Friday, September 27, 2013

R.I.P.

Today was a very sad day in our life.  We had to put our little dog Max down.  He has been suffering for months with a dislocated knee in his left leg and over the past week or so, his right leg has popped out. Because of his breed and size this has turned out to be a serious and although fixable problem - not without severe risks, and the end result of arthritis.

So after a discussion with our vet and heavy hearts, we made the decision to send Max to Doggy Heaven today.  I will not let a dog suffer and even if we had operated he would have spent at least the next 35 weeks in plaster and recovery, confined to a small pen.

So with many tears, we took a couple of last photos and wished Max - farewell.

Sarah having her last hug
 
 Maxie, you will be missed by Granny and Grandad - especially for your little growl - when you wanted attention. They will miss you sitting on their laps each evening.
So little Gremlin, we will see  you one day and we know you will be pain-free and peaceful in the meantime.


 

 

Friday, September 13, 2013

A few birds, flowers and carvings

Black Swan

Ring-tailed Possum - our nightly visitor


White-faced Heron and Giant Egret - both fishing

Nearly every post on the boardwalks had a carving

Stunning orchids



I loved this bench carved out of a giant root

The table's legs were made out of pieces of driftwood


More treehouse views


Stunning young Kookaburra

The Mailbox

Pelican partners

Our platypus table

Weekend away celebrating 25 years of bliss

Ivan and I have had the most wonderful weekend away up in Montville on the Sunshine Coast. We stayed at the most beautiful place called 'Secrets on the Lake' - it is a group of Tree houses built in the middle of the rainforest.

Tree-houses nestled in the trees. Ours was the one of the right of the picture - it was called the Platypus Tree house.

 
The entire area borders Lake Baroon and is just beautiful - private rooms are linked by private walkways threaded through the trees.  Every room is decorated according to its name and has the most beautiful wood floors and furniture.

Our spa - overlooking the forest and lake

The lounge and bedroom behind

A double swing on the private deck

Fully equipped kitchen - log fireplace

Leather lounge furniture


 
We relaxed, bird-watched, ate beautiful food, drank great red wine, wandered around the local gift and craft shops and celebrated our life together.  Planning the future and remembering the past.

If anyone is looking for an awesome few days of complete relaxation check out Secrets on the Lake.  Tell them that Beverly recommended you come and stay a while.


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Writing a Screenplay Treatment

So what is a Screenplay Treatment?

Well, it is sort of a mini-story/novel of your movie.  A bit more than dot-points, and not the screenplay itself.

It is the piece that you present to very busy movie producers in the hope that they read it and are so intrigued that they decide to produce your movie.

For my Screenwriting course I have to write a 1400 word treatment of my movie idea. It is worth 35% of my grade. So today I sat down with my dot-points and wrote 1700+ words in a couple of hours.  It is a thriller and quite scary, but it seems to have a great impact on anyone who reads it, so maybe I am on course.

I am not sure I want to be a screenplay writer, but love the idea of getting as much experience across every writing field as possible. But, who knows, maybe at the end of all of this I will write the full screenplay and sell it to local Australian Film Industry. 

Wouldn't that be amazing?

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Pyroluria

Something new to learn about.

Today I received some very interesting and relieving news.  I was so excited to be diagnosed with a medical disorder.  That sounds very weird I know, but it provides some answers to issues that have unresolved for years.

Suffering from illness, anxiety, depression and stress has been a part of my life for most of my life.  I have always (mostly) coped; but struggling with two teenagers and a young adult - who suffer from the same things for apparently no reasons has been such a difficult situation.  We have gone down the road of therapy, medication etc. etc.  And nothing has really helped any of us.

So today I received the amazing news that I (and the family) suffer from Pyroluria. 

Pyroluria is a familial disorder which occurs with stress, where an above-average amount of a substance consisting of "kryptopyrroles" circulate in the body.  The substance is harmless in itself, but high levels of these pyrrolles systemically bind with B6 and zinc, preventing the use of these essential nutrients in the brain and body.
 
The urine test showed that I have 3x the normal range of these pyrrolles in my urine.
 
Amazingly, all that I have read and researched indicates that we can all return to 'normal' living with appropriate doses of B6 and zinc.  It is incredible and Sarah (15) burst into tears with the words "Mom, you mean that I am not making it all up.  I feel so sick all the time and I always thought I was making it up, because they couldn't find a reason and no-one believed me." 
 
My heart broke for her, but it is with relief that we all face a healthier and happier future.  A new healthier diet, nutritional supplements for the rest of our lives, but more than likely no more depression, bi-polar 2 disorder or severe anxiety and stress. 
 
Thank you to my amazing doctor, who cared enough for us to look beyond her traditional medical training for answers. 

Sunday, September 1, 2013

September 1st - Father's Day & First day of Spring

Happy Father's Day - Dad & Welcome Home.
We celebrated Father's Day with Ivan this morning, after his 2 week trip to India.  Very jetlagged he hadn't even remembered that it was Father's Day.
 




 My Mum & Dad came up a for a lunchtime BBQ with us and I was able to spoil him with the new Lee Child book that he had been talking about.  Glad it was something that he liked.
In celebration of the first day of Spring, I am posting some lovely photos of Matthew & Sarah that I managed to take today.  


Matt's beautiful eyes and long hair - I love it!

 And Sarah  - another modelling session - those eyes are stunning.


 Spring flowers and a beautiful girl.


August continued ...

It was another busy month in our household.
With the addition of little Miss Mae - our new kitten and also the fact that Cleo and Greyson are both indoor cats (our Australian Wildlife is to precious to allow cats outside) - we (Elizabeth & I) decided to build an outdoor cattery. 

With a lot of investigation - we found a great company call Cat nets. We bought the netting and with my Dad's incredible help built a wooden frame and nailed up the netting - creating an amazing outdoor safe area 7m x 3m. 





Almost invisible from the road, but completely secure - the cats are safe to exercise.  The wonderful side effect is that we are all enjoyable some lovely outdoor time, just relaxing with our pets. 









Greyson and Miss Mae have become great friends, but we have discovered that our Cleo is completely an indoor cat and hates being outside.  She just sits and cries all the time she is outside, so we are not stressing her - just allowing her to remain and watch from the inside.
So this is how we spent August.