Finding joy in the everyday

Whilst I was away my two brothers and I went to the seaside.  My American brother (Nick) lives in the middle of the USA and doesn't see the sea very often so he requested a trip to the beach so we went to Victor Harbour (a popular summer destination). We had a great day stopping off at different beaches, taking lots of photos of waves and birds, going for a few short walks and eating fish and chips for lunch.  You are probably thinking that we had our lunch on the beach watching the waves.  Well . . .  no . . . the sand was wet and we didn't have a blanket . . . and I didn't want to get a damp bottom!  Unable to find a nice park bench, we ate our lunch in the car near the beach.  We decided that we had reached "that" age where eating in the car is acceptable. Below are a few photos of our walk to Granite Island (where 700 fairy penguins live . .  not that we saw any during the day), it is connected to the mainland by this bridge.  It took about 1...

What a morning....... The sort that things don't got quite to plan........ Got up at 6:3am to drive my husband to the bus stop (10 mins trip) but before we left he noticed 2 screws in the front passenger tyre, fortunately they were so tightly in that no air was escaping,  but it always make me nervous as I dislike flat tyres when I am by myself (I am hopeless at changing tyres). Dropped hubby at bus stop ..... drove home safely ..... had shower ......  got dressed (in more suitable attire) ......  took 17 year old to school (early) ..... went to tyre shop to have tyre fixed and waited 20 mins for this to be done ......  got half way home and realised that my bank key card was still at the tyre shop  ..... turned around and went back to pick it up.......finally got home .......  had breakfast and read for a little while. Now I can relax.  I am off to have lunch with 3 friends, that should be nice.   So to return to a calm relaxing state ...

I am glad to be home - even though I quite enjoy a holiday break away from home, the best part is returning.  My sons did a good job at keeping house - however they do need some more skills on cleaning kitchens (as I could guess what they had for dinner by the little messes on the bench top!!).   The animals were all well looked after - the cats decided not to like me for the first hour of returning home - as punishment I am sure, but now Ruby is back sleeping next to me as if I am her best friend.  I  am home all next week on leave so they can have my full attention and hopefully forget that I left them all alone!! (well, not quite).  The dogs are always thrilled to see us return and have convinced Steven that they have been under-fed all week and need extra food:)..... * * * * * Today's photos are my more "arty" ones which I hope you enjoy. I love taking photos of the sea, however I am always on the lookout for something of interest that can be added...

At 7:30 this morning we started our adventure - setting of to the coast - a 2 and half hour car trip to the township of Batemans Bay (on the south east coast of Australia).  Mid way into the trip we stopped for pastries and a cup of tea at Braidwood (the best bakery ever).  At this point my husband took over the driving.  When we arrived at the coast it was very grey and cloudy (as you can see in the photo) but still quite warm.   As the tide was out we took a romantic walk along the beach (which was covered in seaweed - which had quite a strong smell).  It wasn't a beach that I would swim in - not that I swam at all today in case you were wondering - the water is in fact quite cool and doesn't warm up until March - strange... This is a photo of my husband (who doesn't like having his photo taken!!).  Notice all the gum trees along the edge of the beach - with erosion the trees are falling over and dying. As we turned the corner of the bay we found...