This was pointed in my direction from the ever beautiful
Even if you don't like the song, just watch the first minute or two for the real joy. A completely acapella thunderstorm performed spectacularly well!
I know I couldn't stop smiling, I reacted exactly as the audience did!
- Mood:
impressed
Not just the exercise, but to establish routine back into my life.

I could honestly just fill this blog right up with morning photographs over this ocean. I'm just blown away each morning.

You have to wonder what these guys make of it all. Look who decided to pop out and say good morning to me today!
Love you Stevie!
As you have probably noticed now, I'm very good at starting projects or ideas and then abandoning them.
101 list comes to mind.. so does keeping track of what books I've read and my thoughts on them, as well as countless others.
This will probably be anothe- No, positive thinking, right?
I spend a lot of time browsing Flickr. It's one of my favorite sites, there's just so much beauty in it.
A lot of people who I keep tabs on have been undertaking a "365 Project" in which they will take a photograph for every day, for a year (365 days, in the end 365 photos)
some go with themes, some don't.
I'm not going to even pretend that I have the discipline to maintain a strict daily posting like I've seen some people do.
But still I'm attracted to things like this.
Soooo, in the great Aussie spirit, I'll give it a go.
I find myself very sensitive to my surroundings, I love beauty and I love discovering beauty in my environment.
I have a hard time, though, seeing the beauty in myself.
I try very hard to be a good person, and I believe that I am one. Every now and again someone will, out of the blue, be Very Kind To Me. But every time it catches me off guard, and I end up feeling a bit horrible because I'm not really sure why I deserve it. Mostly because my world is tinged in blue and gray from The Depression. Indeed, very often I do not like the person staring back at me in the mirror.
SO! 365 Portraits of myself.
Now, I'm going to be flexible, they don't HAVE to be taken one a day, but by the time I'm done I will have three hundred and sixty five photographs of myself. This is mostly to combat the eeyore in my head: "ah, why bother, you're just going to fail anyways. See? Look you're already so many days behind, you might as well just give up."
TAKE THAT PESSIMISTIC VOICE! I can outsmart you.
I'm going to need your help though. See, I DO seem to have this problem with answering to myself. "eeyore" tends to get the better of me if I'm left to my own devices. Do you think you could help keep me motivated? If I stop posting for a while, give me a poke and ask me what's up.. It will help get me out of a rut if I happen to have fallen in one again. It's hard to fall behind when you have a cheering squad on you're side.
Or hell, if this is something that interests you as well why not play along too in your own journal?
( Anyways, Onto the First Two! )
- Mood:
determined
There's something amazing about Australian winter sunlight.

It's difficult to describe, but if I had to try, I'd describe it as pure, unfiltered, dangerous. And it probably is all of that.
It's blindingly bright; it has the capabilities of turning any surface except for the most darkly saturated a brilliant white.
On a couple occasions I've had this strange sensation of the world covered in this snowfall made of pure light.


I haven't managed to fully capture it on my camera... yet.
- Mood:luceo non uro

It's safe to say that when my presence in your life is silent, then I am not doing well.
I am learning, and more determined then ever, to start looking at life from a different angle:

Lets see how I go this time.
- Mood:Figuring out what I need...
What fun!

The Rocks, Sydney. Taken last year.

Breathtaking, no?
A photograph I took of Pierre, my sister's failed racehorse taken on her farm at sunset.
If I imagine really hard. I can see a horn on the middle of his forehead.
Try some of your own photos!
- Mood:
enthralled

Pa and I, taken today. I got a call from him the other day saying that he'd like to march in the Anzac Day parade in town and I agreed to go with him as long as it wasn't raining.
Low and behold, today turns out to be absolutely breath-taking and so down we went. He got to ride on his scooter and I walked along with him and the other diggers.
As far as I can remember, I think this is the only parade I've actually participated in. I can certainly remember seeing lots of them go by in my lifetime, but none I was walking in!
- Mood:
good
D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D:
- Mood:freaked the fuck out

Downtown Coffs Harbour.
It's been pouring rain for the past four days straight, yesterday was the worst, I've been flooded into my little neighborhood of Emerald, I haven't checked yet today if that's still the case but I'm sure it's cleared up since we got the newspaper delivered this morning.
I'll never complain about living ontop of the hill again! At least my house is more or less alright.
My veggie garden has been trashed. :(
My beans are dead, so's my lettuce. I think my carrots aren't going to make it either. My tomatos will probably pull through, and my capsicum is downright thriving. Strawberries are doing okay as well. But still. Bummer!
I've got power and it seems to be staying on steadily now, and I've got food and warm blankets, so I'll be just fine. But it can really REALLY stop raining now.
Please?
More photos of the flood for those curious can be found here.
- Mood:damp

Today on this very beautiful day, was my sister and brother-in-law's 14th(?) wedding anniversary. As a gift mum and I offered to take the girls off their hands for the day and mum treated them to dinner at a local restaurant. We spent most of the day checking out Sapphire beach which happens to have a FANTASTIC playground and restaurant.

The highlight of my day was being challenged to and winning(!) a race up this rope tower by a little boy. I could hear him muttering to himself all the way up; "I can't believe I'm being beaten by a girl!"
Take THAT seven year old boy! I'm queen of this castle! Rawr!
(He beat me on the race down though, the monkey!)

Most important of all, of course. At exactly 1:59pm I was able to get my hands on and enjoy the yearly consumption of Pie for Pi Day. Thanks so much to Alice for reminding me!

Isobell turned her little nose up at the thought of pie, but Angela was MORE then happy to chow down with me.
- Mood:
happy
I have a garden!

Please excuse the mess.. I SWEAR I weeded that whole entire corner to death and then it rained and rained and rained and they all came back. :P
( What I'm Growing! )
- Mood:
excited





- Mood:
tired

Still waking up early. I've been enchanted by the sunrises here, or late; it's much easier to appreciate them when it's not rainy.
I seem to be on a good inner clock to wake myself up around 5:30 just before the sun begins to peek over the horizon.
I've embraced this habit; even heading to bed early as I'm now similarly tired with sundown.
But, sitting on my front porch, with a mug of tea in my hands, watching the sky pinken, then brighten, especially over this view, is one of the new joys in my life I am discovering.
- Mood:
cheerful
They both came out EXTREMELY well, and although I couldn't quite seem to get a photograph to truly convey how tasty the passionfruit slice was; it was by far my favorite of the two.

( Recipe for Coconut & Passionfruit Slice )

( Recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies )
- Mood:
cheerful
We took a trip to Urunga to visit a second hand/recycle shop we had read about in the papers.

Had a bit of a pretty drive along the poor, swollen Bellinger River.. still at least the floodwater's down. It's shocking sometimes to see how far the flood had washed.
The shop was a HUGE success, they have some fantastic treasures in there that I would have loved to take home with me, but sadly I'm on a budget.

I settled on these three containers because they're beautiful and fit in beautifully with the 70s orange that is my bitty kitchen.
Then mum out of the blue surprised me by buying this set for me(!!)

What a score! My kitchen looks so amazing now! I'll have to catch it in the morning when the light's coming in sometime to share.
- Mood:
good

The sunrises here can be just as lovely as the sunsets, and look! No rainclouds!
My sleep schedule has become a completely "natural" one in that I'm sleepy and going to bed soon after the sunsets, and I'm waking very early to watch the sunrise.
I have to say, I have never felt better too.

Last night I went to a life drawing group that's at the local Coffs Gallery. I haven't done anything like this since I left Uni! (Apart from an occasional Dr. Sketchy's in Boston or two)
It was at 4:30pm instead of 7 like I thought which sent off little warning bells in my head and sure enough, I was the youngest there by decades.
BUT there was a sizeable group; a good ten to thirteen of us and the model was beautiful.
The only bad thing?
WE WORKED IN COMPLETE SILENCE.
It aaalmost drove me nuts. I must remember to take my ipod next time.
I also need to find better conte crayons. These ones I found are crap.
wtb charcoal plz.
- Mood:
awake





