat for tea, I ordered myself a coffee and sat in the sunshine by myself for half an hour.  It was a delightful way to spend a quiet morning.

Now we all know that I had big plans for a day full of study .. but the day was just too beautiful to spend it inside, so I pedalled around town for 3 hours, taking photos and chatting with different people along the way.

I saw an Osprey and chased it clear across town, speeding along the overgrown track that circles the lake at the back of the newest estate.  The track is so poorly maintained that some of it is covered with pretty deep sand, which I didn't know until I was IN it and almost went over the handle bars!  That was a shocking moment that got my heart pumping!

I watched the Osprey dive from the sky straight down to the lake on the other side of the road and even though I had a good view of the area, I didn't see where he landed and I didn't see him fly skyward.  I trekked through the bush and along the eroded path trying to find him, but there was no sign of the bird anywhere.

Bugger!

I did find some gorgeous colour that really brightened this Winter's day ...

I finally came home just before lunch and hit the books.

I studied for over 5 hours and caught up on a 2 hour tutorial that would have been only 1 hour and 40 minutes if I could have edited all the 'ums' and 'ahs' out it!

So now I don't feel guilty about my morning fun.

It's been a full day and I think I'm done.

Nite all.

New Challenge

Day three of the #100happydays challenge ...

I look forward to pedalling to the post office every day to check the mail .. especially if I'm expecting a parcel!

The May challenge for the flickr group is 'Repetition in Nature' and I have a great idea for it, so watch this space.

I finally submitted my first assignment .. how scary is it to press that 'send' button!?  It asks the question "Are you sure? You cannot make any changes after your assignment is submitted."  UGH!  Do I?  Don't I? *squeeze eyes shut*  *press 'send'*  B-R-E-A-T-H-E

Next challenge, finish second assignment.  So much reading to do.  So many questions to answer.

Feeling a lot better today and even spent some time in the warm sunshine by the river this morning.  It was only 12C when I left home - cold enough to wear jeans and shoes!  Unheard of!

So tomorrow the challenge is to complete all three of the above challenges.  Wish me luck.

Nite all.

Feeling Poorly

I missed the First Aid course today.

I woke up feeling very much under the weather and decided to stay at home.  I went back to bed and slept until almost 11am!  I spent most of the day, after I woke, on the couch and when I thought I was feeling better, decided to cook some muffins, but halfway through the process, realised that I wasn't feeling better at all!

So I'm off to bed early and hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll be 100%.

My second photo for the 100happydays challenge ...

My chickens running amok in the back garden make me happy .. although I would be even happier if they laid me an egg!

Nite all.

New Challenge

I've started a new photography challenge.

It's called 100 Happy Days.

Every day, for 100 days, I have to take a photo of something that makes me happy.

I've already cheated, because my first photo is of Chicklet, which was taken during my last visit, but I couldn't wait til next week!

The website states that 71% of all people who attempt this challenge fail.

Let's see if I can succeed.

Nite all.

Alive and Well

Gentleman Jim is alive and well.  He apologised profusely for worrying me as he did .. but he was out with a woman!  *gasp*

The boys all enjoyed their chicken broth too.

I got a lot of study done today and I finished one of my assignments :)  It's not yet submitted, but it's a relief to have the first one complete, thanks to some incredibly helpful advice from someone special.

The second assignment is already underway!

This weekend is already booked with a First Aid course, so I won't get much study done over those two days.  Tomorrow looks like it might be solidly booked with .. yes .. study!

I need to finish the second assignment so that I can book my trip to the Sunny Coast next week!

My other good news for the day is that my youngest daughter, Bubbles, has confirmed her holiday dates and will be here in August!

This is where I must talk about how precious and wonderful she is and how much I love her!

She is precious and wonderful and I love her very very much, full stop, no returns (private joke).

Now, to plan the theme party!

Nothing else to report for today.  No photos.  No quotes.  I'm done.

Nite all.

The Bird is Gone!

Yesterday, we noticed that SEB (Someone Else's Bird) had a completely bald head!  She rarely comes out of the nesting box, so we don't get to see her very often .. which is why we hadn't noticed her balding appearance.

OB (Our Bird) has been a bit aggressive with SEB lately, so I watched during the day and every time SEB tried to eat or drink, OB attacked her.

I told Adoring Husband that "enough was enough!" and that it was time to get rid of OB.  OB has been a pain in the 'you-know-what' ever since we got her.  She is loud, aggressive, anti-social and constantly annoying.  It's time to go OB!

We've had two offers in the last few months.  One from a pet shop in Hervey Bay and one from a plant nursery on the outskirts of Hervey Bay that has a large aviary on the grounds, filled with cockatiels.

While I was out this morning, Adoring Husband decided to get OB out of the cage and take her to the plant nursery.

Unfortunately, he got OB into the box, but the lid slipped and OB escaped!

Meanwhile ... SEB has not set foot out of the nesting box ALL DAY!

We know that there are 5 eggs in the box.  Three on SEB's side of the box and two on OB's side of the box.  Every time I open the box to have a look, SEB is sitting there guarding her eggs.

I wonder if she is stressed or fretting over the lost OB?

The other strange thing that occurred today was down at the Seat of Knowledge.

I took some containers of the chicken broth that I made yesterday down for the boys, but Gentleman Jim wasn't there .. which was unusual, because he usually tells us if he isn't going to be there.

So I rode to his van at the park.  His car was parked there, his shoes and socks were at the steps of the van, his slip on shoes were outside the front door of the annexe, his bath towel was draped over the chair outside, but there was no sign of Gentleman Jim.

I knocked twice and called out his name .. nothing.

I tried to look inside his bedroom window, but I'm too short and couldn't see anything.

I walked over to the caravan park office, which isn't very far from his van and asked the lady if she knew where he was.  She came over to the van and knocked on the sliding door quite loudly, but there was no answer.  She said he should have been there.

She offered to take the soup to keep it in the freezer for him and would take it to him later in the day.

I left, still feeling a little worried, but there wasn't anything else that I could do.

I assume that since nobody has knocked on my door with bad news today, it means that nothing 'untoward' has happened.

From there I rode to the shops to get my morning coffee (I can't believe I'm drinking coffee every day again!  Just one.)  and checked the mail box to find a parcel slip.  It was a big box from BGWLBH!  My birthday box, full of surprises!

Three pieces of beautiful jewellery, charms for wine glasses, some chocolate moulds with a mini spatula, a set of 3 colourful candle holders, a set of red and white striped ice cream cups.  I love our birthday tradition of sending a box full of lots of presents, all wrapped separately.  They are such fun to open!

I submitted this photo in the flickr Black & White challenge today ...

I also got a little study in today, but I need to intensify my effort tomorrow .. no distractions!

Nite all.

Write Off

I did a lot of cooking today!

I should have been studying, but I've been studying so much, I feel like our diet was beginning to suffer and I needed some time in the kitchen to make something nutritious.

I was given some small frozen chickens that were freshly killed from the farm .. plucked and cleaned, so I used one of them, plus the livers from all of them to make a delicious broth.  I simmered celery, carrot, garlic, capsicum, onion and chilli with the chicken for about 10 hours.

I strained the broth into containers and then cooked up some diced carrot, onion, silverbeet, spinach and zucchini and added that to the broth, along with the livers diced up.

Chicken livers are high in protein and are a rich source of Iron, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin A.

I got a dozen containers of broth out of that chicken, so I'll take a few containers down to the Seat of Knowledge in the morning and give them to the boys.  The Little Gnome will get a couple of containers, because he gave me the chickens.

While the broth was simmering, I made the Four Cheese Spinach Tart for our lunch to accompany a Prawn, Avocado and Grape salad.

Then for dinner I made Sweet Potato Chips and a Baby Spinach Salad to have with the Four Cheese Tart.

I got a bit of housework done today too, so even though I didn't study, I still had a productive day.

I want to finish two of my assignments by the end of this weekend, so that I can plan to spend a few days down the Sunny Coast to visit my Chicklet family.

I'm also doing a First Aid course at the SES shed on the weekend too, so that will take up some of my study time.

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done around here.  How the hell did I ever work full time?

Nite all.

A question asked of me recently .. the difference between regular table salt and Himalayan Pink salt .. in a nutshell 

I did a stupid thing today .. I had a coffee at 3pm.  It's now almost midnight and I think I'm wide awake .. I mean REALLY wide awake!  Ugh!

So I've played with a couple of old photos while watching a movie ...

... and now before I get involved in the next movie, I am going to attempt to sleep.

Nite all.

Study Free Day

I took today, Sunday, as a day of rest and spent most of it on the couch watching movies and the football.

I woke up to the smell of chicken stock still on the heat after almost 24 hours gently simmering, so I had to spend some time packaging that and loading it into the freezer, before heading off to the Seat of Knowledge.

I returned home to find Adoring Husband making a delicious bacon and egg breakfast for us, which was a good way to start a lazy day.

I've decided to make a 'vision' board for my work space.  A vision board to inspire and encourage me to study hard and fulfil the dream and plan that was in my head when I chose this course.  I still feel out of my depth, though every day gets a bit easier and I'm feeling more comfortable, so a vision board will be just the thing to help keep me focussed and enthusiastic.

I'll take a photo of it when I'm finished.

This is an old photo from a shoot that I did with some photographer friends at Coolum Beach last year, The Nikonian being one of them .. the same lovely people have invited me to Bunya Mountains in June for a weekend of friendship and photography and I'm really looking forward to that .. I always learn a lot from them when we are together.

I've missed my photography a bit lately .. I may have to rearrange my study schedule to include a couple of hours out and about with my camera.  I'd very much like to do some portrait photography of some of our local characters around town, but I know I don't have time for that right now.  If I can get ahead with my assignments .. that could be my reward!

Meanwhile, a friend suggested that I turn off my computer an hour before I go to bed .. to help me fall asleep easier at night.  So I'm doing that tonight and will turn off all technology while I sit and read one of my text books .. if that doesn't put me to sleep, nothing will!

Nite all.

Saturday

It was a most glorious day today.  It was a sparkling sunshiny day to celebrate and this morning, by the water, was positively exhilarating!

Unfortunately, I had to spend most if the day inside studying ... but I did get to do some reading on the garden swing in the fresh air.

This afternoon, when it got a little warm, we spent the time on the couch watching the football, which was pretty relaxing.

So, with no news to share, I have some facebook quotes instead!

I'm all footballed out, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

That's My Team

I'm watching a very exciting game of NRL football between South Sydney Rabbitohs and my team, Brisbane Broncos.

The score is 28-26 to South Sydney with 30 seconds to go.  Ugh!!

Rabbitohs have won.

Some poor refereeing decisions .. especially in that last few minutes .. so there is a little controversy, according to the commentators.

Ah well, you win some, you lose some!

Not much to report for the day.

Oh I sold a photo!

Somebody who bought a photo from my exhibit in 2012, contacted me to ask for a photo of a pelican, so I took all of my pelican photos to their house today, and they selected the one they liked best.

While I was there, I got a shot of a lorikeet in their back garden ..

So, selling a photo .. that's pretty special!

We didn't win anything at the club tonight.

It's 10.30pm and I think I will go to bed and try to rise early for a sunrise.  I've heard that they've been pretty spectacular lately, but I have been sound asleep every time.

Let's see what happens tomorrow!

Nite all.

Late Night Feature

Adoring Husband and I are sitting here watching the movie "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

We've lost count of how many times we've watched this movie.

I think I had watched it at least 50 times before I met AH and we've watched it at least a dozen times in the last ten years.

We had a fancy dress party for AH's 49th birthday and the theme was Rocky Horror.   Everybody dressed up .. AH as Franknfurter.  He started out wearing an overcoat to cover the skimpy costume, but after a few beverages, he soon loosened up and discarded the coat!

It was a great night.

I think we should attempt another Rocky Horror night soon.

I received a very large pink box in the mail today, from the Chicklet family.  It was my birthday gift and when I opened it, this is what I found ..

.. it's to make my desk a happy space to study at :)  I LOVE it!!

Here is my herb garden, created by Adoring Husband for my birthday ..

I still have some herbs, rosemary, thyme and mint, to transfer from the back garden to the pots yet.

Aren't I the lucky one?!

Anyway, back to the movie!

Nite all.

Happy Birthday to Meeeee

LOVED the movie 'The Other Woman' - got some good belly laughs out of that one!

LOVED lunch at Aquavue ...

It's my favourite meal there :)

Tried to buy some clothes but couldn't find anything that I wanted .. don't ya hate that!?

Adoring Husband gave me my birthday present (a rather large hanging herb garden) earlier in the week, and Kaz gave me some delicious looking hand made soap yesterday, but luckily, I got to open a gift this morning .. from my friend Lady Lynn.  I loved the sentiment on the plaque AND the sentiment in her words on the card.

The highlight of the day, was a phone call from my little Chicklet, who sang 'happy birthday' to me, firstly on a voice mail on my mobile, then in a message on my home phone and then she sang it again when I finally answered the phone!  Sooooooooo precious!!

I got lots of birthday greetings on facebook from various friends and family, as well as phone calls from my kids and my little sister.  Texts from other friends.  All in all, a pretty great day!

I squeezed in just a little study this afternoon and now I am ready for bed.

Another birthday done and dusted .. happy to have reached 54 big ones!

Nite all.

Pre-birthday gatherings

I had a really nice day today.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to sleep until after 2am, so it was quite late when I woke and I missed my time at the Seat of Knowledge, but I did make it for morning tea with the girls .. two sessions of morning tea in fact!

This meant that I didn't get home until after 11am, but I hit my workspace immediately and got a few of hours of study in, before we gathered all of our goods and drove to the Lion's Park by the river for a pre-birthday barbecue .. there are a few of us that have birthdays in April/May, but the others won't be in town to celebrate, so we toasted everybody's birthdays this evening.

We were treated, by Mother Nature, to a beautiful sunset that lasted for a long time, with colour changes every ten minutes ...

Now once again, it's after midnight .. let's see if I can fall asleep before 2am!

Nite all.

Recovery

It's been a fairly lazy recovery day after our dinner party last night and the abundant levels of alcohol that passed 'our' lips .. and by 'our', I mean Adoring Husband's lips *insert cheesy grin here*.

I was awake at 8am, but chose to stay in bed, pretend it was Sunday, and enjoyed some idle stacked pillow time!  I didn't get out of bed til 9.30am and that was because Adoring Husband cooked a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato and smoked salmon for me!  What a nice surprise!

After breakfast, I sat outside with my ipad enjoying a take away coffee that he drove to the shops to get for me, before taking on the task of grooming what started out to be two dogs, but ended up being just one dog.  I spent too much time teaching Colli to 'sit' and by the time I'd finished with her, my level of dog grooming enthusiasm had waned sufficiently for me to concede defeat.

I will attempt to groom Ruby tomorrow afternoon.  She shouldn't take too long.

I had a lovely chat on the phone with my little Chicklet and Vegan Chickie this afternoon.  After they tried to phone me on my mobile and then attempted a 'facetime' call on my ipad, neither of which I answered because, as usual, I was blind and deaf to my mobile technology .. they eventually got me on the home phone!

When I answered the phone I heard Chicklet's voice shouting "She answered!  She answered!"

It's time for me to organise another visit.

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to morning tea with the girls and then a barbecue dinner at the park in the afternoon.

I'm surprisingly lethargic after my lazy recovery day, and I think I will attempt an early night :)  (have you noticed how often I 'attempt' an early night?  I have too many early night fails.)

Nite all.

The Party's Over

Here I am at midnight, sitting at my desk after clearing everything away from our dinner party this evening and feeling very happy.

I had such a good night.

We have lovely friends ... you know who you are!

My only fail for the meal was the crackers that I attempted to make for pre-dinner nibbles.  Somehow the buzzer on the oven timer went off without me hearing it and the oven turned itself off in the middle of the baking process.  My crackers were a very sad and sorry sight that could not be saved.

*insert sad face here*

I made a Baba Ghanoush (eggplant dip) and then had veggie sticks for dipping (instead of the crackers) carrot, celery and capsicum.  I also made little nibbles of celery with peanut butter in the curve and cucumber slices with smoked salmon and home made mayonnaise.

Entree was pumpkin soup with sour cream and sprinkled with walnuts and bacon bits.

Main was a little late because I forgot to put the chicken in the oven before I served the entree (I will never again make fun of contestants on MKR or Master Chef!  It's very easy to get distracted and miss steps in your plan!).  Lemon and wine chicken drumsticks with sweet potato/potato mash and broccoli and snow peas.  I made up a lemon, leek and tomato type gravy for the chicken.

Then, thanks to Pete Evans' cookbook, we had Raspberry Mousse Cheesecakes for dessert .. I added strawberries and cream on top.

I don't think there was any food left on anybody's plates, except my dessert .. I just couldn't fit anything else into my belly .. and I only ate half of it.  So I'm pretty pleased that I didn't fail at any other of the courses!

We had a little visitor during the entree, when a rather large flying ant (so large that at first, we mistook it for a dragon fly) landed in someone's bowl of pumpkin soup!  What we thought was the end of his life, was really just a brief nap.  While we were waiting for the main meal to cook, he began to stir and after giving him a bath to clean the pumpkin soup off his wings (yes you read that correctly .. a bath to wash the soup from his wings), some TLC and a little coaxing, he was soon hovering over our heads again!

His wings still have a bit of a pumpkiny colour to them ...

We listened to some great old music, with a couple of new songs here and there, while we all laughed hysterically at Adoring Husband's tales of disasters, broken bones, pub brawls and town exiles, caravan fires and car accidents.

Everybody shared some life stories and we had some good laughs.  Excuse the quality of the photo .. just a quick happy snap.  I didn't even think to take some food photos *forehead slap*

It's almost 1am, so I think I might head off to bed.  Tomorrow is dog grooming day.

Nite all.

Dinner Party

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and Adoring Husband and I are hosting a dinner party for six guests!

We've hosted parties, but this will be our first dinner party since we moved here 6 years ago and I'm quite excited about it.

It will be a three course meal .. entree, main and dessert .. along with some pre-dinner nibbles.

Everything will be home-made, from scratch.  Absolutely nothing out of a packet.  All gluten free, sugar free and hopefully delicious enough to satisfy our friends.

I won't tell you what's on the menu here, just in case our guests read this blog tomorrow.  I want it to be a surprise!  Also, a couple of the dishes are experimental and I'm not sure how they will turn out, so I have back-up plans .. you should always have a safety net!

My preparations and planning commenced on Good Friday when I planned my menu and then started on my entree meal.  It should only take another 20 minutes in the kitchen for it to be ready to serve.

Today, I've started preparations on the nibbles and the dessert.  I think the dessert is going to take some time, and unfortunately, it's one of my experiments, so I'm not sure on the timing and there are a lot of components to it, so it's the meal I am most afraid of failing.

I'm disappointed that I don't have an 8 piece dinner setting.  It's been ten years since we bought any crockery and in that time, pieces have been broken and now we have three incomplete settings.  Even cutlery could be interesting mismatches!  It would have been nice to create a restaurant feel like in My Kitchen Rules, just for the fun of it.  Maybe next time.

I came across these today and liked them enough to share ...

For many, your soul mate is not even a human being. It could be part of nature, an animal, an idea or another part of all that is. It could be several things at once.  It's whatever assists in your growth, helping you to ascend to all that you can be.  When you feel it, you'll know exactly who or what that is.

I'm off to watch the end of the footy.

Nite all.

  

It's a Good Friday

Adoring Husband and I have been quite busy on this Good Friday.

We started off watching the horror that is Easter at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, with all of the tourists lining up to use the boat ramp, with a bit of ramp rage here and there among the tourists, who have all obviously registered for the Easter Fishing Classic and were in a hurry to get out and start catching fish!

Then we did a little grocery shopping enjoyed a coffee outside the local shops before heading home to get started on our chores for the day.

Adoring Husband spent the entire day in the garden, setting up my new herb garden, pruning some plants and tidying up the pot plants around the water feature.

I spent time in the kitchen doing some preparations for our dinner party on Sunday night and cooking our main meal for lunch.  We had crispy skinned salmon steaks on potato and sweet potato mash with a side of zucchini and broccoli.  Quite delicious.

For a light dinner tonight, we had fresh king prawns on bed of salsa (cucumber, tomato, onion, grapes, coriander, mint and lime juice) and homemade mayonnaise.

I think we might both have an early night tonight.  I'm feeling quite weary after a restless night last night and a busy-ish day today.

Let me introduce you to our new "Helen"

Yes she is quite beautiful, but as yet, has not laid an egg!  I warned them today that if they didn't get a wriggle on and start laying, they would be the main course for the dinner party on Sunday!!

They've been very happily scratching around in the garden and I'm sure that they thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful of my bok choy, the remnants of which can now barely be seen :(

I'll get some better photos of Hector and Happy some time soon.

Right now, I need to wake Adoring Husband up and send him off to bed before his snores drown out the football game that I'm watching!

Nite all.



 

Short and Sweet

I found this in facebook today, and after discussing it at the club tonight, I just had to share it here .. such a beautiful sight .. and I've told Adoring Husband that he can train our 3 new chickens to do the same!  Imagine how nice it would be to get chicken hugs every morning!



and then I found this and it really tickled my fancy .. sick .. but hilarious!

I can't believe it's already after 11pm, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

World's Toughest Job

This is very interesting .. the responses and the realisations (It's only 4 minutes this time)



I don't know if you remember, 2 years ago, me telling you about a married couple that I met, who lived in the old service station in town.  The woman had a stable brain tumour and had survived 4 years, at that stage, although she wasn't strong.  Then, not long after I met them, he too was diagnosed with a brain tumour and passed away within 2 months of his diagnosis.

Well, yesterday, I bumped into her at the local supermarket and promised that I would visit her this morning.  She has new dentures and is having trouble with her gums and lips, so I took her a small bottle of coconut oil, with some instructions for 'oil pulling'.

She recently had a checkup for her tumour and it is still stable .. that makes 6 years in remission!  Definitely something to celebrate, but devastatingly, she had to have her dog euthanised two weeks ago, because she too, had a tumour!!

Personally, I think the vents from the old underground fuel tanks have a lot to answer for.  The outlets are right outside a bedroom window and the living room window, and taking into consideration that they have lived there for over 30 years, I think the toxins and fumes may have played a big part in their illnesses!

She also gave me some interesting information about the Childers Vet, who travels to Howard a couple of days each week to service that small town, but who also does house calls!  The vet travelled from Childers to our town, euthanised the dog, took the remains away and returned to Childers (approx 30 minutes away) for $200.

She was VERY impressed with this vet and how warm, sensitive and helpful she was in that very emotional moment.

More study for me today.  One of the things I learned today is that "the entire tract of our digestive system is replaced every three-five days"!  Who knew!?!?

I'm trying for an early night tonight, but I'm currently watching a documentary on Cannabis, on the ABC, which is very interesting!  Maybe I can stay up for an extra 30 minutes to see the end of it :)

Nite all.

A happy day

I started my morning at the Seat of knowledge, and it was a truly glorious morning, after the threat of horrible winds last night, that didn't eventuate, it was soooo nice to see calm water and clear skies.

I had morning tea with the funniest ladies in town, so I came home with a huge smile on my face and ready to hit the books for another day of study.

Then this evening I pedalled to the beach hoping to catch the blood moon rising.

Unfortunately, there was too much cloud on the horizon, which meant that the lunar eclipse was all over by the time it rose above the cloud and then the sky was too hazy to get a clear shot.

The sunset was a fizzer as well, but just before all of that, there were some nice rays illuminating the river ...

It looks like another midnight bed time for me tonight.

Nite all.

Health, Study, Cyclones and Ferris

I watched a couple of videos of Michael Pollan today.  He makes so much sense to me and I plan on watching more of his videos.

If you have twenty minutes to spare, please use it to listen to this man.



We've been a little on edge this evening, after hearing the news about Cyclone Ita which has been edging it's way down the Queensland coast over the weekend.

The weather report tonight, suggested that we would get winds in excess of 90kph.

It was the first we'd heard of this, even though we had been listening to weather reports and keeping our eye on various weather predictions on social media.

So Adoring Husband rushed outside at 6pm to clear the yard of anything that could become a flying missile in strong winds.  We stacked up the outdoor furniture and put all of our electronic devices on to charge (in case of loss of power like last time).

I cleared a space in our walk in wardrobe so that we have somewhere to shelter if anything sinister happens during the night.  My camera and laptop will go in there tonight before I climb into bed.

Since the news report, I've kept my eye on the BOM website and I must say that it all looks pretty clear.

There are no high winds anywhere along the coast, that I can see, and no heavy rains coming within our 500km radius, so I'm feeling cautiously comfortable about tonight.  I will still take precautions - just in case!

I got some pretty good study in this afternoon, while Adoring Husband slept in his recliner in front of the TV.  I muted the television so that I would have peace and quiet, then sat in my swinging pod chair and read all of the information that I needed for the first lesson in Naturopathy.

It was surprisingly interesting!

Who knew that Hippocrates (The Father of Medicine), Galen (The ultimate authority on all things medical), Lust (The Father of Naturopathic Medicine) and Avicenna (The Prince of Physicians) were so interesting?  I almost wish that I could have met them!

There was a LOT of information, so I'm going to have to go over it a few times to let it all sink in.

Right now, to go to the other end of the brain requirement spectrum, I'm watching a documentary on John Hughes and his movie "Ferris Beuller's Day Off".

It's very entertaining and very interesting but I'm not sure if I can stay awake til midnight to watch it!

Nite all.

Sunday Night Quotes

The cyclone is still a long way from here, but the rain has already started and has been falling steadily all day.

We had a visitor for a little while and we gave him a few basic computer and facebook lessons.

Otherwise a very quiet and relaxing kind of day.

Tomorrow is another big study day, so I'll be off to bed early tonight to rest my brain.  A relaxing day and an early night should make for maximum learning energy for tomorrow!!

Nite all.