Sky Watch Friday

Happy New Year to all. I hope we all have a fantastic year ahead.

Here is my SWF post. These are sunset photos taken on 22 December 2010 while we were at the local park in our area.
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Watery Wednesday

While we were driving around Richmond yesterday, we saw this farm dam with two swans enjoying the water. Hubby stopped the car beside the road so that I could get out and capture some photos. My son, David got out of the car too and so did hubby, and we all decided to take a walk to where the dam was to get a closer look of the swans.
Happy Watery Wednesday.

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Ruby Tuesday

Here's a red back spider for my RT post this week. This is not alive folks!..hehehe. This was painted on the rubber soft fall surface of the new playground built in our place.Interested to join or want to see more red please click here

Our Christmas Celebration

How was your Christmas celebration guys? I hope you had a wonderful celebration. Like the past years, ours was awesome attended by our relatives (both sides) and was held at home. It was supposed to be in my step daughter's residence but unfortunately we could not make the trip to go over their place for hubby had to work from 3:00 pm until 11:00 pm on that day. The trip takes about 2 hours from where we live, so we all decided to have the celebration at home instead. My step daughter and I shared the preparation of the foods for the big day. There were so much food and I felt so full that I could hardly eat the desserts after wards...hehehe

One of the highlights and most awaited part of our celebration was the exchanging gifts. The kids were patiently waiting for this moment. I could see the smile and excitement on their faces upon opening the pressies and of course, the big ones were all excited as well. I was happy of what I received this year for I haven't got any of those things yet.
Every Christmas we are not into expensive presents but we make it sure that the present we get is something what the person's like and wanted. I took only few pictures for being the host of the celebration, I was quite busy but a great fun. I always love doing it.
Unfortunately for hubby, he missed a part of our celebration for he went to work in the afternoon. It felt different without him around.I hope next Christmas he would be able to attend the entire celebration.
Our early morning opening of Christmas presents was full of fun and excitement too. Unfortunately, I failed to capture some photos for I was busy opening my presents too.

Today's flowers

These are my liliums, one of my favourite flowers in my garden.




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We miss her...

My daughter is spending a few days in the Southern Highlands of NSW with her half-sister's family (hubby's eldest daughter from his previous marriage). Her half sis promised to take her to her place after our Christmas celebration. It is about 2 hours drive from where we live. She was so excited that even it was still school days she already kept on talking of her excitement to us and her friends. Her half sis owns a horse and a pony and promised to take her riding on the pony. She loves horses likes her half sister and it must be in the blood of the family because hubby before owned 2 horses too.
I helped her packed all her stuff to take with her but unfortunately no one remembered her camera. I just hope that her half sis will take a few photos of her riding the pony for a remembrance. They are going to ring us earlier tonight as promised, so I just better mention it to her half sis then.
It has been only about two days that she is not around and now we already miss her so much. David asked when is his big sister coming home and I just said to him that in a few days time. He misses her terribly because he has no one to play with. This is not the first time that she's been away from us, she also spent a few days with her step brother's family, also in the Southern Highlands and there were those 2 bush camps that she went for 3 days each.

Camera Critters

Here's my CC post for this weekend. These were taken only this morning while I was cleaning our backyard after yesterday's Christmas celebration with my family and relatives ( I will post a few photos sometime this week.) I saw this native pigeon sitting on her eggs. The nest is not that high on a branch of our big macadamia tree so I was able to take some photos without standing on a chair to get a pretty good view. The mother pigeon seemed not looking very happy when she saw me and I tried to move slowly as possible, not to scare her away. I am not sure how many eggs she has but I will check it out if she is not around.Interested to join or want to see more Critters from all around the world please click, here.

Last Tuesday's Lunar Eclipse

First of all, I would like to greet everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS. Hope you all have a good one.
Here's my SWF post. I didn't realize there was a lunar eclipse last Tuesday until hubby told me that he heard it in the news and will be visible in eastern Australia before 9:00 pm.But unfortunately, it was only the partial eclipse that we were able to see here for by the time the moon was visible in our horizon its past already its total eclipse phase. The total lunar eclipse was visible in Europe, West Africa and North America.
Picture below shows how the moon looked when I went outside with a camera on hand. Luckily, I was still able to see the moon still partially covered by the earth shadow after hubby told me.
Picture below is quite blurry, but at least you can see the changes
It has still a little shadow of the earth.

My last capture.
I used only my pocket-size digicam to capture these photos but with a camera stand. I was alone outside in our backyard as nobody was interested to join me watching this rare moment. And the mosquitoes, oh, I hate them.. They also had their share of the fun feasting my legs. Our next door neighbors who didn't know what was going on outside noticed the flashing of my camera over the fence came to me and asked what was going on. I explained to them about the lunar eclipse but I was a little embarrass for they caught me standing on a chair behind our boat with the camera stand on top of the boat.

I am sharing this post with Sky Watch Friday. Please just click the link if you want to see more beautiful skies around the world or if you are interested to join.
Thank you for your visit and comment. Greatly appreciated.

Watery Wednesday

This is one of our favourite places every summer time, Brighton Beach. It is located 13 km south of Sydney CBD, on the western shore of Botany Bay.


Happy Watery Wednesday.

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My niece

I am sharing with you a picture of my niece, Maddie with Santa. The picture was given to me by my sister during their visit here last Friday. Maddie is about 3.5 years old now and this is her first photo taken with Santa. Before she was so scared to sit on Santa's knee and have her photo taken but now, she finally grown out of the fear and did it for the first time looking so happy and relax. I am so proud of her. Notice her earrings, those were Dorothy's presents during her 3rd birthday and she loves it.

Ruby Tuesday

It is time for another RT and my post for this week are these 2 boxes of Cadbury Roses, a delicious assortment of milk and dark chocolates. I bought these two boxes to be given to Dorothy and David's teachers. They liked the idea of giving their teacher chocolates as a Christmas gift. I let them chose what chocolate to give and they both chose this Cadbury Roses. They gave it to their teacher last Tuesday, before the last day of the school year. The kids are enjoying their long summer holiday now for about 6 weeks.
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Computer problem

My computer kept freezing up and couldn't play video (Adobe flash plugin kept crashing down). It had been going on for quite a while . One time it suddenly went dead and won't turn on at all. I was so sad at that time for I can't check my blog and FB anymore and I had to use hubby's other computer to check them. Then hubby spent some time one night changing its power supply. It is back to working now but it still freezes up sometime, and can play video too but sometimes it crashes down. This is a major problem I think that requires time fixing. For the meantime, I have to bear this problem with all my patience. I hope it won't get worsen before hubby can get time to fix it. He is too busy at work at this time that he works even on Saturdays. And my apology to all of you if I cannot visit your blog on time.

Today's flowers

These are my hydrangea. I planted them in the front garden. They have plenty of flowers and looking so healthy this time because of the constant rain we have.


Have a great week!

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My daughter's birthday

She turned 12 years old last Friday and so excited. We didn't have a party but we made a special cake for her. I decided to bake for the first time her birthday cake so that she can decorate it herself. I bought a few decorating stuff to help her out. Her auntie (my sister) together with her hubby and daughter came over earlier that afternoon to greet her on her special day. Three of her friends came over too on that day.
Last year she had a birthday party with our family, close friends and her friends. This time we decided not to have a birthday party for money is a bit tight at the moment, Christmas is fast approaching too and besides she will go to HS next year and I have to spend for her textbooks and new sets of uniform. I just gave her money so that she can buy whatever she likes for herself.
I can't share you any pictures taken on that day for I accidentally deleted the photos and I hate myself for that. I hope I will be able to recover them with the help of hubby of course. One time I accidentally deleted photos which were so precious to me for those were photos taken during my parents visit here but we were able to recover all of it. It just take time for hubby to do it because he can't spend longer time in the computer these days.

Sky Watch Friday

Sunset on 10 December 2010 taken from our backyard.

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Watery Wednesday

It's time again for another Watery Wednesday and here is my post for this week.
I took this picture two years ago while we were in a ferry boat going to Manly. You can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.


Happy Watery Wednesday.

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Stung by a wasp

A wasp stung me yesterday afternoon. I was putting trash in our big rubbish bin outside, which has plants behind it that belongs to our neighbor. I didn’t notice the wasps busily constructing their nest on one of the plants. I just suddenly felt something on my right hand and I was in jabbing pain right away. I wasn’t able to sleep well throughout the night. It is swelling at the sight of the sting, reddish and it hurts. And right now, I can feel numbness.

When hubby came home later that afternoon, he sprayed the nest right away making sure that all of them couldn’t escape the spray. I think we got them all because this morning when I checked out the nest it was quiet and empty.

I have slight allergy to stings, a long time ago I got stung by a March fly on my right foot and I felt the same symptoms that I am having now. I could hardly even walk for days.

Today's flowers

I have a few cactus collection and one of them blooms this time.


Have a great week!

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Maroubra beach

We went to Maroubra beach today. Maroubra is a beach side suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 10 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Randwick, Maroubra is part of the Eastern Suburbs region. Maroubra Junction is a locality in the centre of the suburb. (information is from Wikipedia.org)
I will post more photos sometime this week.

Farewell party photos

Here are just some photos that I took during Dorothy's Farewell Party last Tuesday. I took several photos at the party but since the school prohibits the posting of children photos or videos on line taken at school or any school event, activity and such without permission, I can't post them.I did her hair myself, my first time to do curl. I was having a hard time doing it that it took nearly an hour to finish it. I think my first time doesn't look bad at all. I still need more practice though.
Dorothy and David at the venue of the party.With Helen, one of her bestfriends.

Sky Watch Friday

Sunset on 18 November 2010.

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