I guess a few of you will be preparing for Thanksgiving overseas.  We don’t have it here and we’re celebrating spring with a bit of rain and lovely cool temperatures in Tassie.

Mr. Penguin, the Penguin and I are getting ready to head off to Sri Lanka on Saturday for a 17 day trip. We have not been there before and I think it will be very interesting. Visiting cities, country, Buddhist temples, national parks and an elephant orphanage which I am very excited about. Anything with animals just draws me right in.

I’ve been busy with photography, socialising and preparing for this trip. Our dogs are looking forward to the house sitter arriving as they love her. The cats are headed for camp, as we tell them.

I always say I’ll post the trip as I go but I find the days are long, the weather humid and hot and by night time I only want a cool shower and bed. We’ll see how we go. I thought I’d take some photos this time with my Samsung phone as it is quicker to post up a few photos that way rather than using my big Canon, downloading to computer, editing and posting. I just don’t have the time or energy to do that.

I’ve downloaded a couple of drawing books on Overdrive from the library.  I plan on doing a drawing class next year and a friend of mine and I want to visit a few parks and reserves and make time to sketch.  Both of us are beginners so I guess it will be a bit of motivation and some laughs.

I am still listening to A Gentleman in Moscow but only when I’m in the car.  (I always have a car book).  I’ve just finished The Dry by Jane Harper which I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. I did think parts of the explanation for the murders were sometimes a bit more far fetched than reality but overall it was a good story and held my interest.

I got a gorgeous 2019 diary some books for my birthday from very dear friends and I’ll share them here.

 

 

Peter Dombrovskis was the ‘premier’ photographer of Tasmanian wilderness and his photos are marvellous. He did for Tasmania what Ansell Adams did for the American west.

There are a couple more books but I will share them at another time.

I’m thinking a lot about what I want to do for 2019. First off…NO challenges. No Deal Me In, no promising I’ll only read from my TBR; absolutely nothing promised.  I do think I’ll read some more suggestions from the 1001 Children’s Books. I’d like to fill in a few from my Century of Books. That could take me the rest of my life but hey, who cares?

I would like to listen to more classics in the car.  I find listening to Classics on Audible is a very good way to hear them.  I lose concentration if I wait until night time to read them because I run out of energy.  I would like to read more Australian literature especially some of the older books.

I have to plan my weeks differently next year as the fatigue from the MS is getting me down.  I overdo it then I’m laid up in a chair in front of Netflix  or in bed watching you tube for a couple of days. That’s the bugger of MS but I am extremely fortunate it has not progressed much over the past 18 years so I am not complaining.  But some things will have to go. Back to Sunday nights designing my energy budget for the week. Not as many nights out. More exercise, less eating. More time in nature with my dogs and camera.

I will think about all of that while I sit on long plane flights and map my immediate future. I find travelling always puts things in perspective and shows me what is important and what isn’t.

So stay tuned.  I’m putting in a few photos just to break up this post a bit.