For Easter Hat Parade

Every year the school where my kids are in organizes Easter Hat Parade to celebrate the Easter Season. It will be this coming Thursday which is also the last day of the 1st school term.
I went out earlier today because I had an appointment and after I finished with it, I went to the shops to get things for the kids Easter Hat Parade. I just bought few things to add a new fancy look for their hats. They have been using their hats for years now and every year we just do a little changes in the look of the hat to make it a bit different from the previous years. Dorothy always decorates her own hat herself while I help with David. The school always encourages the kids to make a hat at home and bring it to the school on the day of the parade which is also a great chance for them to be discovered for their creative talents. So here are what Dorothy and David have in store for the Easter Hat Parade.

Watery Wednesday

Here is my entry for this week's Watery Wednesday . These were taken in Timbertown, Port Macquarie in the North Coast of NSW.
Please visit Watery Wednesday for more watery sites all around the world.

Today's Flowers

I saw these flowers during one of our bush walking trips in the lower parts of the Blue Mountains. This is called Thistle, a common name of a group of flowering plants characterized by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, most in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant - on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads.

This is called a Purple Flag, a member of Iris family.A most delicate and stunning flower that lasts only for a day. Just imagine how lucky I was to see the flower at its best on that day.
To see more Today's Flowers entries please visit here.

Easter Basket Blog Hop

Many thanks to January of January's Scraps of Life for inviting me to join the Hershey's Better Basket:Blog Hop.

It's so easy to join just copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

• Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
• Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
• Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
• Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

And I am passing this basket to the following: Jag , Khim and Rose.

Sky Watch Friday

It was hubby who first noticed the sunrise on March 17, 2010. And of course he didn't want to enjoy it by himself alone and woke me up to watch it with him. I hurriedly went out groggily taking my camera with me. I took a few shots and zoomed my camera to avoid the power lines as much as possible.
To see more sky photos all around the world please click, Sky Watch Friday .

Last Sunday

A friend of ours celebrated his birthday in one of the local clubs in our area. It was a dinner with family. Hubby was not able to come because he wasn't feeling well. And even missed a very important appointment later that day. So it was only me and the kids attended the party. I have only two pictures to share from my daughter's camera for I accidentally forgot mine.
Dorothy with her friends.

Baked Mussels (Tahong)

It has been quite a while since I baked mussels. But yesterday, while I was in the fish shop, I couldn't resist the temptation for I saw fresh and good size New Zealand mussels, I bought a kilo for $3.99. I was planning to bake it the following day while the kids are in the school. They don't like the smells of the mussels baking in the oven, so to avoid hearing Dorothy and David saying," something smells gross", I want to bake it when they are not at home. I am the only one who eat mussels for hubby doesn't like it too. I know a kilo is too much for me but I was planning to give some to my friend.
Ingredients:
1 kilo fresh large tahong (mussels)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Instructions:
1.Place tahong on a pan (no water), cover and cook over moderate heat. When shells open up, drain. Remove top shell.
2.Melt butter, add minced garlic. Stir for 3 minutes. Brush each tahong meat with butter-garlic mixture, top with grated cheese and cover with bread crumbs.
3.Arrange tahong on a baking sheet. Bake in pre-heated oven with a low heat (250F). Bake for 10 – 15 minutes.
(recipe from http://kumain.com)

Ruby Tuesday

I haven't been posting RT post for weeks and I miss this meme already. I am glad I have enough time to rummage through my albums today looking for my RT entry and here are what I have found for this week's RT. These were taken in Star City Casino. Me and my friends entered the Casino through the back entry and the moment we were inside these glazed red plant pots caught my eyes. Please visit Mary's Ruby Tuesday and click here.

Our baby guinea pigs

Brownie, our mum guinea pig gave birth again for the third time. She delivered her third babies last February 09, 2010. She has 3 this time, 2 girls and 1 boy. They are all doing fine and growing well. The babies are more than 6 weeks old now and not long from now, we are going to sell them to the pet shop. This makes the kids unhappy for sure. It always does but we don't have any other choice. We cannot keep them in addition to Brownie and Lucky. We just hope each of them will be in a good home someday. And here they are our three little cute furry babies while they were outside having a feast of grasses. Sophie

Lightning

Holly

To see more Critters from all around the world please click, here.

Sky Watch Friday

Sunrise, taken right in front of our door on March 04, 2010.
I could not find a better place to take the photos without the power lines in my way in our area. This is one of the reasons why sometimes I just let the chances of taking sunrise photos just slip away because of the power lines .

Have a wonderful weekend!
To see more sky photos all around the world please click, Sky Watch Friday .

Overdue

I got an email from our local library that I have an overdue book.lolz.. As far as I can remember I always return the books that we borrowed on or before the due date. But when I looked around the house to check it out if I really haven't returned a certain book, I found out that I really have one. Silly me! for not checking the books before I returned them. lolzz..I don't know what's going onto my head at that time. Anyways, charges are not imposed for overdue items and that's a relief. I will return it as soon as possible to avoid having a bad record in the library.

Dorothy with a snake

For those who have been following my posts, I guess you remember that I have a couple of posts about my daughter's unusual interest in reptiles especially snakes, lizards and such. I am not sure if it's in the blood for hubby doesn't have any interest on any of them nor do I. But the fact that my step son has interest and even keeps them as pets, I come to think that its influence her a lot to wanting those creatures. My step son had a pet snake inside the house before but unfortunately the snake died about a year ago and since then he has only a lizard and some other pets. Dorothy had been bugging us before to have a pet snake. But we explained to her that we cannot have it for the reasons that nobody likes it except her alone, high maintenance and the thought of having a snake in the house really scares me. lolz. And just to satisfy her interest a little, I always take her to the zoo/wildlife park and even to any shows that features reptiles within our reach and last month was another great chance for her to have up close encounter with one of her favourite and coolest creatures in the world during the Blacktown City Show. Luckily, there were two wildlife entertainments, the Down Under with Reptiles and the Featherdale Wildlife Park. Dorothy spent a great deal of time in both and was given a chance to hold the snake with the supervision of the animal keeper. David on the other hand just watched and kept a good distance from the creatures.

Today's flowers-Wildflowers

Weekend bush walking trips have always been part of our life. It is a great way to rejuvenate our energy after a busy week. The kids love it too for we get to see some wild animals and birds. Other than that, I get the chance to see some native flowers that grow in the wild. That's why I never forget to bring my camera along with me to capture those beauties.

(Common Name:Mountain Devil)
Lambertia formosa is the only species in the genus to occur in eastern Australia. It is a small to medium shrub, often no more than a metre or so high but sometimes reaching 2 metres. It has stiff, linear-shaped leaves 0.3 mm wide by about 50 mm long with a sharp tip. The red, tubular-shaped flowers occur at the ends of the branches in groups of 7, each cluster being about 50 mm in length. Flowering usually occurs in winter and spring but some flowers are often present at other times of the year. The flowers contain nectar and a frequented by honey eating birds.

(No Common Name)

Isopogon is a genus of around 35 species, all occurring only in Australia. They are found in the southern half of the continent in temperate regions. Most are small to medium sized shrubs having flower clusters arranged in globular heads. The fruits are also globular in shape giving rise to the common name of "drumsticks". Some are also called "coneflowers" although this name is more usual in the related genus Petrophile.
(reference:Australian Native Plants Society )

To see more Today's Flowers entries please visit here.

Camera Critters-Grasshopper on a dahlia

It was one afternoon sometimes on January this year that I was cutting some of my dahlia flowers to be put in a vase inside our house. The dahlias at that time were blooming at its best. When I started cutting a couple, I spotted a green grasshopper on one of the flowers. He was just sitting under the petals but later moved around the flower but didn't hop away from me. He was watching me and looked like he was uncomfortable of my presence. Of course, I didn't cut that flower where the grasshopper was and just let him enjoy the flower too.

To see more Critters from all around the world please click, here.

Sky Watch Friday

These were taken while we were on board a ferry boat on our way back to Circular Quay from Manly last week. We had friends from the Philippines who came over to Australia and spent 2 days in Sydney and stayed with us. On the first day of their visit, I took them to Circular Quay and Sydney Opera House before catching a ferry boat going to Manly to have a glimpse of some of the waterfront views around Sydney. We were on the second deck when we noticed the sky started to display a beautiful sunset scene over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I captured few shots to share with you. Hope you enjoy.Have a wonderful weekend!

To see more sky photos all around the world please click, Sky Watch Friday .

At Darling Harbour

Last week, me and my friends went out to the City and one of our itinerary was to visit Darling Harbour, one of Sydney's waterfront destinations.
While we were strolling around the Harbour to take pictures, we spotted fish swimming close enough to the surface of the water as if they were desperately begging for food. We actually saw three, one was small and the other 2 were a good size. I hurriedly focused my camera straight to them but the smaller one swam down straight to the deep while the two started to display interesting swimming movements as if they were trying to catch our attention. It was just only for few seconds and quickly they disappeared. If I am not mistaken those fishes are called silver trevallyAnother creature that caught our attention was this big jelly fish swimming around slowly in the water. It was about the size of a basketball ball and my first time to see a jellyfish of that size.
And lastly, that's us together (minus the photographer) in one of the water features of Darling Harbour. This water feature is sometimes full of kids mostly on weekends and school holidays, playing the water or simply enjoying a walk around the water feature. At that time since it was a weekday, we were so lucky to have the water feature all by ourselves. :)Please visit Watery Wednesday for more watery sites all around the world.

A gift from a friend

I was really surprised when a friend whom I dont meet regularly gave me a gift during our meeting after such a long time. We dont see each other very often only on certain occasions. Last week, we were able to meet each other. It was a schedule meeting as we have friends from the Phils came over for a holiday here who were staying in our house. She gave me this colourful couch bag. It was my first time to have this colour as all my bags/couches are brown, white and mostly black. I really like it for a change. In fact, I have been using it since the day she gave it to me. Thanks a lot my friend. So sweet and thoughtful of you to give such a surprise present.

District Swimming Carnival

First of all I would like to thank you all for all the support, wishes and words of encouragement for my daughter. It was her best District Swimming Carnival ever. Not that she won but the best results among her District Swimming Competitions. We are just so glad that she is getting better and improving her game every time she is in the competition. But unfortunately it is really not her time yet, her swimming campaign has come to an end. There were 2 heat in the 12 yr old girls Freestyle and she was in the first heat, and came out 3rd place. While in the Breaststroke, there were 3 heat and again she was in the first heat, and came out 3rd again. She was really doing great. But she didn't come out a winner in the overall result of those races. It was tough competitions and some of the competitors have been trained so well which put Dorothy a far way behind in terms of skills and techniques.
I mentioned in my previous post that the Swimming Carnival was held on the 22nd of Feb but sorry I overlooked something with the schedule, must be my excitement overwhelmed me at that time..hehehe. It was actually held on the 24th of Feb. I stayed in the pool until my daughter finished her competitions.
The picture above was taken at the moment she surfaced from her dive. As you can see, her goggles came off (see, that pink thing around her neck) Poor thing! She must haven't put it properly but glad she was able to adjust it while underwater.

Camera Critters

These were taken during our visit to Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour. The duck tried his luck against those big Koi to grab pieces of bread that were thrown to the water. There were no other ducks except himself to compete with but underneath the water were big hungry mouths of the Koi. We saw that despite all of those competitors, he was still able to grab few pieces, otherwise he won't stay there waiting and fighting for food. This duck is called a Pacific Black Duck, the most familiar and common of all native ducks to Australians.

To see more Critters from all around the world please click, here.