Joyful

When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.  

 Shannon L. Alder

What makes you joyful? Spending time with family and creating things makes me joyful. (And Words With friends!)

And for my Christian friends don't forget to 'make a joyful noise unto the Lord.' Psalm 100.

A piggy picture

It has been a pretty uneventful couple of weeks.

I have started a new diet with Manshake Peter's son-in-law Ben has had great success with it so Peter and I have decided to give it a go. It has taken me a little bit of tinkering around the edges to work out what suits me. I found that just adding 400mls of water to 2 scoops of powder was a bit watery.

So now I mix 2 scoops of chocolate shake with 250 mils of soybean milk; 1 scant cup frozen blueberries; 1/4 cup oat bran; 2 teaspoons cocoa; 2 teaspoons instant coffee; 2 artificial sweeteners. I whiz it all together and get a lovely thick chocolate goo that has to be eaten with a spoon. I divide this into two - one for breakfast and one for morning tea.

I repeat the process for lunch and afternoon tea.

The meal replacement shakes do contain milk products and I have been moving away from animal products to a plant based diet. (Except for fish which apparently makes me a pescetarian.) But I think it is worth a try.

So far after about 5 days I have lost 2kg so that is pretty good going and I seem to be able to function quite well.

Megg and Ben live at Bundeena and Peter and I went for a visit.

Bundeena is a small town on surrounded by the Royal National Park. It is a ferry ride from Cronulla across the Port Hacking River.

The view below is from the road to Bundeena with the view of Sydney in the distance. The city cannot actually be reached by this road as the Port Hacking River lies in the way.

This is the drive to Bundeena. This is a view into the Sydney CBD. What can't be seen is the Port Hacking River between the trees and the city.

We had a family get together for Megg's birthday at a park at Engadine

Megg and Sophie made a delicious chocolate and apricot cake which had to be left in the container while the candles were lit to avoid the wind.

Many of us enjoyed a game of soccer. (When I say 'us' I don't actually mean me.)

More soccer below. I think the grandchildren have monopolised the ball.

Note the scooters used as goal posts.

Below is little 6 week old Lucy all rugged up to keep out of the wind.

 I don't usually post pictures of grandchildren, but their faces can't be seen in any of these photos. I am hoping the adults included don't mind too much.

Weeds keep growing along the edge of my driveway next to my herb garden. Peter keeps weeding it for me but I have decided to do something permanent about it.

  l decided to try planting some nasturtiums along the edge of my driveway. 

 

This is also along the edge of my herb garden so it will make a good edition to it as both the flowers and leaves of nasturtiums are edible.

I'm not sure if there will be enough room for them to grow. Last time I planted nasturtiums elsewhere, Peter 'weeded' them so I shall be careful to educate him this time. I think now is a good time to plant, just before Spring.

This is sunset from Peter's place. I can never resist a sunset.

Interesting sites



1.

 Dumpster Pool

Photo source

 This architect saved a lot of money by building a swimming pool out of a dumpster or large rubbish skip.
Click here to read more. 

2.

 Sand drifts in Shoyna

Photo source

 In the village of Shoyna in Russia, residents often have to dig their way out of their houses in the morning because of the drift of sand.
Click here to read more. 

3.

 Dirty Thunderstorm

Photo source

 Click here  to watch rock, fires and lightning coming from a volcano in Japan.