Pretty Wings

An early morning visitor to our garden...

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/320s f/4.0 18.0mm ISO400

You Make Me Vomit In My Mouth...

Miranda Devine; your "hard hitting" journalism is little more than trash talk of the over opinionated, under informed minority... The rest of us just can't drag ourselves away from witnessing such an amazing train wreck as your columns inevitably turn out to be.

Do You See What I See?

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/25s f/5.6 300.0mm ISO400

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/10s f/5.6 300.0mm ISO400

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/8s f/11 300.0mm ISO400



Oh how I love me a camera that can see the moon! I only wish I could've gotten a photo of the moon properly framed by the leaves, to the eye it was so beautiful. A tripod probably would've been helpful...

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/1320s f/5.6 300.0mm ISO400

Roly Poly

Djr's latest party trick - the almost made it but I fell sideways roly poly!

Everything Old is New Again

We always try to buy new board games for the kids for Christmas, sometimes for birthdays and sometimes just because one we like the look of is on sale. R's Christmas game this year was Cluedo, Discover the Secrets. I had fond memories of Cluedo and was really looking forward to playing it with my family. We've played Cluedo many times (at least three times a week) since Christmas, you're got to love a game that truly is different every time you play it.

This Christmas though; Cluedo was really different. Professor Plum is not a Professor anymore! Nor is Mrs White a Chef.  :o Where does it end I hear you calling, well, it doesn't it seems all the Cluedo characters have taken on different careers and even, shockingly, different pasts! Tell me, how is that even possible?

Riding Buddy

Clearly motion is not my forte, that said however I will make the excuse that it was late (after 7pm) on a cloudy evening so the light wasn't great, I abetted that by standing under a tree and the photos were taken on fully auto "sports" mode because it was starting to rain, I needed to hurry! Surely then, I cant be held responsible for their quality?

We picked this bike up for R from a lovely freecycler who had bought the bike for her daughter years ago. Long story short, it's a bit rusted from being laying around but it's barely been used (the little spikes are still on the original tyres,) the gears were a little stiff but a bit of oil and it was off! We'll have to work at getting  the rust off both our frames and get them polished up to look pretty but other than that great FREE bikes!

So, I went for a short ride with R this evening, having to take my husband, D's, bike as mine has a flat tyre (again, I'm not getting far in a hurry but it will soon be all sorted.) O>M>G>>> His seat is HARD! Surely the difference between mens and ladies bike seats can't be that great? I think I'll have to get him one of those air cushion seat covers, I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to have one too, whilst I'm there you know?

Here's R trying not to run me over!

Don't Spend the Money (PINT)

The Bandaid

For your viewing pleasure; a dodgy phone photo! It's an important one though, Djr's first bandaid. :) He didn't NEED a bandaid as such but when R got a cat scratch and needed a bandaid Gran only had Wiggles bandaids (bought for Djr.) So, when Djr saw R's Wiggles bandaid he very much wanted one, what Djr wants, Djr gets! A Dorothy bandaid, four Dorothy's dancing across the sticker on his hand.

Too cute.

Fear not...

Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death. ~Erik H. Erikson

Pay It Forward - 2011

EEP! Pay what forward? What am I going to pay forward?

The most recent Pay It Forward I'd seen was at A Peek Over the Fence and I held onto that post in my browser and let it sit in the background of my web usage over the past couple of days and this (very early) morning I finally came to a realisation that the old saying "you get what you give" is spot on, I can't expect to get much from blogging nor from the blogging community if I'm not blogging consistently and not participating in the community. So I'm going to do it, straight in at the deep end, head first...

"I promise something handmade to the FIRST 5 people who leave a comment here.

To be eligible, you must repost this message (and comment here to let me know you have), offering something handmade to 5 other people. The rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 giftees sometime in 2011. Ready, set, GO! (C'mon, you KNOW you want to!)

My Pay it Forward gifts are likely to be of the paper/card kind; perhaps a set of gifts cards, thank you cards or note cards or maybe I'll stitch something, 'though that is an art that requires a lot of time and dedication on my part (I'm easily distracted) and yields little in the results department.Let's wait and see what the year brings...

(Fingers crossed now surely someone would like to have something made by me?)

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Not much to be proud of here as far as photography goes but proud of myself for dragging my butt of the lounge to get out on another bike ride. Dad brought my bike back with the new cranks and pedals on Saturday but I don't deal well with neither heat nor humidity and I wasn't even going to ride this evening until my friend Jaime (check out her blog, She Will Have Her Way) asked how I was going with Map My Run's 30 miles in 30 days challenge.

As the site name suggests it's a runner's challenge but Map My Run is also great for planning and mapping walks and bike rides. (For the purpose of the 30miles in 30 days Challenge, Jaime recalled the correlation for a marathon to bike riding is 42:130km. 30miles = 48.28km so I figure the equivalent of 30miles running would be 149.44km, or 4.98km per day. Disclaimer: my maths is TERRIBLE so I could be completely WRONG, if so please do let me know!)

Today's ride was 11.39km so that leaves me 138.05km to pedal between now and 30 days from now (end date: 14 February. (Four weeks at 34.5125km per week = 3 rides per week of 11.5km, so I will have to revise my route a little, take more frequent shorter rides or maybe a couple of longer rides.)

Jaime introduced me to Map My Run on 8 January and I thought I could easily walk the 30miles in 30 days. I'd kind of put it out of my mind but have done two walks to a total of 14.52km, leaving 33.76km to walk before 6 February.

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
10.0s
f/5.6
39mm
ISO 400


PS: Remember how I said today's photo was nothing to be proud of, far from ideal shooting conditions under our carport (flouro light) in the dark and let's just say my hands were not very stable, here are the first two shots I took by comparison (the photo I used for this post was taken with the camera balanced on bricks with my still very unsteady hand stablising it.)

 

And Hope Remains

To close out the week a photo taken by someone else of a terrible event that will mar the history of our great nation, that has equally enthralled and horrified us as the news on all of our televisions and radios was filled with disaster and devastation. This is the railway bridge at Grantham where up to 30 cars were crushed in show of the violent strength of flash flooding, many bodies were expected to have been found in the metal graveyard the waters left behind yet today's news tells us that none were found. The numbers of missing people are dropping, thankfully much more quickly than the numbers of bodies found is rising.

This week I have been all at once thankful that I didn't live in an area likely to be affected by these floods and regretful that I didn't live close enough to be able to personally help someone who does. Many people have lost everything they own, some have lost even more; family, friends, loved ones.

Today the cleanup began in earnest in Brisbane, the Aussie Spirit shines on, strong and bright as strangers become friends and lifelong bonds are no doubt built amongst rubble and sludge that will be remembered long after it is gone. Meanwhile in Central Queensland and Northern NSW many roads are still closed by flood waters and in Tasmania and Victoria further incidences of flooding are seeing more people evacuated from their homes.

I'm grateful that in times of need Australian's band together; I hope that we can remember that even in times of relative safety and surety there is always someone in need, always someone who needs a helping hand, a real genuine hug or just a smile from a stranger across a busy room.

Not Yet Autumn

It's not yet Autumn but there's no telling the Autumn Crocus that; their first flowers bloomed earlier this week.

I wonder if I should continue to garden by the calender or realign the seasons I follow to those that my garden follows?

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
1/100s
f/5.6
55.0mm
ISO 400

I can see a Rainbow...

Today I bought Dawson's first "own" sets of crayons and pencils. Beautiful bright colours but a strange range; deep blue, red, peach, orange, light green, deep green, deep blue, brown, yellow, violet, light carmine (that's pink for those not in the colour know). I've never seen a set of children's crayons before with neither black nor white and with two shades of green.

In any case he loves them and that's the main motivation for buying them.

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
1/8s
f/5.6
49.0mm
ISO 400

How to Enjoy Ice Cream

In this family a love of ice cream is almost a prerequisite; little Djr has fitted in nicely!

You know you haven't ever really enjoyed ice cream unless you've worn it! lol

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
1/8s
f/2.8
50.0mm (prime lens)
ISO 400

Let's Play!

After a rough day in our household the children have cleaned up their bedrooms to property inspection standards; what a nice change!

Of course, immediately after cleaning up they started building okay spaces within their rooms again. Liam's room (on the left) is almost completely covered in sheets and Rhiannan built a "changing room" under her loft bed. We're going to redesign the "changing room" space tomorrow so it is a little more functional.

Tonight, they have just informed me, Rhiannan is having a sleepover in Liam's room.

Specs: Canon EOS 400D; no other specs as it's two photos in one. These were tricky photos to take though; our hall light is out so I had to shoot into the light in their rooms from the dark hallway. All in all, well, you can see what the photos are of!

Little Birdy

Birds are one of my favourite things; as long as I can remember I've been fascinated by them. I have a collection of these little blingy feathered birds, this one is special, as well as being one of my favourite things, it reminds me of one of my favourite people. ♥

11:40pm tonight I thought "oh crap! I haven't taken any photos today!" So, with no further ado here is a craptacular fully auto photo. How crappy is full auto though, the focus is on the clip rather than the bird... Oh well, a lesson learnt in any case; take the time to use your own settings!


Specs: Canon EOS 400D (full auto.)

Solitary Guard

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/640s f/9.0 160.0mm ISO 400

South Steyne

What do ferries do when they retire? Why, they become restaurants of course!

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/200s f/8.0 55.0mm ISO 100

Disco Garden...

How cool to have disco balls hanging from your trees? These balls are part of the decorations for Sydney Festival. They look so amazing all strung up in the massive figs.
Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/125s f/8.0 55.0mm ISO 400

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/100s f/6.3 55.0mm ISO 400

Specs: Canon EOS 400D 1/200s f/5.6 55.0mm ISO 400