Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Growing Bubba

Look how the bubba Tawny is growing!!


If she hadn't opened her eyes, I would never have known she was there. She blended in so well with her mama's feathers .. great camouflage!

I don't think the Tawny in the other nest has hatched her egg/s yet, but I'm checking every day. That nest is a bit higher in the tree, so my photos won't be as close as these.

I had a poor night's sleep last night. One of the psychotic dogs has struggled to adjust to his new diet and needs to head outside a few times each night to 'eliminate'. I had four trips outside last night. So I'm feeling quite weary tonight.

Things had better improve soon, because we need our sleep!

We attended a farewell party tonight for an older couple who have sold up and are heading south. Farewell and good luck to them.

Here is part four of The Truth About Cancer series.



Time for bed.

Nite all.

Friday, October 17, 2014

I Need a Nap

As you know, I didn't go to bed until after 1am (1.30am) this morning and then two of the psychotic dogs woke me at 5.40am because they needed to go outside.

I tried to get back to sleep for another couple of hours but I dozed on and off for about an hour and finally, I got up, because Adoring Husband was in some kind of hurry to go out for a ride.

So we rode to the Seat of Knowledge and then had morning coffee together (he actually had tea) at my usual morning haunt.

Afterwards, I came home and finally organised my beef and vegetable broth.

I took the meat, fat and marrow from the bones to make a rich delicious stew for AH's lunch and added some broth, garlic, cherry tomatoes from the garden, onion, cauliflower, chilli powder, cumin, home made tomato sauce, lemon juice, Himalayan salt and cracked pepper.

AH gobbled down a large bowl of it for his lunch and seemed to enjoy it very much. There are leftovers for tomorrow which I might offer him for breakfast since he has a big day organised tomorrow with the SES.

The rest of the broth filled seven chinese containers for the freezer.

Next, I made a big curried sausage dish, which will be heated up for our dinner tonight when we return home from the club. It already tastes delicious, but I can't wait til all those delicious flavours infuse .. by tonight it will knock our socks off!

Adoring Husband spent the morning potting some new herbs in my herb wall with fresh soil, some water retention balls and some cover for the soil. All of the herbs from the original plantings died, because the soil dried up and we couldn't keep the water up to them.

Hopefully this will do the trick and we will have better luck.

He is now preparing for a big SES day tomorrow. It's storm season and the SES is helping to bring awareness of how to be storm ready around the home, including having an emergency container at home which stores enough non perishable food for the family and pets for 3 days in an emergency.

There is a list of things, for example, a torch with charged batteries, portable battery chargers for your mobile phones, usb sticks or some kind of storage for important documents like identification, stocks/shares info, insurance details etc etc.

ANYWAY ... I'm not going to list everything here, but the SES will be in Hervey Bay at Bunnings, tomorrow (Saturday 18th October), giving a demonstration and providing all the information that you need to be storm ready.

So we've both been pretty busy today and are looking forward to a beverage with friends this evening.

The third movie in The Truth About Cancer series is here ...



It's time for me to go make myself presentable for public viewing.

Nite all.

RDJ Lover

Do you know what RDJ stands for? Robert Downey Jr of course!

Adoring Husband and I went to the cinema today and watched the movie "The Judge" with Robert Downey Jr,  Robert Duvall and Billy Bob Thornton among others.

It was a powerful and gut wrenching movie with great acting and a very moving storyline. If you go, take tissues!

We had a big day in The Bay today, and it's already 1am. I have bone broth in the slow cooker that I was hoping to strain and freeze tonight, but it's too late, so I'll let it simmer for another 6 hours and do it tomorrow.

I also have a large saucepan of cooked spinach, chard and kale ready to whizz and combine with the broth.

Anyway, before I head to bed, here is Part 2 of the series The Truth About Cancer for you to view, if you are so inclined.



Nite all.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The Choice is Yours

I have just begun watching an eleven part series on The Truth About Cancer.

This is not the sort of information that you will find in mainstream media (unless the ABC got involved .. and we all know how much trouble they are in at the moment) because mainstream medicine/pharma would put a quick stop to it.

So it takes little people like me to spread the word by sharing it in social media sites like facebook, twitter and blogs.

No matter how cynical you are of anything outside of mainstream medicine, when you listen to the doctors, naturopaths, scientists, researchers and medical authors in this video, talk about what cancer is and why it develops and why the current treatments have such a low success rate, it will all make a lot of sense to you and you will want to know more.

28 Doctors 11 Scientists 9 survivors talking about their education, their experiences and their beliefs.

Knowledge is power, so if you have an hour to spare, watch it now, or bookmark it for later, but watch it to the very end.



I will put each Episode here for you to access.

The choice is yours.

Nite all.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Fruity Freeze

I made some ice cream last night. I made it in my new Breville Boss.

I threw in 2 frozen bananas, a box of frozen raspberries, a tin of coconut cream and 1/4 cup of raw honey and pressed the 'frozen dessert' button.

We ate half of it last night while it was like a soft serve dessert and I sprinkled crushed nuts over it and then grated dark chocolate over the top (the refined sugar free kind).

The rest, I put into the freezer so that it would freeze overnight.

Tonight I scooped frozen chunks out of the container and did the same thing with the nuts and chocolate.

Delicious. Thanks to The Nikonian for sharing the recipe on which I based this one.

I woke up today, to the sound of an amazing morning storm. One almighty crack of thunder shook the house and scared the hell out of the psychotic dogs. It seems that the creeping fear that the tornado planted inside me has waned somewhat and I felt mostly calm as the storm passed over us.

This afternoon, Adoring Husband and I went for a long walk on the beach. We calculated that we walked for about 5km as the tide went out and both of us left our phones at home, so there were no interruptions. It was very therapeutic.

The rest of my day was spent reading a book called 'Shaky Past'. The life story of a man who has reversed his Parkinson's symptoms through a combination of therapies.

He credits learning to love himself without condition, laughing, meditation and counselling at the top of his list, followed by Aqua Hydration Formulas, Bowen Therapy, diet, exercise and the love of close friends.

This is the first book that I've read since the Twilight Series, which I read about 5 years ago. Usually, I fall asleep after reading 3 pages, so for me to read a whole book in a day!? That's pretty amazing.

I was impressed with the man, how he survived the traumatic events in his life (which he feels contributed to developing this condition) his struggle to find answers and his never ending belief that 'something' would work eventually.

Tomorrow, I will start his next book 'Stop Parkin' and Start Livin'', which delves more deeply into his healing process ... although he states quite clearly that he doesn't believe that he is cured, just that he has reversed the symptoms.

Anyway, I will report back on that one when I'm done.

Once I've read the book, I have to focus on my studies. My second text book should arrive this week, so it will be 'head down, bum up' after that.

I'd really like to go see the movie 'Judge' some time this week too .. hint hint AH.

Nite all.


Monday, October 13, 2014

A Day of Arrivals

The first arrival for today, was the first Tawny chick for the season ...


We'll be watching this one closely to see if there might be other chicks underneath Mama!

In this particular photo, another bird flew down and landed on a branch about 2 feet away from the nest. Mama Tawny got quite loud, yelling at the bird to go away and you can see in this photo, the little chick opening her beak to copy mama. Very cute.

The second arrival of the day, was my first text book which arrived in the mail. The $245 book that I got for $30 and is in pristine condition and looks very scary with all it's scientific jargon!

Next was the arrival of all of yesterday's family photos to my iMac ready for editing!









My favourite is the one of Adoring Husband and Chicklet giving each other cheek across my lap, and in the last one, Chicklet was being very cheeky and got way too close for the camera to focus properly, however, I think it captures the essence of her cheekiness even without focus.

The fourth arrival for the day, was the electrician to install our new ceramic cooktop, which was done in a flash. It has touch controls instead of knobs to turn, so it will be easier to clean :)

That was my day of arrivals.

This blog post will arrive much earlier than usual too!

I now have a glass of wine at the ready to drink with dinner - chicken and vegetable casserole accompanied by asparagus and broccoli cooked in garlic butter. So much deliciousness!

Nite all.



Sunday, October 12, 2014

Day Trip

It's been a lovely day.

We left bright and early and had a really good run all the way through to the Sunny Coast.

We stopped twice. Once to get a Sexie Coffee just this side of Maryborough and then again at Gympie to buy a gluten free pie.

Gympie has a pie shop that advertises on huge billboards as you get closer to town and on the bottom left corner of the billboard, it has a star announcing the new gluten free pie.

So we decided to try one .. even though we were meeting the Chicklet Family for breakfast.

We were both too lazy to make dinner the night before and all we did was share a few slices of smoked salmon, so we were starving by 8am!

The pie was DELICIOUS! $6.95 for a pie is a bit rich, but it really was delicious. I think they are worth the price, especially since we will probably only go there once every 3 months!

We eventually met up with the Chicklet family at the Sunspace Cafe in Doonan. It's a vegetarian cafe on about 20 acres of land, where they grow their own fruit and vegetables, the decor is all lovely old recycled pieces and they have live music on a Sunday morning, provided by a young man who set up in the outdoor area.

The food was reasonably priced and delicious. The smoothies and juices were made with fresh fruit, vegetables and other ingredients like chia seeds and nuts, instead of syrups, flavourings and bottled juices. It had a really relaxed and comfortable atmosphere and the service was warm and friendly.

I would go back again. I should have taken photos, but I was too busy being amused by, and amusing my little Chicklet.

Afterwards we followed the Chicklet family home, so that Adoring Husband could get the guided tour by Chicklet through the new house.

A couple of hours later after some playtime, some family photos and some negotiation, AH and I left for home, stopping at Eumundi to have a quick lunch at the LionsHead Hotel. They had a delicious GF salt and pepper calamari with chips and aioli.

The Hotel also had entertainment. A couple of bikers, one on guitar and the other on mouth organ, played a few songs while we ate and they had gathered a small crowd of their biker friends who applauded loudly at the end of each song.

The trip home always seems much longer than the trip down, don't you agree? We stopped for fuel once and then again at a farmers stall on the side of the road to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables. I got 2 red capsicum, a bag of onions, a BIG grocery bag of zucchini, a pineapple and a whole watermelon all for $12. Happy with that!

The psychotic dogs were very happy to see us arrive home safe and sound and after we fed them, we picked our own produce from the garden. 15 spears of asparagus, about a dozen mulberries and a colander full of cherry tomatoes.

We had the asparagus (cooked in garlic and butter) with a handful of cherry tomatoes and venison for AH, grass fed beef for me, for dinner.

That's our Sunday in a nutshell.

It was a good day and we are both exhausted and ready for a solid night's sleep.

Tomorrow, I hope to get time to edit the family photos and then share them here. Watch this space.

Nite all.