There's an Octopus under My bed!

 Hello all!

Yes I've been away since last year,  moved house again, then I was in Adelaide for a bit, helping out with Sydney the Cat ,  plus my daughter go married!  

Brooke & Leilani

and then recently for the first time I went to Darwin.  That ticks all the boxes of main cities in Australia!  Now for the quirky ones, can't wait!

In the mean time I've been in and out of the Doctor's , and video conferences with ART , sorting out my status, it's with the help of so many wonderful people , professional and otherwise that I am where I am today. 

Apart from that I got the new DJI gimbal and mic to try to minimise set up times for my video shoot when I'm book reading.  

Snoozing on the job!

The only constant is that nosy doggo Bunji still likes to poke his head and or body into the video whilst I'm recording!  He's such a funny boy.  I hope the kiddo's enjoy his guest appearances! heh heh

I dedicated this Book Read to all the parents out there, knowing full how we all had to tidy up in the beginning before the lil one got the hang of putting things back in it's place.  Heh, some still don't learn, I'm looking at you my youngest, little messy moxie, but hey all adults now so I don't have to do any more "HEY, YOU LOT, PUT YOUR STUFF AWAY" !  shout outs!  

It's amazing how we've come full circle , now I get to see my son Chris tell my grandson Idris to "TIDY UP!"  

Catch you all on the next post

Dx

You gotta move it move it

 Phew, it's been awhile, and yes we've moved house again, far far away, where the kookaburra laughs at you at 4 in the morning, huge cockatoos screech as they fly past, those little marsupials with big eyes (possums my dears possums) have hissy fits in the middle of the night, and a plethora of birds chirp and tweet throughout the day.  Oh how lovely you say, right in the middle of nature you say... well if you're not an early morning person like me (ie. 4.30 am). it's a lot to get used to!  sigh

I've had to sell or give away a load of my stuff, the modern term is downsizing, I call it 'no space"... however it's good practise as it prepares me for my tiny home that I'm working towards oui? (manifest, manifest , manifest)

Storage Tubs that are my lifeline!

And so amongst the packing, lifting, groaning, broken nails, reconfiguring the confines of the new room, war breaks out in the middle east, lurverly...I'm at the age when I was alive during the Iraq and Afgan wars.. and frankly speaking what did it achieve?  nada.. more grieving mothers, fathers, children, wives , husbands etc...  (it hurts my soul at what we're doing to the animals on land and sea)

So yes I'm happy to be distracted by all this nature around me, a garden that needs a load of work to take my temper away ( I feel calmer when I'm working in the garden) and learning which seeds work best at this time of the year to sow.  I laugh quietly to myself as I've come so far from nervously potting my first plant to now being asked about how to grow certain plants ... blows my mind, but if you put your mind and back into it, beautiful things grow, metaphorically and physically.

Try to put that phone away and not doomscroll too much, life is so precious, live life, be kind, think before you blurt out things that could be hurtful, and be helpful if you can, we all need to support each other now and always.

21st March is not only my late mothers birthday but also when the whole world will pause for 5 mins to send good thoughts and prayers to the world.  Join us.

much love

Dx

Marmaduke Duck and the marmalade jam

I can't tell you how delightful it was being surrounded by ducks, dogs , chooks, birds and a stealthy guinea pig as I was recording this video.  They immediately came around when I sat outside and started to read, giving their little quacks of comments.  

It's rather funny how far I've come in terms of getting used to the poultry division heh heh I believe in one of my blogs I wrote about the Hen Brigade and their attempts to storm me as I was trying to collect the eggs!  It always brings to mind the story my mum told me about being pecked by my grandmother's geese and ducks, she absolutely detested them and was constantly sporting bruises on her calfs, funnily enough she loved being friendly with the chooks and said when she was younger in boarding school she befriended a wounded chook (hen.. a hen..) and would spend hours petting and talking to it.... I can see the attraction, they don't talk back and sometimes they give you an egg! heh no seriously, I've gotten over the squeamishness of touching the chooks and have even carried a few out of duck ponds (yes yes  the saviour of chooks everywhere!) 

I also find it awesome how children just go straight in and talk and pet animals no matter what type, absolutely no fear just love. So brave and loving. 

Anyway, I'm off to look for my microphone, can't find it anywhere, do hope the guinea pig hasn't picked it up and used it to torture the chook that lays eggs in his little pen , she has no regard for personal space!

love

Qi x

Mucking around in the garden!

Hiya , this weeks video is a story about Lillipop and her grandpa with their back yard safari adventure.  I recorded this in the backyard of a friends house that I was staying at, so you can hear the ducks , birds and doggos going for it!  Talk about sound effects!

However not only does the garden afford great little adventures , not sure about you but when I was a kid I used to watch ants for hours, I remember I lay on the top of the  patio balustrade which was made of cement and rather wide, obviously watching the ants, the sun , the sound of droning bees, I fell asleep, and woke up in a shock when I rolled over and promptly fell into a cactus plant at the bottom (much to my brothers delight, that anecdote went viral in our suburb thanks to them) .

That does bring back painful memories... painful .. but still... you learn where it's safe to nap! heh heh.   ah back to garden , yes it was a place of enchantment for me, especially under the large jacaranda tree which I believed housed faries,     My mother used to say I was a strange child,  I was either tearing around the garden or up in a tree reading my books... try to get me to climb a tree nowadays... HA HA HA.... no I tried... and failed... gravity is just too much! 

I hope, no my wish is for the next few generations to be able to have as much fun and joy as we had in our gardens, either messing with our dogs, bouncing a ball or just watching ants doing their thang.

Here's to nature.

luv

Dx

 

Flora's Flowers by Debi Gliori

Ok ok I'll admit it, I was leaving for a small getaway, just a couple of weeks in S.A, by the harbour, and was trying to fit in everything including recording and editing my book reading, so far I haven't been rumbled as my grandson hasn't squeaked about missing a new story! 

Anyway, you know murphy's law, anything and everything, from camera not autofocusing , batteries going dead suddenly, tripod missing, only thing that was working was my mike and even then the dog thought it was a game to try catch the cable it was attached to!  I'm just so amazed I even got one story from all that palaver !  

It's all edited to the best of my little sticky fingers, it's a sweet story about gardening and growing things, bit of a sore point with me, after the big move from the Sunny Coast to the City a lot of my plants karked it... I've tried very hard over the years to be the green thumb chick I know that  is deep  (very deep) inside of me, instead of the city chick who squeals at worms (I even touch them without a glove I tell ya... yea look at me go!) so when a plant of mine dies or can't be saved from overnight locust munch downs, it's saddens me.  Perhaps like this story I should try to grow a brick and see what happens... waddaya think?

have a lovely week yall

Dx

It's gonna have to be laterrrr

 Hello Possums (yes I'm really picking the Ozzie lingo!)

This was supposed to be a quick apology for my late upload of the next book .... big breath... however I have been busy.. oh yes, apart from the terribly thrilling hermit like days of contemplating my navel, counting the wrinkles on my face and wondering if anyone was going to put two and two together with all the goings on in the world, I house sat for my friend Meow Meow, who has a menagerie of animals that need feeding,  look nothing spooky, just a few chooks, ducks , guinea pig and doggo.

Chooks laid an egg for me!

We also had a bit of an emergency at home (no I did not call the ambos out of sheer desperation to see the hunky driver... puhleeseee... I go to the firestation for that! .. KIDDING!!! OMG.. people, I'm not that bad... yet) 

I'm thinking really hard

So I was having a bit of a rest ala "gone with the wind" (what! you haven't seen that classic.. what has the world come to !) anyway, I was lolling around on my chaise lounge when I hear BB yell out for me, sounded a bit dire, so I hustled out to the back and all I saw were two outstretched arms , and BB saying "take the phone, just take the phone ",  I'm like " uh.. okkkk". BB says "it's the vet, I can't talk to them  now" and dashes off to the back yard .  I gingerly take the phone and say " hello?"  long story short, its the local vet, she's giving me the name and address of the emergency vet's and instructions on the colour of the dog's gums...  right.

  So I dash back out to BB who is now cradling the doggo in her lap and I relay the address and then it hits me, we don't have a car because of all days today the car was being SERVICED!  So I say hang on, I 'll go see if the neighbours are around.  I slowly panted to the neighbours on the right (I'm operating on one lung ok, i get breathless fast!). "Hello!  Hello!"  no one is a round, right so then I duck to the left and I see our neighbour though his window, and tap on it say " hi, I'm your neighbour two houses down could you please give us a ride to emergency vets as dog is choking and we have't got the car today!".  Our neighbour Brody bless him says, "yup let me finish up and I'll be right over.

I hobble back to our house (i was wearing my mankiest sweats , you know the kind, with the elastic all gone and some holes in it but boy are the comfy.... uh huh) anyway I get to BB, tell her Brody will be here in a bit, carry the doggo out and I'l be there in a jiffy as I gotta go get some pants on ( listen, murphys law and all that be damned, I was  gonna wear a. proper pair of jeans and not embarrass BB and my daughter .. nuff said). so Brody arirves, BB grabs a towel off the line, we dash into his car,  I totally forgot his lead and as we screech to a stop outside the emergency Vets,  I have to leg it again inside( I must have lost at least 1 kilo yo) relayed to the vet nurse , "have a reactive doggo, barely breathing, choking on summink, forgot his lead, can you sort it out?!! " blink blink   ... 

"Yes of course" says competent nurse and organises for doggo to go through the back way.  They get all the Vets on call and have a con fab.  BB by this time is on the blower to Lan to relay the news, and of course the CAR has to be picked up!   We do a tag team, after reassurances that it will be a while before doggo is taken to O.R.,  I stay behind at emergency, BB races of to get the car before closing time  and Lan is 10 mins away from emergency.   

 Vet comes out to give me the news , and explains the procedure, the object is stuck stuck.  First she gives me the good news, ok ok we can deal with this , it's fairly straight forward, then she hits me with the 10% chance if it goes wrong... my eyes go round like saucers, flash backs of when that eejeet doctor was talking to me ....no he was patronising me with the Radiation treatment and then got  right into the after effects and the possibility of heart failure, breast cancer, lung infection... and I remember saying to the eejeet Radiologist Doc, "man you're really not selling this to me" ,... I digress, so I say "I've go to get Lan's approval a as it's her dog and she's ten mins away, then the Vet hits me with the price, my eyes teared up, uh.. it came to the same amount of my two day stay at the emergency hospital! .. 

Anyway, Lani arrived within 10 mins of the Vet con fab with me, she agreed to the procedure, and then BB and her had to pay deposits as Vets had to get that first before anything was done.  Yes policy. ahem

4 hours later, BB and Lan go pick up the doggo, who's getting anxiety from hanging around the hospital and groggy from anaesthesia, and show me the pics of what was stuck down his gullet.... poor thing. 

Doggo is all good now!  

So yes it was all a bit chaotic  for a few days but we're back to me binging on K-dramas.    I'm halfway with getting the next batch of books done,  thank you for reading my blog and watching my videos!

Love

Dx

How do I put it on?

When I was living in Hong Kong... many many MANY moons ago.. I was in my twenties , I wouldn't try to count back if I were you! he he he., I had and still do an incredibly good friend called Ron, we partied together, travelled together, did family dinners, he was always there for me and I think with his cool calm demeanour (typical of a Lawyer) he was quite amused with my plethora of jobs (I was a DJ, and had two other part time jobs), my choice of boyfriends, my mad girlfriends, my potty mouth, my incessant talk of what I want to do (when I finally grew up) and one day, He presented me with this book. 

 I did take it to heart, I tried to gear down, and walk before I ran, but sometimes I forgot and forged ahead skipping some steps, sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I failed, but he was always there to catch me when I fell.

This is dedicated to you my dearest friend, though we are miles and miles apart, you are always in my heart.

Dx