Sunshine and Sunny Blocks

After falling behind in the Block A Day Challenge I had a chance to spend a bit of time at the sewing machine today and catch up.   I think I might now be one block ahead!

 

I had my usual morning walk this morning and ended up getting soaked as it poured with rain (again!) , but now we are having a wonderful sunny day.  It is so nice to see the sun :)

Day 366/366

The final day of our challenge has arrived. Participating in this challenge has been such an enjoyable experience.  I have learned so many new things, I have become far more observant of my surroundings, I have broken 2 cameras (!), I have met some wonderful people online and also surprised a few of my family and friends at my commitment to the project.  I am very grateful to Robyn of Fine Arts Journal for hosting this challenge. Thank you so much.   Thank you also to Robyn and the other challenge participants for your kind comments and words of encouragement.  I have loved seeing your photographs and getting to know you a little through your blogs.
So here are my final photographs....yes I have taken a bit of a liberty here publishing a few.   My daily walks have been a source of many of my photographs throughout the year and here are a few things that I saw on my last walk for the year.

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Days 340-353/366

Its not called the silly season for nothing! I have been taking photos whenever I can ,but have not had time to sit down at the computer for long enough to upload them.   Here are a couple of week's worth of photos  :)

Day 340

It was a beautiful morning's walk down to the sea today.
Hmmm which way would you rather travel on the sea?  Paddling or riding in a comfy boat.

Day 341

Received one of my favourite magazines in the mail today!

Day 342

I had to alter a costume for my daughter for her final ballet performance with her dance school.  Can you tell who she will be?  Here's a clue - she lives with 7 Dwarfs ;)

Day 343

 

I had forgotten I had made these last year.

Day 344

I love the fan shapes of these grass seed heads.

Day 345

My daughter was dancing the role of Snow White (yes you guessed correctly!)  in her last ballet concert.  I had planned on taking a shot of her on pointe before the concert, but to be honest I was feeling a bit down about it all coming to an end.  Anyway, after the concert and a few tears from both of us, I asked her to put her shoes on at home out on the back steps.  I did a bit of fiddling with the photo for fun, but I can't remember exactly how I produced this result...silly me :)

Day 346

After an early start to the day courtesy of the cat (grrr), I managed to do a little bit of piecing of the baby quilt before I set of to work (yay!). Here it is laid out on the floor.  Thank you Coco the cat for a bit of extra creative time.

Day 347

Day 348

Day 349

All in a day's work.  I was taking photos to post to my client's facebook page (he sells showbags).  I just couldn't get either Scooby to look at the camera :))

Day 352

I have had this big idea to make my clients mini christmas cakes and biscuits,now I have just got to put the idea into practise.  Here is the dried fruit I am preparing.

Day 353

Breakfast time and I am feeding one of our blue tongue lizards some banana :)  I am just about to embark on a day of baking cakes and biscuits.  I will show you the results next post and in the meantime I hope to get on the ipad tonight whilst everyone is watching TV and visit all your blogs.

Days 319 to 331/366

I am sorry that I have been offline for the past couple of weeks.  We have had a lot of family things happening,  good and bad.  Some days I didn't get the opportunity to take a photo, but here's what I did take;

Day 321

This is the flower of the Cunjevoi plant that grows prolifically in our neighborhood as we have an area of rainforest nearby that runs down to the beach.  They produce these yellow flowers and the spike then develops red berries that the birds love.

Days 323 to 325

We took a trip to Sydney for family reasons and to have a really big treat of seeing Cirque du Soleil perform Ovo.  The show was fabulous!  We did attempt to visit Taronga Zoo as well and got as far as the front gates, but realised we didn't have enough time when we saw the queue for tickets...my husband has never been, so we will have to keep it on our list of things to do when in Sydney.
Here are a few photos from our visit;

 

A tiny busker, drumming away in Chinatown - you can just see his neck under the music stand. 

The entrance to Taronga Zoo - the only bit we saw!

The Cirque du Soleil Big Top

Inside the Big Top - ( this is what I really look like Robyn, not that odd looking photo on Facebook - not sure what my hairdresser was thinking that day!)

 

 

Beautiful Sydney Harbour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 326/366

My daughter's Year 12 Formal. We had a shaky start to the day and I thought we just might not make it, but it all turned out lovely.  She was chauffeured in a Mercedes Benz by one of my lovely clients and walked the red carpet on her father's arm.  She bought her dress online and then sequinned it herself.

Day 327/366

Spotted this lovely Buddleia or Buddleja on my morning walk

Day 328/366

I picked up a computer from the repairer's house this morning and as I looked to the right when reversing out the driveway I found myself face-to-face with this cute bundle!

Day 329/366

Not to be outdone by our other cactus, this one has decided to flower as well.  First time ever!

Day 330/366

Day 331/366

I gave this a "Monet-esque" type of feel with a hazy border.


I will try and visit your blogs over the next few days to catch up on all that I have missed.

Days 296 - 302

Day 296

I was watching some dogs and people on the beach below and then noticed a Superb Fairy Wren right in front of me.

Day 297

Like a Phoenix this Bougainvillea keeps "rising from the ashes" and reappearing in spite of my husbands efforts to destroy it :)

Day 298

This lizard was keeping a wary eye on me.

Day 299

Big seas and high winds at sunrise.

Day 300 !

Exploring the hillsides around the beach after work.

Day 301

Norfolk Island Pines edging a park near home.

Day 302

An unusual shot for me, given my complete lack of interest in sport, but yesterday we had a Half Ironman event.   I was walking to the shop to buy the Sunday newspaper and snapped these 3 coasting down the hill in readiness for the next big climb.

Days 282 - 291/366

Day 282

In the real world I am a Bookkeeper and have to do a number of hours training every year in order to retain my registration for doing some taxation things.  Here I am about to "attend" a webinar which is an online seminar.  The beauty of these is that I can train from the comfort of home and they can't see me, so I can wear what I like (slippers on my feet!) and have those same slippered feet up on the desk whilst sipping a cup of tea! 

Day 283

A while ago we decided to try to have one meat-free meal a week inspired by the Meat Free Monday campaign. We got a bit lazy and forgot all about it, but this week I was determined to give it a go again, but it was a Meat-Free Tuesday instead.  Here are some Kumara and Chick Pea Patties sizzling in the pan.

Day 284

Just how many electrical cords does one man need?  Spotted in my client's shed!

Day 285

It was felt quite eerie on our morning walk today.  The sky was heavy with a blanket of thick grey cloud.  The sun broke through momentarily and lucky for me I had my camera!

Day 286

An afternoon walk into town via our famous breakwall.  The rocks are canvasses for all kinds of art and commentary.

As we returned from our walk we saw a mother and baby whale just off the beach.  They were having a lovely time throwing themselves out of the water and "waving" to us with their fins.  I know my little camera is not capable of capturing a great photo of them, but I just wanted to show you that they were there :)

Day 287

We had some noisy visitors in our tree today.  Four Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos spent some time ripping off the bark of our tree .  We usually only see them once a year in the tree, but their distinctive call can be heard often and is considered to be a sign that rain is on the way.  Sadly for us no rain came.

Day 288

We are watering our garden with rain stored in our water tank as it is so dry at the moment.  I spotted these baby fern fronds in our Birds Nest Fern.

Day 289

No photo today :(  I spent most of the day on the phone to the Tax Office trying to sort out a software problem.  After 6 calls to 6 different people (who were all very nice) and reinstalling the software 6 times, I lost any inspiration for photography!  The problem still hasn't been sorted, but my issue has now been "escalated" to a Level 2 problem...so lets hope that makes all the difference :)

Day 290

The smoke in the atmosphere from back burning made this red sunrise quite spectacular.

Day 291

We have flowers on our Snow Pea plants :)  And my software problem was finally resolved by the tax office computer boffins, hooray!

Days 246 to 252/366

Day 246/366

This isn't the best photo of a Rainbow Lorrikeet but as they are proving to be quite elusive subjects for me,  it will have to do.   They are extra noisy at the moment as their thoughts turn to finding a mate.  They  make such a racket in our flowering trees at home. 

Day 247/366

The contrast of the smooth bump and the rippling bark caught my eye.

Day 248/366

This is a Strangler Fig in a small rainforest area that we pass through on our walk to the beach.

Day 249/366

The sand has shifted again on "our" beach and has revealed a wonderful array of shells and pebbles.

Day 250/366

Our garden is full of surprises and I love to do the rounds to see what's in bloom each week.  I spotted these Pink Rock Orchids hiding amongst the Bromeliads.

Day 251/366

Day 252/366

My friend and I took time out from the housework to take a trip to Kempsey to the Macleay Quilters Inc exhibition.  It was such a treat to see the beautiful quilts, have a delicious lunch and make a little purchase of a pincushion pattern.  This quilt in the cafe area caught my eye , it has 118 different fabrics and the tiniest of pieces.