The moon caught my eye a few days ago. Every night, the sky looked so bright and I would look up to see the moon dancing with the clouds. I took the photo above on Saturday night. And it looks very clear, very moon-ish, all cratery and rickety around the edges.
Last night when I took myself just a tad east of home, towards the Pacific Ocean, for a view of the Lunar Eclipse, when I first spotted the moon it looked like a red ball in the sky. Moments later though, the red had diminished. And the photos I took didn’t turn out as clear as the one taken on Saturday night either.
Here is what I saw last night. Actually, it’s what my camera saw, I saw the moon through a much clearer lens ~ my eyes. Perhaps the darkness of the eclipse didn’t agree with the eye of my camera, but it shows you a few stages of the eclipse and for that I am grateful.
6:34 PM6:42 PM6:43 PM6:47 PM6:49 PM6:50 PM6:56 PM
By 7:00 PM, the moon looked like its usual self. The fun of the eclipse was over.
For future reference, I have made a note to myself to set an alarm to remind me to get outside to see the eclipse earlier, as apparently most of the Blood Moon effect showed up earlier than my photos began.
So mark your calendars, the next Lunar Eclipse is on October the 8th this year!
How fast the last seven weeks have flown by. Seven weeks, since I last added a post here at Home Life!
My regular routine kicked in toward the end of last year, which is being overly busy around the end of the year and the beginning of the new year, with work. I should be used to it by now, I’ve been working the same way for the last twenty-seven years.
The weather is turning cooler at night, bringing beautiful folds of mist to the valley in the mornings.
Twenty-seven years! I can hardly believe that I’ve done the same work, year in, year out, for that amount of time.
Making school uniforms from home has had its benefits throughout those years. It helps that I love to sew, the business has grown (or shrunk!) depending on the stage my life has been at, at various times. It has been a portable business too. I began the business when living in Sydney and it moved north with me twenty-one years ago and continued to flourish. And you know what the best part of my business has been? I have been at home for my children, during their growing years.
My children are all grown up now though, all except for Adam, but he is a teenager and will be finished school by the end of next year. And being a boy, he isn’t demanding either!
Miss Tibbs is always contented, so long as she has food and a warm place to snuggle.
I’ve been thinking about me lately, about what I want to do myself, where I want to be, the work I want to do. I think the time has come for change.
During the last couple of weeks I’ve caught up on life, you know, cleaning the house, tidying a few things up, getting through some paperwork and sorting through my desk. Doing the things I don’t have time to do when I’m making uniforms for schools.
This week I began catching up with some of my blogging friends. I haven’t caught up with everyone yet, but I will. And I’ve written, lots.
Little Butcher Bird, waiting for his breakfast.
On my family history blog, I’ve added a story of some old postcards, from Whitley Bay. Next, I’m looking forward to writing about my grandfather. I’m really loving the way this blog is progressing, albeit slowly! All of the posts I write seem to come together so effortlessly and I really love the look of the website. It’s very personal to me, like my baby, and a site which I am hoping that future generations will also appreciate in time.
It’s been nearly a year since I wrote for “A Sense of Spirit”, but I finally did so yesterday. I have so many ideas of stories to add there, yet when I do begin to write them, sometimes the words don’t come easy. Yesterday’s post, however, simply bubbled onto the page! When I feel what I am writing, deep in my heart, the words flow so easily. On the downside, the writing can leave me emotionally exhausted! I must attempt to at least write one post a week there though.
Tibouchinas flower spring and autumn. They are now covered in beautiful autumn purple-ness.
In “Memoirs of my Life” I remembered my dad’s birthday. He would have turned ninety-three last weekend, if he were still here. I added a photo on the post of the two of us, hand in hand, taken only about a month after we lost my mum. Dad was so sad at that time and seemed to never smile, so unusual for him as he was such a happy man. I love the photo though.
This week, I have even written a few poems, something that I used to do years ago, yet haven’t even attempted in the longest time. Surprisingly the words seemed to flow easily and I even started up a brand new baby blog to add them to. (I’m not promoting that blog here, by the way!) An awful lot of poets have already discovered the new blog, adding “likes” to some of my poems. I feel rather wary of some of the poetry I have read by some of these people though, as I have read what I would describe as some really “dark” words! Poems that include glass to cut with, and rivers of blood. Eeeeekk! Perhaps I live a very sheltered life, but I prefer to read poetry with meaning, or at the very least, uplifting! Having said that, some of the poems I have read have really made me smile; a good thing!
Palm trees, weighed down with bunches of palm seeds, looking stunning against the mist.
So, while I have been writing, and contemplating change, I have decided that I will see if I can find a buyer for my little business. I would hate to just leave my customers high and dry, with no supplier of their school shirts. Besides, I have more sewing machines than I need, if I stop with this business. There is someone out there who is looking for just what I have to sell, so when they find me, and I find them, we will both be happy!
When I think of selling my business, I feel so liberated! Time for me, to keep up-to-date with my life, all year round! Time to take more walks, to take more photos, to start up something new, something that fits my life more comfortably, work-wise!
My lovely friend, Larry the Kookaburra, is still frequenting my garden restaurant.
Having spent so much time in “blogging hibernation”, I have prattled on a bit today! I’ve added a few photos to break up my ramblings a bit, with no particular theme, just photos taken recently that I like.
It’s good to be back and I sincerely hope that this time I’m back, I won’t be disappearing for weeks on end, ever again. 🙂
“And meanwhile the beautiful golden days were dropping gently from the second week one by one, equal in beauty with those of the first, and the scent of beanfields in flower on the hillside beyond the village came across to San Salvatore whenever the air moved.” ~ The Enchanted April.
The year is a whole two weeks old and summer, although slow to start in my corner of the sub-tropics, has made up for the previous lack of hot summer’s days during the past week.
The highest temperature we have reached has only been around 34 degrees Celsius, which is easy to cope with, if it wasn’t for the humidity. During days of humidity there is nothing else to do other than to lazy around, drinking cold glasses of water, windows opened wide, trying to catch just a hint of a breeze wafting through, even if only for a moment or two.
Change can be such a fickle little creature though. Never become resolved to expecting almost intolerable heat for the next few weeks, once it seems to have set in. You may be surprised by the cool winds of change, gentle rain, cool breezes, and temperatures dropping by ten degrees within a few hours….
Ahhhhh, the relief the cooler air, the ever so slight chill on my arms and promises of a night of sweet dreams, unhindered by the heat, after I have finished reading the last chapter of “The Enchanted April”.
Oh how I have enjoyed reading this book, taking virtual walks through the gardens of the Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean Ocean, with Rose, Lotty, Lady Caroline and old Mrs Fisher, each in their own time experiencing the bewitching spell which is cast over them by the beauty and magic surrounding the castle by the sea.
This place, this time, has changed all of their lives, forever.
I am completely and thoroughly besotted by this book. It has touched my heart with its simplicity. The old world charm of the text is simply delightful. Moments of dry humour are dotted throughout the story. Each chapter holds within its pages the promise of magic and love, happiness and wonder, and gardens filled with the fragrances and colours of the season.
“In the garden that second week the poet’s eyed narcissus disappeared out of the long grass at the edge of the zigzag path, and wild gladiolus, slender and rose-coloured, came in their stead, white pinks bloomed in the borders, filling the whole place with their smoky-sweet smell, and a bush nobody had noticed burst into glory and fragrance, and it was a purple lilac bush.”
The self-proclaimed “King of the Garden” ~ The Kookaburra.
Welcome to the new address of Home Life Online!
When I began blogging at Home Life Online, the very first blog that I ever had, I didn’t know a lot about blogging at all, so every decision I made was based upon the advice of other people.
From all the accounts I read, it seemed that the way to go with blogging was to have a self-hosted website, which would allow me to have complete control over my website.
Well that was nearly three years ago now and during the last three years I have started up another three blogs, each with a different purpose all of its own, and each one being a free WordPress blog. You will find the links to my other three blogs right under the header at the top of this page.
In all honesty, I have yet to find the advantage of paying to host my own WordPress blog! And what is more, I find the free versions easier to navigate around!!
The overseer of all things “garden” ~ Miss Tibbs.
I’m absolutely sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if I were a super-techie type, who knew website code and could decipher programming mumbo-jumbo, I would be singing the praises of the self-hosted website, but unfortunately I’m not techie, or code savvy at all.
For ages now, I’ve toyed with the idea of transferring all the content from my self-hosted website to a free WordPress blog, and today I have finally bitten the bullet. I’ve spent the afternoon signing up, importing, exporting, re-adding, colouring, contemplating, deciding…and finally…it’s all set!
And here it is ~ the new home for Home Life Online!
To make the transition a little easier, I’ve stayed with the same theme, same header, same background, and all the content has been transferred from the old site. It may sound really quite involved, but it wasn’t at all. Even an un-computer-savvy blogger like me could do it!
At my new blog, right here, I will continue along in just the same way as I always have. The kookaburras and the garden, the river and the ocean, in fact everything that has always been there, will now be over here!
Pretty in pink!
There are just two requests I have, with moving my online address ~ firstly, if you were subscribed at the old site, would you mind subscribing again here? You will find the subscription link just to your right, near the top of the column, under the heading “Keep in Touch”. I can’t transfer my subscribers, and would hate to find that I had lost (or misplaced!) anyone during the move. You know what it’s like when you’re moving….
And secondly, if you find that there are any glitches in the new system, could you please tell me about them in your comments? I’ve checked everything from my computer, and all seems well, but you never know about those unwanted gremlins….
Over the next month or two, I will be asking my ever-so computer techie friend if they can help me out with a few things that I would like to do with the old website, but until then, I will leave everything there as is. And you will all be the first to know when my new plans for the old site are up and running!
It will be a whole new revamp, in fact a full-scale renovation, and once I get the ball rolling, the old domain will be a blog no more, but I promise, you will hear about it!
In the meantime, just so as you know you are really at the right address, here is a photo of my beautiful view from my home, of the majestic Mount Warning. 🙂
After weeks and weeks of less than perfect weather, it is so wonderful to finally see days on end of nothing but the sun! The weather has cooled down dramatically and everything is looking pristine and sparkly.
I paid a visit to Kirra Point Lookout the other day, knowing I had the perfect weather for taking some great photos of the ocean.
From the lookout to the north is Kirra Beach, usually jammed packed full of surfers. Kirra Beach is world-famous for its surfing conditions. In fact, it was at Kirra that the second Surf Life Saving Club was established in Queenland, at a meeting held on January 7th 1916, with the Coolangatta Surf Life Saving Club, established in 1911 being the oldest in the state.
As you can see here, Kirra Beach was almost deserted. Perhaps the surfing conditions were not as they should be, even on the sunniest of days…
Kirra Beach
Coolangatta Beach too, to the south of the lookout, was all but deserted.
...and Coolangatta Beach
I loved the blueness of the sky as a backdrop for this white apartment building in Coolangatta.
White on blue
Over the last twenty-five to thirty years a number of older style beachside apartment buildings have been demolished, in favour of these multi-story apartment buildings and holiday units.
Tall buildings against the sky.
A monument of a large iron eagle, with the appearance of it soaring through the air towards the ocean, has been erected at Kirra Point Lookout. Whilst it is very interesting to see the iron eagle, I don’t know the significance of it.
Ready to soar out across the ocean...
I wonder if there is a significance, or whether someone simply liked the idea?…I’ll keep asking around.
The iron eagle, in perspective to the lookout.
Whilst I stood at Kirra Point Lookout, clicking away in this direction and that with my camera, I spotted an old church, nestled beside some other buildings, up on a hill in the distance at Coolangatta.
A different scene, something old, amid the new.
It started me thinking and casting my mind back to the Tweed Heads and Coolangatta area that I first knew, back in the days before the new apartment buildings and holiday lets were constructed.
How many old buildings remain in the area?
The weatherboard holiday lets along the beach – gone, and replaced with highrise buildings.
The row of shops containing two cinemas – gone, and replaced with a multi-level shopping centre, office space and one new cinema.
An old roller skating rink ~ gone, and replaced by a car park.
I have decided that, by and large, Australians are an unsentimental (is that a word?) race of people and prefer to re-built rather than refurbish and extend!
Anyway, yesterday I took myself off to the old church on the hill and took a number of photos. I found another church of a similar vintage just around the corner also, but have yet to find any other old buildings in this area!
Next post, I’ll share with you my two old churches, (and any other old buildings I may come across in the meantime, if they exist!)
In My World 