Happy today because....

Started by Steve, April 14, 2007, 10:39:40

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 57 Guests are viewing this topic.

Ulrich

... I managed to create a new doorstopper (or say: addition to the exisiting doorstopper)!
(Not being "technically gifted" that's quite an achievement.)  :happy
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

Congratulations on discovering your inner handyperson!  :cool

I'm happy because Brett's on holidays for the next two and a half weeks.  Not only do I get to have him around in the daytime for four more days a week, but the poor man basically had no holidays last year.  In the middle of the year, we both caught a flu so badly that we were actually bedridden for two weeks (that was unprecedented, we could suddenly see how people die of this stuff) and that was half of Brett's annual leave gone, and it took another month or so before we were properly recovered.  Then he had another two weeks off around November, and on that occasion he helped me get the place ready to do Airbnb.  So he was totally burnt out and in need of a break, and I'm glad he finally has one.  I'm going to spoil him rotten.  I started by buying some chilli chocolate and hiding it in the cupboard, and I just told him about it! :)
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

A dear old mate emailed me because the film "Die Farbe aus dem All" (Color out of Space) will be shown in a cinema nearby (not in the biggest & late at night)! So happy to be able to watch this soon.   :cool

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/richard-stanley-i-m-the-guy-for-the-doomed-project-1.4182713
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

A guest sent us a fabulous panorama of a mountain climb she did with us this week.



We climbed up through that crack in the cliff face on the right.  It's a wonderful mountain. :)
SueC is time travelling

SueC

Happy today because in the midst of all this madness, you can still go for hikes or walking your dog without increasing anyone's infection risk.

SueC is time travelling

SueC

Happy today because we got up really early in the morning to do a 2-hour coastal walk.  The light was lovely that time of day, and it was before the heat set in (we have another heatwave).  We ended up doing the walk in under 90 minutes, and while the steep hills on this hike are hard work, I am really happy that it no longer hurts - no more breathlessness and muscle lock-up and palpitations on the uphills.  So, I'm finally properly fit again.  I even had a skip in my step because I was so happy to be walking.







You can see the trail on this photo - it starts over the top of the hill in the distance, goes down the dunes, and then up into the granite peak from which the photos were taken.
SueC is time travelling

SueC

Maybe you might like to share the little things (and the big things) that can still make you happy in a time like this?

Because of the crap situation so many are in, I've been hesitant to do another post on this thread the last couple of days, but I'd like to thank the people who wished me a happy birthday this week, and to thank the forum staff for the little birthday poem that popped up in my notifications. :cool  Little things like that do make a difference to people, and so I think we shouldn't hesitate to do little things like that for other people, even if we think they couldn't possibly make any significant difference in a time of big trouble for the whole world - because actually, it does, and it's sort of contagious, in a good way.

With all this social distancing etc, I'm remembering that other than to stay clear out of respect to others and myself at this time, so I don't unwittingly infect them or me with a bug, I can still smile at people and greet them and wish them a good day or ask how it's going, when I'm in a shop or walking in a public place.  Also I am practicing Japanese bowing so I can start using it in public.  We live in a quite remote area and I've always made a point of waving to people when meeting another car on our back roads; now I do that with extra gravity, because one thing this pandemic is doing is depriving people of many of their normal positive social interactions, and for a stranger to acknowledge you is a positive interaction that does make people a smidgen more positive about being part of the human race.

I'm sad for the many who are having difficult things heaped on their shoulders at this time.  We've been lucky so far as we live so remotely and my husband works in health, so the worst thing happening to us immediately here is that he's got to do extra shifts, and obviously that he's going to be coming into contact with COVID-19 at work.  My work on the farm and doing freelance writing is unaltered.  I can't go meet my friends; my husband is one of those who actually likes the excuse not to have to socialise with people outside our household so this aspect isn't bothering him.

I'm happy to be in a good, supportive marriage and that social distancing doesn't affect that.  I'm happy to be living remote and not in a city, at this time or any other time, but it does make things easier at a time like this.  I'm happy to be surrounded by nature and to be able to go hiking on remote tracks in our region. Yesterday, we did a 3-hour hard hike with lots of uphill/downhill as part of celebrating my birthday - I got to pick the trail, and chose Mt Hallowell, a granite monadnock on the edge of the Southern Ocean, covered in Karri forest with challenging walking, amazing geology and sea views.  And a cave too!







I'm also happy that 49 doesn't feel nearly as bad as I imagined it would when I was a mere 20-something.  In fact, it doesn't feel bad at all.  I'm amazed at how good it feels.  To those under 40, or under 30, I'd like to say that if I could go talk to my younger self about getting older, I'd tell her not to be so concerned about it, but to keep on exercising and eating well and getting enough sleep and stay mentally active and humanly connected.  Like a lady who lived to be over 100 said to me 20 years ago, "Use it or lose it - body or mind."

And in your 40s you lose visual acuity anyway, so I've not been noticing my wrinkles so much lately. Things are a bit blurrier than they used to be.  Also I'm a little creakier. :lol:  But it's still amazing to be alive.

Best wishes to everyone in this difficult time.
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

... this cold, grey day is an 1 hour shorter due to daylight saving time, i.e. putting the clocks forward last night (however no one woke me in time, thus I missed to put my clock forward at 2am). ;)
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

ROFL.  We just had to evict a frog from our bedroom!  :lol:

They can get in through the bottom of the magnetic insect curtain in the French door.  That's happened in a guest room before, but it's the first time it's happened in our bedroom because I only installed the insect curtain there recently.  So I've been leaving the French door open a lot.

And we have unexpected rain.  It wasn't forecast at all - and we've had a solid 10mm already and it's still coming down.  This is so excellent, after a late heatwave that had nearly killed the annual seedlings in the pasture that had germinated after three weeks of steady moisture.  They were looking so sad this morning, but this is going to save them all, and get them established.

Also, it's nearly bedtime and I love lying in bed listening to the rain come down!   :cool
SueC is time travelling

SueC

Happy because all three horses and five donkeys are now de-wormed - over the course of three days, as they are all free-range and none of them are wearing halters and they quickly get suspicious watching the reactions of others.  If you want to do them all on the same day, you kind of have to hide them from each other, but even then they get suspicious.  :-D  This time it was tapeworm treatment as well, and nobody likes the taste of that when it's in the mix.  Down the hatch! Sometimes with front feet waving around, while I strategically stand to one side, usually having to hold on to a top lip temporarily while singing little lullabies, always with "how-could-you-I-thought-you-were-my-friend" expressions on their faces.  Neither equines nor monkey enjoy this process, but the parasitic invertebrates enjoy it least of all, I'm sure...
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Quote from: SueC on April 09, 2020, 16:08:33I love lying in bed listening to the rain come down!   :cool

That's what happened tonight... I thought "what's this strange noise?", turned out it was something I hadn't heard for way too long: rain! (Not nearly enough, but more is going to come this week, which I'm happy about, it was too dry.)
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

Yay for rain!  It's dry here too.  The pasture is only just hanging on, and I'm having to irrigate the fruit trees and vegetables again so they don't complain.  We need more rain too.  Maybe this song will help:  ;)


Love love love the drums on this track!  :)

Super day today - relaxing at home in the morning, then out to Denmark after lunch to do a nice 10km walk through the sand dunes to Lights Beach (again), lots of uphill-downhill and we're now fit enough to throw ourselves up the slopes without having to stop at all, and that's much better than this time last year!  :)  Did the walk in about 1h 45 minutes.  Brett claims that the iced coffee after lunch had made me hyperactive because of the amount of coffee powder I put in it... :angel

Ridiculously, going uphill made me happy today - just feeling the muscles work and the sun and breeze all around, and not running out of air.  We also did an alternative route to take in another beach on the way, that we'd not been to.  The surf was pounding like mad.  There was a coast risk area sign and someone had written on it, "Expect nudity!"  ROFL :lol:
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Quote from: SueC on April 27, 2020, 12:05:31Yay for rain!

It's been a wet day (and it has rained on and off since Tuesday), so I'm quite happy that it's not too dry any more (for a while at least).
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

chemicaloverload

I'm happy because I get to live vicariously through a friend, who can go out and drink wine and I can shut my eyes and pretend I'm there, keeping the lush in me alive. Go out and see life and then come home and tell me all about it.
Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves

SueC

I'm happy right now because it's raining!  And I mean, really really raining!  We've had drought here for two years now, getting just over half the normal average annual rainfall for 2018 and 2019.  We had an early break of season (March, not April), but a very marginal one, and the new seedlings in the pasture were barely hanging on.

Also all of our house water is rainwater, collected from the shed and house roofs.  You can see it, and the very short, very marginal state of the runner grass in the utility areas where we feed the animals their mineral supplemented bucket feeds.  The tank is still half full, which at this time of year is super (the garden areas run off a bore, and we have waterless compost toilets that save over 30,000L of drinking water a year and feed nicely back into our production cycle - you should see the apples and pumpkins)...



And that's very heavy rain coming down on the roof, from thunderstorms that started before with massive light shows; just ahead of the cold front crossing, which is expected to bring severe weather and damaging wind gusts up to 125km/h.  I went around this afternoon putting anything loose outdoors into the house and shed so things don't get blown away; my greenhouse plants are indoors tonight, the horses are in rugs, the donkeys are intelligent enough to use the shelter shed, the cattle are sheltering in the bushland, and the dog is on her sofa...



The big deluge looks like this from the satellite (if it attaches...)... that cloud band over Australia's Southwest - we're on the underside, right under the "J" of cloud at the moment...
You cannot view this attachment.
SueC is time travelling