“I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there’s a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us.”~ Alice Hoffman There’s not a lick of moisture in the air out […]
Fairy Bread Recipe – An easy party treat!
“You take away all the other luxuries in life, and if you can make someone smile and laugh, you have given the most special gift: happiness.”~ Brad Garrett I try to blog a recipe each week, but being a one-eyed pirate in the remote Outback has certainly proved a challenge on that front. However, I feel […]
Create Positive Change Program – Week 5
“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~Lao Tzu There’s no point in merely thinking about change. Thinking is an important part of the process, but there is nothing quite so powerful, so […]
It’s My Birthday!
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” William Shakespeare It’s my birthday! Sit down, have a piece of cake, and let me pour you a cup of tea… Today I’d like to thank you for the gift of your friendship, for supporting my blog, and for reading my offerings. You being here means the […]
Outback Australia – A Snapshot
“We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies.” ~ Shirley Abbott I picked up a stone yesterday and put it in my pocket. I walked on a […]
Circle in the Dust
“There were once two sisters who were not afraid of the dark because the dark was full of the other’s voice across the room, because even when the night was thick and starless they walked home together from the river seeing who could last the longest without turning on her flashlight, not afraid because sometimes […]
Celebrating Nana’s Birthday
“What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies.” ~ Rudolph Giuliani My beloved Nana and I were always the ‘September Girls’, her birthday being the 2nd and mine the sixth. It was a special club the […]
Create Positive Change Program – Week 4
“It’s not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What’s hard, she said, is figuring out what you’re willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.” ― Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way That’s the thing about change. It requires room. […]
Thai Pumpkin Soup Recipe
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” ~ Henry David Thoreau It’s been a big year for pumpkins. Friends and neighbours have all enjoyed a bumper harvest, and we’ve been gifted many of these versatile vegetables. This yummy pumpkin soup recipe is my […]
BLoGGing is HArd!
“A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.” ~ Ray Davis Blogging ish hard when: Your eyes don’t work Your brain is on vacation you need tozoom the page to stupid percent magnification to see anything the keyboard for your compuzer seems like a monster swapped it for a foreign langwage. But I’m […]
Tribute to Eye Patches
“There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.” ~ Brian Andreas, Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas Eye […]
Down at the River
“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”~ John Lubbock There’s a place I go, here at my farm, when I need to think or meditate or to ease my worries. I go […]
Calling me back…
“When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way of reaching out, of manifesting themselves…sometimes even physically.” ~ Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina All things going well, I shall be on the road this Sunday, heading out to Longreach in Western Queensland for a few weeks. Ben and […]
Easy Lemon Shortbread Recipe
“Remember, ‘No one’s more important than people’! In other words, friendship is the most important thing – not career or housework, or one’s fatigue – and it needs to be tended and nurtured.” ~ Julia Child, My Life in France One of the things I treasure most about where I live is that wonderful sense of community. […]
Create Positive Change Program – Week 3
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow […]
Lyme and the Witches’ Mark
“The fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that fewe or none can (nowadaies) with patience indure the hand and correction of God. For if any adversitie, greefe, sicknesse, losse of children, corne, cattell, or libertie happen unto them; by & by they exclaime uppon witches. […]
She’ll be Apples…
“Bean finds the best apple in our tree and hands it up to me. “You know what this tastes like when you first bite into it?” she asks. “No, what?” “Blue sky.” “You’re zoomed.” “You ever eat blue sky?” “No,” I admit. “Try it sometime,” she says. “It’s apple-flavored.” ~ Rodman Philbrick, The Last Book in the […]
Your Magical Free Ticket – Claim Now!
“Love yourself first, and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” ~ Lucille Ball This Free Ticket grants you permission to gift yourself an entire hour of your day. This hour is yours to use as you want. Here are the rules: You can […]
When you don’t know what you want…
“Even though there are no ways of knowing for sure, there are ways of knowing for pretty sure.” ~ Lemony Snicket Yesterday’s post was all about using your imagination to create a day designed around one thing – giving yourself emotional satisfaction and pleasure. I was thrilled with your responses – it’s such a fun game […]
Join Me for a Magical Carpet Ride?
“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” ~ Albert Einstein I’m a firm believer in the power of imagination. Connecting in to pleasurable memories, imaginings or visualisations has a proven positive affect upon our mood, our creative ability and our energetic vibration. It reduces stress, inflammation and anxiety and helps […]
Create Positive Change Program – Week 2
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the biggest obstacles to change is that feeling of overwhelm we get when we look at where we are now, and then at the distance between us and our goal/heart’s […]
Sorry Business
“To weep is to make less the depth of grief.” ~ William Shakespeare The next installment of my Kimberley Story… I cannot tell you how I knew that Little Aunty had passed away. I do not know how the Aboriginal stockman knew it either. But here we were, sitting in the front of his vehicle, driving back […]
Easy Spinach and Ricotta Pie – Gluten Free
“I’m strong to the finish when I eats me spinach!” ~ Popeye the Sailor Man Who doesn’t love an easy meal? My misbehaving eye was banished to the naughty corner yesterday so I was cooking with my pirate patch on. Even one-eyed I still managed to whip this up with little effort, proving that ANYONE can […]
It’s an Eyeball Thing…
“If you can’t laugh when things go bad – laugh and put on a little carnival – then you’re either dead or wishing you were.” ~ Stephen King, Under the Dome I have an eyeball thing going on right now, so I’ll keep this post short. My poor left eye is not happy with all these meds […]
Sometimes You Just Need to Take a Deep Breath…
“You have to just relax, calm down, take a deep breath and try to see how you can make things work rather than complain about how they’re wrong.” ~ Tom Welling We’ve all been there. Disappointments. Things that don’t go to plan. Endings we weren’t expecting. Futures that don’t conform to what we’d been led […]
Excuses for not blogging…
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” ~ George Washington There’s a reason why I am not blogging today. Honest! Aliens visited my farm and I needed to make them scones and tea… A giant spider invaded my home town via the disused railway line… I got a bit caught up… […]
Create Positive Change Program – Week 1
“For things to change, you have to change.” ~ Jim Rohn, The Art of Exceptional Living There’s change in the air. We’re finally shifting away from those old energies, those old patterns, and into the beginnings of a new space. Change is always a little chaotic, and it can be unsettling and uncomfortable. But change also gives […]
My Lazy Sunday
“A Sunday well-spent brings a week of content.” ~ Proverb I had intended to come up with something fabulous for today’s blog. But the truth is all I can think about is making a pot of tea, cracking my knuckles, and sitting down to work on my pirates and fairies story. It’s one of my favourite things […]
How to Get Through the Hard Stuff
“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” ~ Christopher Robin to Pooh (by A. A. Milne) Life. It’s just hard sometimes. I know, I know. There’s a library full of books out there on the magic of positive thinking, positive attitudes, thinking beautiful […]
Little Bird
“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.” ~ Robert Frost The next installment of my Kimberley Story… Auntie, the old barefoot Aboriginal Elder in her faded pink dress, had turned up in my dream before she ever turned up in my waking hours. And when we finally met she promised me that she would take […]
Nana’s Curried Sausages Recipe
“The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.” ~ Thomas More My Nana grew up in the Depression, and then started married life at the beginning of World War Two. There was always plenty of love – good friends and family – […]
Kindness – Pass it on!
“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” ~ Og Mandino I have a favour to ask […]
One of those mornings…
“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full […]
Working to Create Positive Change – An 8 Week Program
“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” ~ Jim Rohn We’re living in exciting times – times that are opening us up to great new possibilities and future directions. But how can we make the best of these energies of change that are upon us? Over the next eight […]
Tree Oracle Reading for Embracing Change
“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson Trees have long been known as Sacred Guardians of the Earth. […]
Rustic Strawberry Tart Recipe
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” ~ Salvador Dalí Strawberry tarts – so pretty, so tasty, and so easy to make! Just before I left the farm to go to the city last week I picked a bucket of fresh strawberries. They were sweet and luscious, and Bert the dog and […]
Plum Tuckered Out!
“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away […]
Another late-night psychic Emergency…
“But life inevitably throws us curve balls, unexpected circumstances that remind us to expect the unexpected. I’ve come to understand these curve balls are the beautiful unfolding of both karma and current.” ~ Carre Otis I’m on ‘Week On’ of my heavy-duty lyme meds til Thursday. So I’ve been in bed early every night. Last night I […]
There’s a Change in the Air…
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ~ Barack Obama Can you feel it? There’s great shift coming. Great change. There’s nothing you need to do, if you choose […]
Unblocking and Grounding your Foot Chakras
“In a flash of wonderment she saw firm, continuous ground under her feet, stretching from back then to right now and on and on as far as her eyes could take her.” ~ Ann Brashares, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood Ever felt any of the following? Vague, disconnected and disoriented. Spaced out, especially when doing meditation […]
Favourite Things
“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow It’s Sunday, and for me it’s a day of favourite things. Meditation first, before the sun comes up, with my Mala beads and Tibetan Bowl. A short walk around the farm with Harry while we wait for the rest […]
Thoughts on Housekeeping
If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet him with, “Who could have done this? We have no enemies.” ~ Phyllis Diller I’m finally home at my beautiful farm. We arrived early yesterday morning, and I enjoyed a whole sunshiny day at home, doing homey kinds of things. I’d […]
Sneaking out the Door
“Home is the place that goes where you go, yet it welcomes you upon your return. Like a dog overjoyed at the door. We’ve missed you is what you hear, no matter how long you’ve been gone.” ~ Michael J. Rosen By the time you read this I’ll be going home. Front door pulled shut behind […]
Show me dem hands…
“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh The next installment of my Kimberley Story… […]
Royal Baby – Boy, you had some people fooled!
“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ~ Rumi The world is abuzz right now with news of the Royal Baby. But today I’m not going to join the masses predicting his name, his future or speculating as to the man he may one day become. I am […]
Walnut and Dark Chocolate Coconut Bites – Fit for a Prince!
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ~ Charles M. Schulz While the world is abuzz with excitement at the birth of the Kate and William’s new baby boy, here we are celebrating by eating macaroons and drinking tea. Welcome, Little Prince. We shall blog about you tomorrow… […]
Writing Advice that works for Life too!
“Don’t throw it all away, our love, our love. Don’t throw it all away, our love.” ~ The Bee Gees The wonderful thing about good advice is that it’s usually applicable to more than one thing. Yesterday I was reading a great post called 23 Tips from Famous Writers for New and Aspiring Authors. […]
Do Not Be Friends With Mean People!
“It is only the great hearted who can be true friends. The mean and cowardly can never know what true friendship means.”~ Charles Kingsley I spent some time with a little girl yesterday who is having a hard time with other girls being mean and bullying her at school. Madeline (I changed her name here, […]
Pay Attention to the Messages You Get!
“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.” ~ Charles Dickens Sometimes, I wish I’d had more faith in myself as I was starting out. One of the things I always teach my students is the importance of trusting and paying attention to the messages they receive when […]
Easy Gluten-Free Coconut Macaroons Recipe
“A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.” ~ Elsa Schiaparelli I love these simple little macaroons. So quick to make, so easy and they taste like heaven – all toasty and chewy on the outside and still soft and moist in the middle. These ones are gluten-free, and can easily be made […]
Guided Meditation for Emotional Healing
“…spiritual or emotional pain doesn’t become a memory so much as a bruise …” ~ John Geddes, A Familiar Rain I was up extra early this morning, after a difficult night. My daily practice, no matter where I am or what is happening in my life, is to meditate. So I found myself rugged up against the […]
Reminding yourself why…
“Difficult things take a long time, impossible things a little longer.” ~ Author Unknown Sometimes the thing we need to do isn’t pleasant, isn’t fun, isn’t anything we really want to do. Or it might have started out easy, and fun, and then suddenly we reach the hard bit! Now, to get to where we […]
Stormclouds, Music and Melancholy
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore The air is tinged with cold and that strange electricity that comes before a storm. I am watching from my upstairs bedroom, stuck in the city and […]
The wisdom of planting trees
“Trees are the best monuments that a man can erect to his own memory. They speak his praises without flattery, and they are blessings to children yet unborn.” ~ Lord Orrery, 1749 Our humble little farmhouse was built firstly as a two room cottage in 1860 by the original timber-cutter in our area. The […]
Harry – Cafe Dog!
“Coffee is a language in itself.” ~ Jackie Chan Good Morning! It’s Harry here. Mum is meditating, so I thought I’d save time and write her blog so that we can go to the cafe faster. I love cafes. Ever since I was little I’ve been going. Especially first thing in the morning. So now I’m […]
Slow Cooker Italian Lamb Shank Recipe
“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”~ Jane Austen I’m totally in love with my slow cooker right now. Just ten minutes of preparation in the morning and the slow cooker does all the work so that by nightfall I have a luscious, melt-in-the-mouth dinner, brimful of goodness and with next to […]
Night Flying and Cups of Tea
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci The next installment of my Kimberley story… Do you know what it’s like to sit in a bush kitchen with a barefoot […]
How Synchronicity Happens
“I do believe in an everyday sort of magic — the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.” ~ Charles de Lint Have you ever wondered how synchronicity happens? It’s a […]
Easy Date Loaf Recipe
“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” ~ Laurie Colwin Our farm is a social place. The pace of life is slower here, and people have time […]
Don’t Let Anyone Sink Your Ship!
“Dreams are difficult to build and easy to destroy.” ~ Seth Godin There is much truth in that quote. No matter how thick-skinned or emotionally resilient we think we are, our dreams – especially when new and tender – are fragile things. Today I want to remind you how important it is to protect those […]
Chronically ill and Happy!
“The individual who says it is not possible should move out of the way of those doing it.” ~ Tricia Cunningham I’m not happy because I have a chronic illness – I’m happy because I still love my life! It’s possible, and in fact I think it’s necessary, to find happiness when life has dealt […]
Getting ready for a bumper harvest!
“Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.” ~ Kent Nerburn The picture at the top of the page is part of a stand of Bunya Pines along one of the fences at our farm. Each year the pines produce giant […]
Why do you keep running from the thing you want?
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” ~ Henry David Thoreau It’s a simple enough question. And today I’m asking you. Why? Why do you keep running in the […]
Roasted Pear and Root Vegetable Salad Recipe
“It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption.” ~ Edward Bunyard, The Anatomy of Dessert I love my salads, but winter is a time better suited to warm foods and slow foods. The solution? A […]
Homeward bound!
“And when the day arrives I’ll become the sky and I’ll become the sea and the sea will come to kiss me for I am going home. Nothing can stop me now.” ~ Trent Reznor The ute’s all packed, it’s not quite dawn and we’re heading home to the farm. I’m filled with a quiet thrill. […]
Who do you tell?
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald It’s taken me a long time to begin to share my story… For the longest while I never even thought I would. But then I […]
Life without my computer…
At first I wondered how I would cope, but then this happened… Beautiful book. Cup of tea. Sleep. Visits with friends. Hand-written notes for my cookbook project as I snuggled under a doona on a cold, rainy night. And suddenly Sunday was over… Today I see my Lyme Doctor, obtain a raft of new […]
Blogging is redundant
This is what blogging looks like on a rainy cold morning when the dog ate your computer. Hint: Somewhere under the dog and the blanket is me…. (This post proudly brought to you by i-phone.)
Unforseen Technical Issues
This blog is temporarily out of service due to unforseen technical issues. Live updates are being brought to you via i-phone. A certain dog is in deep, deep trouble…. Again. Normal blogging will resume when new power pack has been sourced. Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time.
Out in the wilderness…
“Funny how “question” contains the word “quest” inside it, as though any small question asked is a journey through briars.” ~ Catherynne M. Valente, Under in the Mere “Say it, reader. Say the word ‘quest’ out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn’t it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.” ~ Kate […]
No-Bake Yummy Slice Recipe
“When all else fails, take a vacation.” ~ Betty Williams It’s school holidays here in Queensland, and this it the perfect easy slice to make. In fact this recipe is so easy that the kids will have a batch of these whipped up faster than you can say “you’ll like this – it has chocolate in […]
10 ways to make a little extra time in your life
“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time […]
Lemony Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks Recipe
“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” ~ W.C. Fields Slow cooked food – there’s nothing better to nurture the body and comfort the spirit, and this tasty dish fits the bill perfectly. Now that there’s a chill in the air here at the farm, a nourishing warm dinner is always […]
Recognising Karmic Relationships
“When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it’s because of karma, some past connection.” ~ Richard Gere Karmic relationships are a big part of our growth. We can experience a karmic relationship with lovers, siblings, children, parents or friends, even work colleagues. Contrary to popular opinion, not all karmic relationships are soul […]
Meditating with the Super Moon
“May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door.” ~ Irish Blessing Tonight, Sunday 23rd June, 2013, we will experience a supermoon. A super moon is a perigree full moon – a full moon that occurs at the moon’s closest […]
My Winter Solstice
Yesterday was the Winter Solstice – the shortest day; grey, cold and wintry. A perfect day for bonfires, for eating the luscious golden fruits from the orchard, and for curling up in front of the hearth to sleep away the longest night… ‘The Shortest Day’ by Susan Cooper So the shortest day came, and the […]
Did you smell that?
“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” ~ Rumi I’ve had lots of comments and queries from the mention in my recent post You see dem owls? of smelling odours such as cigarette smoke or flowers when there was no obvious source for that smell. It’s a big […]
Easy soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers recipe
“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.” ~ Bernard Meltzer You know the feeling. You need something to eat, but you’re not famished. Or perhaps you’re tired or a bit poorly and you want a meal that’s quick and no-fuss, […]
You See Dem Owls?
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ~ e.e. cummings So, back to my story about the Kimberley owls… Have you ever wanted to run away from yourself? Twenty years ago or so, when I arrived at this remote cattle station at the top end of western Australia – a […]
Love Letter To My Left Eye
“Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.” ~ Thomas Merton One of the more insidious aspects of stealth pathogens like Lyme and its […]
Self Care isn’t Selfish
“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.” ~ Deborah Day A friend of mine has finally taken time out from her crazy over-giving-to-everyone-else-but-herself life to focus on her health. She’s run herself ragged, and her poor body […]
Someone to watch over me…
“It is the custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother […]
Nicole Cody’s Magical Owl Oracle
“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”~ Khalil Gibran Owls have been such a dominant theme on my blog here over the past few weeks that while I’ve been swanning around in my pyjamas I thought […]
Meanwhile, back in Lymeland, an Owl showed up!
“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” ~ Eden Philpotts I’m sorry to keep you hanging for my Owl and Orchard Man Story, and for my ongoing adventures in the Kimberley. Truth is, I’m just not up to writing much right now. So instead, I shall share […]
It’s Lyme Time!
“What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move, with no hope of rescue? Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances […]
Before we get back to Owls, let’s talk Fairies!
“There are things that make no sense, that seem unreal, that can’t be grasped, or understood, or explained, that maybe don’t even exist… And still, somehow, those wonderful things touch and change our lives. Isn’t it strange?” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Secrets of a Noble Key Keeper I present this information to you only as story, […]
My story, interrupted!
“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.” ~ Deborah Day I was going to keep writing about owls and fairies and those sorts of things, but I can’t this morning. Instead I have to go to work. Psychic […]
Those Kimberley Owls…
“I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.” ~ Abraham Lincoln Sometimes the wrong road leads you in the right direction. When I look back on my life I can see that this one place, deep in the heart of Australia’s magnificent Kimberley region, was a game changer for me. […]
Easy Baked Cheesecake Recipe – Gluten Free, Sugar Free
“Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!” ~ Author Unknown One of the not-fun parts of being unwell, or being on a restricted diet, is that treats seem to be harder to come by. So many desserts are crammed full of sugar, grains and fats. Or they have twenty steps, weird ingredients and […]
The Lady Who Walked Out of My Past
“I sustain myself with the love of family.” ~ Maya Angelou One late afternoon in April this year, the dusky sunset was shimmery and luminous. A light rain fell, misting the cold air and making us hurry to light a fire and get inside where it was warm. That evening the moon rose brightly amid patchy […]
The Silver-Blue Light of Love
“Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.” ~ WILLIAM BLAKE If I’m going to tell you about the Owls and the Orchard Man, I’d better first tell you about the Silver-Blue Light. It was probably one of […]
Waking from a long sleep…
“You can only come to the morning through the shadows.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien I woke up this morning, stretched my arms out, yawned widely and realised that something has shifted as I slept last night. My fever’s broken, my pain has eased, and my mind is bright. It’s a great relief. The last few days […]
The Patient should be Sleeping
“It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it’s lonely, because you feel you can’t talk about it. You feel it’s something between you and the body. You feel it’s a battle you will never win . . . and yet you fight it day after day, and it wears you […]
The Joy of Guerrilla Art
“Art is not a thing; it is a way.” ~ Elbert Hubbard I went to my local Library in Byron Bay yesterday, and was delighted to find a small house made entirely of books (used in such a way that they were still readable) displayed prominently in the middle of the room. The librarians had found it […]
A Guided Meditation for Heart Healing
“The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it’s been broken into a million pieces.” ~ Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County No-one is immune to heartache, loneliness or troubled relationships. Human hearts were made to love, but in loving – or having no-one to love – our heart can […]
Nicole’s Fruit Slice Recipe
“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” ~ Tom Stoppard This week’s offering for my ‘Slice Extravaganza’ series – recipes taken from the hallowed Family Recipe Book – is known simply as ‘Nicole’s Fruit Slice’. Why? When I was a little girl it was my absolute favourite, and I never tired of it. […]
An Afternoon Walk On My Farm
“When I woke up I was changed. The land had recognised me again.” ~ George Djilaynga, Neil Murray, Warumpi Band I’m home again, at my little farm at Possum Creek. Yesterday I went for a walk in the late afternoon sunshine. The wind was rustling the branches, the giant wedgetail eagle flew above me, fat […]
Monday Morning Pledge
“The beginning is always today.” ~ Mary Shelley There’s a great energy in the air for positive change and growth right now. And momentum can be created from the humblest of starts. This week I encourage you to take a pledge with me, to enable that change, and to get your life back on track. You […]
Real Friendship
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” ~ Anaïs Nin My husband Ben, the dogs and one of Ben’s good mates went back down to our farm at the crack of dawn yesterday to check […]
French Toast with Banana and Bacon Recipe
“Oh, I just want what we all want: a comfortable couch, a nice beverage, a weekend of no distractions and a book that will stop time, lift me out of my quotidian existence and alter my thinking forever.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert French Toast is such weekend food! The sort of breakfast where you don’t have to rush, […]