A gorgeous afternoon out on the kayak today!
Happy moments!
Snoskred Lives
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Rainy Long Weekend
Had this long weekend been sunny, the local waterway would probably have been filled with idiots who have no clue about whatever watersport they are taking part in.. Jetsking, boating, waterskiing, canoeing, kayaking, launching their boats without a clue of how to do it, a multitude of nitwits looking for their very own Darwin award..
However, it was rainy, cloudy, and generally shyte weather. With the shark skin this does not bother us – as long as it isn’t too wavy we’re going. There was only one other boat out on the water and it was a very long way from us. Awesome!
Can you see the boat in this photo above? We could only barely see it, and only occasionally hear it.
These birds seen above were hanging out happily on the end of someones private jetty. As soon as we got near to them, they took off. I do not know why birds find our kayak so scary! :) Swans panic, ducks take flight, even pelicans seem to find it terrifying.
It was a great day out, and we were glad we went – and super glad the weather was shyte. Not just because of a lack of people on the water but because our area truly needed the rain. We’ve had quite a dumping of water from the sky over the last week or so and it is much appreciated by the gardens. Things were beginning to look a bit brown around here which was quite scary with the bushfire season approaching.
Sometimes You Gotta Go
I started writing this post a couple of weeks ago – finally have the time to finish it!
For the last month, every single day off that the other half had has been gorgeous blue skies, but evil winds which made kayaking a bit scary – making big waves on our little waterway. We were suffering from serious kayak withdrawal.
So despite the fact that most of the day was already gone, it was somewhat windy, and clouds were on the way.. it was time to just do it.
As we paddled out we found the two black swans who have been rearing a couple of swan babies not too far from our backyard. We saw them the last time we went kayaking – they have grown a lot since then!
The parents were squawking up a storm, and the little swans were paddling as fast as their little legs would paddle. Seems they find the kayak a little scary. :)
One thing I find about kayaking when the sun is not out – you can’t see into the water. It makes it difficult to know the depth of the water and when you’re in a new spot where you don’t really know the terrain you want to try and keep away from the “edges” so to speak. Which is a shame because I would have liked to get a bit closer to have a look at this spot. It is a reserve, so we’re going to head back for a walk around there.
As we headed back home, the sun got lower in the sky creating some awesome reflections on the water.
When we got back, we found out we were pretty wet from kayaking out into the waves. I know it doesn’t look wavy but it never does in the photos. When we went out today I took some video footage so people will believe me about the waves – maybe this will get posted here in the future.
The great thing about the shark skin for me is that I do not feel the wet or the cold – until I stand up. Then all the water which has collected around my butt runs down the inside of my shark skin towards my toes.
This happens with the bungs in or out, I can’t seem to win – if we leave them out it won’t be wavy and they don’t need to be out so I could have gone without wet butt – if we leave them in the waves will crash over the bow and leave a puddle of water which creates extra wet butt!
I can’t imagine life without the shark skin now. I love them. I can imagine so many uses for them besides kayaking – the windproof aspect of them is the most awesome. I can be warmer being splashed by waves out on the kayak with a big wind blowing right at me than I am sitting here in the house with a rug on. Sounds unbelievable but it is true. :)
The Awesomeness Is Overwhelming
So, I mentioned a while back that our new place had something awesome about it. We’re almost all moved in now, and today we took a little time off to enjoy the awesomeness. What is it?
It backs onto a gorgeous body of water, and we have our own private boat ramp. How awesome is that?
So this morning instead of putting the kayak on the car and driving it 10kms or so, we pulled it out of the garage and walked a very short distance. We were not out for too long, but long enough to absorb the awesomeness before heading off to the old house to pack up the last stuff.
This week I will get stuck into cleaning the old place before we hand the keys back, and then we can relax, and unpack. :)
We are planning a summer of kayaking, exploring the local waterways, and having way too much fun. Yay!
Reverse
I’ve seen this so many times now and it never fails to completely stop me – and everyone else who happens to be around – in their tracks. We were actually packing our shopping away in Aldi when the truck arrived, and knowing how amusing this can be, I grabbed the I-phone and got a couple of shots.
The drivers of these trucks have to be extremely talented to get into this loading bay. There are always cars parked on both sides of the road and the drivers have to get very close to them! There is a very tight squeeze to get into the loading bay – probably less than a metre on either side of the truck if it were parked exactly in the middle of the bay..
Is Like Hi! ;)
Hai!
Where did I vanish to? It has been a busy couple weeks here. I’ve been helping get the new I Heart The Mudflats site up and going, reading books, baking, aromatherapy and menu planning. ;)
Doesn’t the site look cool? ;)
Each morning I wake with a lime and spearmint blend of oils, and as the day goes on I add patchouli and things like grapefruit, tangerine, mandarin or lemongrass.
I have been baking cheesecake brownies which are to die for – and biscuits of various kinds.
I have been planning the menu to the point that we are shopping once every two weeks at Aldi with a very small brands we can’t quite let go of shop at Woolworths. I am actually surprised at my talent and skill of planning – I only need to go and buy fresh bread and milk in between shops. ;)
Oh, I did not mention my little i-phone games addiction, did I? Nope. Excellent escape! ;)
Kayaking Around Australia
No, I’m not brave enough to try it myself – but Freya Hoffmeister is currently kayaking around Australia. I have been following her blog – you should too! You can find it here – Freya’s Blog. Right now, she has not seen land in almost a week – she is crossing the Gulf of Carpenteria. She will hopefully see land again this Friday.
Only one other person has successfully kayaked around Australia. It will take approximately a year. I have to say I admire Freya greatly – I cannot imagine the courage and strength it takes to do something like this.. I find it hard to get organised for one four hour trip out on the local creek, I cannot imagine planning ahead for spending over a week on the water – sleeping on it too! ;)
I think our kayak might be ready to take the winter rest, sadly. It has been so cold here the last few days – it is snowing in the Australian alps again.. at night time it is getting down to less than 5 degrees! If the sun comes out again, we will go out for a final trip.
Retail Therapy
Today we did not plan to go shopping, but with KRudd’s $900 bonus burning a hole in everyones pocket, who could resist?
We bought us a great spicerack spinner thingy, a new oil burner for the other half, some excellent value scented tealight candles from my favourite candle shop which work out to 50 cents a candle, a jewellery rack for my earring collection, a new knife set as our old one was ageing ungracefully, and a knife sharpener to keep the knives sharp..
Some of my earrings checking out the new home. The pink ones in the middle were sent to me by Charcoal Sniper P, one of the mods on The Mudflats, they are sooo pretty and they also arrived with some maple candy which I had always wanted to try. Char gets married in like a week and a half, too! :) Congratulations on the impending nuptials Char – and a welcome end to the stress of wedding planning. ;)
Of course, it is a pity that we only spent a tiny amount of the billions monies KRudd is throwing around, the rest will go to pay off debts which probably won’t do the economy any good..
Aromatherapy Oils Online
No, nobody is paying me – I paid them! But, I do have to tell you about this website because if you are in Australia and you like your aromatherapy, this website will literally save you shedloads of money. How would you like 100mls of essential oils for less than you usually pay for 12-18mls of essential oils? I like it plenty, I can tell you.
100ml May Chang (sort of like lemongrass) $9.00
100ml Peppermint $10
100ml Sweet Orange $5.50
100ml Mandarin $ 8.00
100ml Pink Grapefruit $9.00
100ml Cedarwood $7.00
100ml Lemon $9.00
100ml Lime $9.50
100ml Spearmint $9.00
100ml Tangerine $7.00
Many of the above flavors I bought because I still had small amounts left of the old oils I bought in those flavors – I wanted to be able to compare them with the “more expensive” oils. I honestly cannot smell any difference at all. Maybe my sinus is faulty and maybe you would smell a difference, I don’t know – all I can say is give it a try, at these prices who can complain!
I also bought 7x15ml “fragrant” oils – these all turned out to be 18mls instead. These cost me a mere $2 each. And this is the first time I have ever found some of these flavors.. chocolate! watermelon! :)
So if you are wanting to buy oils online, you might want to give this place Escentials Of Australia a try and see what you think. I will be ordering more – and next time some of the more expensive oils which I took out of this order – originally I had over $230 worth of oils in my basket, but I was soon told off by the other half.. ;)
In the end I spent $97, and shipping was about $14 – I opted for registered Australia Post, otherwise my postie tends to dump it on the doorstep and vanish. That is so reasonable. I ordered it on Thursday and it arrived today with Easter in between. ;)
I also did some book ordering, but that is another story for another day.
They Travel In Packs
All the times we have been kayaking, and the other day out was the first time we saw these guys.
Beautiful little blue crabs with orange legs. They seem to travel in packs. When we pedal by, they run away.
In other news, some sick twisted person decided to play a Sopranos marathon over the weekend. Easter weekend! Shouldn’t that be illegal or something?
Regardless, I was glued to the teevee. ;) Still am actually, there’s like 50 eps I recorded on the Mystar. Plus they had Dexter season 3 on all day today. It’s not exactly “wholesome” teevee, but I have to be honest, I like it that way.