I love listening to a couple of scrapbooking podcasts, including Diva Craft Lounge

Today I had the pleasure of an unexpected package from a Fed Ex guy - WOW! I had won a prize from Purple Cows!!!

I had looked at these (US$69.95), but by the time you convert to Australian dollars and then add freight from the US ..... well, it soon adds up!But now I have one and I bet my friends will love it too!!!

Pigging out on breast milk

I hadn't come across The Lactavist before - http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/ but from today I have become a staunch supporter.I hadn't an opinion of the US National Pork Board and never imagined such an organisation could ever upset the world of breastfeeding and lactavism.Tempted to say in a nervous voice "only in America" but know the reality is this farce could occur anywhere these days.The Lactavist - a mother who devotes much of her time to producing "a site that aims to promote breastfeeding through humor." stepped on the Pork Board's trotters with a FUNDRAISING tshirt sporting the simple slogan "The Other White Milk".This simple parody on a well-know slogan (intended to promote pork sales to consumers of chicken "Pork - the other white meat" and has also featured here in Australia) was taken as a threat by their legal people - a threat to their TRADEMARK!Now I am but a simple soul, but surely the Pork Board would BENEFIT from any reminder of their slogan, let alone association with breastfeeding, which is recognised by authorities world-wide as the natural food for humans and other mammals. (I learned from Jennifer's site that only kangaroo's have milk that is not white - they favour pink!)So I add my thumbs down to others around the globe telling the board to Pork Off!The way the world is heading, we will not be able to utter any words in print, at risk that these words have been *claimed* by someone else for some other purpose. We should all turn away from any advertising or marketing that may imprint on our brain and come back at some future date. The catch phrase is obviously a dangerous species!

Bucket Brigade

This image burned into my brain in childhood, seen so many times as the classic Fantasia piece, The Sorcerer's Apprentice appeared time and again on The Wonderful World of Disney.So it is not surprising that it and that wonderful music lurk in my mind as I lug buckets of water from shower to garden, washing machine water collecting and catching rare rain water.We are under stage three water restrictions as the drought continues and I wonder how I could ever shower now without a bucket by my side! Water is rationed to those plants I deem "bucket worthy" - mostly my courtyard rose garden, which was decimated by a previous dry summer and I carefully restocked over the past winter and my restocked native garden which I nurtured through winter and spring until mature enough to be left to their own devices, aside from the odd trickle of bucket water.My small potted herb garden outside the back door get cleaner water as I balance possible risks of eating fresh plants watered with grey water (well, when my conscience gets the better of me - the rest of the time I slop in bucket water with crossed fingers! We are healthy and use planet friendly products where we can.)So my workout involves lifting weights (full buckets are just the right weight!) and walking backwards and forwards from water source to individual plants. I am permitted to use my trigger hose or drip watering system on Wednesdays and Sundays, before 8am or after 8pm .... not usually my most alert hours ..... so I generally only do so once a week or less, to flush the soil a little and reduce build up of salts etc from the grey water.And the plants seem to thrive on it!

The best things in life are those that are unplanned and unexpected.My day at the Sea Festival yesterday was one of those experiences. It was the second day of the annual festival. Saturday had seen me there from 9am to set up our feed and change tent and it was already raining then. As the day went on, the rain did too but it didn't dampen the fun that visitors were there to have. It did minimise the attendance of our target market so the tent was not utilised as much as normal. But the families who did were very grateful.Originally I had planned to stay until the close at 10pm, but by 6pm the rain had turned really serious and I thought there was not much point. So I headed home leaving the tent in place under the watchful eyes of the security team.Sunday was due to kick off at 12pm so I got down there at 11am, prepared for the worst - we now had major wind gusts coming off the sea and I fully expected to be told our marquee had blown away! Well, almost! The frame was still standing, but some poor soul had the task of packing up all the sides and other equipment which were stacked neatly alongside!

The organisers were pushed to the limit as hired marquees and others like ours were flapping. They did their best to work out a solution for ours but in the end it was not to be. I suddenly found myself with the whole afternoon free to enjoy the festival: the wind died to a managable strong breeze, the rain held off and the sun even came out for a while. I could have gone home and come back at 5pm to collect the stuff, but I had enjoyed my free time on the Saturday so thought I would make the most of it.One key part of the event was the Gyuto Monks of Tibet. Six wonderful men spent the two days experiencing every weather extreme possible, from the relative safety of their large marquee. I had visited a couple of times the day before, but Sunday I was able to attend their harmonic chanting medititation and other talks as well as continue watching their painstaking work creating a mandala from coloured sand.

There was such a peace surrounding these men, especially elder monk who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Dalai Lama himself, which led to much specualtion among the crowd. However, as he sat directly below a large photo of His Holiness, I was able to compare and see tiny variations in nose and lips, but they are remarkably alike.

I didn't spend the whole day in "Tibet" as there were other tempations aplenty. Our sister city in Japan, Susuno, had a wonderful group of musicians and dancers who had also travelled just to be at the festival. The procession from the Susuno tent to the stage was a wonderful experence, and I found myself with some great positions to capture photos! I have fallen in love with one smiling Japanese who I saw often over the weekend and always, always bore his wonderful grin!Africa was not to be forgotton as the drum beat was audible above all else. Today's drummers were led by a marvelous African man, only upstaged by a young girl who may be his daughter, whose rythmic dancing held the crowd's delight. Of course, there was food! After all, Neptune's Table is a key part of the weekend! Saturday's lunch had been Indian - tandoori chicken with naan bread and a mango lassi, which as a perfect prelude to the Bollywood dancing later. Sunday I went Mediteranian with a wood fired pizza topped with goat's cheese, sun dried tomatoes and capsicum. My dessert came from NZ, in the form of icecream! Afternoon tea was a second Platypus Bill - my first the day before was apple and cinnamon, this one walnut and maple. A flat pastry cooked in oil like a donut and then smothered in the topping of choice ...... I am sure they are not low fat, but who cares?????The weather became more bearble in the mid afternoon, so I wandered down to the shoreline and indulged my inner child by paddling along the beach! I even found a treasure washed up by the storm - a golden Thomas the Tank Engine!!!!! As I walked, I realised I was leaving wonderful footprints in the sand, just like they show in magazines so I whipped out my camera and captured my very own for a scrapbook page. I sat at the edge of the sand dunes for around 15 minutes, completely alone with only the sounds of the "surf", which is meditation in it's own right. I then wandered back for a final appointment with the monks.The mandala was complete and their time with us drawing to an end. The final stage was a ritual of returning the sand to nature. After some more chanting, they swept some of the coloured sands into a ritual vase then we processed behind them to the creekside jetty in increasingly howling wind and light rain! The festival was winding up around us, but the dedicated stuck with the monks. A near miss wardrobe malfunction nearly saw their headresses fly into Kananook Creek! A bit more chanting and then the elder monk poured the sand onto the water - at which instant the clouds opened with deluge of rain! (The Tibetan interpreter - a bit of a comedian - assured us this was just the plan, as they were praying for our drought to break!) The crowd muttered a little about timing and then less elegantly processed back to the marquee for the final leg. More chanting and then some water from the creek was used to clean the surface that held the mandala, so completing the circle. We then each recieved a twist of paper holding grains of the coloured sands, now blessed with healing powers by the touch of the monks.Outside, the gods were giving us as much wind and rain as they could summon, while frantic event staff packed up! Rod and Kaitlyn arrived and we threw all our stuff into the back of the car and beat a hasty retreat home!A gloriously indulgent long hot shower and to bed! I have new Tibetan prayer flags to replace my aging set, an orange tshirt with a quote from the Dalai Lama and a wall hanging with another quote. And wonderful memories of my visit to Tibet!!!!!!