Day 90 in a Year of my Life

This is what's happening with our weather right now ...

There are warnings about high winds and flooding as some places north of us have received 600ml of rain in the last 24 hours.  Roads are closed and people have been rescued from flooding rivers.

My little sister, Squirt, was looking forward to a school re-union this weekend in Yeppoon, but the whole area is flooded now and the event looks like being cancelled.

Many Australia Day celebrations have been cancelled up and down the coast due to the extreme weather conditions.

We are supposed to attend a barbecue at the park tomorrow, but it's highly likely to be a non event now.

So I think I will head to bed and attempt to get a good nights sleep in readiness for what could be a wet, windy and stressful day.  Mother Nature scares me that way - you never know what she is going to throw at you next!

Today I am grateful to have a roof over my head for protection from the elements and I hope that Mother Nature will not get too angry as she reaches my area.

Nite all.

Day 89 in a Year of my Life

So there I was, yesterday morning, pedalling along the river bank, when a local lady calls to me from her front balcony and asks me to stop.

She walks out to the path where I was riding and tells me about her son who, years ago, was very interested in photography, and that she had a stack of filters that she was going to get rid of, unless I was interested in taking them.

So I asked her if I could see them.

I chatted with her husband and her sister on the balcony while she went inside to search for these filters. About ten minutes later, she emerged with two boxes, two books and various assorted attachments.

These are creative filters from around 1980 and are Cokin, which is a top brand. Graduated filters of all different colours, star filters, fog filters and others.

To buy all of these filters would cost a veritable fortune, so I agreed to take them, but offered to pay. She declined my offer and instead said "Do you know how you can pay me?"


She then said "I would like your permission to paint some of your photos"!!

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I told her that she could paint every one of my photos if she wanted to!

What a huge compliment! She then proceeded to tell her sister about my photography and was rubbing her arms when she said to me "Honestly, I get goose bumps whenever I tell people about your work".

How chuffed was I?

So, not only did I acquire a very expensive, very large set of filters for my camera, but I also received the biggest compliment and boost to my ego.

A double whammy of happy!

Sometimes I just can't believe my luck.

I have conceded defeat and finally selected a photo for the 'Sunset' challenge. The rains have hit us big time after the cyclone up north turned into a rain depression, so I doubt if there will be any interesting sunrises or sunsets in the coming week.

Here is my submission ...

Adoring Husband and I went to the movies today to see 'Parental Guidance'. I really enjoyed it. I love Bette Midler and I love Billy Crystal and I love Marisa Tomei. It was a fun and moving movie that I could relate to.

It's been a good day. A wet day, but a good one.

Today I am grateful for the lovely heavy drenching rain that we've needed for some time, that fell today. I hope that it doesn't continue for too long or cause any damage along the way. The grass already looks greener, the vegetables in the garden are reaching for the sky and the air is cleaner.

Nite all.

Day 88 in a Year of my Life

Adoring Husband had a little accident today and ripped his big toe nail so far off that they had to surgically remove it in 'casualty'.

It was ugly and bleeding and I still feel queazy when I think about it.  Ugh.

So I need to be up early to do his morning job for a few days.

Since it is almost 11.30pm, I don't have time to post a big one tonight, so I'll tell you my good news story tomorrow (there is always good news with bad news!).

Today I am grateful for my recent 15 minutes of fame and tomorrow I will explain why.

Nite all.

Day 87 in a Year of my Life

Mother Nature is not playing fair.

This month, the challenge is 'Sunrise' or 'Sunset'.

I have been up early for about a dozen sunrises and they have all been duds.  There hasn't been a good sunset to chase.  Today's looked good to start with, but the colour was minimal and lasted just a couple of minutes.

I'm so OVER this challenge.  Who said it was going to be an easy one?

Here are my photos for today.

I think I might sleep in tomorrow morning.  These 4am starts are killing me!

Today I am grateful for fresh cold water.  How many people on this planet have no access to fresh, clean, cold water?  I go to my fridge 5 times a day for a bottle of clean drinking water.  How lucky am I?

I just realised that my sister has no access to clean drinking water in the town where she lives.  After seeing horrible photos of brown water in bathtubs and plastic water jugs and stories attached about how people are getting sick because of it.  In Australia in this day and age, that just shouldn't happen.

So I am grateful that I can turn on my tap and drink the clean water that flows from it.

Nite all.

Day 86 in a Year of my Life

For your viewing pleasure ...

For your perusal ...

There was no pretty sunrise for photographing this morning - try again tomorrow!

Nite all.

Day 85 in a Year of my Life

Adoring Husband has been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease.

We are still processing this information.

There is much to learn and much to consider.

Information to read.

Medication to regulate.

Possible alternative therapies.

Possible dietary changes.

Lifestyle changes.

Family and friends to advise.

Life goes on, with just a little more awareness.

Today I am grateful for this diagnosis, because other possibilities would have been much more difficult to deal with.  This, we can handle.  Just add TLC.

Nite all.  

Day 84 in a Year of my Life

Caught the sunrise this morning.  Might even try for another tomorrow morning!

I'm not enjoying Summer very much.  The heat and I don't see eye to eye.  Adoring Husband and I find ourselves closing up the house and surviving under the air conditioner.

Needless to say, a quiet day in front of the telly watching tennis and cricket.  No more Aussies left in the Men's or Lady's singles tennis, after Federer gave Tomic a thrashing this evening.

The cricket is still on right now, but I won't be seeing the end of it.  I've been up since before 4am so my body is pulling me towards a bedroom and a pillow as we speak.

Today, I am grateful to have healthy eyes.

Two of our friends have been diagnosed with Macular Degeneration and one of those friends may not be able to drive as of next week.  He has to give away his weekly golf and can no longer read the newspaper.  I can't imagine how difficult that must be.

Nite all.

Day 83 in a Year of my Life

Almost everyone in the world is now addicted to 'Pinterest'

For those of you who haven't heard of it or seen it yet, here is the link to my Pinterest page, which   is only in it's youth and is small compared to many others.

http://pinterest.com/rqqzy/

It's a lot of fun to play around in and you can find all sorts of interesting things like recipes, patterns, gardening tips and ideas, home decor, fashion, photography, nature, and the list is endless.

I only play in Pinterest about once a month, but when I'm in there, hours pass before I even realise it ... which is why I don't go there too often!

The sky was too clear this morning, to go in search of a sunrise shot, so I returned to bed after my initial investigation (looking out the window) this morning.

I'm led to believe that the weather is changing overnight, so hopefully, a sunrise will be on the cards, which means I need an early night.

The worse thing about Summer, is that the sun rises before 5am ... we all know how difficult it is to get out of bed before 4.30am to beat the sun!

One photo to share.

Today, I am grateful for our support network.  The people who care enough to lend their emotional support in our times of need.  (I will share further in a couple of days).

Nite all.

Day 82 in a Year of my Life

I woke up.

I rode to the bakery and boat ramp.

I rode home.

I watched the tennis.

I did a load of washing.

I watched some more tennis.

I spent quite a bit of time in facebook.

I watched a movie with Brad Pitt in it.

I ate dinner, which was cooked by Adoring Husband.

I watched some more tennis.

I am now going to bed before 10am.

I hope to wake early enough for a sunrise tomorrow morning.

I would like to share two things that I saw in facebook today.

I am finished for the day.

Nite all.

Day 81 in a Year of my Life

Begin rant:

We drove to Bundaberg this afternoon for an appointment.

The drive home was one of the more frightening experiences of my life, and probably Adoring Husband's life as well.

The first we noticed, was in the rear vision mirror and we witnessed a B-double truck, driving at well over the speed limit on the wrong side of the road, overtaking a number of cars.  Nowhere was there a gap where he could safely pull into the correct lane, if oncoming traffic appeared.

Eventually, the car that he was overtaking, had to brake and create a space for him to pull in behind us.  The nose of the truck would only have been 10 feet from the back of our car and I think I'm being generous in my estimation, because he felt a lot closer.

We were driving on the speed limit of 100 kmh.

Soon he felt the need to overtake both us, AND the semi trailer in front of us.  We estimate that he was driving on the wrong side of the road for at least a kilometre and the truck in front also had to brake to give him room to pull into the lane and avoid oncoming traffic.

My heart was pounding and Adoring Husband was feeling the heat too.

This is not the first time that we've had issues with truck drivers on this road.  They take unnecessary risks to overtake and they tailgate dangerously.  We always travel at the speed limit, so there is no need for them to overtake.

Essentially, it means that they are driving above the speed limit at all times because they quickly disappear from our sight after they've passed us.

I wish that I'd had my wits about me and used my mobile phone to video the experience.  I could have taken it to the police station, posted it on facebook or youtube, sent it to a television station, or somehow got the appropriate attention and action to stop this driver from putting our lives at risk in the future.

I don't think it's fair that I feel stressed every time I know we have to use the highway to go somewhere, because the road is full of dangerous, careless, inconsiderate truck drivers.

End rant.

Today, I am grateful and relieved that we arrived home safe and sound after such a harrowing experience.

To finish - What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo?  A pouch potato :D

Nite all.

Day 80 in a Year of my Life

Today, I got all my taxes up-to-date.  I was a bit behind ... like 8 years, but I only worked for two of those years, which makes it not so bad.  So now I start fresh!

I watched tennis all day - poor Adoring Husband is not pleased about this and the three psychotic dogs are enjoying his company in the family room, for the duration.

This afternoon we headed down to the park for a barbecue with friends.  I had such a nice time and while we were eating our dinner, a tawny frogmouth flew down and tried to steal something from one of the picnic baskets!!

I don't know if there was a bug in the basket or if he was trying to get something else, but it was amazing to see!  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera at the ready, because it was the last thing I was expecting to happen!

Unfortunately, by the time we got home, the only Aussie playing tennis tonight had just finished his match - on the plus side, he won, so at least I get to see him play again on Thursday.

No photos today because it was raining this morning, but I was going through some old photos and found this one from last year when the flickr group came up here for whale watching.

This is the son of one of the girls in the group.

Today, I am grateful for Summer afternoons spent with friends and doing the Aussie barby thing. A big thank you to Kaz's girl, The Absent Aussie,  for baking delicious gluten free red velvet cupcakes for our dessert :D

I'm about to turn into a pumpkin because it's well after midnight, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Day 79 in a Year of my Life

The dreadful bushfires throughout New South Wales have wiped out all the bushland and national parks where BGWLBH and I enjoyed our road trip last year.

The bush walks are now burnt bare.  People have lost their homes.  The worst fires in ten years have destroyed 40000 hectares and are still burning.

According to the news tonight, the fires were so intense and fierce that they created their own weather pattern!

I can't begin to imagine experiencing something like that.

My second piece of bad news today is that the State of Queensland has already lost 14 people in  road accidents this year.  That's one person each day since the year began!

The third piece of bad news is that my son's ex father-in-law passed away yesterday.  Such a sad day for the family and under terrible circumstances.  May he rest in peace.

Now for the good news.

Woman of Many Talents became a first time Grandmother today to a little baby girl.  She sent me a text with a photo of the beautiful little addition to the family and she is divine!

I'm so excited for them all and I know that she is getting as many cuddles as she can while she's with the new family.  Congratulations to you all!

The second piece of good news is that The Artist and her husband attended their daughter's wedding in Melbourne this weekend.  Congratulations to the happy couple!

The third piece of good news is that Number One Son turns 31 years of age tomorrow!  Happy Birthday son :D  I hope you have a good day!  Pace yourself and make it last.

I found a bee on the sunflower this morning ...

It was another failed sunrise.  If at first you don't succeed ... try, try again!

Today, I am grateful that the tennis has commenced and I get to watch two weeks of my favourite sport, without having to stay awake all night, while the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam is under way.

Samantha Stosur won her first round match today.  Lots of Aussies lost their matches, including Lleyton Hewitt sadly.

It's going to be a long two weeks if the Aussies fail me!

Nite all.

Day 78 in a Year of my Life

I have a mini obsession at the moment.

It's with that gloriously beautiful single sunflower that I have found in town.

Tomorrow, I am going to get up early before the sun and capture this wonderful flower in the early morning light - perhaps with some morning dew.

Here are my attempts so far...

I am now trying to convince Adoring Husband to plant out our back yard like a field of sunflowers AND then paint sunflowers all over the inside of the timber fence that surrounds our property.

Imagine waking up to that every morning!?  That would put a smile on your face for sure!

I know that's not really going to happen, but I would like to grow a few in on of the garden beds out the back.

Today, I am grateful for one of nature's happiest creations and one that is bringing me great photographic joy during it's short lifetime.

I remember in my youth, I dreamt of owning a kitchen that was decorated in sunflower yellow and white and I imagined the morning sun streaming through large windows and creating a perfect, happy morning glow while I ate my breakfast.

There is still time :D

Nite all.

Day 77 in a Year of my Life

New Years Resolution for 2013 "To become a little healthier and fitter".

Rule number one for bringing this to fruition:

DO NOT DRINK A BOTTLE OF WINE IN ONE SITTING.

Rule number two for bringing this to fruition:

THINK BEFORE YOU EAT AND DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY EAT GLUTEN.

Had a fabulous time with The Nikonian and surely all that laughter, that is so good for the soul, negated some of the toxins that I ingested?!

The psychotic dogs decided that she was OK ...

We missed the sunrise this morning and after The Nikonian left, I spent the rest of the day trying to recover.

Lots of water.  Some sleep.  Some food.  Some Panadol.  Plenty of rest.

Today I am grateful that the day is over and I am feeling less toxic this evening, than I did this morning.  I am grateful for the lesson learned - everything in moderation and pace yourself!

Nite all.

Day 76 in a Year of my Life

The Nikonian is here.

Two bottles of wine.  A failed sunset.  Chat overload.  Delicious dinner.

Found this early this morning.

Gotta get up early in the morning for sunrise and it's already 11.45pm.  So I'm off to bed.

Today, I am grateful for visits from friends.  Not so grateful for drinking two bottles of wine, but the friends bit is fabulous!!

Off to bed.

Nite all.

Day 75 in a Year of my Life

What a long night.

I set my alarm to wake early for the sunrise, but for some strange reason, I was awake every hour on the hour and couldn't seem to relax into a deep sleep.

So again, I was up at 4.20am and out the door within 30 minutes.

The sunrise still didn't quite reach my expectations and my Tawny Frogmouths were nowhere to be seen, so I tiptoed up to my favourite Cassia tree near the Seat of Knowledge and spent some time trying, with my camera, to capture a bee enjoying the pollen in the flowers.

Thank goodness for the bee, because it was my only real success for the morning.

I was almost eaten alive by mosquitoes and sandflies and spent a good 30 minutes scratching and rubbing my legs - until I picked up some dry sand off the beach and rubbed it over the bites.  They seemed to miraculously stop itching after that.

While I was pedalling along the river path, the strangest thing happened.  I stopped the trike to check my phone because I felt like Adoring Husband was trying to contact me.  There were no messages, so I continued on.

Just as I passed the next tree, I looked up and saw Adoring Husband on his bike waiting for me!

Very weird and very unusual for him to be out riding at this time of day (or any time really!).

So we went to the bakery much earlier than usual to get coffee and we were served by one of the bakers.  I don't think I'll do that again.  He was the worst coffee maker ever lol.

So after a long night of trying to sleep, it was then a long morning at the Seat of Knowledge and I was feeling very tired as I made my way home well before 8.30am.

It's now 8.25pm and I believe that I can be in bed by 9pm.  One more time with feeling tomorrow for sunrise.  A few showers are forecast, so perhaps there will be some interesting cloud about.

Today I am grateful to have received a lovely phone call from Number One Son, who was out walking and sounded much brighter and happier than I've heard him for a while.  There was definitely a smile in his voice.

Nite all.

Day 74 in a Year of my Life

Last night, I went to bed three hours earlier than usual, believing that I would naturally wake up around 3am or 4am, and would rise early enough to catch the sunrise and play with the soft morning light.

My sleeping history has shown that I cannot sleep longer than 5 or 6 hours, because my back doesn't like being horizontal for longer than that.

So, I woke at precisely 2.20am and needed to visit the bathroom.  This was just a tad too early to head out on the trike, so I climbed back into bed and promptly fell asleep.

The next time I woke, was 6am!  That's more than 8 hours sleep with only one interruption!  Unheard of!!

I missed the sunrise, which by all accounts, was a non-event anyway.  Didn't get to the Seat of Knowledge til after 7.30am.

Here are my photos from today.

There is a story that goes with the White Breasted Sea Eagle shot, but to cut it short, I didn't even see him until he was low in the swoop, so I only just got the camera up in time to press the shutter, hence the poor quality shot.

What's worse, is that he dropped the fish on that first swoop, but I didn't see that, because I was checking the back of my camera to see whether my shot was successful.

When I next looked up, he was swooping again, but this time I could not get my camera up fast enough and I completely missed the shot.

Soooooo frustrating!  However, it really was beautiful to watch.

I am off to bed earlier than usual again tonight.  I'll make it to bed by 10pm and this time I will set my alarm.  I WILL wake up tomorrow for sunrise!

My other plan for next week is to make an 'Inspiration Board'.

Apart from lots of weekend photography trips, we have nothing else 'big' planned for this year, so I am seriously going to think about what I want to achieve with my photography, among other things and create an inspiration board that I can look at every day and be 'inspired' to make it happen.

We will find out what is happening with Adoring Husband's health, at the end of next week, then we can focus on making him as well as possible and make some solid plans for our year.

Adoring Husband and I cooked a delicious Thai Green Curry together tonight, with a green curry paste that we bought in Maleny, while on holidays on the Sunshine Coast.  We used chicken and prawns and vegetables and thoroughly enjoyed the end result.

Today, I am grateful for our 'together' cooking times, even though AH has a little trouble letting go of control in the kitchen... but he is getting there :D

I think I should definitely leave the 'presentation' to him though - I simply have no presentation skills with food.  He, however, is creative and artistic and makes food look too good to eat!

Nite all.

Day 73 in a Year of my Life

I actually got out of bed at 4.10am, looked out the window to check the cloud formations, because we all know that clouds are important for a good sunrise!

There was some nice fluffy and wispy clouds forming above and toward the East, so I got ready and by 4.40am I was on my trike and pedalling toward the river.

I've decided that the light is just so beautiful at that time of day and I'd like to get out every day at that time.  Especially in Summer.

It means that I can get a couple of hours of photography in while the light is so lovely, then go grab my coffee and head to the Seat of Knowledge for an hour or so and still be home by 8.30 or 9.00am before the day gets too hot.

This, however, means earlier nights to bed!

So here I am before 9pm, already yawning, sharing my day and my photos, so that I can go to bed and begin the snore-fest.

The new flickr challenges for January are 'Sunrise or Sunset' and 'FUN'.  One should be very simple and the other might require some brain work!

Today I am grateful for Chicklet voicemails (have I been grateful for them before?).  When I don't hear my phone and later find voicemails from Chicklet, it brightens my day so much.  I love the sound of her voice :D  I had two voicemails today.

Nite all.

Nana's Pantry

NEVER go to Nana's Pantry on an empty stomach!!

https://nanaspantry.com.au/

... and make sure you have plenty of time to browse!

You will find everything from the healthiest foods to the least healthy foods - of which we bought an abundance of both.

I shopped there while Adoring Husband took the new car in for it's first service.

I had my arms full of goodies and decided that I'd best stop and go to the counter before it got out of hand.  I estimated roughly that I probably had well over $50 worth of stuff.  The lady tallied it up and I was pleasantly surprised to see the total was only $30.

So, I dumped the goods in the car and AH and I went back to Nana's and spent another $15, which again, was less than we expected.

Everything is priced per kg and even though they have scales so that you can calculate as you go, we didn't do that ... my head automatically and instinctively calculates as if I am in our usual supermarket.  So it's a pleasant surprise to find everything is so much cheaper than expected!

I got lots of gluten free stuff.  Pastry mix.  Bread mix.  Tri-coloured Quinoa.  Dried peas for our next pea and ham soup cook off.  Vegetable chips - which are just like potato chips except made with zucchini, carrot, eggplant, beans, potato etc.  Too many gluten free lollies and chocolates to mention.

Love that shop.  It'll definitely be a regular stop on shopping days.

I hope to be up bright and early for a sunrise tomorrow.  I awoke early this morning and glanced out the window to see a beautifully coloured pink sky with lots of purple and orange puffy clouds scattered about.  I was too tired to find any enthusiasm, but it's the third morning in the last week that the sky has looked pretty, so I'm going to take my chances tomorrow morning.

Which is why I'm getting this post done before 9.30pm - an early night for an early rise!

I've been trolling through heaps of other people's blogs tonight.  It's amazing how many blogs are still sitting idle that haven't been touched for more than two years.

Some of them are so interesting - I almost joined a couple of email lists, just in case the person came back to continue the blog.

Ok, I'm done with all this yawning.  See you tomorrow - hopefully with beautiful sunrise shots.

Nite all.

 

Day 71 in a Year of my Life

Well, the boys loved the photo of their belly buttons and only one of them could identify his own belly button!

More strange weather today, but I got these photos before the rain came again.

On my morning ride I ran into quite a few people who I haven't seen since a few months before Christmas, so it was nice to stop and have a chat and catch up.

Then another day of cricket.  Australia won the Test and there was another Twenty Twenty Big Bash game between the two Melbourne teams which was pretty close.  Tennis is finished for a couple of days.

An uneventful day really.

I am grateful for uneventful days because we have got quite a few appointments coming up in the next week or so and we will be 'on the go' and probably dealing with a little bit of emotional stuff.  We need days like today just to 'be'.

Nite all.