Real People Award, but are you ready for it?

My new cubby house under the stairs - I invited a friend over for afternoon tea today and we had 'tea' under the staircase in my new little nook. Unfortunately I'm only half way through the job and still have all the junk that was under there to deal with. I have temporarily relocated it to the front verandah to deal with in the early morning cool tomorrow.
Well I have clicked on the upload symbol 3 times to no avail, so you will have to wait until next post to see before and after shots of the 'mess' that is currently on the front verandah.

Morning Glory - Sunrise

I was up early one morning and strolling through the garden
watching the sunlight dancing through the trees,
touching blades of grass, alighting on flowers, rocks and bark



Marvelling at the beauty of each new day,
each new flower that unfurls,
kissed by the morning sunbeams

How blessed and happy I was to be in the garden,

adoring the creator and enjoying this small part of creation.

For Melanie - glimpses of 2 types of lavender bush up close

It's arrived! A prize from Melanie - Lavender Moments and Morning Glory Cottage!

Unwrapping Lavender Moments ... Thank-you Melanie and my Mother in Law




I picked up my parcel from the post office today. A beautiful and generous prize from Melanie at New Creation Cottage. I couldn't wait until I got home, so I slit the sticky-tape with my keys and opened it then and there in the car. I am so delighted, I can't stop smiling even as I write this to you. I opened the votive candles first, then the lovely elegant lady, who I am sure is dressed so elegantly ready to ride in a carriage to afternoon tea at a friends house. After that, 2 delicious foot pampering products.
Then I had the pleasure of unwrapping: Morning Glory Cottage - the Thomas Kincade Print (that I had forgotten about) and I just sat and looked at it for the longest while, I just love his paintings, He is known as the painter of light. My photo in no way did justice to the print of his painting so I copied it from website. http://www.thomaskinkadegallery.com/search.php I have a book with some of his paintings that a friend bought me one birthday. All the while I was looking at the light dancing on the roof of the cottage in the painting, out of the bottom of my eye I could glimpse shimmering sparkles from my sequinned top. What beauty! My heart is overflowing with gratitude to Melanie from New Creation Cottage and our Heavenly Father.
The last two photos show some other lavender purple treats from my MIL. and 3 sprigs of lavender from one of my lavender bushes.

Mountain scenes and dial-up dilema

Waterfalls in the Blue Mountains, taken by my brother about 18 months ago, when he was visiting NSW. I started uploading them in Perth, one at a time, from my mother's computer via dial-up, but after a number of hours and frustrating attempts later, I saved the 2 I had done and gave up. One of the reasons you have not heard from me in a while. I also forgot my camera-phone charger and download cable - they were here at home. We also forgot the digital camera. So not many holiday snaps I'm sorry.

However I did have a wonderful time in Perth catching up with my mother, sister, brothers, neices and nephews and friends. It had been 17 years since all my family had been together for Christmas.
It was warm when we got there, but ok and I did actually wear a cardigan in the late afternoon, evenings a couple of times, then after Boxing Day it grew hotter and was really hot for about 2 weeks straight. Then last Mon & Tues it was cooler again. It was hot when we landed in Sydney on Wed and I went for a swim on Thursday while we were at dh mothers to catch up for 2 days.

Then it was just on dusk when I arrived home to a sea of agapanthus purple waving in the breeze. I started unpacking, washing, hanging and finally reading some blogs before bed.

Ducks get-together on Christmas Day

We went for a walk at the park on Christmas afternoon
and spied a little duck family.



Of course they moved much quicker than the camera did
so the photos aren't as great as the memories,
but just use your imagination...!

There was one little yellow one among the ducklings ...

Of course we took some photos of our family too,
but I'm still shy about showing the world so it isn't here any longer.

PS if you are stuck on dial-up you can play scrabble

and free-cell while you wait for photos to upload

one or two at a time .... all the more fun .... and there's

always the mobile if someone wants to talk to you as well !