Natural Wonders

I went searching for bugs to photograph for this month's flickr challenge today.

It's amazing what you can find when you go out looking.

... and here are the Tawny chicks out of the nest and looking less like chicks every day!

I had a lovely talk on the phone with Chicklet and Vegan Chickie today and have made plans to visit them in just over a week. Can't wait!

Nite all.

It's a Fine Art

Yes, that procrastination thing again .. it's a fine art that I have honed to perfection.

Surely there is a way to make it an asset or a money maker or something more positive than just for avoiding study or housework!

I spent more than 2 hours sitting at the cafe with coffee this morning.

I had five different people sit at my table for a chat and I spent some time chatting online with The Nikonian. It was a really pleasant way to spend the morning. I have my favourite table, which is fast becoming known as my office .. as suggested by some people who see me there almost every day!

It's a great source of comfort for me to have that familiarity with people and the friendly contact every day, even if it's just a happy 'good morning' or a smile and a nod.

Adoring Husband spent the day selling Christmas cakes to raise money for the SES, but came home for lunch, so after I cooked quite a delicious meal and he left for the second half of the day, I spent some time going through some old photos and checking my study site, to make sure I wasn't missing anything while I procrastinate.

I got a phone call from the 'Sex Therapist' (just to be clear, not a REAL sex therapist, just someone who got carried away with talking about sex at a party once, so we gave her that nickname) who I haven't seen or spoken to for a few months, so that was nice and we'll be catching up in person soon.

Tomorrow, I need to phone Vegan Chickie .. I feel like it's been 'forever' since we talked on the phone, or had any contact at all! It's definitely time for a visit at the end of this month.

Here is my best effort for the day ..

Happy Sunday everybody.

Nite all.

Simple Vision

I have spent most of my day creating my vision board.

I have had most of the pictures for well over a year and I bought the board about 6 months ago, but being the expert procrastinator that I am, it has all been sitting and gathering dust.

For some unknown reason, my brain chose today to create the masterpiece .. probably as a way of avoiding study, because that was my first thought when I woke this morning.

My visions for my future are pretty simple.

Elle Macpherson in the bottom right corner represents me ... because until I see myself in the mirror, that is how my imagination creates my image. I also have admiration for her achievements in both her chosen career and for her business decisions.

The other two females who I chose to share my board, Taylor Swift and Julia Gillard, are also strong women who I admire greatly and who have worked damned hard to get to where they are in their chosen fields and continually fight battles to stay strong and stay on top. A reminder to not rely on luck for any successes that I strive for.

These three women are not my idols, but I do admire them for the strengths that they not only possess but seem to use wisely.

The car represents my wish to some day get my driver's licence .. in my own time .. and not when other people think it's time.

The lap pool .. because everybody knows that one day, I plan on having one in my yard!

The lady in the top right is twice my age, still living at home and healthy as an ox .. I would like to reach that milestone and be as fit, healthy and alert as she is. This would mean that I am only halfway through my life! Perhaps my vision board needs to be extended!

Special mention about the love I have for Adoring Husband, my family and my friendships.

My hopes and plans for continued financial fitness and security.

Also special mention for my health, environmental health, organics, nutrition, fresh fruit n veg and positivity.

All of those smiles winding down the right hand side of the board to convince myself that one day I will be brave enough to visit a dentist and fix my teeth so that I can keep on smiling.

So you see, I don't ask much. There are still a few little gaps in there that I need to fill. All in good time.

It's now hanging on the wall where I will see it every day and seeds of creation will germinate and grow.

Here is the link to last night's episode of Catalyst on the ABC. Well worth watching.

I'm off to get ready .. raffle night at the club awaits.

Nite all.



 

Blah

That's how I have been feeling all day today.

I was awake most of last night with what felt like food poisoning, but Adoring Husband and I ate the same food for the last two days and he has been fine, so I'm not sure.

It's been a while since I spent the night with a bucket and a toilet bowl and I hope it will be a long time til that happens again!

So my food intake has been limited today and I've kept my fluids up and had a long nap this morning trying to catch up on some sleep. A good night's sleep tonight should have me back to normal tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I played with one of my bug photos this afternoon ...

Definitely need to get out with my macro lens and search out some more bugs!

Thank you Judi for your advice for pork crackle and pork belly .. I will put it to the test next time for sure!

Now I have a couple of hours of reality TV to watch, so I'm reclining in my chair and having a relaxing evening with Adoring Husband at SES training.

Nite all.

A Day of Nothing

I attempted, for I believe the fifth time, to cook a crispy skinned pork belly for lunch today.

I am yet to succeed in this area. The same with roast pork. I simply cannot get the crunchy crackling right.

I've tried various recipes without success. I scour the skin. I dry the skin. I rub the salt. I cook it on high for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat for 2 hours. In the first 30 minutes, it looks promising, but then nothing happens.

So if anybody out there has a good fool proof recipe that they want to share with lil ol me .. please feel free .. I would be most appreciative.

I did baked veggies with it .. kipfler potatoes (yes I know they are not paleo), pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato. Then blanced greens. Asparagus, broccoli and beans blanched in water, lime and butter.

My belly was so full, I felt like a big fat pussycat all afternoon and just wanted to curl up in a corner and purr myself to sleep!

Tonight, for a light dinner, I rolled out some GF bread with a rolling pin until is was very thin and very flat, scraped a thin layer of butter on them and then lined a muffin tray with them (butter side down), added some baby spinach to the base and then filled them with a mixture of leftover chopped silverside, tomato, onion, mushroom and egg. Added a thin slice of cheese on top and baked them in the oven for 30 minutes on high.

That was our nice light dinner.

I've taken lots of photos of bugs and bees today, attempting to get a photo for this month's flickr challenge "A Bug's Life", but they are all still on camera. I will share them eventually.

I am also still procrastinating with studying and with reading my book about procrastination.

There is no hope for me.

Nite all.

 

Vitamin D

I was very concerned today when there was a news item on television about the great Australian cricket player and commentator of international cricket, Richie Benaud, and his battle with skin cancer.

His advice was for everyone to 'stay out of the sun'!

The reason he has skin cancer is because he played cricket for probably more than 20 years without a hat. This means that for every test match, he stood in the sun for about 7 hours a day when the team was fielding, and depending on how well he was batting, for a few hours when the team was batting.

He played cricket before sunscreen was invented and he NEVER wore a hat.

Taking all of that into consideration .. a good recipe for disaster.

Of all the advice that I would give to anyone who wants to stay healthy or get healthy by any natural means necessary, vitamin D from sunshine would be in my top three pieces of advice.

Firstly, one of the most preeminent Vitamin D researchers in the world today has identified that vitamin D helps produce the antimicrobial peptides that protect against the flu. This is why people are more prone to the flu in winter when Vitamin D producing sunshine is minimal or nonexistent at some latitudes, or people are too bundled up to get enough skin exposed in the first place.

Supporting Dr. Cannell’s suggestion that vitamin D deficiency is why people get the flu, a study published in the journal Nature Immunology further explains how vitamin D protects us by properly activating T cells, an important part of the immune system.

Bear with me for a moment:

“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D.

This means the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will stop. If the T cells can't find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilize.”

Vitamin D levels have plummeted for every single age, race, and ethnic group over the past two decades.

Vitamin D deficiency can lurk unnoticed until it is too late and you are already sick. The problem is that it takes time, usually several weeks, to raise vitamin D levels, so taking supplements when you're already sick is not going to help.

Here are 10 signs that vitamin D is probably already a serious deficiency that needs to be addressed immediately.

(The best whole food based supplement to bring vitamin D levels into optimal range without the danger of overdosing (like with prescription vitamin D drops) is fermented cod liver oil.)

1. Chronic Pain

Bone pain and chronic pain in general is a subtle symptom of serious vitamin D deficiency. Get your vitamin D levels checked and address the problem.

(A study conducted by Greg Plotnikoff, MD, senior consultant with the Allina Center for Health Care Innovations, makes the point. 150 people living in Minneapolis who came to a health clinic complaining of chronic pain were tested for vitamin D levels. Virtually every single one, 93%, suffered from extremely low vitamin D. “The group with the lowest levels of vitamin D were white women of childbearing age,” Plotnikoff says.)

2. Muscle Weakness

Something that people don’t realise is that most muscle weakness issues are related to low vitamin D levels. The National Institute of Health reports that a person suffering from a vitamin D deficiency will have trouble with proper muscle function.

3. Psoriasis

This is a common skin issue and is an autoimmune disorder that can be vitamin D related. Good doses of pure sunshine or Cod Liver Oil will, at the very least, ease this condition.

4. Constant Fatigue

Vitamin D is necessary for the body to produce energy. If you are constantly tired or struggling to get going in the morning, get your vitamin D levels checked or just start getting regular/daily doses of sunshine.

5. Depression

Feelings of hopelessness can be related to simple nutritional deficiencies. Vitamin D is critical for the brain to produce the happy hormone seratonin. Some people only suffer from depression during winter months, known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is caused by lack of sun exposure and hence vitamin D during this time of year.

6. Sweaty Head

This is probably the weirdest symptom of vitamin D deficiency. Back in the 'olden days', doctors used to ask new mothers if their heads were sweatier than normal, to pinpoint a probable vitamin D deficiency. A sweaty head is also a subclinical symptom of rickets, possibly the most prominent and dangerous form of vitamin D deficiency in children.

7. Constant Respiratory Problems

This warning symptom is related to flu as a vitamin D deficiency disease. If low vitamin D puts people at risk for flu, it stands to reason they would be at risk for other respiratory problems too. Studies have demonstrated that vitamin D protects against respiratory illness, particularly in children.

8. Hypertension and/or Cardiovascular Disease

The Vitamin D Council recommends adequate vitamin D levels in order to avoid this silent, symptomless killer which afflicts 4 in 10 people worldwide.

The American National Institute of Health has identified vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor which can lead to congestive heart failure.

9. Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease is a growing health concern and a primary and powerful predictor for premature cardiovascular disease.

Not surprisingly, given that cardiovascular disease itself indicates a likely vitamin D deficit, research indicates that those that suffer from chronic kidney disease are also vitamin D deficient.

10. You are an Infection Magnet

If you suffer from one infection after another, it would be wise to get your vitamin D levels checked as soon as possible. As I mentioned, T cells, which are an important part of the immune system, are properly activated by vitamin D. So, if levels are low or even undetectable, adequate and effective immune response to any infection in the body will be severely hampered.

I know that's a lot to take in, and some of you probably just skimmed over the top or skipped the whole thing, but you really need to know that VITAMIN D IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT FOR GOOD PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH.

Don't stay out of the sun. It's the worst thing you can do.

I just wanted to mention that I went to bed at 7.30 last night! I woke up thinking that it was about midnight, but when I checked my phone, it was 8.30!!!! It didn't matter because I fell straight back to sleep and didn't wake up until 6.30 this morning. I must have really needed that sleep!

I feel good for it today.

Nite all.

It Caught Me!

So I think exhaustion has caught up to me today. I thought I was exhausted on Saturday night and took Sunday to recuperate, but I felt a lot more lethargic and unmotivated today.

All I've done today, apart from my normal morning routine, is some cooking and two loads of washing.

So, I share this with you before I head off to bed for an incredibly early night.

Nite all.

Procrastinating with Rest

Today, I posted this in facebook ...

"PROCRASTINATION comes from the Latin 'pro', which means "forward, forth or in favour of", and 'crastinus', which means "of tomorrow".

I should be either, doing housework OR studying, however, I am procrastinating by reading a book about 'PROCRASTINATION".

I thought of procrastinating about reading the book on procrastination, but everything I need to do is already on my procrastination list.

By the end of the day, I hope to have finished the book and have the new title of 'go-getter' and 'winner'

PS This is me procrastinating instead of reading the book about procrastination."

Nobody asked me the name of the book, but plenty of people could relate to my dilemma, because it seems we all procrastinate .. some do it more than others and some, like me, are so bad, that it has a huge effect on their lives.

I'm hoping this book will help me overcome this problem and change my life in a positive way ... if only I could stop procrastinating and sit down and read it from cover to cover!!

*****

Here is a short excerpt from the book ...

University students are the biggest procrastinators of all and often miss deadlines for essays and assignments.

Their most infamous excuse for missing deadlines is to claim the death of a grandparent. Mortality of grandparents increases several hundredfold during final exams, a statistic that, if taken seriously, suggests that seeing the grandkids being tested is extremely stressful for the elderly!

*****

Anyway, today was a day of rest for me. After such a big day on Saturday, I needed to kick back and take it easy. Lucky for me, my life allows me to do that.

So after our ride down to the Seat of Knowledge and coffee at the 'local' while reading the Sunday papers, Adoring Husband and I came home and I went straight to the bedroom to continue reading my book about 'Procrastination'.

After about an hour, I cooked our lunch, which was Snapper and eggs, poached in chilli, lemon and coconut milk with kale, then sprinkled with coriander, chives and toasted pine nuts. It was something that I made up on the spur of the moment because I had absolutely nothing planned for lunch, but AH loved it and wanted seconds .. unfortunately, there wasn't any seconds left!

Back to the bedroom for some more reading, but I lasted about 30 minutes and then napped for about an hour.

Even though I planned on finishing the book on procrastination, I decided to procrastinate and do some cooking in the kitchen instead. As you do! 

I made some chocolate/hazelnut fudge and some chocolate seedy bliss balls, both of which are very very rich, so they can only be eaten in moderation, which is a good thing for AH, who likes to eat everything to excess! They are incredibly healthy, so it really doesn't matter if he wishes to eat these to excess.

So that was my day. I did get photos of the Tawny chicks out of the nest, but they are still in camera, so I'll share them some time during the week .. unless I procrastinate too much .. but you'll see them eventually!

Nite all.

  

Exhaustion Sets In

We set our alarms for 4am, arrived in Maryborough at 5.30am and were on the train to Brisvegas at 6am.

Luckily, the train was running right on time because the appointment with Professor Silburn was for 10.30am, which gave us 40 minutes to labour our way up the numerous steps and the steep hills to get to his room on time.

Thirty minutes later, we were back out on the streets looking for somewhere to get a coffee and something to eat.

Adoring Husband asked 'Siri' on his iphone to find us some gluten free food nearby and it just so happened that the restaurant directly across the road from where were standing, was about to open for drinks and snacks!

It was a great restaurant attached to a bar, with an outdoor area to eat and drink. There was a cool breeze blowing and the outdoor area overlooked the Roma Street Parklands, there was relaxing music playing in the background, the coffee was 'to die for' and the food was fresh and delicious. The service was friendly and the furnishings were very comfortable. Personally, I could have spent the whole afternoon there.

Once our bodies were fuelled up, we took a decent walk through the park and down a lot of stairs towards Queen Street Mall, but stopped at the Town Hall when we saw that there were markets inside. Adoring Husband bought me a beautiful resin bracelet.

We found Myers, where I tried on a billion tops but didn't buy anything.

We found the ABC shop where AH spent a gozillion dollars (ok so I exaggerate a little).

While we were in Myers we were contacted by QLD Rail to tell us that our train home would be delayed by 2 hours. It was supposed to leave at 3.45pm but now it was leaving at 5.45pm and we had to be at the station by 5pm.

So we found a pub close to the station where AH had a couple of beers and I had a glass of wine while we waited for 5pm.

At least the train (The Spirit of Queensland) left dead on 5.45pm and we had our own TV screen to choose from movies or TV shows or music videos. They took orders for dinner and we both had roast chicken and vegetables, which was delicious.

Before we reached Gympie, we could hear (over our headphones) a commotion at the end of our carriage and a female was loudly abusing rail staff. By the time we reached Gympie, we saw the police on the platform and the woman was escorted from the train .. it was not her planned destination, so she was complaining loudly about how she would get home. I have no idea what the whole thing was about or how it started, but it made the train fall another 15 minutes behind schedule.

At one stage I looked up to see a tall thin gentleman dressed in dark jeans and shirt, heavy black boots with a heel, an ankle length black coat and a leather cowboy style hat. He had shoulder length white/grey hair and a shiny badge pinned to his shirt with a name tag attached to it.

I didn't see his face and I didn't get to read the name on the tag but I'm wondering if it read 'Wyatt Earp' or something similar! He certainly had an interesting and mysterious air about him as he walked very slowly up and down the carriage a couple of times.

During the trip, we watched a Jack Black movie "Bernie" which also starred Shirley Maclaine and Matthew McConaughey. It was a strange and interesting movie that left us with a bemused frown on our faces.

We finally arrived in Maryborough at 9.45pm and pulled into our own driveway at 10.30pm.

It's been a long day and we are exhausted. It's taken an hour for us to wind down and I can hear my bed calling my name, so I'm off!

Oh and the Professor has prescribed a new and different medication for AH, so hopefully that will provide some relief. If not, we've got another appointment in 4 months to discuss other options.

Interestingly, there were 9 Neurologists in the one building!

Nite all.

Everybody Loves Snakes

Well, my little Tawnies have left the nest, and while I was photographing them, I heard a yell from across the road.

It was a friend asking me if I'd like to photograph a snake.

So I high-tailed it across the road to find a stunningly beautiful python in an empty garbage bin.

The man who owns the house, has a row of inter-connected aviaries in his backyard where his mother used to breed cockatiels (this is where we bought OB, the crazy bird that we got as a friend for SEB). His Mum passed away a couple of months ago and now he is continuing on with her hobby.

He wondered why the birds were disappearing. They had reduced from around 40 to just 8!

So he went searching through the aviaries today and discovered this beauty hiding up high in one corner and very well hidden.

So we took it out of town to relocate it in some bushland beside a lake.

Beautiful creature.

Tomorrow, Adoring Husband and I are travelling by train down to Brisbane to meet with a new Specialist about his Parkinson's.

We gave up on the Neurologist in Bundaberg. In two years, he hasn't provided any comfort, nor has he eased any of the symptoms. The medications that he has prescribed have been more trouble than they were worth with horrible side effects and beyond that, he has offered no other hope. Besides that, he wasn't at all friendly or encouraging and had a very abrupt bedside manner.

The Neurologist in Brisbane has a very good reputation and is, apparently, the top of his field, so we have high hopes of getting some satisfaction from him.

It's going to be a big day, so I need to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Dateless Date

Adoring Husband and I decided, while sitting at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, to go to the movies.

We had to go into town for shopping, an appointment with the doctor and to get dog and chook food, so we drove in early and each saw a 9.30am movie.

Adoring Husband saw the movie "Interstellar" starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway which ran for almost 3 hours.

At the end, he described it as long, boring and convoluted but intriguing. He was disappointed.

I chose to see "This is Where I Leave You" starring Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman and Tina Fey.

I loved it.

It was funny in parts, heartwarming, heart wrenching and intense. I could relate so well to this dysfunctional family, who with all their faults and frailties, loved and cared about each other, but just didn't know how to express that love in a healthy way. By the end of the movie, I grew to love each one of them and wished that I could give them all a hug.

I recommend it and I'll be buying it on dvd when it's released.

I had an hour to spare after my movie finished, so I got to do some shopping while I waited for AH to come out of his movie.

I bought an Adam Sandler movie and a little gift for my Chicklet.

While AH went to his doctor's (not his usual doctor, where I have to be his bodyguard) appointment, I got to spend some time at the shopping mall, where I had a little bit of a spending spree, buying myself four tops, a pair of shorts and some cheap jewellery. I also got some books and clothes for Chicklet.

Then we picked up our organic FROG box and arrived home at about 4.30pm.

It was a long, but very enjoyable day.

Then to top it off, a pretty sunset that I photographed over the lagoon.

Nite all.

Finely Tuned

This is what I've learned recently ...

The body has cancer cells within it 'all the time' and the healthy immune system clears them and fights them and keeps you healthy. If you have a poor diet and lifestyle, then the immune system becomes exhausted from trying to keep you healthy.

In some cases, a tumour is created by the exhausted immune system.  It is effectively building a wall around the cancer cells to keep it under control until the exhaustion passes, but if your diet and lifestyle doesn't change, then your immune system will remain exhausted and the wall cannot hold the cancerous cells for very long.

The human body is finely tuned and has the power to heal itself .. a broken bone, a cold/flu, an infection, tumours/cancer etc. As long as you provide it with what it needs, such as exercise, breathing oxygen efficiently, vitamin D from the sun, vitamins and nutrients from food, good mental and emotional health, good quality sleep, enough clean filtered water to name a few.

Along with these very important needs, we must remove as many toxins from our lives as we can,  to make it as easy as possible for our immune system to build on our good health, instead of using all of it's time fighting our bad health.

Some brief examples of what we need to do:

Sunshine helps to heal all emotional and mental disorders, but you also need vitamin K to help absorb vitamin D properly, which you will find in lots of vegetables. Most people with chronic illness also have a chronic vitamin D deficiency.

Stop eating sugar. Sugar feeds cancer. Physicians should know that sugar feeds cancer. The reason they should know is because PET scans use sugar to locate the cancer cells inside your body.

The acidity of your body needs to be above 7.  You can buy pH paper to test your own acidity.

Detoxifying. Liver detox is important. The reason we detox, is because the cancerous cells have to be removed somehow and the safest and least invasive way is with detoxification through juices, lymphatic drainages, coffee enemas, hyperthermia etc.

Additionally, your brain can't work when there are deficiencies in your body. Even one deficiency can create havoc with your brain.

There are many different cancer treatments, and the most common is chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy doesn't just kill cancer cells, it kills the good cells that we need and it destroys our immune system, which then can't fight other diseases. This is why people easily get sick with other illnesses like pneumonia, colds/flus, infections, diarrhoea, ulcers etc., during treatment. This is also why people die from the cancer treatment, rather than from the cancer itself.

So if you choose chemotherapy as your cancer treatment, you also have to work very hard, at the same time, on all of the other things that I have mentioned, so that your immune system is strong enough to help your body heal and to fight off the germs that other people want to pass on to you.

Without a healthy and strong immune system, there is little hope!

Don't wait until you're sick before you work on your immune system. Do everything in your power to keep it strong, because if it's working perfectly, you simply cannot get sick.

Once upon a time, doctors knew this important fact, but unfortunately, now they only understand how to manage ill health with any number of medications.

With so many toxins in our lives these days (even the carpets on our floors, the paint on our walls and the plastics and glues in our furnishings), it's impossible to live a toxin free life, so the best we can do is build and strengthen our immune system to keep us happy and healthy and strong.

That is what I have learned.

Nite all.

Living the Syndrome

What is boiled frog syndrome?

It's based on the premise that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death without moving.

Are we the boiled frogs?

With the daily burden of chemicals in our food, air, water, personal care products, household products and furnishings, combined with malnourishment through diets composed mainly of processed and “dead” foods, we end up engineering a slow but sure death of cells in our body.

This leads directly to a breaking point that results in disease processes that invoke ageing, pain, illness and other forms of suffering.

Most people call it “getting older”, but I believe we are actually “becoming toxic and malnourished”. There’s a big difference and this is why our body breaks down as it does and we complain about getting old.

On top of this, we all have psychological issues that we have never resolved, and which manifest in our subconscious and eventually affect us in some physical way.

So, for many of us, no amount of healthy living will cure our ills because we have this psychological blockage that stops the healing process.

The human body is so complex and so brilliant, working to keep us alive and healthy, while we abuse the life out of it or treat it with disrespectful neglect until it just can't cope anymore because we are not giving it the resources it needs to thrive. 

A healthy immune system is the only thing that keeps us from death, but we do so little to nourish it or to understand it.

I wish that I had cared enough to understand this concept years ago, but then, the rules for, and scientific knowledge of health, have changed considerably just in the last 5 years, so maybe my timing is just right!

With that out of the way, I will stop with the health talk and share my Tawny photos ...

The second photo was the little chick watching me leave as I walked under the nest. How cute is that?

It was Melbourne Cup day today. The race that stops the nation.

Adoring Husband and I sat on our couch, put some money into an online betting account and watched the races on TV. We lost our money, but it was a bit of fun and I made healthy snacks for us to munch on and we didn't have to dress up or watch fashion parades.

Almost midnight again.

Nite all.

He's Back!

Adoring Husband has returned from Brisbane with excellent results from his health check surgery.

He has the 'all clear' but has to return in 3 months for a further check up .. how else would the specialist make enough money to pay for his high rise office and his house on the water and his world trips? But don't get me started!

It's good to have him home knowing that he is healthy.

I was also happy to hear about his conversation with the barista who served him when he bought his first coffee since his health scare 3 months ago.

She asked if he wanted sugar and when he replied 'no thanks' she responded how nice it was to serve someone who didn't want that poison in his coffee! They then talked about different sugar alternatives and he told her about coconut sugar.

Was that really my husband having that conversation?

Crikey! He has come a long way!

I have to thank my little brother for being there in our moment of need. When the hospital wouldn't allow AH to leave the hospital unless he had someone to escort him, my LB and his friend drove an hour to the hospital to sign him out and then drove him to the train station. Otherwise AH would have had to stay an extra night in the hospital.

We also must thank Happy Harry for driving all the way to Howard to pick AH up from the train station late at night. It's a big ask at such a late hour and we appreciate your good soul. Karma will reward you by bringing good health and happiness in abundance. Thank you.

So we are happy and feeling the love. Harmony has returned and life as we know it is balanced again.

Nite all (those Tawny photos still to come .. tomorrow)

Stormy

We were hit with a pretty big storm tonight. It started with a few large hail stones and changed to very heavy rain (24mm in 30 minutes) with strong winds, lightning and cracking thunder.

It made the psychotic dogs even more psychotic than usual and they wouldn't settle down until I let them in on the couch, where they all huddled quietly together until it passed.

The storm was bad enough to trigger a little PTS in me and I was relieved when it passed without incident, although it's difficult to tell in the dark if there is any damage to the solar panels on the roof. It will be easier to tell in the light of day tomorrow.

Adoring Husband is in Brisbane tonight and will make his way into the hospital early tomorrow morning for the follow up tests on his bladder and prostate.

I went for a ride before lunch and it was incredibly windy down by the water, so I wasn't out for long, and that is the extent of my day.

I took some photos of the Tawnies and you will be surprised at how much they have already grown! I'll post them tomorrow.

Nite all.

Food Delights

I cooked a lamb rack for dinner tonight accompanied with potato, pumpkin, carrot, asparagus and kale.

I seared the lamb rack in very hot coconut oil in my cast iron frypan, then lay it on a bed of fresh rosemary, chopped garlic and thick slices of onion. I baked it in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

I chopped the potatoes, pumpkin and carrot into evenly sized pieces and coated them in a mixture of cumin, turmeric, chilli powder, salt, lime juice and coconut oil, then lay them on a tray covered in baking paper and baked them in the oven at 180C. They took about 45 minutes turning them once.

The asparagus were blanched in boiling water, butter and garlic.

I tore the kale into small pieces, then rubbed the leftover coconut oil mixture into the leaves and put them in a low oven (120C) for an hour, to make kale chips.

It was all so delicious, I could have eaten a second helping!

Lunch was home made gf garlic toast with tomato and cheese melted over the top.

Watermelon for afternoon tea.

I think I'm about to have some red papaya, strawberries and banana for dessert.

Adoring Husband and I had a fairly productive morning around the house, but by lunch time I was well and truly spent and needed a nana nap right after lunch!

It has been a very lazy afternoon.

Only one more day of rest before the study begins. Time to activate the brain again.

Nite all.

Something New

A quick and easy Friday night post of my favourite quotes found in facebook this week.

... and just because it's Halloween. I am totally against Halloween, which is an American tradition that Australian business and media have cashed in on ...

Last year, we were not at all prepared for Halloween and had to turn away children knocking on our door. This year, I bought some sugar filled crap to dish out to them, which really goes against the grain. Next year, if I'm on the ball, I can make some healthful sweets and cakes to hand out instead!

Nite all.

PS Just want to acknowledge Jamie's birthday. He would have been 36 today.

Welcome to the World

What luck!

Today, I went to check the second nest and saw some movement! This is what I found ..

So there are at least two chicks there, possibly three, but only time will tell. It's very exciting! For me anyway.

I attempted to give one of the psychotic dogs a hair cut this morning but she was cranky and horrible, so the job didn't get finished.

My second text book arrived today, so now I can officially begin studying! The book looks incredibly intimidating, to say the least, but I'm pretty excited about what's next to learn.

Today, I've started a health journal for myself, and am in the process of setting one up for Adoring Husband, so that he can document the 'possible' healing journey that we are about to embark upon.

Finally, this afternoon, I rode down to the river because the soft cloud was looking promising for a pretty sunset. Unfortunately, as often happens to our sunsets, a bank of cloud appeared from the West and snuffed the sun, so I rode home the long way, just so that I could enjoy the lovely evening light.

Adoring Husband had SES training tonight, so it's been very quiet here on the home front.

I'm trying for an early night, so ...

Nite all.

Surprise!!

I have had suspicions for some time that there might be two chicks in the Tawny nest, but two days ago, I conceded that I was wrong and there must only be one.

It seemed to me that each day, the chick looked a bit different. Some days it seemed too small and some days it's eyes seemed smaller and darker, but then I thought that maybe the nest was quite small and it just depended on what position in the nest that she was situated on any particular day.

So today, as I was trespassing to get my morning shot of the Tawny family, I climbed the stairs to the house (which is an empty holiday rental property) so that I could get a better angle and was taking photos for about ten minutes, and just about to return to my trike, when I saw movement to the left of the chick.

This little clump of feathers appeared from under the parent Tawny and suddenly he opened his eyes and looked at me!

How adorable is he!? Quite a bit smaller than his sibling and he has a bit of a grumpy face, but still very adorable.

I was so excited, I was talking to them in a very high pitched voice (which might explain the weird looks on their faces!). Looking forward to searching them both out every morning now.

The other nest that I've been watching is still pretty quiet, although the parent Tawny is sitting much higher, or taller, in the nest, so I think the eggs have hatched and now it's just a matter of time before they poke their little white faces out to take a look at the world.

I'm checking them every day.

I had a nice lunch with the ladies today. There were about 15 of us. The food was pretty average, but the wine was good and the company was excellent.

Next month, we are taking the river boat across the river to have lunch at the Woodgate Bowls Club. I've already booked and paid for my spot, so I'm IN!

Nite all.

The Dealer

Adoring Husband and I visited The Dealer today.

I call his doctor 'The Dealer' because every time AH has an appointment, he comes home with a new prescription for another drug.

The Dealer, again, called me The Bodyguard when we walked into his surgery, and I plan on being the 'ever present' bodyguard forever more!

He suggested another drug today (just like last time) and even drew a lovely little diagram with a graph and percentages to try to convince us how successful this drug would be.

The calculations which he attempted to construct in his head, were not convincing, and I don't think he was convinced either. There was a bit of babbling going on.

So, we left with an appointment card for AH to see someone else about some helpful exercises that he will need, to improve parts of his health (in place of the drugs).

'Apparently' there is nothing natural that we can do to improve this part of AH's health (I love how medical practitioners and specialists ALWAYS say that ... like they've EVER attempted anything natural!). 'Apparently' this is a natural ageing process that can only degenerate as he gets older.

We'll see about that.

Then we had a lovely time in AH's computer record, removing some medications from his list of 'active' drugs .. and there was a good number of them .. until there was just one left.

Can you see the beaming smile on my face? Can you hear my audible sigh of relief? Can you sense how proud I am of Adoring Husband for avoiding those toxic substances and attempting to allow his body to become strong enough to fight disease and illness in a more natural way?

There are still health issues (aside from his Parkinson's) that we have to address and I'm working on those issues as quickly as I can - my education as a process is intense and time consuming. There is just so much to learn and absorb, but I can see progress happening in my own head!

We will get there.

Tonight we had a few storms roll over us. Lots of noise and a hell of a light show with just a couple of short sharp showers. We could have done with some decent rain, but unfortunately that wasn't meant to be.

I hid inside the house until the storms were a LONG way from us, and I took these photos from my outdoor area with the camera pointed between a couple of houses.

The light show was impressive and I wish I was brave enough to set up the camera on the beach because THAT would have been gobsmackingly amazing!

As promised, dinner last night was this ...

The chicken breast (a recipe given to me a long time ago by Lady Lynn) was butterflied, pounded and then I rolled crumbled feta cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes, oven roasted pine nuts & almonds in it.

I placed the rolled chicken on a bed of sliced onion, sprinkled a combination of lime zest, thyme, oregano and minced garlic over the top, covered it with baking paper and baked it in a 180C oven for 45 mins, but I think it only needed 35 mins because it was a bit dry.

The cauliflower rice had toasted pine nuts, onion, chilli, lemon juice and coriander tossed through it.

The cucumber was thinly sliced, mixed with shallots and coriander and then soaked in lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and cracked pepper.

You can see the leftover stuffing mixture from the chicken in the middle of the plate too.

I just want to end with my favourite quote from Winnie the Pooh.

Nite all.

Fuzzy

Here are the photos from yesterday that I promised.

The final photo for the facebook B&W challenge ..

Tonight I made Lime and Coriander Cauliflower Rice with Rolled Stuffed Chicken and Lemon Cucumber Salad.

The photos and recipes for that will be in tomorrow's post.

That is all!

Nite all.

Sleepathon

Can you believe that I was in bed by 8pm last night?!

I got out of bed just before 8am this morning!

Unbelievable!!

The last time I did that, was a few months ago, when I arrived home one Friday night from the Bowls Club very drunk and fell unconscious on the bed at about 7.30pm .. but I did wake up at about 1am and spent a good deal of time in the bathroom before collapsing on the bed again a couple of hours later.

Last night, I was very sober, and I woke up at midnight, got out of bed to find Adoring Husband sound asleep in his recliner lounge chair, so I returned to my bed and immediately fell right back to sleep.

It's been a LOT of years since I was able to sleep that many hours in one night and I certainly felt very good for it this morning.

My B&W photo for day 4 of the facebook challenge ...

... and our little Tawny chick continues to grow bigger every day ...

I had a very social morning today and didn't arrive home until lunch time. During my socialising, I got some great photos of a little Wattlebird chick sleeping in it's nest and then a couple of Pale Headed Rosellas eating buds from a Bottlebrush tree, which I will share with you tomorrow.

After crunching through some sand crab for lunch, my afternoon was very quiet. No cooking. No cleaning. Nothing exciting. No visitors.

A little bit of study and research on gallbladders and how they work when they're healthy and when they're not so healthy. There is always something new to learn about the human body and all the bits that make it up. Loving it.

So now I'm off to bed for my usual midnight sleep time.

Nite all.

Sooner or Later

I'd hoped to write a decent post tonight, but I'm feeling decidedly tired. How sad that I'm thinking about bed at 7.30pm on a Saturday night!

Maybe it was the hour long walk along the beach this afternoon?

So I will share with you, my third photo for the B&W 5 day challenge on facebook ...

... and now I have some kitchen debris to clean up after dinner, that's if I can stay awake long enough!

I have a few photos of the baby Tawny Frogmouth to share tomorrow, so watch this space.

Nite all.

Last but not Least

Here is the final episode of The Truth About Cancer series. It's not on youtube and you only have 48 hours to watch it from this link.

This episode is full of interviews with survivors of colon, breast, kidney, testicular, lung cancer etc., who have used either a combination of conventional cancer treatments with natural therapies, or they have only used some form of natural therapy.

It's very interesting to hear their stories.

So I thought I would post this a little earlier than usual, so that you have a chance to watch the final episode before it's removed from the free watch site.

I will do another post later this evening, separate to this one.

See ya later.

TGIF

It's been a great day!

I got to spend time with a woman who has a very similar belief system as me, as far as health, nutrition and mental/emotional/psychological health is concerned. We spent about an hour together this morning, maybe more, and we will definitely spend more time together in the future.

She lent me a book, which I began to read today, but I realised that nothing else would get done if I continued, so I put it down and plan on looking at it again tomorrow.

I can't wait to talk more with her!

I've watched some great videos on Youtube today regarding the Lymph system, cancer treatments, Parkinson's treatments and so much more ... I have bookmarked the last page that I looked at so that I can continue in the coming days.

So much to learn!!

Yesterday, I was invited, by The Best Cousin in the World, to participate in a B&W photography challenge on Facebook. Here are my first two submissions ...

Meanwhile, here is Episode 10 of The Truth About Cancer ..



Now it's bed time, so I'm off!

Nite all.

Movie Solo

Today, Adoring Husband had to go into The Bay to run some errands, so I decided to go for a ride with him and had him drop me off at the cinema to be picked up a couple of hours later.

I went to the movies alone.

Because of the Parkinson's Disease, Adoring Husband struggles to sit through a movie for a couple of hours. There is no support for his head and neck in the cinema seats, so the tremor puts a lot of stress in that area, causing him some pain afterwards.

I imagine that for any other couple, this might be a problem, but luckily for us, I really enjoy going to the movies solo!

Today, I saw the movie "Tammy" starring Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon. There were quite a few other big names in it too. Kathy Bates, Allison Janney, Dan Aykroyd, Toni Collette and Sandra Oh.

I quite enjoyed it, but I suggest that you don't go rushing out to see it. It's one that you can wait to watch on dvd in the comfort of your own lounge room.

Episode 9 of The Truth About Cancer ... (it's so nice to know that some of you are watching these!)



Now I have to give Adoring Husband a neck and shoulder massage ... because I love him :)

Nite all.

Waiting for the Heat

Apparently there is a heat wave heading in this direction, and in a few days, our temperatures are going to soar over 30C - which to any of you living inland, may seem like a reasonable temperature, but on the coast, with the humidity - it's really quite an oppressive heat.

I've so enjoyed our mid twenty temperatures of the last few weeks and the lovely cool nights with the breeze blowing directly through our bedroom window. I guess it had to come to an end eventually.

The boys at The Seat of Knowledge were excited and amused to see the photos of themselves that I posted here yesterday and I made sure I showed as many local people as possible, including The Little Gnome's female neighbour, who had a good giggle.

Very tempting to pin the photo in the local notice board, perhaps with a note attached, 'for a good time call ... ' but then maybe not lol.

Not much to report today, but here is episode 8 of the series The Truth About Cancer ...

The first doctor who talks, Dr Nicholas Gonzales, is an amazing and highly intelligent man, but he talks very very fast. It's almost like his mind is so full and overflowing with information that he can't get it out fast enough! He had me in awe and if you can keep up with what he is saying, you will learn a lot!

I took a lot of notes during this episode!



It's heading fast toward midnight so I'm outta here.

Nite all.

Days Alive

Today, on his birthday, Adoring Husband has been alive for 20,819 days.

I have been alive for 19,904 days.

That's quite a lot isn't it? I've never really thought about it, but I was expecting the number to be higher.

Anyway, we should make each day count.

The bakathon began this morning ...

This cake took quite a while to make and has a LOT of ingredients.  I had to make my own date paste by soaking dates for some time in hot water and then whizzing in the blender until it became a creamy paste.

Ingredients include zucchini, walnuts, avocado, eggs, coconut flour, tapioca flour, almond flour, cream of tartare, bicarb soda, raw cacao powder, honey, vanilla extract, date paste, to name a few.

A syrup made of honey, water and coffee was brushed over each layer of the cake before the icing was added. The icing included avocado, date paste, honey, cacao powder, coconut cream, coconut oil and salt.

I actually added some whipped cream and blueberries to this, but forgot to take a photo!

Adoring Husband enjoyed a very large slice and it was similar to a brownie on the outside and then soft and moist in the middle. I liked it very much, but it was very rich .. I certainly couldn't eat a piece as big as the one AH ate!

AH spent his birthday working on the front garden, which I must say, is looking much better than it has for quite some time. There is still a little more to do there, and next he has to get the veggie garden moving out the back.

I picked a very large bucket of cherry tomatoes from the garden today, most of which, I think will go into the dehydrator for semi-dried tomatoes. The asparagus is still producing nicely too, but the lovely laying chooks have slowed down a little.

This month, our flickr group challenge is themed 'Odd One Out', so my boys at The Seat of Knowledge helped me out with this little number.

and of course, I had to get a shot like this, for future bribery and corruption purposes.

Believe me, the photo looks much better than the reality of it!!

That's about it for my day .. aside from a really nice morning tea with Lady Lynn. Everybody else was busy with life today, so we met early for a coffee together. I really enjoyed our short time together.

Here is Episode Seven of 'The Truth About Cancer' for your viewing pleasure ...



Nite all.

Happy Birthday Adoring Husband

First and most importantly ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADORING HUSBAND!!

Let's see what the day brings!

Birthdays for AH are very tricky. This is the man who has everything. This is the man who buys what he wants as soon as he wants it. This leaves little for the rest of us to consider.

We once passed a rule that he wasn't allowed to buy anything for himself for the last 3 months of the year .. so that we had a chance to get something that he wanted for his birthday and Christmas.

I think that rule only lasted one year .. he just couldn't control himself for that long.

So material gifts are not really an option, unless it's a fun gift that has a special meaning behind it.

I just have to find a way for AH to feel as much love as possible during the waking hours of his birthday and hope that he feels special!

I bet this is how he really feels today .. instead of his 57 years.

I was hoping that he would go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight so that I could spend a few hours in the kitchen and prepare some party food for tomorrow .. but as Murphy's Law dictates .. it just didn't happen.

Now I am rethinking my strategy.

Here is Episode 7 of 'The Truth About Cancer'

A warning before you watch this one .. there are a couple of short parts during this video where the doctors either talk REALLY fast, so they are difficult to understand, or they use jargon and medical terminology that might leave you a bit confused.

Don't give up. Try to push through it because those parts are only short and the video is still full of important health promoting information.



Time for me to at least attempt to make a birthday cake!

Nite all.

Another Lazy Sunday

The usual start to the day, although a bit late because I slept in.

The lovely Spring weather was welcoming and the river was a vibrant blue as the tide came in .. apparently, I was 30 minutes late for a pod of dolphins that swam up river close to the Seat of Knowledge! How disappointing! I will attempt to get there earlier tomorrow morning, because today was the second day in a row that they've appeared. Third time lucky for me I hope.

On my way home from coffee, I stopped to buy some fresh cooked sand crabs. My timing was perfect because they only had 6 small crabs left.  I paid for 4 of them and he gave me the last two for free!

I spent the first hour after I got home, shelling crab. Ugh. That was a job and a half.

So Adoring Husband made egg rolls for lunch and we filled them with baby spinach leaves, raw onion and crab meat. Perfectly delicious lunch.

The rest of my Sunday, I spent lazing on the couch, sometimes dozing and watching trashy TV shows and a Leonardo Di Caprio movie. My favourite kind of Sunday.

We had Crispy Skinned Salmon for dinner with a hearty salad full of organic goodness splashed with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with feta cheese.

We tried a fabulous new dessert. Dark Chocolate n Berry Mousse.

Ingredients:

• 2 Medium avocados - flesh removed.
• 1 Cup baby spinach roughly chopped.
• 1 Punnet of fresh raspberries (I only had strawberries and blueberries).
• 1/4 raw cacao powder.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract.
• 1/4 cup maple syrup.
• 1/3 cup full fat coconut cream.
• 50g dark chocolate.
• Chopped nuts .. I used macadamias.

Directions:

Melt the chocolate in a double saucepan and set aside.

Combine avocados, baby spinach, cacao powder, vanilla extract, maple syrup and coconut cream and process in a food processor. Slowly add in the melted chocolate and continue to process.

Chop the strawberries (or whatever fruit you choose) and then fold through the mousse.

Set in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes and then serve with fruit on top and a sprinkling of chopped nuts.

For more healthful recipes go to I Quit Sugar where you'll find lot's of yummy stuff to choose from.

Here is Episode Five of The Truth About Cancer.

I just want to say that even though these hour long episodes fall under the title The Truth About Cancer, everything that they talk about is what I deeply believe about health and nutrition and healing the body from the inside out. Not just healing cancer, but any number of health issues from heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure problems, thyroid conditions, arthritis, eczema, asthma etc.

Covering things like hydration, sunshine, sugar, gluten, juicing, vitamins, minerals, herbs, toxins and detoxing, stress and emotions, the benefits of fasting, aspartame, the immune system, just to name a few!

I hope you can find the time to watch these shows because you will learn a lot and I know you will experience some light bulb moments.



That's about it from me.

Nite all.