Shining Stars Magazine is a wonderful ministry that produces four magazines each year. They are so encouraging and Godly, I would highly recommend to you to subscribe and get it posted to you. It is always so nice to receive such a beautiful magazine in the mailbox.

This year Shining Stars has made a beautiful calendar for 2015. You can buy it for only $US9.99. In other words ten dollars US and whatever that then ends up being in Australian dollars. I don't understand the business world's obsession with .99 everything, but I will probably do it one day too. Except that everything I get paid for is in cash. But anyway, Shining Stars Magazine has this calendar and you could get it for even less if you want to use a promo code they gave me which is "clare10". 

And because I think they worded it well I shall quote directly from the Shining Stars Magazine Website.

"The Shining Stars 2015 calendar features 13 months (January 2015-January 2016) of beautiful photographs complimented by inspirational quotes and Scripture verses.  Professionally designed and printed, this hanging calendar can be a wonderful and practical way to brighten up your wall!  It can make a great gift for a friend too!"

I was going to say something almost exactly the same. As I said before you should also check out the magazine.

Some of the latest ones have articles I wrote in them and future ones probably will too. You could even get a sample one for only $2.

Ah yes shameless advertising! But I would really recommend these magazines to any young lady... or old... they are so full of encouragement to live for Jesus. They also have cool craft ideas in them and tons of recipes.

So at least go have a look at Shining Stars Magazine website and blog etc.

A month or so ago I did  a post on flowers I had found. Here is another. I took all the photos on boxing day down near the Hunter River. I expect most of the flowers are weeds, but they are pretty.

After running around finding all the flowers I did a bit of canoeing with everyone else. Most of the time I just hid under a tree from the sun and watched animals creeping around. Fish made circular ripples that waved out and out until they mingled with other ripples or came to rest on the banks. Some fish jumped right out of the river their scales glistening for a second before they disappeared into the brown depths. Two young turtles surfaced with just the tip of their noses out of the water. Just under the surface their legs paddled slowly. 

Many small life forms and mosquito fish also shared the water. On the bank lizards plopped into the river at my approach. Bugs and creepy white millipedes crawled around me. Mosquito hovered, only one succeeded in getting a meal the others in the vicinity were strategically dispatched with numerous slaps. Bright red dragonflies folded their crystal wings to rest on green rushes. Tiny birds darted above my head. I even stood so still that a pair of willy wagtails alighted in the branched of the willow above me.

Some of the flowers are obviously garden escapees and others thistles, they way they were growing like mad all over the sand made them look more weed like.

What flower is you favourite?

What did you do on Boxing day?

Yes once I never thought I'd write that word 'Xmas'. It has only really begun to be used commonly and printed all over wrapping paper and any Christmas things fairly recently. So I assumed that someone had created Xmas recently and was using it to get the Christ out of Christmas. It isn't.

I thought, and a lot of non-christains and Christians probably think that the X does replace the Christ, and that it makes the word Christmas then become nonreligious. I thought that Xmas was non or anti-christian. Is that what you think?

Well if so, you are about to be enlightened. The "X" in Xmas actually comes from the Greek letter Chi. Chi is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός which translated to English is; "Christ." So Xmas really is just a shortening of Christmas. 

Xmas has actually been around for at least a thousand years. Even names with "Christ" as part of them have been shortened. I don't know exactly when it started but in the 15th century many Christians used it in books as a shortening of Christ to save precious space and precious paper. The X does not mean disrespect and the is a long history of its use. There is no plot to get rid of Christness out of Christmas it is just a shortening! Not that I am going to start saying Xmas though. I will stick with Christmas (except in the title of this post).

She is up and walking no doubt. In fact she can stand up while shoved inside an oversize stocking and then walk around. As you can see in these photos.

Isn't there some quote that says the best gift at Christmas is family?

Emmanuel: From the Hebrew name עִמָּנוּאֵל ('Immanu'el) meaning "God is with us". This was the foretold name of the Messiah in the Old Testament.

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?

Have/are you doing anything special for others this Christmas?

On Friday the 24th of  May 2013 I did a post about this puzzle and now I can finally finish the story! 

Because I have finally finished the puzzle! I finished it on Thursday the 18th of December 2014. (yes I say the date because it is such a noteworthy occasion) So it didn't really take years to do.... Not quite.... even if it felt like I have been doing that puzzle for my entire life up to now.

See it is done. The worlds most evil puzzle. If you want to know why that is read the first post. I must mention that I had many helpers in finishing this, particularly my mum and sisters. Some relatives helped and I think some friends may have put in a few pieces. And now it is finally finished.

Sadly it is also all packed up back in the box it came in.... the box with the wrong picture on it. I couldn't help but think; "It takes years months and months to do and yet in less than a minute I can destroy the whole thing and put it back in the box."

So many things in life can be like that, they take years and years to build, but one small thing can topple it. In such a small amount of time, things of years can be destroyed; like reputation. We have to be careful we don't destroy them. Especially if it is a painful to put together as that puzzle was!  

The chooks start cackling and crowing and then I hear the all the corellas, galahs and cockatoos in the vicinity of the chook yard begin. Knowing what that noise heralds, I run outside and sure enough a goanna is hauling itself slowly towards the nest box. I chase it off, but not far. It goes up the nearest tree and the raucous sqwarks of the corellas who are nesting in the tree grow louder. 

Goannas - or to be specific, the sort we have here are Lace Monitors - are on the move at this time of the year. Climbing from tree to tree looking for the eggs of any bird they can find. Of course they also make regular trips to my chook yard each day. In fact I got interrupted writing this by frantic noises form the chook yard and raced outside to find a Lace Monitor prowling around under the mulberry tree, my nest box had already been raided.

On the 12th we had a rather exciting bird adventure. Late that evening we found a baby Satin Bowerbird. The little thing must have just left the nest (possibly not intentionally) and could not really fly. It fluttered around getting tangled in the long grass. We had set a cat trap earlier, because of yet another dumped cat sneaking around. The little bowerbird didn't stand much chance that night, what with cats, foxes and the fact that it seemed to be headed over towards the neighbors and therefor their dog. The Noisy Miners were also intent on dive bombing it. So we caught the young bird (after a few attempts) and put it in a cage for the night.

The mother bird hung around, always somewhere nearby. Then in the morning we let the baby bird out. I had also managed to catch a rather grumpy cat in the trap. The baby Satin Bowerbird sat in the back of the cage till we left and then it flew out to the ground and hoped along after its mother. I then chased the poor thing with my camera and as you can see got some photos. I chased it up into a big bush were it should stay safe especially since there is one less cat prowling around.

One less beautiful eye predator out there to get the birds. But just last night mummy heard another bird scream as something made it into a tasty meal.

The Little Corellas like our Chinese Elm tree. I watched a flock of them settle down on it and the surrounding palm trees. They intently snipped at the leaves and twigs, breaking them off and sprinkling the ground with them. One of the corellas dangled upside-down holding on by only its claws. The bird hung there for a while, until another corella  landed next to it and bent the branch further. The corella flapped wildly and plummeted to the ground, but rose almost straight up, just before it crashed into the grass.

Two Little Corellas (another sort of Corella is the Long-billed Corella)

Here is the memory verse I am learning this fortnight... I totally forgot to even make a wallpaper for the last one... This verse is particularly hard because my whole family learnt it in another version.... it is about the first memory verse I ever did. I remember......  the "To Do" verse...... which God prepared in advance for us TO DO! what a long time ago.

For taking a photo like this you need a lot of magic dust and the skill to capture the shot as the stars explode..... Ok I hope you didn't believe that. Actually it is called bokeh and is pronounced Bo-Ke (Bo as in bow and arrows bow, and Ke as in kettle.) I have always liked the normal bokeh effect and have posted lots of photos of it in the past but that was normal bokeh. This is christmasy (and apparently christmasy is not a word but that is not stopping me from using it!)

Bokeh can be any shape at all, everything... the shape depends on what shape you cut. I have made three shapes a star, a heart and a Christmas tree. All you need is a piece of cardboard which can be white or black but I would recommend black.... as every other person I have heard of does.... and I just had to go make a white one to find out why not use a white one.... I found out. White cardboard works but it also gives the whole photo a slightly whiter look... a more over exposed or speckledy white... but without it actually being overexposed.... So it turns our that black cardboard is better. 

As to why it does that, well it just does and here is Google's definition;

"All you need to know is that bokeh is the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph. If you'd like a more technical definition, Nikon described bokeh as "the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject, using a fast lens, at the widest aperture, such as f/2.8 or wider"."

If you can't understand that then an even more technical definition would be even more impossible to understand.... especially since I would be explaining something that I don't exactly understand. It shall just have to be enough that bokeh does happen.

As to how do I change it from circles to stars or whatever. I cut a circle of cardboard the same size as the end of my lens and then cut the desired shape inside it. While taking these photos I had the cardboard held onto the end of my lens, simple as really. 

But not all cameras can do it... only one of my lenses can... the one that can get the really big aperture f/1.8. 

I took all these photos early in the morning after it had rained so there were lots of "highlights" in the background and foreground. All the bright spots that are not in focus turn into the stars or whatever shape. So water drops with the early morning sun glinting off them are perfect to give a lovely bokeh effect. Or of course if you can catch a trail of a unicorn as it gallops past, because everyone knows they leave stars in glints of magic light in their path.

The bokeh in this photo really changes it from a pretty ordinary shot into something a lot more interesting. So keep your magic dust handy and watch out for unicorn trails.

The times have gone on

but what have we learned?

That all the stuff of those ages

 to dust has returned?

Or do we just forget

while we store up now

What is history for 

but to learn from somehow?

The chook yard is the place to go if you want to find strange bits and pieces.... the most common things that make their way out from hiding there are bits of tiles, rocks, smashed pottery, and odd bits of hard plastic. Nuts and bolts, bits of pipe and other metal also appear. Once I found a huge hunk of rusty something. I don't know why they all like to appear in the chook yard. Possibly they turn up there because the top layer of the ground is constantly being scratched at by my hens or because it is behind the shed.....

The other day I found a horseshoe. Well what remained of one. I can see each flake of metal and the holes are rusted away as is one tip of the shoe. I couldn't help wondering "how long ago did a horse wear that shoe? How long is it since that metal shone bright from the forge?" Is it rather old or not so old?" We have never had horses, but maybe there were ones on this property once a long time ago. Maybe someone dropped it there and it has lain hidden for years until the chooks unearthed it. "Were those years short or long?"

I had another idea too. The chook yard is just the right place for old stuff to appear so rusty things.... smashed tiles... nuts and bolts all worm their way there from miles around, pushing though kilometers of soil to appear in my chook yard.... I like that theory best. It appeals to my imagination. 

If that theory were true the shoe would not have to be all that old.... but it could be. All those random thoughts lead on to the thoughts expressed in the little poem at the beginning. Everything fades and turns back to dust.. or from metal to rust to dust in the case of this horseshoe. I have previously found horseshoes (though not in the chook yard) and scrubbed them and cleaned a lot of the rust off them but to do so with this one would obliterate it. 

In our life and especially coming up to Christmas just remember that it is the heavenly gain that lasts. It is our treasure in heaven that is untouchable by moth, rust and time. All our bits and pieces on earth will soon be nothing, remember Only The Things Of The LORD Will Last!

Hey y'all!.... wait I unsay that, that is what Americans say and I have no idea why. I shall just say 'greetings to one and all' ...which has nothing to do with my being Australian, and everything to do with how I am feeling at this exact moment. Well I have recently been awarded the ummm I think I shall call it The Wasteland Tag and drop the word winter because...well it is summer...

Thankyou to Clara from Reasons To Smile for awarding me the tag that inspired this post the 'Winter Wasteland Tag' which is essentially the same as a blogger award. And now for a piece of interesting information Clara got awarded this by Julia Ryan over at Writing For His Glory. And she actually made up this tag! So you can all blame her for it!

to quote Julia "I've made up my own tag! I am getting sick of doing the same things while the snow keeps on falling."

See..

So for the rules......its pretty simple. You share on your blog 5-15 things to do in the winter when you are board. Then you just need to nominated 5-10 bloggers for the award. 

But.... it is Summer and I do not get bored. I assume bored is meant... and not board which is the flat sort.... and the sort that Clara said.... I shall assume for sanity's sake that we are talking about the feeling bored and not that you are flat board. And I shall stop talking about it before I get so confused that I need a hole bored in my head to relieve the pressure.

If I don't know what to do...well that is a rarity in itself... Even when we go other places I make a note to take a book with me everywhere. So if I have time I can read and not if worst comes to worst... that (worst comes to worst) is only if I happen to finish the book, and there be no other for me to read...... in which case I do nothing except grow my patience.... which is a good thing to do. 

See so someone randomly decided to make up an award tag and then it spreads...... just like a disease....

Since I just love changing things I will change the rules.... my excuse being to make them more applicable to the wasteland tag. Along those lines though, in Australia... at least here in Australia.... as least where I live (I will eventually get to the point...or more likely a few points, if I don't forget what they were before I get to them.)  Summer is the season for staying inside and hiding from the weather. Winter is so lovely and cool and the season to be outside in the nice warm sunlight. It can feel as if we have a bit much warm sunlight in Summer.

See lovely warm sunlight.....

Now I will list some summer things to do: 1. Stay cool and don't overheat, or get sunstroke or dehydrate. That would make everything a lot worse. A trip to the beach may be nice.... if you like swimming in the ocean.... an not just cook on the sand like I end up doing. There is the wonderful invention called a pool, and a sprinkler. I quite like the sprinkler or hose. I wouldn't swim in dams though as they may not have much water in them... and just boggy mud. But of course it may even be to hot to go out.

2. I shall assume you have no schoolwork to do so the next thing is umm..... House work.... surely there are tones of jobs your mum would love to have done..... you know have the oven, stove and microwave cleaned..... or that shelf that always gets missed in the general dusting... or even the computer keyboard. (just unplug or turn it off first, to avoid any unforeseen drastic happenings resulting from keyboard shortcuts being pressed)

3. Don't you have any hobbies? at all? 

4. Write..... and if you have a blog then blog on it.... if you have all this time then why are we not seeing more posts?

5. Read.... and if you don't read.....well you really must not have any extra time.... or well I just totally don't understand anyone who does not enjoy reading.

6. Find another hobby....or just do another of one of your many....

7. Cook something for you family or bless another family. If you hate cooking well let me tell you that it is a skill you will need. Everyone has to cook stuff sometimes. If you don't know how then hurry up and learn.

8. Plan.... what I don't know! Anything there is probably a lot of things you could plan. At the moment I am planing on what to get my family for Christmas.... and some friends too... and getting stuff for them and then thinking of other people I need would like to get something for.

9. Make people presents for Christmas... Presents that are hand made are so special.

10. If it so happens to be after Christmas then surely you got some interesting presents you can do something with.... so do that

And now I have reached the end of my summery photos I shall end on 10 because it is such a nice number and then I shall nominate some people, for "The Wasteland Tag" either summer or winter... 

Jane
Sarah
Zach
Rosie
Alyssa Monk
His Princess 

and as for why it is awarded.... that is because I tagged you...why? because I did.