frustration

Don't you just hate it when you are lurking around and you find something that you like and think you'll remember where you saw it so you don't note it down, only to discover a day or so later that you completely forgot where you were and can't find it no matter how much you check everywhere.
This has happened to me several times but the most annoying was about a month ago. I came across a blog that for the life of me I can't remember the name of or how I came accross it.
But I do remember that there was a post on that blog that mentioned a photographer and of course I checked her out and fell in love with her work.
She shot in a style reminiscent of the 1920's-30's-40's style. She used a photo essay style to exhibit her work and each told a story. Such as the beautiful "dame" who hears a noise and all of a sudden there is an alien in her room. That was one of the "stories" that I remember. There were others of course and all very romantic/nostalgic with twists. They are exquisitely set up with such attention to detail, in makeup, period costume, sets etc.

If this rings a bell for anyone please I'm begging you to let me know if you do, who this photographer is or the blog where it came from.

Many thanks in advance for your diligence.

It's a girl!

I would just like to congratulate the wonderful Claire of Loobylu on successfully bringing Lilian Jan into the world yesterday! Well done Claire, I'm positive I'm speaking on behalf of the other bloggers out there (by the looks of your 393, and counting, comments!) that we are all proud of you and wish you all the best of everything in this world for you and your new darling.
Thanks to Big P for this announcement too by the way! Obviously you know how much the blog means to us all!

Quickie

Just a quick post, which will probably will turn to length by the end though...

I had a roll of film processed yesterday from our honeymoon and on it were these pics of this thing...

This is its belly/underneath













This is the topside


Apparently this is a lungfish, hope I got that right.

Any way when I first spotted it I wasn't sure what the heck it was. I was quite a distance away when I noticed this white thing flapping and floundering around in the shallows of the bay we were moored in.
I had taken the row boat to explore and came accross this thing about 100 meters away. The bay was very shallow so I didn't want to go too close as I might've beached myself on the sand/mud.
After watching it awhile I edged closer to get a better look and from where I was it looked like a bird stuck in the mud in the last thoes of its life. But it really didn't seem like a bird, I couldn't see a head.
Next I thought it was a white turtle, flapping around, stuck or something.
So I edged closer and closer until I could finally discern that it was like a giant poached egg and that it had flap-like things all the way around it. I decided that it kind of looked like a sting ray or similar, perhaps upside down. Well it was hard to tell and silly me didn't take my camera with me so after watching for quite a while and thinking that it was probably just playing or searching for food I rowed back to the boat.

D came back from fishing about an hour later and wanted to check for yabbies in the sand flats and I told him about this thing so we went for a row, I remembered to bring my camera and took these photos. We approached the big white poached egg thing and discovered that it was some type of ray without the long tail. It looked odd all white and puffy and there was a hole in it, I think some birds had had a go at it.
So D being a curious male prodded this thing with the yabbie pump and it gave him an electric shock! Quite a jolt too by all accounts. He certainly didn't want to venture any further than that. After I regained my composure from laughing at his folly I coerced him into using a stick to flip it over and after a few amusing attempts he succeeded and then I wanted him to wash it to which I was looked at rather strangely. It was really dirty and I wanted to get a good photo of it for record and identification later. I ended up using the bucket we had in the row boat (for the yabbies of which there weren't any) and standing a safe distance away doused it a couple of times with the little water we were able to scrounge from the shallows. It came to life again, flapped a bit and breathed a couple of times revealing its gills and eyes of which I'm sure the life was fading from. Poor thing. So after getting the best shot on the last frame of film we left the creature to its last breaths. RIP lungfish.

D's Lessons Learned:
1. Don't prod or poke unidentified creatures with metallic objects
2. Use a decent stick
3. Do explore and discover, safely, it can be interesting and rewarding.

Weekend fun

Yes mission accomplished. The curtains are done and hanging and keeping the precious heater heat in the room instead of being sucked out into the cold. It truly is amazing the difference it makes with them up and useful. I do have another set of curtains to complete but they are not so desperately needed, for the moment.

We had a wonderful long weekend even though I did have to come to work for a few hours. I was glad that I pushed myself to finish the curtains on the day I had to work as it meant that I was free for the next day to spend with D and the family.
We went to a great reserve called Crosslands which is near Hornsby. We took our bikes and had fun riding around with the kids. A couple of roast chooks for lunch with rolls and coleslaw, then a spot of cricket before back on the bikes to wear ourselves out.
Unfortunately that reserve is in a gully so the sun disappeared after two-ish and we soon packed up and headed to another park/playground near Rouse Hill. This was was more of a playground with some great equipment. There was one in particular that was borderline amusement park ride. The only thing missing was a ticket box and operator.
I must say how well behaved everyone was while waiting their turn. The ride was a cross between a round-a-bout and a see-saw. It was on an angle and you sat in a seat at either end of a long arm. There were pedals which you used to make yourself go around and also if you back pedalled it would make it brake and slow down. I had a go with B and managed to get it going pretty fast, I think it would be easier if both people pedalled and B wasn't so we didn't go as fast as we could've. But what fun!!! for free!
There were also twirly poles that were bent so when they went around they looked like a dough hook or screw type thingo and they could spin really fast too. Also a couple of curves with skateboard type platforms which you stand on and hold onto a bar and swish left and right and they were pretty slick moving. I didn't hold on properly at the end and almost came of worse for wear. Really fun watching the kids explore and play working out how things worked and interpreting them differently from others. I really must hand it to the concept artists who come up with the twists on standard playground equipment.

Well I'm going to leave you with a parting shot of a wonderful sunset we had while on our houseboat honeymoon a couple of months ago...

cute-ness

How cute are they! These are B's new mice, Ginger and Tiger. I suggested Ginger & Gilligan instead of Tiger but she's adamant when it comes to naming things. Another suggestion of mine was Hunca & Munca from Beatrix Potter's book, A Tale of Two Bad Mice, but these mice are good, so far. I can't believe that they have bonded so well already. They came from separate cages at the pet shop, both girls to avoid any mass reproduction of course. They are very cuddly and don't have a fit if one is crawling all over the other.

Long weekend this weekend to celebrate Queenie's birthday for us here in the Southern Hemisphere. I unfortunately have to work Sunday though so you may get another post from me then. I have a cat photo that I took that I am meaning to post as I'm really quite pleased with it so maybe I'll get around to putting that up then.

Am planning on getting on with the curtains that I started last year and never finished. They are for the two big double doorways to the lounge area to try and keep some heat in this winter. This will be a big UFO out of the way so very excited about doing this at the moment. Will see if I can be this motivated over the next few days huh!

Better get back to it. Stay tuned!

Ta-Da!!

Yup that's it, the magic reappearing toadstool pin cusion. I think I should have taken another angle also to show off the pink "gills" underside the cap, they are only pink felt, nothing fancy so I don't think it is too important.

Well I hope it was all you were expecting and then some for all the weeks that it has taken to find the jolly thing and get it posted.

Better get back to work.

Have a great day!

Stay Tuned

Finally I have put the film in to process and tomorrow there will be a picture of the toadstool pincusion I made, over a month ago.

I must also apologise to myself and my delightful audience in the lack of constructive posts lately.

I am cooking up the next pinata, I think the latest request is for one of the bunnies from The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It's a Wallace and Gromitt film, very amusing and how wonderful it is to watch an entertaining film for kids that isn't so modern/wacky. Some of the conventional tv cartoons these days are just a bit too weird for my taste. The clay animation is fantastic, the characters are well rounded and the adult gags are subtle along with the obvious salutes to well known films such as King Kong and Jurassic Park. If you haven't seen it, and I know I'm behind the times! go and rent it!

Unfortunately last weekend B's mouse, Pablo, passed away. I'm pretty sure it was from old age but you can never tell. We did the whole burial in the front garden, so Milo won't dig her up later, and then we cleaned all of her cage items. I was really glad to see that B was so obviously upset about this as sometimes I wonder as to how much feeling kids have to such things. I know pets are special always but sometimes I'm not convinced of that. Anyway we now have two little ones, named Ginger and Tiger and they are ever so sweet. Very nice natured mice and I think they will be happy together. Tiger is very adventurous and Ginger is just so cute, being tinier helps I think and also the fact that she is very similar to a mouse that I wanted once upon a time. I just don't like white mice with pink eyes, they are too laboratory looking for me. RIP Pablo!

Well see you tomorrow with the pic to share! I just know you're excited!