Day 257 in a Year of my Life

Another fizzer sunset BUT we'll try for a sunrise tomorrow!

Cooloolabin Dam is a really peaceful and lovely place for a sunset - one day soon, I hope to see something spectacular from The Nikonian or one of the other JPEGGERS.

I've had a really great day, from beginning to end, and it was nice to meet some more of The Nikonian's lovely family too.

Today, I am grateful for warm Winter sunshine and relaxing days with friends.

Nite all.

Day 256 in a Year of my Life.

I keep losing my internet connection, so I'm going to make this a short post and share some quotes from facebook.

Having a great time with The Nikonian and her amazing family at the moment.

Today, I am grateful for the really genuine people in my life whose purpose in life is to make the world a better place and put a smile on the faces of those they love.

Desperately need a solid night of sleep.  Wish me luck!

Nite all.

Day 255 in a Year of my Life

A quick post before bed.

We spent a couple of hours at The Ginger Factory today.  Guess who forgot to take her camera?

I know!!  First of all ... when the hell do I EVER forget my camera????  It's always an anguished decision about whether I should leave it at home!

Being around my Chicklet makes me all fuzzy with love and I just don't think straight.

Therefore ... no photos of our day out.  *sad face*

I made up for it this afternoon and got lots of photos in the lounge room.  I'm only sharing two of them tonight though.

She's growing up so fast isn't she!?  

I didn't do too much to these.  Changed them to black and white in iphoto,  added the circles of light to the top one and a rose glow to the bottom one.  I'll play with them both in photoshop sometime in the future and do a better job, but I quite like how these have turned out.

I can't believe it's almost midnight.  I was falling asleep on the couch while Chicklet climbed on me this afternoon, then I got my second wind and here I am 7 hours later!

Today, I am grateful for family outings that include boats and trains and purchases of fudge!

Nite all.

Day 254 in a Year of my Life

Well after 3 hours sleep last night, a 2 hour train trip, a short bus ride to the Chicklet family home, much play time with Chicklet, a half hour visit with a very old friend, and a delicious dinner cooked by the Bare-chested Chef, I am now in bed (since 7pm) and ready for sleeeeeeeeeep.

It has been raining all day - a very grey day and I even felt cold today.  Since I didn't pack for cold weather, I might have to make a quick trip across to the shopping centre and get myself some track pants and a sloppy joe!

So, no photos today.  I've been too busy enjoying the company of my family and catching up.

My precious little Chicklet is as wonderful as ever and already working hard at wearing me out!

Let's hope the weather clears a bit tomorrow, so that we can get out and about.

Today, I am grateful for a stress free travel day, where all the plans fell into place beautifully to start off my little holiday in the best way possible.

Nite all.

Day 253 in a Year of my Life

Saw the movie The Lone Ranger today.

LOVED IT!!

Now I'm packing for a trip down to the Sunny Coast to see my Chicklet family.

It feels like FOREVER since I've seen them and I'm a bit excited!

There is also a photo shoot organised for the weekend with a bunch of us from the JPEG group, which should also be fun.

And of course, some girlie time with The Nikonian.  Woot!

No photos today because we were too busy all day AND I didn't take my camera with me.  So I've used an old photo for day 9 of July Photo a Day...

Tomorrow, day 10, I need to find something 'smooth' - that should be interesting between here and the Sunny Coast!

Today I am grateful for dates with Adoring Husband.  Nice relaxing together time.

Nite all.

Day 252 in a Year of my Life

Our house is very quiet.

No photos taken today, but I have one to share from last week.

and my 8th July Photo of the day ...

I have a hot date with Johnny Depp tomorrow, so I'm off to bed at a reasonable hour ... comparatively speaking.

Today, I am grateful that Wimbledon is over and my sleeping pattern can get back to normal.  Congratulations to Andy Murray for his win last night (I'm sure he is a regular reader of mine!).

Nite all.

Day 251 in a Year of my Life

I don't think I have the stamina to even last out the first set of the Men's Wimbledon final with Djokovic and Murray tonight.  It's being telecast on TV as I write this and it's already taken 34 minutes to play 6 games and they are three games each.  I think it will be a long match .. as finals should be!

I have three photos to share.  One from my morning trike ride ...

One from July Photo a Day ...

... one from this evening's sunset.

I went to the Lions Park with my visiting family.

The kids and The Birdman played touch footy on the beach (like they hadn't already had enough touch footy this weekend lol) and Nellie Noo and I took photos of the sunset from the tip of the Lions Park.

It's been a great five days with Nellie Noo and her family here.  We love having them come to stay.  Low maintenance visitors who are a lot of fun and full of enthusiasm and a terrific zest for life.

I've been on such a 'low' just lately, it's nice to feel a different energy surging through the house, which in turn affects my energy levels in a more positive way.

So thanks for coming guys.  You know you are welcome ANY time .. next time, we'll ALL go go-carting and we photographers will get some amazing shots of you drivers in action!

The psychotic dogs will miss you all ... especially Roxy!

Today, I am grateful to have you as my family.  Please come again :)

Nite all.

Day 250 in a Year of my Life

I seriously believe that I may have lost count along the way.  I notice that I have doubled up on some of my days in my year!!  Ah well.

Today has been a pretty full day.

I didn't wake up til about 7.30am and there on my bedside table was a take-away coffee from the bakery, that Adoring Husband kindly placed there a little earlier.  It was still hot.  So I lay in bed and checked my emails on my ipad while I drank my coffee.

I thought that Nellie Noo and the fam had already left, because they were supposed to be at the grounds at 8am, but then I heard them leave at 7.45am so they were running late.

It was an easy decision to have a leisurely shower and take my time getting ready to head into town to watch the kids play their games.

On the way to the grounds, we stopped to get some water and a gluten free chocolate mud cake from the Cheesecake Shop.  I later bought some fresh strawberries and double cream to accompany that delicious dessert!

We arrived at the grounds with plenty of time to spare and caught up with Nellie Noo and The Birdman as they made their way to the field where Sporty Spice was to play her second game for the day.

I attached my long lens to the camera and got some shots while she played.

Next up was Chunky's game, and I got a few shots there too.

We left straight after that, to get some groceries for our home made pizza night.

So we all made our own pizzas for dinner (except me, who had dessert only for dinner!) and then there was chocolate mud cake with strawberries and cream for dessert.

Of course we had to work all that food off, so it was time for some fun in the back yard, playing with glow sticks, torches and the camera with some long exposures.

These are just a few of the photos taken over a two hour period.  Such fun!  I think we were all exhausted after that.  Lots of experimenting and a bit of brain storming.

So today, I am grateful that I'm old enough to choose to have dessert for dinner AND to have enthusiastic extended family to help create a fun evening that was even educational for me!

Nite all.

Day 249 in a Year of my Life

Before the family left for the big sports carnival this morning, I took a quick couple of snaps of Sporty Spice with her cockatiel and then had a play with the editing ...

The final product turned out much better than I expected and it printed beautifully.  I used it for the July Photo a Day for day 5 ... Love.

Another colourful sunset this afternoon and the misty rain stopped for the occasion!

After the sunset, I dropped the print off to the girl whose photo I took yesterday.  She was so excited, she came bounding to the front door and all three girls told me that they had been looking out for me all day and they had to go out in the morning, but checked the letterbox just in case I'd left it there.

They were all very grateful and thanked me profusely ... along with their grandparents who were very bemused.

It was a nice feeling.

I arrived home just before dark and was in the middle of preparing dinner when the family arrived home from their first day of competition touch footy.  They were very wet and tired.

A nice easy meal of home made hamburgers that everybody put together themselves, a glass or two of vino and then a big bowl of ice cream kept the masses happy!

I ordered a new camera bag today which should arrive next week.  I'm very excited about it.  I got Nellie Noo to unpack her camera bag so that I could pack all of my gear into it and take photos, to show the Nikonian, who is also considering buying one.

Everything fits beautifully with room to spare.

Well, I'm off to catch a bit of Wimbledon action before I head off to bed.

Today I am grateful for fun family giggles that come from a silly sense of humour that only family can truly understand.

Nite all.  

Day 248 in a Year of my Life

I pedalled over to the lagoon this afternoon, because the sunset was looking promising.

Once again the cloud banked over at the very last minute and blocked the beautiful colour that was trying desperately to spread across the sky.

There were three young girls playing in the park beside the lagoon and one of them climbed up onto a sign beside the water.

Just as I decided to give up on the sunset, she called out to me "Take my photo!"

So I swivelled the camera around on the tripod and took a quick shot through the almost darkness.  I didn't even change the settings on the camera, so when I looked at the image 'in camera', I could barely see her through the darkness.

Thank goodness for Photoshop!!

These girls obviously weren't afraid of 'stranger danger' because when I asked which house they were in so that I could bring the photo around to them tomorrow, they happily gave me their address lol.

I might even ask them if they want to participate in a photoshoot for me tomorrow, so that I can get some practise doing portrait shots.

I'll see how my day pans out.

Our three psychotic dogs are exhausted from chasing the kids around all day.

The men are exhausted from putting together a big garden swing, that converts to a day bed with flyscreens all around it.

The kids are exhausted from playing football in the back yard for most of the day.

I haven't done much except catch up with all the family news and organize a quick lunch today, so I might even try to catch some Wimbledon tonight.

Today I'm grateful for low maintenance visitors that just seem to fit right in.

Nite all.

Day 247 in a Year of my Life

I have family here for the next 4-5 days, so my posts will probably be short and posted late, which, come to think of it, is no different to how my posts have been for a while now!

It's really lovely to have them here anyway :)

I can't believe that the time is already after 12.30am.  I have to be awake reasonably early in the morning and there will be no watching Wimbledon tonight!

For day 3 of the July Photo a Day challenge, the theme is 'Cold' ...

Tomorrow's theme is Red, White OR Blue.  Hmmm nothing jumps into my head straight away.  Might have to sleep on that one.

Today I am grateful for happy, energetic extended family who breeze into my life every so often and help me feel the love.

Nite all.

Day 246 in a Year of my Life

I would like to start by first thanking Grannymus for my email hug this morning.  It was a lovely way to start the day.

Second of all, thanks to my friend, The Nikonian, for providing a pretty neat quote today, that eased my anxiety over some questionable exchanges I've had with people recently...

I think Vegan Chickie hit the nail on the head the other day on the phone, when she reminded me that the trauma of the tornado is just beginning to make it's mark on me.

In highly emotional situations, I  tend to stay reasonably strong for everybody else and then when it's all done and dusted and everything is fixed and people are back to normal, that's when I fall apart.

So I think I might be a little emotionally unstable at the moment.  Small things affect me quite badly, and big things knock the wind out of me and when you put them all together in a small period of time, I teeter precariously on the brink of a break down.

Sounds dramatic doesn't it!

Day Two of July Photo a Day ... Shoes

I was disappointed last night, (or should I say this morning) when the last Aussie, Bernard Tomic, was knocked out of Wimbledon.  I sat up til 6am to watch him lose!

At least now, I'll be able to get some more solid sleep, and considering that it's almost midnight, I think I will sign off now and head in the direction of my pillow.

Today, I am grateful for the loving people in my life who are helping me to heal.  Slowly but surely, this too shall pass.

Nite all.

Day 245 in a Year of my Life

Day One.

Happiness is ...

I confess, I forgot that it was the first of the month and didn't think of taking a photo for the challenge until about 4pm, which kind of limited me with time and location.

Also, my brain doesn't work so well after 2pm, so this will do for now.

I've eaten my Wimbledon tradition of strawberries and cream and am now waiting up for Bernard Tomic's match.

I don't think he'll be playing til about 3am our time, so once again, it's going to be a long night!

Adoring Husband and I drove to the plant nursery in Torbanlea this afternoon.

We got some plants for the hanging baskets in our outdoor area (the others got blown away in the tornado) and we also got male and female kiwi fruit plants.  I've never had kiwi fruit fresh from the plant and I can't wait to see how they taste!  Everything tastes better straight from the plant :)

A friend, 'Phar Lap', (that is also his nickname outside of this blog, because of his big heart) visited us this afternoon and asked me to create a community page in facebook for his remote control boating group.

So I spent the evening doing just that, and when it was all done, I got a private message from a woman, whose husband is also part of this boating group, abusing me because as far as she was concerned SHE was supposed to be in charge of creating the page on facebook.  (she had created the wrong type of page and had been reluctant to to change it, which is why I was asked to do this.)

I apologised and explained how it had come about and promised her that we didn't intend to upset her, but she kept telling me off and eventually said that she refused to upload any more photos or videos for the group and would no longer maintain the account.

My last message told her that I was happy to hand this account over to her, that I had only created it as a favour and that I was a lover not a fighter!  I put a big smiley face there, so that she would know I wasn't feeding off her anger.

So far, she has ignored my final message.

There are many members of the human race who have disappointed me in the last month and I'm feeling just a little disillusioned.  Sometimes people suck!

I think it's time to hibernate for a while.

Today I am grateful for the horrible people in my life ... because they make my lovely friends seem so much lovelier.  I love you all!  You know who you are!

Nite all.

Day 244 in a Year of my Life

We've got some crap weather forecast over the next few days.

A low has formed over Fraser Island, which means heavy rain and gale force winds.

I must admit I'm feeling a little nervous.

I'm ok with wind, until I see a warning by the weather bureau.  That always makes my heart skip a beat, and then I stalk the Bureau of Meteorology website, Willy Weather website, Elders Weather website and any other website I can find!

So, to take my mind off the weather, I've decided to focus on a July Photo a Day challenge.

The weather hasn't been too conducive to outside photography, so I hope this will give me new inspiration.

Today I am grateful to have photography as therapy!

Nite all.

Day 243 in a Year of my Life

It's well after midnight and I'm watching Wimbledon.

The Australian, Bernard Tomic, is playing the Frenchman, Richard Gasquet.

They are one set each and five games each.  I think I'm in for a long night!

When this match is over, the Australian, Samantha Stosur plays her match.

Pretty sure I'll be having a nap fairly soon.  Pretty sure it's going to happen without me even knowing it :)

Having sorted through three days worth of photographs, I was disappointed with most of them and really only have this one to share ... and I'm even reluctant to share it.

I think I need some inspiration!

Or I think I need to create some opportunities for myself.

A lady, who is a regular holiday maker here, stopped me today and asked "have you ever done classes?"

I thought she was asking if I'd ever attended photography classes, so I began telling her my education history with photography.

She was giving me a strange look when I realised she was actually asking me if I ever 'conduct' classes here in town!

Then she proceeded to tell me that she had been to my exhibit last year and absolutely loved my photography and that she would love to be my first student, if I ran a class!

Well it's a thought!

She said she'll be back in 11 weeks, so that should be plenty of time to get a class organised.  That made me LOL.

Highly unlikely that I can be organised enough or motivated enough to make this happen, but it's nice to know that somebody out there thinks I'm good enough to do that.

A little later on, I had another slight boost to the ego, when a local lady told me "You really have the WOW factor with your dress sense.  When there is an occasion, I look for you, to see what you're wearing.  I really love your style."

Nobody has ever said that to me before, so I was a bit surprised and bemused.

Today I am grateful, for the times that I'm not feeling on top of my game, and people step forward with interesting questions and statements, to slightly change the ebb and flow of my life and raise my awareness.  So, today, I am more aware that I'm ok.  Really!

Nite all

Day 243 in a Year of my Life

Totally involved in the tennis, which means my brain is not functioning for posting tonight.

Instead, I thought I would share this photo and no, I didn't take this one ...

His head looks too big and heavy to hold up on that long skinny neck!  I hope it's not cold where he lives!

Today I am grateful to have more than 100 people watching my facebook photography page.  It's pretty good considering I'm not selling anything or doing any networking.  That's pretty cool.

Nite all.

Day 242 in a Year of my Life

Facebook share time again ...

... and my sister, Squirt, posted this with a panicked request wanting to know what sort of snake it was ....

Luckily it was just a harmless python and everybody convinced her to set it free.

She doesn't cope well with snakes, and those of you who know us, know why.

Today, I am grateful for my kids.  I spent most of my day on a Skype call with one, a phone call with another and multiple text messaging with the other.  It was a good day.

On a final note ...

Nite all.

Day 241 in a Year of my Life

You've just got to check this out.  Mother Nature at her finest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=REP4S0uqEOc

How I would love to trek through the New Guinea jungles to capture some fabulous photos of those little gems!

YAY FOR QUEENSLAND!!  We won the second State of Origin game tonight!!  One game each, which means the decider will be a ripper on 17th July!!

The bad news is that Lleyton Hewitt lost his second round tennis match at Wimbledon tonight.  Very disappointing for me ... even more so for him (as I glance over my laptop screen and see his press conference on the tv).

Today, I made a delicious Cauliflower, potato and leek soup with crunchy dry roasted walnuts sprinkled on top.

Adoring Husband doesn't like it ... which is great!  All the more for me!!

I've been feeling a little run down as if my body is trying to fight off a cold/flu/virus, so I want to make lots of different soups full of vitamins and minerals and goodness to help strengthen my immune system and fight off the germs.

I already have chicken and roast vegetable soup in the freezer.  I might make a tomato, basil and roasted red capsicum soup next.

So I think I might head off to bed and see if I can wake up early enough to accompany Adoring Husband into The Bay tomorrow.  The car is booked in for some further repairs which will take a bit of time.

We may even go to the movies.

Today, I am grateful for discovering the very few delicious foods that Adoring Husband won't eat ... all the more for me!!

Nite all.

Day 240 in a Year of my Life

My tears are flowing for the loss of a very special lady tonight.  My heart is aching for her family, Brian, Charlie and Matilda,  her sister Christine, and for all who love her.  I know that there are so many of you, especially BGWLBH ...

RIP Liza Simpson.  

Day 239 in a Year of my Life

My "good authority"on the full moon being spectacular this morning, wasn't so good after all.

Pitiful really.

I pedalled in the dark with my head and tail lights flashing, trying to find the best spot to watch the giant moon sink behind the horizon, but it wasn't giant at all.

I was lucky enough to stumble across a live video tutorial this morning, on a site called 'Creative Live' and I watched an expert edit a whole stack of wedding photos and create an album.

He was amazing and this was day three of a three day tutorial, so I just had to buy the first two days .. because I learned so much from day three!

His name is Yervant and this is his website ...

http://www.yervantphotography.com/

He has won many photography awards and is very famous in the photography world, although, I must admit, I had never heard of him until today!  Not that that means anything .. I am a very lazy photographer with little knowledge of others in the field.

I would like to change that.

I can't wait to watch the other two days of tutorial!

Meanwhile .. have I shared this before?  I know I've seen it before, but I can't remember if I posted it here.  Oh well, it's worth sharing again.

Today, I am grateful for my favourite sporting time of year!  Wimbledon.  State of Origin football.  The Ashes (soon).

Nite all.