Beautiful Bribie Island

We had a lovely day with friends on Bribie Island. A perfect summer's day ..... clear blue skies.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this lone pelican. He stayed perched on this tree for ages just watching what we were doing. We have a lot of pelicans in this area with them perching on the light poles on the bridge to Bribie. You have to be careful that you don't get "pelicaned" whilst driving across as quite a few cars have been targeted ... lol - and what a mess it makes.

This photo is taken on the surf side of the island with the surf club and tower in the background.

Repaving the Pergola

The paving in our pergola area had become very uneven over the years so hubby decided that all the pavers needed to be lifted so he and our son started the mammoth task of repaving.

Starting to lift the old pavers.
The new pattern. Fortunately we were able to reuse the existing pavers however we purchased some grey ones to go around the edges and under the table setting.
Getting there .............
The dogs trying out the new area .......
One of my water features ...........
Our pergola area....................

September Spring Fair

In September our Church and Primary School had a combined Spring Fair. My husband was the co-ordinator and I know the hours of work which many people put into making the day a success.

The morning of the fair we awoke to teeming rain however everything was in place so there was no option but to continue with the day and pray that we would be blessed with sunshine. Well our prayers were answered .... the fair was due to start at 9:00am and by 8:00am the rain had cleared and the sun was poking it's head through the clouds.

This is the greasy pig ride which was one of the activities being run by the church youth group. They also had a knock-ems stall and a chocolate throw.

Ready to take on the challenge ...................
Ooops ....... nearly made it ........
This was the cow-pad lotto. An area was fenced off and a calf placed in it. The area was marked off into 1/2m square sections which were numbered and lotto tickets sold. Wherever the calf left it's first "message" was the winning ticket.
And the winner is ....... number 158 ...............
The kids enjoyed the baby animals from Old McDonald's Farm....
Some of Our Rural Fire Brigade Guys.
The plant stall. We took over $800 from the plant stall which was a terrific effort.....

My King Orchids

Hehe - more flowers .......... but my King Orchids are flowering at the moment and are such a spectacular display that I just had to take some photos of them. I have one cream and the rest are white. Each year they share their wonderful display of huge sprays off blooms with the most beautiful perfume.

CREEC Sustainable Living Fair

Last Saturday Judy and I went to CREEC (which is the local council's environmental education centre) for the morning to have a browse around their annual sustainable fair. We found out a lot of information on composting, organic gardening, water saving, the use of solar power etc.

I was interested also in finding out more about growing native trees with edible fruit and also planting more species of trees which will support our local wildlife. I ended up with two Davidson Plums, two Hoveas and another small growing shrub with edible berries.

At the 'Land for Wildlife' display they also had some native lizards two of which are common to our area ..... the bearded dragon and water dragon.

Bearded Dragon..........................
Frilled Neck Lizard ...................
Water Dragon ............................
They were so friendly and didn't mind having their photos taken or being touched.

Fell in a heap last week.

It's so frustrating - have had so much planned which I want to do lately but nothing has got done. With all the trees flowering (wattles, tea-trees, pines etc) I ended up with hayfever / sinus problems a fortnight ago and with taking polaramine on top of my usual meds I was falling asleep on my feet - lol - really.............was standing hosing the vege garden one morning and could feel myself dosing off .... sat at the computer - dozed off .... sat at the table to read - dozed off .... went with mum when she had her massage - dozed off - that's apart from sleeping in every morning.

.......... so I did no pilates - apart from my Thursday night class and didn't walk any mornings - couldn't even be bothered to use the treadmill at home. Then of course the chronic fatigue decided it too wanted to get in on the act so I totally gave up with trying to do anything.

The only good thing was that from not doing much the muscle spasms & nerve pain in my back / neck etc eased a bit ...........however last week we had the most glorious winter days so I did a little bit in the garden, caught up on the computer and actually walked every morning but of course the Fibro flared up again. I know that getting stressed only makes matters worse & causes panic attacks but my brain doesn't function enough to talk to myself nicely when it gets like that and all reasoning is buried somewhere with common sense.

It is so FRUSTRATING ....... then physio on Wednesday & Pilates Thursday night was the icing on the cake. I was in tears by Wednesday night and not much better on Thursday. Couldn't cope with being on my own so spent Thursday with a good friend. Usually I won't allow things to get to me to that degree but I seemed to have no control over things this time.

Needless to say I was a bit emotional to say the least when I saw the psychologist on Friday.

It's like being on a round-about ... exercise makes me stiff and sore but without it I stiffen up more. I feel good about myself when I can do things but sitting at the computer, doing craft, doing a bit in the garden causes flare-ups which puts me back to square one all the time.

Anyway today I managed to get the washing done, water the plants and catch up on some emails and have increased my meds till the pain subsides a bit so am feeling a little bit better.

Well I've had my whinge - it's nearly midnight - have just finished my milo so might have a shower and head off to bed.

I Received an Award

Thank you so much to Aurien of Distinctively Auri Scraps for choosing me to receive this wonderful award.




Now I must pass it on to 7 other people.
Award Rules .......
1. Add the logo to your blog
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs
4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they have one lovely blog....

Now the blogs I would like to pass the award to are:

Cen's Loft

Lynette's Photo Art

Suruha-Freespirit

Franny Smith Studio

Scrapper's Emporium

Digiscrap by KRL

Sam's Scraps & Sigtags

Aussie Scraps Designs

Visit to Orchid Show

I know .......... when it comes to taking photos of flowers I just can't help myself.

These beautiful orchids and broms were some of the 100's of specimens on display at the yearly orchid show in Caboolture earlier this month. I have never seen so many colours and types, shapes and sizes. They ranged from tiny flowers - no more than 1 cm across to some which must have been 15cm.

The perfumes of some of the orchids were so soft and delicate yet others quite sickly sweet.







There was also a display of broms and these were two of the more eye-catching ones.

I loved this one - it reminded me of a bad hair day - lol.

God's Painting in the Sky

We have had the most spectacular sunrises of late. The colours have just been magnificent and the photos just don't do justice to the scene which has greeted us in the mornings. Who but God could create such a masterpiece.

These photos were taken by my mum from the patio of their cottage.

Good Friends

I just couldn't resist taking a photo of my two friends. Shadow (the smaller of the two) is my girl and Heinzie is mum's dog however I am now his surrogate mum as unfortunately mum and dad are unable to have a dog in their cottage at the retirement village. As you can see though he's made himself quite at home - lol.

A Bit of Neglect Does Wonders

I have been baby-sitting mum's plants since their move last year while she finds homes for them at their new cottage. Unfortunately my plants don't get the TLC from me which mum gives to hers but a bit of neglect has certainly been the tonic needed for this orchid. I'm not sure what sort it is although mum calls it a Vanilla Orchid as it has the most beautiful perfume.

Apparently this orchid flowered the first year in which mum purchased it but has stubbornly refused to flower since. Whether it is from all the rain which we've had this year or the cooler weather however it's decided to put out the most beautiful display with three lovely flower
spikes.

And of course as usual - if I am paying attention to anything other then Shadow she has to get into the act with her ball.

Doggie Bedtime - LoL

I just couldn't resist taking a photo of Shadow and Heinzie yesterday morning. It was quite cold and neither of them would get up out of bed to go outside. They are both old dogs now so deserve a bit of comfort and TLC - lol.

Where Do I Start

I have been such a slack blogger of late, well actually I have been a slack everything of late - LoL. No digital scrapping layouts to share & no graphics to share. The last couple of months seem to have passed in a blur but then maybe it's just the brain fog which I seem to be living with.

Well winter has hit with a bang. First lulling us into a false sense of security with beautiful warm weather and then BANG - single figure nights and days where the temps aren't reaching double figures till mid morning. I'm sitting here at my computer - it's 8:42am in Brisbane and the temperature is showing only 6degC - that's unheard of ......... BRRRRRR at least we are a coupld of degrees warmer than that here. It's actually reached 13 inside and is currently 9 outside.

I have left the coats on the dogs this morning - they just looked at me when I went to take them off as if so say "oh mum - but it's COLD".... He He - you should see them at night in their beds - well actually you can hardly see them as they snuggle right down under their blankets. Yeah I know - Spoilt Dogs.

Well I'll try to bring my blog up to date today and then hopefully not be as tardy in keeping up with the days happenings.

Spoilt Dogs?? - No ..... Just Loved

I couldn't resist taking these photos yesterday. I had just arrived home from the day out with a friend and when I opened the door all three dogs raced into the breezeway and onto their beds - well at least one went to HER bed. The other two decided that they would swap.

Here is Shadow (Shaddie) getting comfortable on her pillow - LoL.
This one is Heinzie on Coco's Bed. Heinzie is actually my mum's dog but unfortunately she and dad were unable to take him with them when they moved into their cottage at an Aged Care Village so he became a permanent resident here.
And here is Coco on Heinzie's bed. Coco is another sweet dog who we are baby-sitting for 12 months while his "parents" are travelling.