Somewhere over ...

... the rainbow.

We've had a day full of thunderous storms, amazing lightning and heavy rains.

A water spout crossed onto land and caused some damage in The Bay.

A woman was hit by lightning at the Howard markets this morning. I don' t know the status of her condition.

There have been a number of short blackouts here in town, but Howard lost their power for hours .. in fact, I don't even know if they have it back on yet.

I rode my trike to the local supermarket this morning, thinking that I could be there and back before the big storm hit, but I misjudged badly and ended up having to ride the storm out in the supermarket. After about 30 minutes, there was a break in the rain and I pedalled home, but there was still a lot of lightning about and I was afraid that I'd get hit! Obviously I made it home safe n sound.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today.

Overnight, I'd made a good batch of chicken stock, so I packaged and froze some of it and I made some chicken and vegetable soup for a friend who's husband is very ill and malnourished. I tried to deliver it today, but she was out and he wasn't answering the door. I'll try again tomorrow.

I had a heap of organic oranges, so I juiced them with kiwi fruit and coconut water and now I have a huge jug of delicious juice in the fridge.

I cooked a corned beef in the slow cooker and we had that for dinner with a delicious cabbage/onion/bacon mixture simmered in some home made beef broth and then sprinkled some toasted slivered almonds on top.

I had plans to make an apple and coffee cake, but that might have to wait til tomorrow.

No study today .. I couldn't focus with the crappy weather conditions .. not that I ever need much of an excuse!

More storms are forecast all week long, so I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Nite all.

Never too late!

Just goes to show that it's never too late!! 96 years old!!



I'm super excited to announce that I STUDIED today!!

Woot! Woot! Three whole hours!

That's it. Now that I've started, I may have kicked that procrastination bug up the butt!!

I'm feeling confident :)

Chemistry was my subject of choice today and even though the lecturer said that Chemistry really isn't that hard .. I feel that she lied .. just a little bit, because I'm only part way through the first lesson and I'm already bamboozled!!

Anyway ...

Nite all.

Mango Promises

Our mango tree has fruited for the first time and it has LOTS of mangoes dangling from the branches.

The animals and birds ate my peaches and my mulberries and I'm not going to let them eat my mangoes, so today, I found the old exclusion bags that we used to protect our tomatoes and I put them on most of the mangoes on the tree.

So now I have an exclusion bag tree .. of which I will take a photo tomorrow to show you.

That was my first chore this morning to start the procrastination process for the day, to avoid study.

I cooked up some curried sausages and roasted a chicken. I made the dog's food, which took a bit longer than expected, being such a big batch. I got 13 days worth of meals all packaged and frozen.

For all the time it took to cook and prepare all of that .. it took just as long to clean the kitchen afterwards! I emptied and refilled the dishwasher 3 times today and still had big pots and bowls that needed to be hand washed.

Anyway, that took up all of my day and now I am watching one of my favourite movies "Fried Green Tomatoes".

Adoring Husband spent the morning doing a forensic search down in Gympie with the SES, spent the afternoon at the SES shed, came home for both lunch and dinner, then returned to the shed for training in the evening.

So we've both had a full day.

Here's a photo of The Sex Therapist, Nurse J and myself, taken by Adoring Husband last Wednesday night at the local pub where we went for dinner. We look so happy!

Nite all.

Who knew?

Who knew that Cod Liver Oil was so expensive?? Even more expensive than Coconut Oil!

I've decided to make the dog's food from scratch.

The vet recommended dog biscuits for our dogs after we told him that we fed our dogs fresh meat only, and have done so since they were puppies.

Our dogs are aged 8, 8.5 and 9yrs.

One of our dogs got pancreatitis and so the vet decided that the 'heart smart' mince that we've been feeding our dogs has too much fat in it, which caused the condition.

So we bought dog biscuits and changed their diet.

Big mistake.

The smell of the poop and the farts is unbearable .. this was never a problem before!

The dogs can't get enough water into their bodies, to help digest the biscuits, so they fluctuate between constipation and diarrhoea.

They don't like the biscuits very much (and we've tried 3 different varieties), so the food stays in their bowls, which attracts ants .. yes we put their bowl on top of a large plate of water to stop the ants, but the dogs drink the water lol.

There are no guidelines or safety standards for dog food, especially biscuits, so I don't trust that this is a healthy diet option for dogs. They also contain grains, which have never been part of a carnivore's diet in the wild.

So I've done a bit of research and found that making dog food is a good option.  I'm not going to cook their food but combine raw beef mince, liver, heart, raw egg, blended green leafy veg, mashed pumpkin, cod liver oil, ground egg shell for calcium and a small amount of plain yoghurt or kefir which works like a probiotic.

I don't have measurements or a particular recipe for this - except that dogs shouldn't eat more than one egg per day and the offal needs to be in small amounts in each batch of food.

So that's my priority for tomorrow.

I bought two new pairs of shoes today. I threw out 8 pairs yesterday!

I was wearing a pair of shoes today, that are about 15 yrs old. They were Colorado sandals with a low heel and very comfortable, but I've only ever worn them (perhaps) twice each year. Just after I bought my new shoes today, I was walking across the carpark in the Bay, when the sole of one of the shoes that I was wearing, broke in half and literally feel off the shoe completely!

How lucky that I had new shoes to replace them!

If any of my friends out there want to check out my throw-away shoes before I take them to St Vinnies, please feel free to come visit me. They are all size 7 (maybe a couple of size 8s in there) and most are in very good condition, a couple 'like new'. There are joggers, sandals, flats and heels.

I also have two bags of clothes in which you might be interested.

Adoring Husband has a big day of SES duties tomorrow, so I wonder if studying is in my immediate future???

Enough of this frivolity. Time for bed.

Nite all.

The Hero Returns

Adoring Husband has returned safe n sound *insert very happy smiley face here*

My day was full and busy and distinctly lacking study time.

I started at the Seat of Knowledge with my boys. Morning tea with the girls was next, where I had a very pleasant time with the lovely little Lola.

I eventually came home to attend to some housework, including cleaning our walk in robe, which had my shoes and handbags scattered all over the floor so that I could barely reach my clothes! Now it's immaculate.

The air conditioning guy turned up to investigate a problem with our ducted system. It may very well be costly by the time he sources the replacement parts that we need. Bummer.

I made a birthday cake for Happy Harry, and during that process, the electric hand mixer died .. it's well over 10 years old, so I think I got my money's worth. My hair dryer died on Friday night as well, so I'm not having a lot of success with my small appliances!

I met with 'the gang' down at the Lion's Park for our monthly evening barbecue and the cake was a success. Thank goodness, because it was the first time I'd made this red velvet cake (sugar free and gluten free) and it was for a special occasion, so it would have been a disaster if it was a failure.

Then Adoring Husband arrived, looking tired, but very well.

We came home, and by the time I cleaned up and packed everything away after the barbecue, I got to sit down and my feet thanked me profusely.

Here are some quotes that I enjoyed today.

Nite all.

Unproductive

Oh I wanted so much to study today.

Instead, that "P" word came into play and I found so many different things to do, instead of studying!

I procrastinated by

• Watering the garden 
• Reading my emails
• Checking facebook
• Surfing the net
• Getting clothes off the line
• Feeding the chooks
• Searching for frogs in the garden
• Researching camera lenses
• Playing Words With Friends
• Watching a movie
• Or two
• Collecting the eggs
• Checking my flickr mail
• Ordering my FROG box

I briefly checked some due dates for assignments and exams and then signed out.

Probably my most unproductive day for a while.

Adoring Husband will be home tomorrow :)

Nite all.

The Challenge

The flickr challenge this month is "A Bug's Life".

There have been a lot of submissions and they are amazingly good! None of my shots even come close to being competitive this month, but I've submitted one just to be involved.

I've searched high and low for a different kind of bug .. there are dragonflies, spiders, bees and beetles and I really wanted something different in a different environment, but I didn't have much luck and the weather has been so windy this month, that it's been difficult to use the macro lens effectively.

Anyway these were my efforts this month and my final choice was the frangipani with the beetle.

I wish that I could share on here, the other submissions, but I can't.

Adoring Husband is still in Brisvegas cleaning up after the storm. They've asked the team to stay on for a couple of extra days, so I have peace and quiet for a little longer.

Here I was thinking that it was about 9.30pm but I just looked at the clock and it's after 11pm!! Where has the time gone? Time for bed!

Nite all.

On Duty

It has been a very strange day.

It started with me being woken up by Adoring Husband's alarm. It had already gone off once and he thought he'd turned it off, but instead he had accidentally put it on snooze. Of course he was out of the room when the alarm went off, so at 4.30am, I was climbing over the bed trying to find the phone to turn the alarm off.

I get very cranky when I am woken unnecessarily.

Adoring Husband was awake that early because the SES had been activated to go down to Brisbane and assist with the storm damage.

For this reason, I had to go do AH's work for him this morning.

It seems that AH didn't screw the lid on the tall spray bottle of blue cleaning solution the last time he used it. The bottle fell to the ground leaving the spray nozzle in my hand, the blue solution sprayed upwards over both of my legs and onto one leg of my white shorts. It oozed into my thongs, sprayed up the wall and then the bottle tipped over leaving a puddle of thick goo about 30 cms in diameter.

The language that spewed from my mouth was not at all ladylike .. and I did not care!

It took me quite a while to clean up that lovely mess and by the time I got home, the blue had well and truly stained my shorts. I scrubbed them with Sard's Wonder Soap and let them soak. They are now in the washing machine .. I will report on the successful removal of said stain (or non removal).

I changed out of the shorts into another pair of white shorts to go for coffee.

While I was waiting for my coffee, I bought a banana and was chomping away on it, when some woman stopped and said "Is that your breakfast?" When I replied "Yes" she responded with "That's very naughty. Don't you know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" and then she promptly coughed and spluttered all over me - suffering from the flu. So I said "Obviously your hearty breakfast has done you the world of good!"

We had a conversation and I set her straight on healthy breakfasts and what the health and diet industries have lied about for the last 40 years. Her idea of a healthy breakfast, was not in the slightest bit healthy!

I believe she will think twice in the future, before commenting on anything that I'm eating because I'm not backwards on coming forward when it comes to food and nutrition!! She did apologise to me for trying to sound like my mother, but I think she was just sorry that she chose ME to pick on lol.

Then my coffee arrived and as my continuing luck would have it, I spilled the coffee over one leg of THOSE shorts. Seriously!? Another scrubbing session ensued.

By this time, I decided that to put value and safety into the remainder of the day, I should remain at home and try to avoid doing anything. I didn't want to tempt fate any further.

So that's what I did.

Here are the photos of Chicklet that I promised.

Now, I await Adoring Husband's phone call to find out how his day went.

Nite all.    

Touching Base

Yes another short post tonight, and no photo of Chicklet .. let's try again tomorrow night for that one.

Instead, a spider photo that I took today in the garden.

Now I'm off .. seeya tomorrow.

Nite all.

Freak Storm

How terrifying it must have been for the poor people stuck out in the open when this storm hit Brisbane today?!



So much damage and there are more storms forecast for the next few days.

I have to say that I do not like this time of the year in Queensland. The storms are just too wild and too unpredictable!

I arrived home safe n sound this afternoon after an uneventful train ride from the Sunshine Coast.

The worst part of my day was trying to remove a very large toad from my laundry this evening .. UGH!

The best part of my day was being woken up by little Chicklet and Vegan Chickie this morning with a nice hot coffee in bed.

Now, it's after midnight, so I need to cut this short again. Photos of Chicklet tomorrow!

Nite all.

First Time Ever

Well here I am signing in for a brief update.

For the first time ever, my little Chicklet has fallen asleep beside me in my bed!

We had tried this two times on previous visits, but after only a few minutes, she scrambled back to Mama's bed feeling a bit stressed.

Tonight, we both lay down together and closed our eyes listening to one of those voice overs where the lady's soft voice lulls you to sleep. We had tried that once before without success, but tonight, it worked like a charm .. almost sent ME to sleep too!

So here she is (photo taken with my phone), almost 3 hours later, fast asleep beside me ...

She is a very restless sleeper and flails her arms about regularly, so I suspect I could wake up tomorrow morning quite battered and bruised!

Nite all.

Forgotten Post

Well, it seems that I forgot about blogging last night! My mind must have been full of Chicklet visits and packing! I even went to bed early.

Tonight's post will be very short because, as usual, I am absolutely exhausted after a full day of Chicklet play. I don't think it would matter how fit and healthy I was, Chicklet is impossible to keep up with and I will always be exhausted at the end of every day that we play.

I arrived at the Sunny Coast at 7.45am and by 2 o'clock this afternoon, I was struggling to keep my eyes open in the middle of a dinosaur game .. in fact I'm sure that she woke me up twice during the game!!

So, it's now not quite 8.30pm and I am ready to turn off the light and close my eyes.

Before I go, I'd like to acknowledge the anniversary of my Dad's passing. I can't believe that it's been seventeen years. I miss him. xxx

Nite all.

Dinner with Friends

Adoring Husband and I went out to dinner tonight with The Sex Therapist and a small group of friends. It was a fun night and made me realise how much I miss The Sex Therapist. I hope we get to see each other again at least once before Christmas.

It's been an interesting day. I've spent some quality time with people I haven't had contact with for a long time and really enjoyed chatting with them.

Life gets in the way sometimes.

I did take some photos tonight, but won't share them until tomorrow night.

All I have from today is a shot of my second set of Tawny Frogmouths who have also left the nest, but are still hanging out in the big tree.

The first set of chicks have left the nest and also left the area where they were hanging out. I have no idea where they are now.

So we are now near the end of the Tawny season, which makes me a bit sad. It's time to look elsewhere for the next phase of nature .. I have no idea what that might be, but I'm sure it will be interesting and intriguing.

Nite all.

Sharing the Quotes

Friday night facebook share.

Nite all.

Trimmed Up

I can't even remember the last time I went to the hairdressing salon. It must be about 3 months. My hair had grown so long that it was getting caught under my armpits and the split ends were tangling and knotting together.

I had about 3 inches trimmed off the ends today and it's surprising how much lighter and cooler it feels.

Tonight, in the big city of Rockhampton, my 17 year old niece (my brother's daughter) graduated from year 12.  She looked beautiful ...

... and it was nice for my brother to get there from Cooktown, for the occasion.

Other than that, it has been a very hot and humid day today. The weather bureau predicted an 80% chance of rain, but unfortunately it was not meant to be.

I might try for an early night .. it's 10pm .. so now would be a good time to hit the hay!

Nite all.

Something New

I was given some Colloidal Silver yesterday.

One of the ladies who makes my morning coffee had previously talked to me about how she had a special generator to make her own colloidal silver.

To buy colloidal silver in the health shops or chemists, is very very expensive and sometimes it's watered down, so you don't know which brands are worthy of spending your money on.

From my research so far, you can make your own generator and there are any number of instructions available on the net to do that, or for a couple of hundred dollars, you can get a generator and the necessary extras to set yourself up to make your own colloidal silver.

Colloidal Silver is a homeopathic remedy, that consists of distilled water infused with particles of silver ion via a battery-charge.

Colloidal silver is taken internally as an immune booster for treating cold and flu symptoms and for treating a number of other medical conditions.  It can also be applied topically in the treatment of cuts, scratches, and skin rashes. Colloidal silver works by destroying harmful bacteria and toxins.

After much research today and yesterday, I discovered some amazing success stories and the only negative side effect that people have tried to pin on colloidal silver, is a condition called Argyria, where your skin permanently turns blue .. almost like a smurf! But when you look further into it, on the rare occasion that this condition has occurred, it's because the people were ingesting massive amounts on a daily basis and using impure ingredients.

Everything in moderation, I say.

I have a vague memory of my grandparents, aunties and parents using colloidal silver when I was a young child, to treat colds and for wounds like burns, cuts and gravel rash. I remember it being kept in a vibrant blue bottle under the kitchen sink. So I know there is a history of use in Australia.

So I had my first dose this morning. I've started on one teaspoon in the morning on an empty stomach. As with all new natural remedies or therapies, I never expect instant results or reactions, but this morning I felt quite energised and my brain felt like it was on alert .. I wish I could say alert enough to cure me of my procrastination problem .. but alas no .. just alert enough to want to absorb as much information about colloidal silver as I could find!

I've put some colloidal silver in the dogs' water bowl too.

What do I hope to get out of colloidal silver you ask?

I hope to build on and strengthen my immune system. I believe that it's already pretty strong, but I still have digestive issues related to my gluten intolerance and some other food sensitivities, so I think the colloidal silver can provide a detoxification that will strengthen my good gut bacteria and maybe cleanse, not only the bad bacteria, but any toxins or metals that I have accumulated in my body.

I'm keeping a health diary, so I will have a record of how my body reacts or changes over the coming weeks and months.

I'll try to remember to keep you posted.

One thing I know for sure, is that a good solid night's sleep is important for good health and since it is already after 11pm, I should be in bed already!

Nite all.

Spectacle

Tonight's storm was a spectacle of sheet lightning, and I was still not brave enough to go further than our alfresco area with my camera and tripod.

I will always imagine how wonderful that lightning must look over the ocean at night .. I will never be brave enough to go look for myself .. although perhaps a drive in the car isn't out of the question one night.

I got a phone call this afternoon from some friends offering some tomatoes from their garden. They offered to drop them off at our house during their afternoon walk, so, I rushed around like a chook with it's head cut off, cleaning the house.

As the saying goes .. we can get more housework done in the 30 minutes before guests arrive that the whole week prior to that!

So I dusted quickly in the lounge room, made the bed, cleaned the toilet, tidied the bathroom, hung out some washing and loaded the washing machine with the dirty bathmats and towels. At least the house looked 'just' presentable.

Prior to that, I bathed two of the psychotic dogs. They weren't very pleased about that.

Morning tea was very pleasant this morning too, but we did miss Lady Lynn and little Lola very much.

There is some heavy duty yawning coming from my body right now, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Revelations

Today, while I was channel surfing, I happened across the first episode of a three part series which aired on the ABC called "The Men Who Made Us Fat".

I haven't yet watched the second and third parts, but plan on doing that tonight and tomorrow. I took lots of notes on this program and intended writing a long post tonight, but decided that I would just add the link so that you could watch it yourself.

It's very interesting, and for me, it confirmed some facts that I have suspected for quite some time about the food and sugar industries. It seems that we little people have been manipulated by so many money making industries for so long, it's surprising that we haven't become extinct already!

So, lucky for you, this is just a short post, although I do want to mention something about my Tawny photo that I posted a couple of days ago .. the one with the close up of the eye.

I posted that photo in flickr (flickr is an online photo management and sharing site, where, depending on your security settings, you can share your photos with just a couple of people, or with everybody who uses flickr) and usually I get around 100-200 views of my photos .. on a good day.

Somehow, it was put onto 'explore' which (I don't really understand how this even works) is like a public page, where everybody who is a member of flickr can view it. The photo has had almost 47,000 views and almost 600 people have made it a 'favourite'!

I can't even describe how hectic it was last night as I got notification after notification on my ipad in a constant stream, advising me as the number of views increased at an incredibly rapid rate.

Anyway, it has slowed down considerably this evening, so I don't think I'll get too many more views.

I wonder how photos are selected to go on this page. I wonder if there is a way to stop photos being selected for the explore page? I wonder why it's even a 'thing' and how it is supposed to benefit me, if I'm not running a photography business?

Hmmm all very interesting.

The weather has been very hot here .. how about where you are?

Nite all.

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.