Yes it is only Autumn, technically, but yesterday Winter pushed her away and arrived in a gale, weather (yes that is deliberate) to stay or not I don't know, I suspect Autumn will return for a while though, before winter truly takes hold. The day before we had a lot of rain but only yesterday did we get the winter air... I couldn't really get a photo of the wind or Winter so here is my best with words and some photos of the rain and hail the day before. 

This is not really a poem, but neither is it quite normal prose either.... but hopefully it will paint a picture with words for you anyway.

Winter Came Today

In a wall of rushing wind winter came in, no slow creeping cold, but with full force he charged in to claim victory. Autumn fled. Winter roared; sounding like the pounding of a great waterfall. He came howling through the leaves, thrashing at the world, beating it to pieces, like a waterfall beating at the rocks it falls upon, wearing them away. Trees tossed their heads branches flying, manes of battle chargers, standing against the onslaught. 

Grass bends, ripples, as though rank upon rank of light footed, invisible, soldiers pass over it. Winter tugs at the chargers manes, bits of hair tear loose, branches come crashing to the ground. Leaves and strips of bark fly through the air, shrapnel. 

Like plumes of smoke, or gas, clouds scud across the troposphere. Grey and green tinged they fly, obscuring the sun for a moment. Light flickers, a morse code, sun flashing out from the clouds and being hidden again. Bright, bringing a little warmth, off, on again, off longer this time, cold settles, clouds part, they come together. Long, long short, short long, dazzling light, then obscured by grey. 

Trees sway as Winter stretched out his long fingers, groping at the trunks until they bend, and bend. They straighten trying to stand, then bend towards the ground, hunching like old, crooked backs. Bark and leaves are stripped away leaving trees standing bare and naked to face the tempest. The cold of winter returns with the clouds.

The great tall ones reach out their arms as if to hold back Winter, but instead it rushes, past and through, an insubstantial, uncatchable thing. The cold sets in, biting wind. It rasps through trees, around houses, down throats, so cold it makes me catch at my breath, lest it take that too. I stumble as Winter hits.

One of my chooks went a-wandering so I went off into the paddock after her and came across this plant. I could not remember what name eblonged to it but after searching "Bush tucker ground cover" and looking at pictures I eventually found this plants name; Winter Apple or Eremophila debilis. I much prefer the English name.

I can often find the Winter Apple growing in places around our property, it is easiest to spy now though because its fruits are ripening. They become a much brighter pink than in these photos. They are a ground cover plant and native to Australia. I found these two plants growing under a box tree and it turns out that the Winter Apple prefers to grow in Box and White Cypress tree forests.

The fruits are edible, but there is not really much to them. I will eat a ripe one or two if I come across them, but nearly all of the fruit is seed and what skin and flesh there is can sometimes be bitter, you never really know until you have eaten it. 

The plant can get up to 1-2m in diameter but I have never found any that big, the ones pictured are around 30cm. There is also a white variety, whose fruit goes white and it is said to be sweater, but I am not sure if that one grows wild or not. I suspect that if grown in a garden they would grow a lot bigger.

I find it rather fun though to be able to go walking in the paddocks and be able to find bush tucker and to be able to pick eat it as I go. 

Have a wonderful day, He is risen! We have reason to celebrate.

Jesus Came

To bring healing and wholeness to the hurting

To bring faith to the doubting

& life to the faithful

Three Welcome Swallows darted through the air circling then flying into the distance. I watched with a little sadness, it is the time of year to say farewell to them. But instead of them we should be seeing more of the kookaburras. At least around where I live, they are more prevalent at this time of year. We have Laughing Kookaburras, here. Early in the morning their laugh echoes through the still air and during the day it sounds too and often one can follow the sound and find the bird siting in a branch of a gum tree. 

I walked quietly towards the tree trying to keep behind other trees so the bird would not be alerted of my progress towards it. Finally I got close enough to take a decent photo and I poked the camera around the side of a tree. The kookaburra spied me and shifted uncomfortably then flew off. I followed. I continued to trail after the bird as it led me a-dance from tree to tree, trying to get a photo of it. 

Rosellas are even more shy than kookaburras, both photos are cropped, but the one of the rosella I took with a zoom lens. (meaning I was a lot further away). Often if a rosella even glimpses a person, that will be enough of an incentive to fly off calling every other rosella nearby to fly with it. The above photo involved much soundless creeping and multiple failed attempts to even get a terrible photo of a rosella before it flew off. From the slightly patchy feathers of this bird I guess it could be a young one, therefore not as scared as older birds, yet.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a book. How could I give this any less than 5 stars. I want to give it 100. The perspective is so amazingly unique, which makes this book unlike ANY other ever written (at least as far as I have read). The copy of the book I read was beautiful too, soft pages, tons of white space, and I really liked the little different snippets that are in amongst the book, it feels more real than just a story.

But even the story is amazing, and the people; they are real. The description is amazing and vivid too. The words, they are beautiful, each sentence is lovingly crafted, the power of words is definitely a theme of this book as well as being this book.

One really unique factor is that Death spoils the story all the time, (he tells us who eventually dies, then constantly reminds us until they do). I kept thinking hey you can't do that in the book, you need to heave the readers wondering to create suspense. Still it worked, and it was in character with the story, with the narrator. In this case breaking rules of writing worked well, very well, and added to the story. The story which was interesting enough not to need that suspense, of possible deaths and other things, even the end of the book.

I often read books fast, but I couldn't do that with this one. A lot of thinking must be involved and though I had to know what happened, it wasn't an edge of the seat roller-coaster ride, It was more like a drawn out farewell at a grave side, that must be done for someone you love, because you want to but it is painful. I loved this book all the way through. Certainly everyone won't like it, but give it a try because you could be missing out.

View all my reviews

“One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.” 

So those are my thoughts on the book right after I finished reading it, not always the most unbiased time to review, but I remember the most. There are probably problems with it. Like the fact that I didn't really understand "The Word Shaker" I assume it did have some meaning, but I didn't really get it. I also like any story.... well not any, but I am drawn to war stories (stories set in war times). I also liked the descriptions of the sky all through the book. 

“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.” 

Another thing that makes the book stand out is the beautiful, unusual descriptions. The descriptions in the book are almost like analogies. Hair the colour of a lemon, hair like feathers, dry sticks, the descriptions were like poetry.

You could say the book was a slow read, but I don't think that is a bad thing. It certainly was not the most cheerful book. And then ending was sad, but at least it was not devastating, I was ok with the end. 

“She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half.
Then a chapter.
Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better.
What good were the words?
She said it audibly now, to the orange-lit room. "What good are the words?” 

The power of words, the love of books. 

Have you read The Book Thief?

Did you like it? 

A few evenings ago my family watched the newest, bestest, christian movie ever. It was "God's Not Dead". I think I shall start by saying that the first line in this post is sarcastic. I had heard just how great this movie was from a lot of people who had gone to see God's Not Dead when it first came out. Since then I had read a few reviews on it that made it look not so good, and more reviews that sang its praises. Naturally I wanted to see the movie and judge it myself. So my family and I watched it, then ripped it to shreds. The poor movie didn't survive very well. 

I do not mean to offend anyone, but these are my honest thoughts on this movie. You may very well think it is a great, really good movie, I am not asking you to change your mind, but read this and think about what I have said. I am not just bashing this movie because I want to, but because I want to give my honest thoughts on it. Just because a movie calls itself christian does not mean it is all good, there are good bits, some.

~Warning: This review contains spoilers~

What I didn't like

~First off the movie is very confusing. The first scenes introduce so many characters, way too many characters in fact. As with any story it is important to have the right amount of characters, the shorter more simple the story, the less characters.  Through the movie we get to know that almost every character has some complicated relationships with another, and we get to follow all their stories as well as the main Josh one. Most of the characters are actually completely unnecessary to the story. 

~Flat characters, they don't change much except for becoming christians.

~Stereotypical story line for the "Bad Guy" he is a jerk and in the end he finds God and is no longer a jerk... Spoiler...... he is dead... the no longer "bad guy" that is, not God.

~All the non christians are villainized, they are not HUMAN. This is probably one of the worst bits. They are portrayed as monsters. Which is just not true. So often christian books and movies have these stereotypes in them, that aren't even real.

~It is unbelievable, as in any story there must be a suspension of disbelief. We can only go along with so much before we say that is just not realistic, it could not happen. Seriously how realistic is it to convert a whole class.... half might be believable.... but no way all of them. And the main characters power-point! How much did he spend on that... he put it all together in a week.... where did he get those amazing graphics from? Sorry I just can't believe that. Even while I was watching the movie I wondered how he knew exactly what questions the professor would ask. Sometimes the MC/Josh paused to think about it for a while but then he has his amazing power-point graphics to show his answer. 

~The professor just let Josh talk and said nothing till he finished. (this was not a point I noticed about the movie but my Dad did) A real professor would be constantly interrupting and not letting Josh sway the class. He possibly may not have even given Josh the chance to.

~I am not entirely sure on this point, but when Josh gives his presentation on God and how he exists because he created everything. Now I think about that it sounded as though Josh said God created the world and used evolution to get us to where we are now. I couldn't be sure, but if so that is no little thing.

~The dialog was not very interesting either.

Finally think how the movie would look to a non-christian, it does not put them in a good light, aggro, unthinking, selfish to an inhuman extreme. They would not see the message past all that if they even did sit down to watch it.

I was not impressed.

See there is the evil villainous professor with a personal vendetta against God
and the young persecuted christian making a stand ......

What I liked (and other things I didn't)

Not much. There was one moment in the movie, that was almost completely unrelated to the rest, that I really liked; a scene in which an old lady with dementia has a clear moment and speaks some profound words.  I liked Martin the Chinese character. And the fact that "God's not dead", yes we should all be able to give an answer for the hope we have.... 

I'm not sure that Josh did the right thing though. Especially at the end, it struck me that he was being very rude to his professor. A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger. Also, there were lines in the movie that said something about the class judging God... or putting him on trial.  In Luke 4:12 it says;  And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Maybe I'm just being hyper sensitive though. Personally I think I would have dropped the class after writing "God's Not Dead" or "God said, 'I died, and behold I am alive forevermore.' Revelation 1:18" on the piece of paper. 

I'm not even sure exactly what the message is .... of course there is God's not dead,"  but that is not enough.... God exists, sure but "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! James 2:19"

I think, God's Not Dead is also about a christian standing up for his faith, that is a great thing for christians to do. We are commanded to go and share the gospel and yes that can be anywhere, at home, school, college, we don't need to all be missionaries to other people groups. We are called to be bright lights every day wherever God has us. We as christians need that encouragement to stand firm. But wouldn't it be more encouraging if it were wrapped in a great story! 

I like a good story, God's Not Dead is not one.

A great story is what sticks with people and therefore the message that is enfolded in it, even if it only shows at moments.

Not that it is ever going to happen, but what I think christians should do, is buy the rights to a good book that has some christian bits in it. Then make a movie of it. 

I have found that some books I love so much because of their christian parts or morals, are then made into a movie by some secular person and it loses those amazing bits. The bits that really made the book. Just imagine if a christian person had made Lord of the Rings, it would have kept more of those bits about it not being just fate and those contrasts of hope in the darkness. Sure I like the LORT movie, but it is more about the war of the ring and fighting and all the handsome warriors and less of the hope, less of the light one day overpowering the darkness despite all hope.  

I would suspect the same has been done to the Divergent book series.... I have not seen the movies but I can guess that it is now all about the action and violence and relying on yourself or something. 

What we need are some christian writers to write a great story, and tell it in a great way, have it full of real humans. Letting the message be secondary to the story. If we want to hear a message we will download a sermon, that is not what people want when they watch a movie or read a book, they want a story.

We need christian screen writers who can craft a story, one that is good enough for publishes to accept. 

Anyway God's Not Dead.... I can think of one other scene I liked, when the car wouldn't start. Faith like that is rare. It was also a good reminder that sometimes when things don't go our way and our plans are spoiled God has his bigger better plan in mind. 

So after all that, I would not recommend this movie. Instead go and study your bible or go witnessing for 112 minutes that would be something worth your time.

I just don't believe that this movie is a good as it is made out to be.

Day 22 Sunday: God’s day of rest.

Day 23 Monday: Well while hanging up a load of washing I pulled out one rubber glove…. I don’t think it belonged there, a cupcake wrapper…. And a toy phone.  The phone has a little history…..The toy phone had never worked until someone dropped it in the bath a few nights ago. It began to work… you know annoying toy sounds. The problem being that it had not worked for so long that it decided it would continually make the sounds and not stop, until it got dropped on the floor. But a few minutes later it began again so I got a screwdriver… The batteries were scary… rusty and jammed in. Eventually they came out and I didn't smash the phone with a hammer in the process. (I was not actually the person to get them out).

Day 24 Tuesday:  When I went out with the basket of washing the little black ants were all asleep, but after a few minutes they were well and truly awake. By the time I neared finishing I had to pretty much dance around to prevent swarms of ants getting all over me. They don’t even seem to have holes they come from, they just appear all over the ground and climb up and bite me…

Day 25 Wednesday: Well I did more washing today, surprised? No I guess not, less than a week of this month to go. Not that I mind doing the washing but I have pretty much exhausted most of the things that could go wrong. Except for a few like the washing machine breaking, ours did once and the one we got after that was similar except it plays a tune instead of beeping when it finishes. Our old one used to leak…. All-over the floor occasionally. And it ate things. It ate small pieces of clothing and zips mostly, finally it ate a piece of wire and that was why it went bye, bye. I have never known our new one too refuse to spit out I none piece anything put in it that way. 

Day 26 Thursday: Ages ago I started writing this 12 stanza…. Or was it 24 stanza poem. I wrote two stanzas each month while hanging out washing… maybe I shall try find it. Does anyone want me to? It could be funny… or terrible and embarrassing…. And it would depend on if it could be found, or at least the notebook in which it is written.

Day 27 Friday: I didn't actually write anything today and I don't remember anything about doing washing though I suppose I did.....I may have even done two loads....

Day 28 Saturday: somehow washing did not happen today…. I forgot to put a load on before breakfast, we went out for half the day after that….

Soon enough will come the time when I shall have to do the HPT, otherwise known as the Hazard Perception Test. I have printed out the handbook and am reading it, so that I can Lord willing pass and get my green Ps, my P2 license. I must say when I had a go at the practice/example tests I was not impressed. 

 I could move a car on a sliders around and if I moved the car to where it would not be safe for me to turn while it was there, the screen flashes red and does not stop until I move the car back. You can see in the pictures... except they don't flash.

The "Scanning for Hazards" was almost worse. It moves.... so it looks like I am meant to be driving along a highway. You are meant to click on any hazards. The problem is (apart from some of them being ridiculous, like a kid bouncing a ball in the middle of the freeway) that you can actually click on everything that appears on the screen even if it is not a hazard. Though it does only tell you that "You have safely avoided a hazard" when you actually click one of the hazards.  

Two of the hazards are sneaky though as they come from behind but the biggest problem with them is just to actually get my mouse to where they are to click on them fast enough.  (Anyway when I am driving I sit in the drivers seat, not in the middle of the second row.) I also hope that someone would be holding onto the steering wheel..

See the hazard in the mirror? 

Yes and apparently the real tests are not animated, but are clips of real live situations. And apparently it is also touch screen..... I have a great dislike of touch screen.... there are no nasty screens to touch and leave fingerprints all over when I drive....

I am not afraid of failing, for the reason of failing, because I know I drive well and sensibly, doing that test won't prove anything to me. But I don't want to have to pay to sit it again..... or have to sit the test again for the simple reason I hate sitting tests. That is why I don't want to fail..... But Lord willing, it shall be as easy as the practice tests for South Australia......

The scenario of having to turn right and
never being able to seems their favourite...

I found them too. They seem much more like what the real thing is described to be like. I did those... and afterwards wondered what happened if you got one wrong. Naturally I had to find out. So I have done the South Australian Practice Hazard Perception Test, and done it well.... I have also done the NSW Practice thingys for the Hazard Perception Test..... I also did them fine.... well the one that could be done.... and I made the others flash.....


In the SA HPT I also found a way to make it do a different lot of questions the normal URL ends in "hazard-perception-test/1/1" with the last 1 changing to the number of the next question, but if you change the first 1 to 4 for example you will get a new lot of questions.

Well since it is nearly Easter I thought I should take some Easter photos. So here they are. Tell me which one is your favourite.

I took those first few straight into the sun, using a reflector (foil covering a foam lid) to light up this side a bit. The photo below is taken away from the sun. The first ones in my point of view are much prettier. Though for the ones above I did have to lighten the foreground and basket in Lightroom.

Just a bit of fun with colour and black and white.

Then Ann came outside and naturally wanted to play with the eggs and basket... so I gave up on them and took photos of her. with them of course.

She didn't have her smile on that morning though so I only really liked the photos where she was not looking at me. Happy Easter everyone!

The 777 challenge requires you go to Page 7 of your work-in-progress, scroll down to Line 7 and share the next 7 lines in a blog post. Once you have done this, you can tag 7 other bloggers to do the same with their work-in-progress.

So the following is seven pages down from the "chapter one" heading in my current WIP. Because of the spacing I have (or more don't have) in the word document my story is in. This is actually part of what I have currently called chapter two. And without the context make almost no sense.... but anyway here it is.

“Well now, queen of questions, do as you feel. It matters not much.  Any ground will do, sand, soil or stone. Results will differ, but not to any harm or better.” Amara replied. 

I turned and walked south carefully holding the end of the branch away from the ground. “Amara what is the name of the creek that flows through this forest and connects to Ni-edo Arian, the stream that flows past the Du Cassis Manor?”


“Of most recent time it is the Silver Way, Arian Tran-wyn, but of old we called it the Way of Silver. You must not take too long to get there though; it must be done within in two of twenty four.”

And I think the word "challenge" could almost be changed to blogger tag/award... almost. I am not sure who of my followers do write though, so if you do, please count yourself tagged and link to your post (with 7 lines of your story in it) in the comments.

Jane I know you are writing/editing a story, so you are tagged.
And feel free to use the picture I painstakingly made for this post. 

His Princess did the tag on her blog.

Sparkling blue eyes and a big smile, they are so fun to photograph. I broke some "fairy wands" otherwise known as dead flower heads, off some plants in the garden and that kept her happy while I took photos. I would put her under the tree where I wanted her and take photos as she walked towards me... because that is what she wanted to do. Or possibly she was just walking towards her Mum....

Actually I'm not very good at it... probably made obvious from these photos... for a start it is meant to be played on a chess board. But hey they look nice!  I Have probably won just as many times as I have lost, but I have mostly played people who are just as bad as me, that helps a lot.

“Like a good chess player, Satan is always trying to manuever you into a position where you can save your castle only by losing your bishop.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Which photo is your favourite?

Do you like playing chess?

Have you won or lost more times?

Me wearing the shirt/tunic I made

Day 15 Sunday: Need I say?

Day 16 Monday: Well I put on one very full load and I shall do the other tomorrow.


Day 17 Tuesday: I put on another very full load. And I decided the other day; to hand wash my sister’s band shirt and also my hand made shirt. I have made two shirts and I have noticed how the one that has been through the wash a lot of times is not looking so happy in some places so I think I shall attempt hand washing them. The first time we washed Jane’s band shirt a few other clothes got rather damaged…. We didn’t realize it was brand new and of course it is red…. So one of my favourite brown and white skirts is now… well not so white, along with a few other clothes. So today I washed that offending red shirt by hand and turned the water in the bucket into a brownish pink colour. Disaster averted!

Day 18 Wednesday: The only problem with hand washing things is they take a lot longer to dry. So Jane’s band shirt is still a bit damp. I put on another load today with towels in it to fill it up, it is quite cloudy but hopefully it shall dry.

Day 19 Thursday: Didn’t do washing because I managed to forget about it for… well most of the day….somehow

Day 20 Friday: I did two loads….. wonder why???  The problem was that one of my sisters was mowing the lawn so I obviously couldn’t hang it out until she had finished, so I put one load on… and pulled it out into the basket then put another on and I hung out the first as it said there were about 6 minutes left for the second load to be finished. 

By that time the sun had shone on the ground for some hours and heat came not only down from the sun but up from the dry grass. The ants were also nicely active, just tiny black ones….. but if you stand on their trail for long enough, or not very long at all, most of the ants in the vicinity will climb onto your feet and nibble them…. Apparently between my toes is the tastiest place. 
When I had hung out the first load I went back in and got the second to hang out and pegged that all up too. 

Day 21 Saturday: I pulled a few gumnuts out of the door seal of the washing machine today…

Day 8 Sunday: Obviously I didn't do washing today, because it is Sunday.  

Day 9 Monday: I had to do two loads today. And I also ended up having to use about 15 PINK pegs because I ran out of blue ones… really not good. I got both loads out early before it got really hot, but the sun still burned down when I got them in at about 5:30. I sorted them out while listening to an audio book.

Day 10 Tuesday: I only had to do one small load today. The only thing is it still smells smoky outside, as it has all day. I hope it does not make all the washing smell. Alice got it in today, while I made tea and since the air just smells so much like smoke we have all got used to it…..

Day 11 Wednesday: The washing could have been rather interesting today except I found the book in the pile as I was putting it in the washing machine. I almost wish I had not found it… I am rather interested to know what a book would be like after being through the wash…. And what the washing would be like…. It was only one of Ann’s books… and I suspect that is how it got there.

Day 12 Thursday: There were not enough dirty things to put on a load.

Day 13 Friday: There was quite enough today. I put on one load then a few minutes later my dad asks what the odd noise is. I say it’s probably the washing machine. Then I think; wait why would the washing machine be making odd noises? There is this dull thud thud thud coming from the laundry….. not that there is much I can do about it. About half an hour later a great crashing and clattering starts…… When I pull the clothes out of the machine (FYI ours is a front loader) I also find a very large and very clean black rock…. As I hang out the washing I also pull out a small piece of stick. The day is cool and the clouds are grey so we shall have to see if anything gets dry. Luckily nothing went wrong with the second load except for the fact that it didn't get dry properly…..

Day 14 Saturday: Nothing unusual happened today…. And if I recall rightly Alice helped me get today's washing in. Then I sorted out both yesterdays and today's while listening to part of an audio book.

NOTE: We actually fold our washing as we get it in…. I know some people do not. The only times we don’t is when we have to get it in really fast like when it is about to rain. The folding of washing as it is got in results in less crinkled clothes, and therefore less ironing. 

I'm doing a shout out for my sister today. Jane has a blog over at The Misty Mountains. She has decided to start writing something a bit like a choose your own adventure story. She will be posting the next part each week and then give you readers three choices of what you want to happen next and you can vote for the one you want in the comments. So head over to her blog and check out the first part of Dusty Red....where the story begins. (yes it is my photo).

The story could go anywhere..........