Focus on Life - Week 20

Week 20: Looking Up

"This week let’s change our perspective and look up!"

Less than two weeks ago I was worried about a rather large bushfire about 20km (give or take) away from our home. In typical Autumn weather it rained for almost a full week and put it completely out! Since then it's been wet, cold and very frosty in the mornings.

I took this photo of my mum's Claret Ash tree, planted when we moved here over 40 years ago. It's currently a sunny but cold 8C (46F) and all the Autumn leaves have turned from green to red and gold and have promptly dropped to the ground, all in less than a week.

The only tree that has been able to hold on to its leaves is the red Japanese Maple, it's the same age as the Claret Ash but only a quarter of its size (maybe 10 foot or so). Some of the leaves are still green too. Just after I took this photo the sky turned black and the temperature dropped yet again, it's going to be a cold night! I hope my readers in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying the warmer Spring weather...I'm envious!

Please visit Sally at Studio Sublime for more Focus on Life posts by the other participants.

RIP Google Reader and what's next

Ok, so we've all heard that Google Reader is shutting down soon and have all gone looking for our own replacements. Personally I use Feedly, I've been using it on my iPad since I bought it.

What you might not have noticed is that I've added two new buttons to my sidebar. One for Feedly and the other for Bloglovin'. It took a bit of digging around to find the code to provide a Feedly button and if anyone would like a copy of the code just email me.

A lot a people are reading blogs in their Reading List on the Blogger Dashboard and there are people who prefer to get their blog updates via email. I use Feedburner to burn my feeds, and although they do provide a RSS to Email feature I am a little nervous since other features have been disabled (Adsense for feeds) and that Feedburner might be next on Google's hit list.

So, I've been looking for a replacement for Feedburner' email feature, and of course I'd prefer it to be free. That brings me to this guy. Mailchimp seems the perfect fit for me, it's free for the first 2000 subscribers and they also offer paid plans, by the month or pay as you go. You can purchase credits for as little as $9AU and each newsletter costs only 3cents to send. They have an excellent range of pre-made templates or you can make your own using their RSS features that "pick up" your blog header and content.

I've tested it out on myself this week and have received a rather nifty email weekly newsletter. My aim was to get it to look as much like this site as possible. I was a bit concerned that if I had posted more than once last week not all of my posts would appear, but both turned up in my newsletter. Unfortunately the mobile version bombed-out with no posts at all (I'll have to fix that!) but everything else looked good.

So, here's the question (there's a poll in the sidebar) would you sign up for a weekly newsletter-style email based on the blog feeds or would you prefer daily emails. Either way if I don't post you, won't get an email. I might even be able to offer both options, I'll have to check it out on the Mailchimp website.

Soon I'll be adding a subscription box for the newsletter (daily or weekly, you get to decide) in the sidebar and including it on my Facebook page and other places. You can be reassured that your information will be 100% confidential, and will never be used for nefarious (love that word) purposes.

Oh, and before I forget, I've changed the Contact Me option in the tabs at the top of the page. A lot of the emails were going straight to my spam folder so I've changed the form over to 123contact. It seems to work better with my email provider and 123contact keep a confidential record of the emails in case something goes wrong.

Focus on Life - Week 19

Week 19: Hope

“If you feel you know how to get what you want out of life, and you have that desire to make that happen, then you have hope,”

~Jennifer Cheavens


Wow, this weeks prompt is an interesting one.


When I think of hope I naturally think about the future, and that always leads me to think about my kids. I've always felt that as a parent it's my job to ensure that my children's hopes for their future have the greatest possibility of being fulfilled.

My daughters - my hope for the future

These are my daughters, April (the eldest on the left) and Sara (youngest, on the right). I took this photo at their joint birthdays (born 5 years and one week apart), there is a pair of yummy chocolate cakes just out of shot, one a dragon and the other an owl.


April is a first year at university studying music (piano and musicology) and is hoping to add a second degree to that next year. Sara is in her second year of high school (year nine here in Australia), plays guitar and loves drawing and design. Although both are creative, April is organised, responsible and introverted where Sara is extroverted, impulsive and has a wicked sense of humor. I think they balance each other out.


These two girls are my hopes and dreams for the future.