Mum bought me a Valentine's Day balloon! It was red and had hearts on it. When she bought it, she was told by the lady who sold it to her that there was only a guarantee that it would stay up in the air for one day. It was very "floaty " when Mum brought it home... But the next day it looked very "saggy" and could only remain on the ground ! It looked very tired!

Sometimes people feel a little like this balloon... a bit tired and out of energy. A caring thought and a smile can really make the person gain strength and feel lifted up like a balloon. I send you a balloon filled with lots of special thoughts from me to you , for you to look at when you are feeling a bit tired, aching and have pain. It will never deflate like an ordinary balloon does.

I send a rainbow of hellos to you ! Yellow to send some sunshine into your days and thankfulness for the yellow warmth of family and friendships. Blue for bluebells to chime out a melody of music to brighten your day. Orange and red as a reminder of the sight of a beautiful sunrise or sunset. Green for grass, that as you walk along life's pathway may a carpet of soft flowers be always under your feet whatever your daily lives hold .

This is a very nice picture of Dutch Springtime scenery. It is a lovely scene of colourful tulips with the background of a windmill.  The rows of different coloured tulips are just like life. Our world is made up of millions and billions of people from all countries around the world and we all join together to create the scenery of life on Earth.

We all live our daily lives, enjoying eating, sleeping, studying, playing, laughing, crying, chatting and working. Every person just like every tulip brings beauty into the world each day. Thank you for the extra special , precious, and lovely role that you have in this world!

I have been having  the most "squishiest" red plums lately !! Mum bought a white polystyrene  plate of plums from the green grocers that were very ripe and squishy! They were put out cheaper because they were ready to eat. But... some plums weren’t  completely ripe so that was great because we could leave them a few days whilst we ate the ripest ones. They tasted very nice, but Mum got very purplish reddish fingers as she peeled off the skins! The red flesh decided to stain her hands!

It is a bit like life. May the love we have for others leave a stain on their  hearts. May we be like plums that are soft inside , and let caring loving concern for others leave an encouraging imprint on their day!

Daylight Savings Time ends next week. I always remember what way to change the hour by remembering the saying  : " Spring forward , Fall (Autumn) backwards" We turn our clocks backwards next weekend.

Moments, hours and days pass by. Sometimes they skip along as quick as can be, like a young child happily hop skip and jumping along a pathway. Other times they are like little snails that poke their heads out, have a look at the sunlight, then poke their heads back in and the time very slowly ticks over. Each moment we spend with our loved ones is very special. May we treasure, enjoy, take delight in and be thankful for the moments of our everyday daily life!

     It is nice looking at all the pretty coloured foil papers  that are around  chocolate Easter eggs. The only thing is that the inside is empty! It is the opposite to normal eggs where the shell looks plain but the inside which is the yolk and whites are the tasty parts of the eggs when cooked or used in meals. There are though Easter eggs that have creme filling in the middle or contain smarties or other lollies in the middle! Little tiny eggs are rock solid with chocolate ! Eggs come in all sorts of varieties when I start to think about it! Some are  hollow, some chocolate solid inside, others with liquidy  yolk and white, some have pretty outer coverings , whilst others just have a white shell.

May loving helpfulness and care explode from inside us like a yolk or white does when its shell is cracked, and may the prettiness of the foil of Easter eggs come in the form of the beauty of a smile that we give out each day!

We received a postcard last week from a lady who has travelled to Lord Howe Island for a holiday with her daughter. The pictures on the front of the postcard were very nice! She said that it was a very calm, scenic and restful place to stay. It was great that she wrote a lot of news in the very small space that you are given on the back of a postcard!

She used quite smallish handwriting! May we be like postcards. May we write messages of love on people's hearts through caring words, smiles and thoughtful actions. Just like the front of a postcard, every person has such beauty inside them bursts out from them. Thankyou for the specialness and beautifulness that you bring to everyday life for those around you.

It is quite amazing that as I am writing this, I am looking outside our side window and in plant pots that are there, there are very brown, withered  spindly plant stems  that look quite dead, and yet on the tops of three of them are a nice pink flower! I don't really know where the flowers are getting their nutrients from! The stems are not really helping them!

They look very determined though to keep staying to bring a touch of colour to our days as we look out through the window! Sometimes we may feel a bit "withered" and tired. We still can bring a touch of beauty to the world in the midst of our pain.  Sometimes it can get very tiring in the pain, but may we imagine a big fluffy pillow to be surrounding and cocooning us. May we have the strength that we need just for the day, hour or minute.

It is great that there is a variety of apples which we can enjoy eating! There are different varieties for different times of the year. At the moment, we can eat Jazz apples. I don't think that you need to go jazz dancing after eating this apple! Also, it is not only royal or regal people who eat Royal Gala apples! And definitely, you do not need to be a grandmother to eat Granny Smith apples, or be a male named Jonathon to eat Jonathon apples!

I was thinking the other day about apple seeds. They are very little, but if you plant one, they will grow very, very big and tall! It is a bit like a smile, or a caring word or empathising expression on a face. It may be just little, but the effect of it can brighten  so much and bring sunshine to another persons day! Someone may be crying inside, and with the sunshine you bring, the apple pip smile/word/expression plus the tears water and sunshine will grow a nice tasty apple!

Happy Wintertime! I am not too keen on the cold weather that Wintertime brings, but all the seasons of the year brings nice experiences with it. The sound of rain falling on the rooftop at night time is a sound to hear. Nice hot toast eaten  straight away from the toaster at breakfast time tastes even better in Winter. Looking at my bright pink slippers on a Wintery darkish day makes me feel

happy! May the warmth of the love from your much loved and loving family and friends fill each of your days through this Winter season! May sunshine moments be scattered daily in your lives, whatever the weather is like outdoors.

It is the Queen's birthday today! It is not really her birthday though, because her real birthdate is April 21st! We are not royals in that we live in palaces or have grand furnishings in our homes or wear regal clothing. But... when you live in a home where you are amongst family and friends whom you love and are loved  by, you can feel like a queen or a princess. The type of furnishings that we have in our homes do not affect the  joy of our lives. It is the caring support, love, and helpingness that our loved ones give us that are the true furnishings in our daily lives. May we not wear big bulky ornate regalia clothing that would just weigh us down and make it hard to walk in.

Instead, may we wear a smile on our face, have glasses on our eyes that look out to see how others are, and be aware that our loved ones, both with us and those that have passed away,  are like little squares  of patchwork that are combining together to make up a coat of love for us to wear.

❤

It is nice looking out through the windows and seeing sunshine, even though it is quite chilly indoors! Some of the mornings have had quite low temperatures over this last week! On some days , the suburb where we live was being mentioned in weather reports that they had very a  low overnight temperature that night! It

makes me feel even colder! Sometimes when people are feeling a little "low" or down, just a very small loving and caring act, whether it be a smile, a message, a talk , or an act can bring rays of sunshine into their day. May we all bring warmth into another person's Wintery day!

Just one more day and then we will have had a month gone of Winter! The weather has been so very cold and Wintry lately that it has been good  weather for snow! I wonder if the green grocers in the snow area towns  sell extra amounts of carrots over the Winter month, for people who want to have noses for their snowmen?! Perhaps if we have a season where the is lots and lots of

downfalls of snow, it may lead to a carrot drought! Then, carrots might cost one hundred dollars each! I don't think that it will get to that stage! Carrots are meant to be good for your eyesight. Whether people have good physical eyesight or not, more importantly is heart eyesight. May we look at people with our "heart eyes" , caring for them, loving them, sharing in their joys and seeing them with how they feel inside. 

May each day of this month hold special moments for you. May you see a smile when you need it, find a listening ear when you need to talk,and enjoy the beautiful scent of flowers as you walk through your day.

May your footsteps down  your daily life pathway be walked with you knowing  that you are so loved by your precious loving and loved  family and friends and that they are beside you on the sides of your life pathway, encouraging you on in your daily life.     

  I think that this rose picture is very nice! It is so very colourful! It reminds me of what life is like, with such a variety of people in the world with all sorts of tastes, likes, interests and talents. Every person brings beauty and specialness

into the world and our days! Rose petals are fragile and life is precious and fragile. Thankyou to you for making life beautiful!

One of the things I remember about my grandpa ( mum's dad )  is that he liked pepper on his food! I was little when he passed away and I can always remember being at his and my grandma's  home everyday, and he would always be peppering his meals! When I see pumpkin, I always think of my grandma because she really enjoy eating pumpkin! When she wasn't feeling too well, pumpkin and bread and butter would be the food she enjoyed eating. When I hear about home made vegie soup, I instantly think of Mum's cousin who would make up a big batch of vegie soup each Christmas and bring it up with her when she came visiting my grandma who lived with us. My Mum's cousin lived in Frankston, so it would have been quite hard to transport soup from there! But, she knew that my grandma enjoyed eating it!  She is the cousin who gave my grandpa a bowl of jelly to take home with him after visiting her... the only thing was that the temperature that day was 37 degrees! The jelly didn't make it home intact!  It is funny the strange things that you can associate with people!

It is very special the memories we have with people. May we always every day treasure the special moments we spend with our loved ones. Life is a journey and love is our constant encouragement as we walk along the pathway!

It is Daffodil Day this coming Friday. People buy daffodil themed badges, pens, daffodils, and other items as a sign to support everyone touched by cancer and to raise funds for the Cancer Council of Australia as they do research and support those people who have cancer. Daffodils are very sunshiney flowers!

They seem to shout out a message of joy and light. Whatever is happening in our lives, through pain, tiredness, laughter and tears, may a garden of daffodils be growing in your heart.

     This is the last week of Winter. Spring will soon have sprung into life!  I have never seen a snowflake but I can imagine how beautiful it would look if snowflakes were falling and sunlight caught the edges of them! If there was a rainbow as well, it would look extra lovely!

People are very beautiful. Love shines out from inside them like a rainbow covered snowflake that is glistening in the sunshine. Their inner self radiates love out. It is not how we look on the outside, it is the inside that is our true self. Thankyou for how special you all are!

Hippos are funny animals! They are very big animals! Their full name "hippopotamus " is a very long word too! It is a great word for teachers to use for their students to spell in a spelling bee!

The  three word sentences :"I love you" and "Thinking of you" and:"How are you?" are only little sentences but they mean so very much! We don't need to use big long words or sentences, to tell others that we love them and care about them.