R.I.P. Bella 28.10.95 - 7.10.08

Our beautiful dog and best friend Bella passed away peacefully at the Vet Surgery last Tuesday. She had Cancer. Both Alan and I were with her at the end. We loved her so and we will miss her terribly. So many people have been passing on their sympathy and it is amazing to me how many of them, both friends and family, have been through the same experience. When I am ready I will do a photobook of her life as a keepsake. I have cried a lot this week but now is the time for us to pack her away in our hearts where she will stay forever. We always used to say to her - Bella `you are the best dog in the whole world' and to us she was. Bella you taught us so much about loving and life, thank you for sharing your `almost 13 years of life' with us. It was a great privilege.

A Birthday Brekkie

Yesterday our family all met up for a birthday Brekkie at Dicky Beach at a great restaurant called `Bucket and Spade'. They have an excellent Brekkie menu and gave us all a complementary glass of Bubbly to begin with. What a great way to start the day. Alan had the `big Brekkie' and it was certainly man size. Afterwards we went for a walk along the Boardwalk at Caloundra to Kings Beach and we had an ice cream. All in All a great day. I really love it when our family all gathers to celebrate, whatever the reason :)

Happy Birthday Alan

We had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating Alan's 68th Birthday. We went to a great little cafe called MoonDoggy's at Noosaville for lunch with Alan's brother Geoff and Julie and then we all walked along the river bank. It was a beautiful day. Later on when we got home we celebrated with a few drinks with some good neighbours and we had some Bubbly. All in all a great day. Hard to believe our Noosa holiday starts soon, we can't wait to be out on the river in our boat and I think we'll be going back to that cafe - they make wonderful healthy freshly squeezed juices.

Catching Up

It has been a while since I posted, last week our computer was away for a few days for its annual tune up. It has come back working brilliantly. I defrag and I use C Cleaner every week but it still seems that `stuff' seems to collect in some odd places and slows the whole system down. I have also been continuing to sort our wardrobe and my books and a lot of stuff will be heading to the RSPCA Op Shop.

Alan continues to work on his stable building project and it is coming along well. On Friday Alan will be 68 and we are going out with his brother Geoff and Julie for lunch at Noosaville so it should be nice. Then on Sunday we are going out for brekkie with the family at Caloundra. Our Grandson Joel is 15 today so we are all using these 2 family Birthdays as a good reason to get together and celebrate.

Building a `Pony Palace'

For the last week or so Alan has been engaged in building a palace for our ponies to sleep in, or to escape from the weather. Luckily he has had help from his brother Geoff and neighbour Bob aka `Bob the Builder', as I would have been more of a hindrance than a help. As you can see it is all progressing well. In the background is the rest of our block, as far as you can see and if you look carefully you can just see our dam and a pony in the distance. So now the roof is on but the sides still need to go on and then the whole thing will be painted. I will post the finished product then.

Today the summer weather has begun and it is 29C here - our spring lasts about 2 weeks :) and its over already. We are both starting to get excited about a holiday at Noosa next month. I can't wait to have a swim in the surf and an ice cream at Noosa Main Beach. I think this is almost the best beach on the East Coast although I love Byron Bay the best. We will also be fishing every day, boating, reading and relaxing. Not to mention watching the sun go down each evening while we enjoy a glass of wine. I also really enjoy getting up early and walking along the river bank, buying the papers and sometimes a croissant for after brekkie. Roll on October.

A Spring Weekend

We have been enjoying perfect weather this weekend. Yesterday we were invited out for lunch to the home of one of our special friends. Nancy is 78 years young and we love catching up with her and her friend Margaret. We had a really yummy lunch and Alan and I love her home cooking which always includes her special home made mayo and salad. :)
Today was Father's Day and the weather was as perfect as it is possible to be. We have spent the day enjoying the garden and doing various odd jobs. I have been washing winter things, putting away throw rugs, picking spring flowers for the house and generally spring cleaning. Our kitchen garden has been lacking a bit of care lately since I developed tendonitis but there are still mini tomatoes, herbs, capsicum, papaya, passionfruit, oranges, limes, lemons, sugar snap peas and other things that have just popped up. I found some coriander growing today which has self seeded. So I collected enough goodies to make a salad for dinner. This is a photo of our `girls' - we have 4 chooks and 3 of them are laying every day. Now I know that it is impossible for us to eat 21 eggs a week, or even half that many, but we love to give them away to friends and family and neighbours, especially as a thank you. We took a dozen fresh eggs and a paw paw to Nancy's place yesterday as a `thanks for your hospitality' gift.

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Maidenhair Print

Last week at my Art Group we were learning print making. For this the preparation for me involved picking a piece of Maidenhair Fern and gluing it to a strong piece of card to make a printing plate. Then I coated it with 2 coats of Shellac and let it sit for a week. Last week I painted it with a sienna colour and ran it through our wonderful old printer at the Gallery, printing it onto a piece of hand made paper. The plate will be re usable. Of course my print was `officially' finished then but I wanted to do more with it. My next step at home was to scan my print and then make a piece of art in Photoshop Elements. For any Digital Artists viewing this, the background is a freebie from April Mouse. I duplicated my fern scan and then blended it in. I have since printed it and I am very happy with the result. I used gloss paper as it was all I had, but I am going to try it on some canvas and see how that looks.