H is for Hairdressers

Where would we be without hairdressers!
I went to the hairdresser today.
Somehow, when my hair is good, the whole world seems brighter.

I am very grateful for all my 'good hair' days and so very grateful to my hairdresser Xin and for all those people who trained for years and stand on their feet all day to help us look our best.

Hairdressing is a difficult job. So many things can go wrong. Have a look at this............

One of my gorgeous nieces, Toni, is a hairdresser.
This is Toni and Pete on their wedding day. (The bride arrived on a motorbike- what a woman!)

And here they are with Jessica (16), Destiny (4) and Eden (6 months). Aren't they something? I am so grateful for all my wonderful family.

G is for Growing

....or gardening, or garden
What a joy it is to have a garden and to watch and water and nuture the growth of flowers and trees fruits, herbs and vegetables.

I am very grateful for this everyday pleasure, everyday.

Currently in my "veggie patch in a bathtub" (yes, it's a real bathtub) I am growing tomatoes, baby capsicums, baby beets, parsley, mint, basil and rocket.

Whether it's in a paddock, a garden bed or a pot, the miracle of growth never ceases to amaze

These are photos from the Ekka (annual Brisbane Agricultural Exhibition) something I am grateful hasn't lost its charm and is still popular in the 21st centuty

F is for Fish

I am very, very grateful for my fantastic family, friends and followers and I hope I have honoured them elsewhere on this blog so I am going with F for fish.

Fish are fascinating.  For instance, did you know that............

it is estimated that there are more species of fish than all the species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals put together.


there are over 25,000 identified species of fish on the earth.

starfish have no brains.

it is estimated that there may still be over 15,000 fish species that have not yet been identified.

40% of all fish species inhabit fresh water, yet less than .01% of the earth’s water is fresh water.

This map (below) shows the coral reefs of the world. I am privileged to live in a part of the world where it is really easy to access the ocean and see coral reefs and tropical fish in a pristine environment.

I think being in the ocean is the closest we can get to seeing how the world was when it was created. This is an incredible experience that I am really, really grateful for.

When I was younger and fitter I learnt to scuba dive.

These days I snorkel. In shallow reefs you see just as much. If you have never seen the Great Barrier Reef up close I hope you get the opportunity to do so one day.

The fish are AMAZING!

This is me (second from left) getting ready to snorkel off Port Douglas in 2009.

and here are some fishy photos I took that day.

E is for Ears

Well, perhaps not ears exactly, but what they provide - hearing.
I am so grateful for my ears.

I love to listen. I love the sound of birds in the morning and crickets at night.

I love the sound of rain on a tin roof.

I love the sound of water running in a stream and crashing over a waterfall.

I love the sound of waves breaking on the beach.

I love the sound of an orchestra.

I love the sound of poetry spoken aloud.

I love the sound of Christmas carols played by the Salvos.

I love the sound of singing in the middle of a huge group of people.

I love the sound of the key in the lock when you're waiting for someone you love to come home.



I hope you enjoy these sounds. Let your ears do the work.

D is for dips

I am old enough to remember a time before dips. Yes dips. Stuff you "dip" biscuits or bits of cut up celery or carrot into and offer to your guests as a kind of starter.

I can remember when having friends over to eat was always called a dinner party and it was a very stressful undertaking. The only thing you dipped then was something impaled on a skewer into a fondue pot!

In fact, just the act of dipping or dunking before eating (as perhaps done with a biscuit into a cup of tea) was considered altogether uncouth.

These days dips (even ones straight from the supermarket) are perfectly acceptable - even considered healthy - and I am grateful.

I am grateful for not having to cut cheese into cubes to put onto toothpicks with brightly coloured pickled onions to serve on half an orange or having to attempt to make 'angels on horseback' that I think had something to do with prunes.

I am grateful that my friends don't expect stuffed eggs or seafood cocktails however the demise of mashed potato rolled in devon is a little disappointing as I could "do" that one.

I am not a dip specialist by any means. Particularly as my food processor hardly sees the light of day. If you have a never fail, simple dip recipe I do hope you'll share it here. I'd be ever so grateful to wow someone with it!

C is for Coffee

.............you either get coffee or you don't. Nothing else to say!

B is for Books

Where would I be without books! In fact, I do not know a life without books.

Realising that something like 460 million women in the world today are illiterate and I have always had books to read or to be read to me for pleasure and for learning  I have to be grateful .

At the minute I am reading Belly Dancers for Beginners by Australian writer Liz Byrski http://www.lizbyrski.com.au/club/bellydancing.html and also Oliver Sack's fascinating Musicophilia  http://www.oliversacks.com/books/musicophilia/. I highly recommend them both.

Musicophilia was a gift from a dear friend who had had to listen to me raving for a month about a couple of TV programs I had seen in which music was used to help recover speech in stroke victims and dementia sufferers. This is incredible stuff!

The Liz Byrski is from the library.

I LOVE THE LIBRARY. All those books, magazines, CDs and DVDs to borrow for free  - 20 at a time! As someone once said...........Knowledge is free at the library. Just bring your own container.

I also LOVE the Nexus Church BYO Book Club. It's great to get books reviewed and shared freely with a bunch of amazing women http://www.nexuschurch.com.au/interest-groups.

I come by all this book stuff honestly. My father is an avid collector of all things bookish and a skilled book binder.

He had, at one time, the largest private collection of Australian children's books in the world. He continues to add to three outstanding collections of bookplates, book seller's labels and book presentation plates (my sister, by the way, has the book mark collection.) Me? I didn't get the relevant collecting gene!

My father and his wife Betty have also added to their large collection of old and rare books over the last 20 or so years including four beautiful fore-edge books. http://foreedge.bpl.org/articles

Despite this, in their 80s now, and life mebers of the Book Collectors Society of Australia, they are both reading Kindle e-books!