My Vision Wall

I've been a fan of the Vision Board for a number of years and then in 

2017 my Vision Board turned into a Vision Wall.
I found the board was getting very crowded and spreading out on to the surrounding wall. 

I can also confirm that a few things that I have put on my board/wall have come to fruition. 

The beginning of my 2020 Vision Wall. It evolves and grows as the year progresses.

So far this years Vision Wall has proven to me that I am definitely a visual person. I've also always been a lists person, but I've always written my lists, jobs, goals, dreams in an allocated book, closed the book and sat it on my desk. Only to be actually visible to me when I opened the book. Yes a number of goals/jobs got completed but there was always quite a lot carried onto the next month.

My 2020 ToDo Book

So this month (February) I thought I'd try something different. 

As well as having my list in my 2020 ToDo book, I wrote each
February thing on a colourful sticky note and added them to my vision wall. 

Yes I am a visual person

Now seeing today is the last day of the month I am preparing for March and 

I'm happy to say even though there are some things carrying over, there are only three. 

I have completed much more than usual. 

Februray Goal Finally Finished!

I'm pretty happy with this effort and I've proved to myself, if I have a deadline I finish projects. 

As of today I have finally finished and delivered quilts for my two youngest grandchildren 

Louis (2) and Lily (2), no they are not twins, my kids just are very synchronised!! 

I have really loved doing these quilts, they are a mix of applique and machine 

and I ventured into the Quilt as you Go method and loved it. 

This is definitely now my preferred method of quilting. 

Louis Quilt

Lily's Quilt

I also painted them both a couple of watercolours and framed them. 

My first pieces of art to be framed and I'm pretty happy. 

Louis crazy birds

Lily's crazy birds

Very satisfied with this months effort.
#my2020journey

Fed Square Adventure Day

I'm now back home after having a wonderful time with my three adorable 

grandsons O'Shea, Finn and Louis. It's always very sad leaving them.

Granny Dave with Finn, Louis and O'Shea - Love these boys. 

On the weekend seeing I was catching up with some girlfriends in the city for lunch, I thought I'd get an earlier train and check out NGV Australia (National Gallery of Victoria) at Federation Square. It is also known as the Ian Potter Centre. When I got there the square and surrounds were filled with thousands of people for the Japanese Summer Festival.

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is an art gallery that houses the Australian part of the National Gallery of Victoria's collection. I've never visited this Australian site 

before and was very pleasantly surprised.

There are over 20,000 Australian artworks which include paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, fashion and textiles. This collection is one of the oldest and most famous in the country. Some well known works at the gallery include Frederick McCubbin's, The Pioneer (1904), Tom Robert's, Shearing of the Rams (1890) and many more.

The Pioneer - Frederick McCubbin 1904

 The three panels of  The Pioneer tell a story of a free settler, a farmer who has chosen some land to clear and farm, and his family. The story is ambiguous, like many of McCubbin's other works and McCubbin chose not to respond when controversy broke out over the "correct" meaning.

The left panel shows the settler and his wife settling on their selection of land; in the foreground the woman is deep in thought. In the centre panel, the baby in the woman's arms indicates that some time has elapsed. A cottage, the family home, can be seen in a clearing through the trees. The right panel shows a man crouching over a grave. A city is visible in the background, again indicating that time has passed. It is unclear whose grave it is, and if the man is the pioneer, the baby from the centre panel, or a stranger stumbling across the grave.

Lost - Frederick McCubbin - 1907

For some reason this painting really grabbed my attention.

I think you can feel the young boys sadness 

There is also some fantastic indigenous art which includes amazing works by 

William Barack, Emily Kngwarreye and many other talented artists.

No words needed

I loved this, it was so striking

This textile piece was amazing

A close up of the previous piece - amazing!!

It was not only the art that grabbed my attention. The smooth surfaces of the concrete walls with the various angles really gave the whole space a great feeling. This staircase also grabbed my attention.

Looking out the windows showed all the different angles.

I couldn't help but marvel at all the angles and the tactile feel of the concrete walls. 

I know it's just a staircase - but a pretty cool staircase!

Next time your looking for a little adventure and your anywhere near Melbourne CBD I'd really recommend paying NGV Australia a visit.

Then when I let the NGV, I came across something I've never seen before. It was Niska Robotic Ice-Cream Bar. Yes and ice-cream shop where you are served by a robot, your ice-cream is scooped by a robot and you pick up from a robot. Go figure! I was going to get one but the line was just to long. 

Niska Robotic Ice-Cream Bar

#my2020journey

My Broulee Adventure - Day 5

Definitely a lazy Sunday today. 

First up, after a quick visit to the local little supermarket 

I thought I'd go and check out Captain Oldrey Park which is a local 

sporting park and sport region for Broulee kids.

It was sad seeing the netball nets hanging in a sad state.

The surrounds of the park were devastated on New Years Eve and

 it's mind blowing how in five weeks the ground cover of ferns 

has regenerated the area. 

Nature sure is amazing in what she can do.

Nature is amazing

My afternoon was spent watching an Avengers movie and then listened and watched the amazing Fire Fight Australia Concert. Wow so many fantastic artists. Some of my favourites would be Daryl Braithwaite, Jessica Mauboy, Guy Sebastian, Deltra Goodrem, Ronan Keating, Tina Arena, Hilltop Hoods and Alice Cooper. Both my grandsons O'Shea and Finn liked Alice Coopers band. While Alice Cooper was singing I asked O'Shea if he liked guitar or drums and his answer "I like the Old Guy". How amazing were Queen and k.d Lang singing hallelujah bought tears to my eyes. Then of course there was John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John. 

OMG OMG what an amazing finish to an amazing concert. 

Oh my what a magnificent concert.

My Broulee Adventure - Day 4

Day 4 was a bit more eventful after my restful day yesterday. 

First up I woke up with a little car park in my bed with me.

A carpark in my bed - compliments of Louis

The morning was spent sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine.

Our how I love these kids

Then after lunch O'Shea, Finn and I took ourselves off to the movies to see "Sonic  The Hedgehog". 

It is totally a kids movie but was still fun to watch and so great to spend time 

with these two amazing boys. The popcorn and ice creams were fun too.

Then tonight it was out for a family night out. Dinner was at a great Indian restaurant called Kholis Indian Restaurant. The whole meal was super yummy, but I am SO full now.

Mmmm a great Indian meal

After dinner on the way home we went for a drive through the 

Mogo State Forest which was totally destroyed by the recent bushfires. 

So many houses burnt down, so many trees blackened, so many animals lost. 

Such a sad sad sight. 

Such a sad sight

My Broulee Adventure - Day 3

It's been a pretty quiet day today. Usually the day after I do the big drive 

whether it's coming up here or going home I'm pretty tired. 

With everyone of at work, school or childcare it was just me and 

Bosco to hang out at home.

Beautiful Frangipani 

Enjoying lunch on the new patio

Bosco

I had a little bit of  new house stuff to do on my laptop, then after a healthy lunch out on the new patio in the nice sunshine I could feel my eyes telling me it was time for a Nana nap. My eyes were definitely not getting an argument from me. 

Seeing it's Valentines Day Shane and Stacey went out for dinner and this kids and I hung out together. Louis enjoyed playing with his cars and the two bigger boys O'Shea and Finn claimed my bed to watch Star Wars on the iPad. 

Louis loves his cars

Finn and O'Shea take over my bed to watch a bit of Star Wars

My Broulee Adventure - Day 2

WooHoo I'm finally here. I headed off from Lakes Entrance around 7.30am and was welcomed by a very humid, very foggy morning, which lasted most of the trip. 

I was treated to a very humid foggy morning

An eerie morning in Lake Tyres State Forest

From the road everything looked fairly normal until I got to Orbost. The SES and the army are still stationed there making sure all the fires are totally out and clearing up the surrounding roads. All of a sudden you could smell the smoky smell. It was the smell of when a campfire has been put out with water and the lingering smoke smell fill the air. Also, the trees were starting to show where the flames had licked them and either been extinguished or changed direction. Then the devastating sight hit me. Both sides of the road and as far as I could see was black tree trunks, burnt leaves and ash on the ground. 

As far as I could see there were dead trees

This tiny fern bought a smile to my face

So Sad !

There was the occasional group of trees that were missed but this terribly depressing sight continued for at least 40 kilometres. After a bit I was back to the normal bushland I am used to and then I hit the Cobargo area and township. 

 

It's beautiful to see some of the tree sprouting greenery already

There was a lot of damage on the roads due to trees falling

That's when I saw the devastation of houses and buildings laying on the ground in a crumpled mess. It was about at this point I just needed to stop the car and let the tears fall. How could this possibly happen? How can we as a nation make sure nothing like this ever happens again?  

Two things along my journey today did bring a smile to my face. Seeing the greenery sprouting from some of the trees and the small ferns emerging out of the blackness. Also. luckily I was driving slowly as out of the blackness on one side of the road a small kangaroo hopped out onto the road. I stopped and we looked at each other and off he hopped to the other side of the road disappearing into more blackness. 

I'm now in Broulee and totally loving spending time with these three little guys. No there were no tears just lots of big hugs. 

It certainly was hard to negotiate Louis, O'Shea and Finn into three smiling faces. 

But oh how I love these faces. 

My Broulee Roadtrip - Day 1

Today is the first day of my much awaited Broulee road trip. After the devastating bushfires hit Australia and my son and his young family being caught up in it I have hanging to get up to Broulee to spend some time with them. Up until a few days ago the roads have been closed and it wasn't going to happen. But the main road is now open so this morning I headed off from home around 8.00am knowing I would get a fair bit of peak hour traffic, which I did. But seeing I expected it all was ok. After a couple of hours my first stop was in Traralgon to see my cousin Sue and drop off a couple of things to her. Next was onto Bairnsdale for a bit of lunch and then back on the road for the last leg of today's journey to the coastal town of Lakes Entrance. All up, my drive took me around five hours. Even though the township of Lakes Entrance had no damage from the fires it was terribly affected with thousands of holiday makers being evacuated. It was a huge blow for all the businesses as that was their busiest time. I booked into the RSL Glenara Motel which is clean, comfy and great value. After settling in I went for a wander down the street and noticed a lot of businesses closed, which I presume is a result of the downturn in business due to our devastating Summer. Talking to one of the locals she was saying how lucky the town was that the forest behind the town didn't catch fire. If it had the town could have been gone. She was also saying just much damage the fires and resulting evacuation did to local businesses. The motels faired ok as all the emergency personal that were in the area needed some where to lay their heads but lots of small businesses just had to shut up shop in the first few weeks of 2020. One of my aims on this road trip was to buy anything I need in the local shops, because if we all do this while visiting these towns they have more of a chance of surviving. Driving up and going for a walk today there was constant drizzly rain which was an inconvenience while walking but is great to saturate the ground so all vegetation can regrow. All of a sudden at around 3.30pm in rolled a heavy fog the ocean. It was a very eerie feel. 

I didn't have to travel far for dinner as the motel has a good restaurant that has pretty good Chinese meals. 

So it was a yummy meal before back into my room for a quiet night in front of the TV before having an early night for another day of driving tomorrow. I expect tomorrow's drive to take a bit longer than normal as I will be heading through areas that were devastated but the bushfires and there will still be lots of roadworks happening.