145 water-skiers break a record

A group of 145 water-skiers in Australia have broken the record for the most people being dragged by a single boat...

before I head off to bed..I just watched this on the news and thought I would share it

pretty cool

I want to live on a boat...

I want to live on a boat

not a castle with a moat

or a treehouse that floats

above clouds on high ground

No...

I want to live on a boat

and wake to sparkling patterns

dancing on my ceiling

I want to peer through portholes

and count pelicans on my porch

I want to wake to

screeching seagulls

and wet flags flappin in fog

I want to smell the sea and feel it

rock me to sleep in my bed

I want to live on a boat

and have a leisurely lunch on my lap

and toss scraps to diving ducks

from the depths of my deckchair

I want to cook food in a galley

and sleep in a berth not a bedroom

I want to live in a boat

and grow herbs on my roof

and stare at the stars through a skylight

I want to wake to the sounds of seals barking

at my dogs, and the gentle clanging of masts

and then, when Im tanned and rested

and not too old

I want to sit back and quite casually

invite someone dangerous

to tea

HB2012

I want to live on a boat

I want to live on a boat

Picture Perfect ~ Close to Home

Welcome

to

PICTURE PERFECT

Our bi-annual competition is up and running, this is week 1 of 6 and here is my un-official entry.

Healthy eating and regular excercise is close to my heart, here is a picture of my breakfast..ingredients vary, somedays I leave the sticky labels on the apples!!

pop over and view some wonderful photography

Today..

My new housemates moved in today, a delightful married couple, so I made pizza from scratch.. for dinner, it was delicious...

Up on the Roof!

For KK ~smile

Cambria reflections

Cambria is my sort of town. Unfortunately Stan was called back to Sac on business, and after I had recovered from my hissy fit, (special thanks to two special friends for talking me down from the ledge..you know who you are...) I settled down and enjoyed two nights in a quaint hotel, and gorgeous days mixing with the locals, enjoying fine meals and free to roam around with my camera! I met some wonderful new people and I will definitely be back. I then drove down to spend a night with my sister on Blue. they will be in Mexico for the month of February, so am hoping to spend a weekend or two on Blue while theyre away! Sometimes I just love the surpise a picture gives me, when im focusing on one thing..and when I view it on my computer I see so much more!

and one more

the rest are posted in my photo gallery

Sole Renewal

'I think you need new slippers mum' I say

'Oh no these are just fine, I'm sure they'll last another year' she replies, not even glancing up from her knitting. The nights are cold even in this, the mildest winter we have had in many years, and her slippers are worn through at the toes which she has neatly darned with wool. I raise my eyebrows at her.

Later in the store we select some warm woolly Ugg type slippers, in a versatile tan colour. I sit on the floor, loosen her shoe and slip her foot into the soft comfort of the new slipper, I feel her thin gnarled hand on my shoulder as she steadies herself and watch her face light up as she parades in front of the mirror like a two year old.

I'm instantly transported back 40yrs or so, and its me walking the floor with my new shoes looking anxiously at my mother, wanting desperately to keep these gorgeous black patent leather shoes with a tiny little heel, that click elegantly on the parquet flooring. She slips a finger in the back of the shoe and presses hard against my toe. She nods her head and I fling my arms around her neck squealing with joy. The store assistant puts my old scuffed shoes carefully in a box and I walk out with the new ones, clicking deliberately along the pavement feeling quite transformed into someone slightly elegant.

I look up at my mother, her eyes fill.

'I love these ones' she murmers

And I smile...

The Page Turner

Remembering JohnO...

We were all having an early breakfast..shivering in the fog early in August 2008. I dont remember what he said to make me laugh this hard, but he was never at a loss for a humourous word or a prank...

I think of you soo often John, I remember you as though it were yesterday..and miss you everyday. R.I.P my dear friend...and much love to Linda today...love you sweet girl xx

About A Boy ~ 8th January 1995

The day you lose someone you love more than life itself shouldn't be one with such clear brilliant skies, it shouldn't smile down on you with promises it cant keep, there shouldn't be rainbows..or a light wind..it shouldn't be the perfect day for fishing...

If it had rained that day, or if there had been even the slightest hint of a storm, of lightning..of high winds, then two boys wouldn't have pushed a little row boat into the middle of a lake, and sat and cast out their lines into the blue green depths of the Dap Naude dam. They wouldn't have chatted about this paradise, they wouldn't have shared a hurriedly packed breakfast as they sat dangling their feet over the edge of the small wooden craft.

They wouldn't have had to wake so early, and sneak out to the nearest fishing ground, they certainly wouldn't have caught their biggest rainbow trout, and they wouldn't have stood and wobbled the boat as they did so. They wouldn't have laughed, and maybe Jonathan wouldn't have slipped and he wouldn't have bumped his head, not even a little, and he wouldn't have made that quietest deadliest splash.. he wouldn't have disappeared beneath cold cold water on a hot summers day, to the world beyond.

There wouldn't have been police, and divers, and reporters and TV cameras trying to pry the horror that was my world, there wouldn't be newspaper reports, and typing errors, and pictures of his beautiful face. There wouldn't have been a vigil for 4 days by his father and his brother..and me, while his sister cried bitter tears waiting at home. We wouldn't have had to wait, and wait, and wait until Wednesday.

There wouldn't have been rainbows across darkened skies, and rain on the road, on the car as we drove home silently with one less child. I wouldn't have had to hate God or need him this much. I wouldn't have had to be brave, much braver than this, or sad much sadder than this.

Yet if that January day hadn't been so brilliantly beautiful, and the rain had poured and kept them safely indoors, or if he had contracted some weird and wonderful debilitating tummy bug that would have kept him in bed all day and all night, then perhaps I wouldn't still see rainbows and feel love as deeply as I do today. Maybe my children wouldn't be as tender to others, and maybe my grandchildren wouldn't be this happy, or even born. My mother wouldnt cry as easily Im sure, and others wouldnt have to ask why. Perhaps the sun wouldn't shine as brightly, the rain wouldn't fall as gently and maybe songs wouldn't have a deeper meaning.

Because maybe just maybe his life was all lived, in exactly the way it was meant to be. I like to believe that somewhere still he chases rainbows made more brilliant because they shine through the tears of all those who across time and in far lands.. love him still...

RIP our Jono 7.4.1979 ~ 8.1.1995

Paradise

I love this song, hadn't watched the video until this evening though, so was thrilled to see its filmed in South Africa..which is probably appropriate.

My leave for Feb has been withdrawn, no staff apparently..I could weep...

Wordless Wednesday

Where I post the pic..and you post the caption