Shadow Shot Sunday - February 12th, 2012

Lots of great shadows here today. I am particularly fond of the one on the front door which I notice fairly often. Usually it is gone by the time I get the camera ready. 

Shadow Shot Sunday - February 5th, 2012

Taking some tiny steps back into my blogging life after a short break for various reasons. Here's a couple of photos for Shadow Shot Sunday. 

When I got back from a recent short holiday I found the cucumber plants that had been planted from seed and were growing well had not survived the bout of hot weather while we were away. This is one of a few seedlings I got from Bunnings to replace them. Maybe next year I can grow some from seed...

And here's a shot of our cat, Chester. It's really hard to get a good photo of him as he is either running away or getting too close to the camera so I was pleased to get this one, complete with shadow. 

Shadow Shot Sunday - January 8th, 2012

Shadows on bricks for Shadow Shot Sunday this week. I am posting this very belatedly. I had the photos all ready to upload on Sunday and then the computer wasn't reading the memory card. Grrrr.... I just got it to work so here they are. Shadows on the back wall of the house this week. 

Time to rest - writing can wait

Time to rest - writing can wait 

Unexpectedly, I find myself alone on this Saturday night. Yay! Both of my daughters are at sleepovers. When I found out I would get some time to myself my first thoughts were along the lines of 'I can get stuck into all the writing I plan to do'. I have quite a few plans swirling around in my head at the moment. "The week of inward looking" had some fantastic prompts which I have written quite a lot in response to and would love to polish up and post here. There's a creative non-fiction competition I discovered recently and would love to enter. I also discovered "A year with myself" this week and there are fantastic prompts there too. So many plans! I do grab time to write quite often but thought a solid block without interruption would be great. But then I got home and I'm really tired. It's been a long time since I have been alone in the house. So I changed my plans and am going to relax and get a good nights sleep. Maybe I will find some time to write in the morning? Just not tonight. (Except maybe a few scribbled words in my journal...) 

Oh, and one more thing before I go and sit on the couch for a while. I attended the online launch for Patti Digh's new website 37days yesterday. A fabulous way to spend 75 minutes! I'll tell you more about it later! In the meantime, I highly recommend taking a look at the website! www.37days.com 

...and when I've finished resting I'll tell you about how I have decided to participate in The Sketchbook Challenge and how it's going. 

Happy Six Word Saturday everyone! 

Shadow Shot Sunday - January 1st, 2012

It's super hot here today - 41 degrees celsius HOT - and it seems tomorrow will be the same. The heat is accompanied by a blazing sun which has meant lots of great shadows today. I braved the heat for a few minutes to capture these - 

Six Word Saturday - December 24th, 2011

Cucumbers! Just in time for Christmas. 

A couple of months ago I bought a punnet of four apple cucumber seedlings. Three didn't survive due to the abundance of snails around the garden this year. The fourth plant was almost eaten. The snails had a good munch of the stalk but it managed to hold one. I have eaten a couple of cucumbers already. They were very tasty, just a little bitter. Today these four were ready to pick. Yum! 

and a bonus six words from me for today: 

Sending Merry Christmas wishes to you! 

I hope you have a good day tomorrow however you spend it. 

Six Word Saturday - December 17th, 2011

I am going to walk more. 

I'm getting in a little early with a new year's resolution. Actually I'm not much of a resolution maker, preferring instead to set a theme for my year. Recently, I have been doing a bit of thinking about next year's possible theme. More of that, though, in a later post. When thinking of what my six words would be today I was thinking something like, 'I plan to do more walking' but then thought more definite would be better. It's not hard really and doesn't have to involve huge changes. Even a short walk around the block or parking the car a bit further away at the shops. I have been motivated this week to also include longer walks into my life. 

On Tuesday morning a friend asked if I would like to walk to the beach where her daughter was doing aquatics. I offered a lift but she said she felt like a big walk. Well, I was a bit reluctant. It really was a big walk. We did it and I was TIRED afterwards. I felt quite unfit, as well as rather uncoordinated when part of the 'walk' involved me on hands and knees climbing over rocks. My friend walked over the same rocks with a dog, her bag and my bag too. Despite being very tired (and sore the next day) I felt quite good and motivated to include more walking in my life. Plus, I live a good walking distance from the beach. It takes around half an hour to get there. I can combine walking with taking photos and maybe even some writing. I have a favourite place to write near the sea. 

Here is one of the many great views during our walk on Tuesday. Another great reason to walk more! 

Deja Vu - Courage

While strolling around the internet a short while ago, I came across this great idea. A blogfest where people repost a post from the past. Click on the badge for more information. I decided to have a look at some of my early posts and came across this one on courage. It's a good time now for some courage I think so I decided to participate and repost this one which I originally posted on July 28th, 2010. As relevant now as it was then! It's late now and I'm rather tired. I look forward to visiting other Deja Vu posts tomorrow!

Courage

With some rather big changes happening in my life at the moment I have decided to gift myself some courage.

The courage to really live.

The courage to be myself.

The courage to enjoy life.

The courage to slow down.

The courage to speak my mind.

The courage to be seen.

The courage to let others know me.

The courage to worry less.

The courage to hope.

I wrote these words as part of a writing exercise at a group I attended in April, 2006. 
In May 2009 at a different group I decorated the handbag. These words seem particularly useful for me to remember at the moment. I recognise the huge amounts of courage I have required and used in the past and can continue to draw upon as I undertake new challenges.

Shadow Shot Sunday - December 11th, 2011

Shadow Shot Sunday is hosted by Tracy at Hey Harriet. Head over to her blog to see many more great shadow shots.

I was a bit sad to read this morning that next Sunday will be the last Shadow Shot Sunday, as hosted by Tracy. I am very grateful for Tracy's hosting of the weekly meme. She has done a great job since 2008. I am very glad to have discovered Shadow Shot Sunday and have certainly enjoyed taking part over the last few months. I hope someone else takes it over but regardless I think I will continue posting shadow shots on Sundays. I don't feel ready to stop just yet!

Today I have some washing line shadows - 

 

Six Word Saturday - December 10th, 2011

Reading instructions can be quite useful! 

I was reminded of this earlier today. It was the last meeting of our poetry group and I decided to make some little banana caramel pies to take along. Everything started off going to plan. I can't buy the small pastry cases I used to buy but have discovered some frozen ones which I have used successfully once before. I bought them along with the banana, caramel filling and cream. I've made them before so when I got home I quickly got to work filling the cases with small pieces of banana and the caramel filling and topping them with whipped cream. They looked great and nine fitted nicely in the container I was taking so I decided to keep three of them. I ate one straight away. It seemed a bit strange that the pastry wasn't coming out of the case easily. I remembered them coming out easily before. It didn't taste quite right either. I started to wonder if I was supposed to cook the cases before filling them. I dug the packaging out of the bin. Yes, that was the part I had forgotten about. They were supposed to go in the oven for 10 minutes. By then I was running out of time but was still determined to take them along. I scooped the filling out of each one and put them in the oven. After they cooled for a while - not nearly long enough - I put the filling and cream back in each one. The cream melted a bit as the cases were still warm. By the time I got to the group, just in time, they didn't look anywhere near as nice as they had originally but by all reports they were very delicious! 

the cases after 10 minutes in the oven

filling and cream waiting for the cases to cook!

The lesson in this for me today - 

Even when you are confident in what you are doing, a quick skim over the instructions can't hurt and may help!