A BIRTHDAY PARTY

 The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.
Napoleon Hill

I have seen a lot written about Napoleon Hill. One day I must actually read some of his work. This was just a quote of his that I happened to come across, but seemed to make a lot of sense.

I have been knitting jumpers for Cambodian babies with AIDS at school and decided to knit one for P:-)'s daughter M who is expecting a baby in October, and one for  his little grand daughter R who is only about 6 weeks old.

Baby jumpers

I was pleased that I had both of these ready for Saturday when we were seeing P:-)'s family at a get together for a grand daughter's birthday.

We had lunch at The Weir at Audley in the Royal national Park just south of Sydney. It was great for the small children as the eating area was near a large grassed area where the kids could play.

Table at The Weir

You can just make out the white dots in the tree in the next picture. They are cockatoos.

Cockatoos beyond the balloons.

The cake was delicious.

Birthday cake

The cake was a large 1 and the candle played the tune of Happy Birthday when it was lit and then didn't stop, playing it over and over again. Little L really enjoyed having Happy Birthday sung to her by lots of people and LOVED the cake. She was quite upset when she wasn't allowed to have more. I wished I could have had more too, but it had to serve 25 people.

On Sunday we went to the Illawarra yacht club for lunch with P:-)'s two sisters and their husbands.

View through the Yacht Club window onto Lake Illawarra

Rainbow through the Yacht Club window.

The chef has changed and the menu and the food wasn't up to its usual standard which was a pity. My usual lentil patties were no longer available and I had beer battered fish and chips. But there was no salad and the fish was soft and mushy. I won't be having that again.

Later P:-) and I went to church. The last few sermons have been on the parable of The Prodigal Son and last night they had a table on the stage set up for a feast complete with fairy lights. It was very pretty.

Church on Sunday night.

Who would have thought you could spend weeks talking about The Prodigal Son? But it has actually been very enlightening.

Interesting sites


1.

Photo source

 Click here to read about this ice hotel in Iceland.

2.

Photo source

  Click here to read an interesting article on the pursuit of happiness.

3.

Photo source

  Click here to see some unusual sculptures using books.

DIGGING UP THE FOOTPATH

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Vintage image of butterflies

My footpath is a terrible mess at the moment.

My footpath

 Sydney Water are digging up all the pipes down the street.

We have an alternate water supply in the white pipes.

Alternate water supply in white pipes

There is plenty of machinery around. This is a view of my house from across the road.

Sydney water outside my house viewed from across the road.

Every now and then my pipes seem to spontaneously make a whining sound. I woke up to it this morning. I hope it stops once they finish all the work.

Yesterday was my mother's 80th birthday. Some of us took her to the Illawarra Yacht Club for tea.

View from the Illawarra Yacht Club

We had a lovely evening. Her main party will be on Saturday, when most of the family will celebrate.



Interesting sites

 1.

Photo credit

 Click here to checkout this eco POD hotel in Switzerland.

2.

Photo credit

 Click here to read about the pothole gardener.

3.

Photo credit

Recycled artichoke pendant lamps made from scrap material. Click here to read more.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.  
 Colin Powell

Vintage Fairy

The last couple of days have been extremely busy with school work and there has been no time for blogging. 

Sunday was very pleasant. My wonderful daughter R and her partner B came around for a visit and brought me a set of solar toadstool lights.

I haven't had time to put them in the garden yet. I love toadstools and plan to put them near my fairy door.

Fairy door

This is the fairy door at night.

Fairy door at night

I love the glow of the fairy door at night when I come home and I am sure the toadstools will add to the effect.

Sunday afternoon was lunch at the Illawarra Yacht Club with P:-)'s two sisters and borthers-in-law.

Illawarra Yacht Club

I always enjoy eating at the Yacht Club. The food is great and well-priced and there is always a beautiful view to look at.

Sunday evening we went to church.

Music at church.

P:-) and I go to church at night because there is great music. It is a younger style service, with a lot of enthusiastic people involved.

Interesting sites

1.

Photo credit

 This cedar clad house is topped with a green, growing roof.  Click here to read more.

2.

Photo credit

  Click here to see 30 great inspirational black and white landscape photographs.

3.

Photo credit

Click here to find 2 interesting videos about living in a 1991 Volkswagen Westfalia. You will need to scroll down the page to find them.

LUNCH AT THE YACHT CLUB

 Do not pray for an easy life. Pray to be a strong person.

Unknown

Life is never going to be easy. We are all struck with some type of tragedy by the time our life is up. We will have innumerable problems and challenges from very small to very big. No doubt life will be easier for some than others, but nobody's life is easy. If you are a strong person you can deal with the problems and challenges life throws at you. You can make the best of them. I would pray for an easy life it were possible, but I do not think it is in the nature of things for life to be easy. Better to be strong and go with the flow.

 Backyard trail

Today was rather overcast and I was quite expecting a few leeches to latch onto my ankles as I went down the path at the side of my house.

At the end of the path under the tree fern, the garden becomes quite overgrown.

Looking towards the end of my backyard.

If I turn to the right there is a flat area covered in Syngonium or Butterfly Plant and Wandering Dew.

Syngonium on sandstone rock

As I turn to walk back up the side of the house I walked under the tree fern which is just unfurling another frond.

Tree fern overhanging path

Frond unfurling on tree fern

Base of fronds on tree fern

 Lunch at the Yacht Club

My mother G, P:-) and I went to the Illawarra Yacht Club for lunch. Mum hadn't been there before and we wanted her to see the great view and enjoy the good food. We sat at the back of the club - right on the edge of Lake Illawarra.

View of the lake from Yacht Club window

Sea birds seen from Yacht Club window

We really enjoyed lunch.




  Interesting sites

1.

Photo:Let Me Be Inspired

 Click here to read about this great house in Japan with wonderful book shelves.

2.

Photo:Pokkisam

  Click here to see some really interesting photos.

3.

Photo:ROBOTMAFIA

 Click here to see some interesting street art.

MY ZANTEDESCHIA AETHIOPICA FLOWERED!

 Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations.

Alfred Adler

I find this resonates with me because I have to make a determined effort to give positive meanings to the situations in my life. I try not to let things drag me down. Sometimes I am a bit of an ostrich and put my head in the sand, but if that is what I have to do to say on top of things then that is what I do.

I had a friend once who had the opportunity to go to  the UK for a holiday and take her three  high school aged sons with her. She turned the question of the actual timing of their holiday into a real problem. Every time I saw her she wanted my advice as to when was the best time to take her children out of school. This was fine, but she turned it into a terrible problem. Instead of anticipating their trip with happiness she talked about what a big problem this was.

I just saw it as a great opportunity for her family and wished her 'problem' had been mine. I was happy for her to be going on her trip and  would have been happy to talk about it in a positive way, but all the negativity  really got me down. In the end I made excuses not to see my friend.

I know there are always going to be difficulties and problems in life, but I have learned from experience that how you view them, and what you make of them makes all the difference - and makes all the difference to those around you.


Lunch at the Yacht Club

This afternoon we had lunch at the Illawarra Yacht Club. It was P:-)'s sister's birthday. The Yacht Club is quite close to where P:-) lives, and his 2 sisters and husbands are often happy to travel the 45 minutes from Southern Sydney to join us for lunch there, as they did this afternoon.

Illawarra Yacht Club on Lake Illawarra

View from out table.

This was the view from our table. It was a great view and later we watched some yachts racing. I ordered fish of the day for lunch and was a little disappointed. I have no idea what the fish was but it was a bit greasy. From now on I will stick with my usual crumbed barramundi which is always delicious.

In the garden

Today my  Zantedeschia aethiopica flowered!

 

Otherwise known as the common arum lily.

While these are often considered weeds when they grow along creek beds I am nevertheless happy to have mine flower as I have a dearth of flowers in my garden.

I had been watching it for a while, unable to tell if was a leaf unfurling or a flower. I was pleased to see it was a flower. If I had a special occasion coming up I would pick it and put it in a vase, but as I don't I'll enjoy it from its position near my front door.

Art around the house

I have had some of my daughter R's paintings just hanging (actually more sitting than hanging) around my house and I have decided to put them up on the wall. This is the first one to go up.

My daughter R painted this quite a number of years ago. It is acrylic paint on board.
Here is a closer look.

I think the eyes look very real




Interesting sites

1.

A three-eyed catfish was caught near an Argentinian nuclear power plant. Click here to read about it and see some pictures.

2.

  Artist uses rubbish from land fill to create giant artworks. Click here to read more about it.

3.

 

Click here to view a great website for dog lovers called Four .