Twelve months of blogging and I missed the anniversary

                                

I thought I'd share some winter photos with you.

We're in the middle of winter here in Australia.

These photos are a couple years old

& were only taken on my old samsung mobile phone

but

certainly capture the frost in the garden.

By the way the above plant did not handle

the frosts here on the Darling Downs.

This was the 1st year we had lived here & weren't sure what would survive the bitter winters.

Who would have thought that snow peas love the frost?

(Maybe their name should have given us a hint)

We got a bumper crop that year!

These photos were taken at 10am so I was amazed

that the icicles were still intact,

even with the sun on some of them.

I love this shot with the white frost on the log

& the rusted garden ornament.

I love this photo too.

I have an old hollow log in the garden & here you can clearly see the cat's paw prints in the ice.

Thanks for visiting me.

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I'd LOVE to hear from you!

To all who have supported my blog in any way in the last 12 months

Thankyou!

I started twelve months and 2 days ago.

I have loved every minute of blogging.

Meeting new friends with similar tastes and interests.

Being inspired etc

It's something I'd been wanting to do for years

and when I finally found Google Blogger I knew I was ready to start blogging.

Apart from the time I got a new 'Smartphone'

and

it decided to commandeer all my Picasa photos

and then delete,

my time in blog world has been such fun.

Anyhow thanks once again.

Hopefully another 12 wonderful months lie ahead.

-7 celcius this morning.

Well it was very cold today. The temp in the house stayed at 6-7c all day so I turned the heating on for an hr in the middle of the day. It was so cold that I didn't even take my scotty's coat off. Some of the frost tolerant plants are starting to suffer now as we have had 6 frosts in a row now.
 Walking this afternoon for 30 mins did not even raise a bead of perspiration and I was wearing 5 layers and a scarf. (Had quite a bit of pain today so the walk was very welcome. I have to wait 'til DH comes home from work to put my lace-ups on for me but I could have gone for a walk much earlier just for some relief).
Exciting times for me as I have always lived in the sub tropics. Don't get me wrong it can get very cold in Ipswich down to -3c for eg but the daytime temps would usually reach 20c or so. Anyhow it won't be long and everyone will be whinging about the hot weather.....YUK!
I'll take the cold thanks. Just have to remember to warm our coffee cups in this wintery environment as we have already lost 3 due to the sudden shock.

Here is a photo of the last of my geraniums and zinnias before winter took hold. The lavender does well here all year, actually it does extra well in the winter.

 Also I am posting 2 photos of a recent hail storm. Our plants were not too badly damaged so it was all good.
One of my favourite shows is about to start. It's called Winners and Losers and is only new this year on Channel 7, Australia. Australia's Got Talent is just finishing and I am eagerly awaiting the performance of Jack Vidgen, a 14 yr old who sings like an angel.
GO JACK!!!
His singing always makes me cry. His last 2 performances have been Whitney Houston songs so I wonder what he has in store for us tonight? Well I don't know the song he just sang and it did not make me emotional but still great.

Don't forget Where Bloggers Create 2011, get your photos ready to post on 14th July. I can't wait to see everyone's creative spaces!!!

Well it came and went and it did not hurt at all.

Yesterday I turned 50. Not something I have been looking forward to but its arrival of course was inevitable. Three days prior I decided I DID want to spend it with good friends and rellies so I promptly text messaged or facebooked my guest list and to my surprise everyone was able to attend especially as we live quite a distance from all the guests.
It was a great day, in fact one of the best birthdays I have ever had and not a drop of alcohol in sight. Mainly because it was lunchtime and also way too cold.
The day commenced with a low of -5c and the entire yard white with frost. The skies were blue and cloudless and it was quite pleasant sitting in the sun although the temp in the house never went above 10c.
I told everyone to rug up and I think almost everyone came layered and scarfed.
This is quite funny as this type of weather in Queensland seems quite obscure and surreal even though we do live in a temperate region. All my life (except for the last 18 months) I have lived in the
sub-tropics as have all of my party guests.
My two children were also able to attend so it was extra special. My daughter and SIL live 2 1/2 hrs away and my son a 6 hr drive in New South Wales.

Speaking of my daughter she made a beautiful ginger birthday cake (I chose ginger) for me and decorated it so sweetly. She has had very bad morning sickness for the last few weeks so lucky for me and her she was feeling a little better, enabling her to do so much cooking.
My DH did an excellent job on the BBQ.
I got the through the day better than I would have thought possible considering I am only 8 weeks into recovery from my Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF). When someone asked me what I got for my birthday they were surprised to hear that it was the TLIF. Even though we have private health insurance and there is some Medicare coverage we were out of pocket $13,000. So there went my dream of a Western Australian pink diamond ring. I have been dreaming of one for about a decade. Maybe in a decade's time I might finally get one??? But the way the economy is headed, what with the Carbon Tax (weirdly announced on my birthday 10th July 2011), fears of rising un-employment,shares prices still not recovered from the highs of 2007, the rising AUD $, recessions and maybe even depressions looming, house prices receding, food prices increasing etc etc where will it all end up?