Hello Humans and Very Smart Cats!

I'm writing a little update because I just approved a bunch of your comments on previous posts which lets me know I've been missed. I'm feeling the love!
I have a few posts in the pipeline, some recipes, some about my garden and a couple of posts I would classify as "articles" (quote marks are so you don't expect too much of them, I assure you they will just be rambling).

While I've been away I've been doing a lot of fiction writing- I'm contemplating setting up a blog just to let you read my stories, if you'd be interested- and even had a short story published as an ebook.
[Update: my blog of stories is live! The first story can be found here]
I've progressed in my teaching studies and am now studying the Diploma in Early Childhood Education and care.
I'm growing peas and carrots in my garden at the moment. The peas are nearly finished and the carrots are having trouble getting started as something is eating the tops.

More to come later, I promise you aren't forgotten.
Worlds of love,
Cassandra Louise.

I'm Not Here Because I'm Somewhere Else Instead

Hi everyone!  I haven't given up on this blog and I won't be giving up on it in the foreseeable future.  I'm not here because I'm completing vocational placement at a childcare centre so I can get a nice piece of paper that says I know how to do things.
When I'm not at vocational placement, I'm at appointments, getting boring medical stuff sorted out.
So basically, not only is my plate very full, I'm pretty sure I have more than one plate, here.
I hope to see you all again soon!

Lots of love,
Cassandra Louise.

A Little Update So As To Not Be A Slack Blogger

I'm currently researching a big, fancy, journalistic-type blog post, which you may have an idea about if you follow me on the Twitter-machine.  It's not left much time for blogging about other things, but I thought I'd share a little bit about my op shop trip last week.
I went to Lifeline looking for something suitable to wear to a job interview.  I didn't find anything, but I did find this:

I saw her and immediately I was flooded with memories of my mother's aunt, one of my best friends and favourite old people as a child.  She loved dolls, Asian-inspired art, musical instruments and antiques.  As this doll is all of those things, I had to get her.  I took a deep breath and hoped whoever had priced her didn't know what dolls like this are worth and what a collector will pay.  I picked her up and turned her over to find the price sticker... $1.50!  If it is possible to smile audibly, I'm sure I did!  I went right to the counter and bought her.  I took my new little sister to the cafe with me and she sat on the table and "played" for me while I had a coffee.
On my way home, I stopped in at the Asthma Foundation op shop, and found a book by one of my favourite writers, Maeve Binchy, for $1.
All in all, a good day op shopping.

Lots of love to you,
Cassandra Louise.

There Is Something Very Special About This Chair...

There is something very special about this chair, and it's not just that it's holding my birthday presents until I open them tomorrow.

 Here, I'll take those off so you can see it properly.

Actually, there's a lot of special things about this chair.  First thing is, there's only one of it, which, if it's not to your taste, you're probably glad to hear.  I can see it's a chair you either love or hate on sight.
The second special thing about this chair is that I rescued it.  Technically, I rescued it twice.  I made it; rather I put it together from two old chairs and some bits and bobs.
This is our story, mine and the chairs:
Many years ago now, I was not living somewhere safe and secure.  The only place I could find to rent at short notice and without getting rid of most of the few things I had was actually a storage space under an old style high set house.  I could use their kitchen and bathroom at least but to say my room was a "bedroom" is a joke.  It was a storage space.  It had an old lumpy bed and a little side table.  The floor was dirt and the floor of the house above was unsealed so my wake up call every morning was sand and grit raining down on my face from above as the little girl of the house ran around getting ready for school.  There was no electric light, I had a small battery powered one but not enough to read or study by.  There was a wardrobe of sorts, but it had no doors.
But then, one day, my favourite thing ever happened: Hard Rubbish Collection!  You guys, it's like an op shop but it's free and on everyone's lawn, as if you didn't know I'd love that!
I saw the blue chair frame in my immediate neighbour's pile.  I saw it had no seat.  I stroked the chair frame and told it "I wish I could fix you, then I could keep you and save you.  I'll save myself one day." because paying actual money to live in a storage space drives you a little bit batty.
For two days I thought about that lovely chair frame.  I liked the colour and the shape.
Then, the day before pickup in my area, I went out for a walk.  I decided to go down a street I'd never been down before, just to see what was there.  That's when I saw it: a clinical, boring-looking ubiquitous metal chair with it's seat detached.  The seat was not exactly pretty, but it was intact and functional, so I grabbed it, along with a bag of coat hangers to get my clothes out my suitcase and in the "wardrobe".
I took it back to my room and then went and grabbed the frame.  I sat the seat on the chair and looked at it.  It fit!  I planned to go to an op shop the next day and buy some fabric or an old sheet or something to decorate it a bit.  It was about five o'clock by now so all the op shops were closed.
But the more I looked at it, the more I had to fix it absolutely now!  I opened my wallet to see if I could afford KMart.  $20.  It'll have to do, I had a chair to save!
I bought a pink single bed sheet to cover the seat, a hammer and nails to hold all the bits together and on my way out, the craft section caught my eye.  I thought it would be nice if I could tie-in the delicate blue of the chair with the bright pink of the seat somehow.  I bought some pastel coloured paints and some butterfly decals and ended up making this design:

I finally had a little colour in my life!  With no garden and no electric lighting, this is what I needed!
I was never quite able to fix the seat on properly.  It held for a bit, but came loose again.

But it's a very comfortable seat, and if you sit still, you'd never notice.
There is something very special about this chair.

Signed with love and hope,
Cassandra Louise.

Hello Everyone! (OR: the tiniest update ever)

I'm still here and still happy.  I moved house recently and would like to be settled in properly before I start blogging regularly (my version of regularly) again, but I thought I'd check in and say hello. :-)

Lots of love,

Cassandra Louise.

Sunday Selections- New Chapter Edition

Today I am linking up with Kim from Frog Ponds Rock for Sunday Selections.
As photographs, there is nothing special about this week's pictures, and they don't seem to go together, even though I do like to have a theme for Sunday Selections.
There is a theme here, although it's a little hard to see: My father is currently undergoing treatment for cancer.  All of these pictures were taken on the day he had his last ever dose of chemo.  Now we move on to the next chapter of his recovery.
I took ninety photos that day, and I love them all.  I thought ninety would be a lot for you to look through, and so, with much deliberation and a little heartache, I narrowed it down to twenty-three, and tried to avoid including pictures that were too similar to each other.  I hope you enjoy them!

~~~

I needed to get a photo of these colours together!

I liked the shadow of my sleeves, so I took this picture of my shadow thinking about something.

This pier, Urangan Pier, (which you can't see all of) is 868 metres long.  Makes for a very nice, but quite windy walk, when you can be bothered.

Someone lost a hat.  If I wasn't wearing such a nice dress, I'd have a new hat, now.

Seagulls. I had no idea they still knew how to look for food in the water...

 I liked this whole tree/shop perspective.  I find it very colourful.  That fish & chip shop there does good baked spuds.

Broken in a storm.

Bird's nest!  This makes me very happy.

You can see the whole pier here, and, um, other things.  I was actually taking the picture of that sole bird in flight...

What bug is that?  I don't know.

One day, when I'm not in a nice dress, I want to sit in that tree.

I must eat at this table!  I don't think I ever have, but I know this area is alive with animals, so it would be a wonderful adventure!

Nobody lives in here, I checked.  Thought about moving in myself...

Can't help but wonder if this happened when the pine cone tried to hold on to the tree when it started to fall.  My other ideas include faeries did it.

Is it that hard to take your rubbish with you?  Really?!

Rocks at the palm tree garden.  I don't even know why there is a palm tree garden, but it's very green and has nice rocks.

Delightfully artsy photo of some leaves at the place I bought hot chips from.

This is a shot of the patio railing at the same place.  You can see my dress at the edge there.

Colours.

Standard low-tide beach shot.

I love how the dog that ran through this concrete seems to have turned around and gone the other way almost as soon.

This picture is actually of the ants...

Close up on a gladiolus in the hospital grounds, when we went to take dad home.

I hope you have enjoyed your time with my many, many pictures.  Do pop over to Kim's to see what everyone else is linking up!

Love to you all,

Cassandra Louise.

You may have noticed I haven't been here...

And I'm actually still not here, but I will be back!  I've had a lot to juggle recently, and actually haven't felt up to writing.  I know there's an unspoken rule that we don't write about not being up to writing, but I am.  I do have some part-posts written, and I will be finishing them off in the coming weeks.

Thanks everyone for your support so far.
Lots of love,

Cassandra Louise.

Thankful Thursday- Quite enough rain!

Today I am linking up with Thankful Thursday at Kate Says Stuff because even though I've been a bit down lately, I have a lot to be thankful for, and I need to remind myself of that.
This is essentially a post about seeing the good that comes with the bad, even when they hit at the same time.

...

So at the moment, my garden is a little damp.

(yes, those are my pyjama pants)

I was so happy when it started to rain, as my garden had been getting very dry in the heat, I wasn't able to keep water up to it.  I watched a few of my plants wither and die, I watched a few wither and was able to bring them back, which is always a good feeling.
Then the rain set in.
It started pouring.
It didn't stop.
I became very worried about my garden, and this morning went out to survey the damage.  The first few things I saw made me feel very sad.

This tub had held five newly-sprouted bean plants, from heirloom beans which had been a gift from a friend.  I have more I can plant, but for now I'm sad for those I have lost, and that's ok.

My strawberry plant.  This is all that remains.  This plant was three years old, and had never been flooded like that in its life.  This season was my first major crop of strawberries (you may know, a strawberry plant makes more fruit than last season every year)

Thyme.  It wasn't the rain that killed it exactly, it was going from so dry to so wet very quickly.  Thyme is very hardy.

Then I went into the main part of my garden, where I saw this:

At first what I really noticed was my "miniature garden" in the pink tub was completely wiped out, save for the chives, which I'm not sure you can kill even if you try, but then I noticed not only is my basil alive, but it's in flower!

This basil self-seeded from plants that grew from seeds I got from a discount bin for 15 cents.

And my favourite post-deluge find of all?  This:

One of my purple king bean plants which I thought was dead from the heat, obviously not!  Brought back from the brink by wonderful, life-giving rain.

So today I am thankful for my garden, I am thankful for the plants that have survived (roughly half, many more than are seen here), and I'm thankful for the rain, but I think we've had quite enough for a little while!

What do you choose to be thankful for?

Lots of love,

Cassandra Louise.

A little plug for people who aren't me (and me a bit)

Just a short post today, because I've gotten myself all excited about something and I need to share it.
A few days ago I was doing some blog-hopping, and, following a link to a link to a link, I happened upon A Fresh Legacy.  I loved what I was reading and found a lot of good ideas.  Continuing to blog-hop, I scrolled down to see what was in the sidebar and found a button that leads to Sustainable Suburbia wonderful linky list.
Now, I'm not trying to paint a picture of God, but I'm pretty sure that's what Heaven looks like.  Yes, Heaven is a list of eco-blogs, except with more ponies.
I've added the Sustainable Suburbia blog list button to my own sidebar.  It's certainly worth taking the time to have a look through, you never know what you might learn or whom you may meet.

Lots of love in all you do,
Cassandra Louise.

I've made a space for all the thoughts to come together

A few days ago I created a Facebook page called, strangely and simply, Thoughtful Thoughts.  It will be a page where both of my blogs (this one and my more personal What Just Happened?) and also my mother's new personal blog (which has no posts now, but I will provide a link when it does) will be published, along with thoughts we have which are too short to call for a blog post, or links to interesting sites.
I do hope you'll pop over and check it out, maybe give us a "like", and I hope you find some of what we have to say useful.

Lots of love,
Cassandra Louise.