Gluten Free Sweet Delight

A few years ago I made a kit kat Lasagna for # 2 daughter's 18th birthday, it was a big hit, both with her friends and the internet (over 60,000 views). 

My niece said she wanted one for her 30th birthday and of course I agreed - she since discovered she is gluten intolerant so my challenge was to recreate the chocolate and wafer goodness gluten free.

I was amazed at the products that have wheat in them, marshmallow for example and a lot of lollies  

This is the start, gluten free wafer biscuits (they taste like kit kat)

Crushed honeycomb

White Chocolate ganache 

Allens Freckles 

Chocolate Pudding

Toffee with Almonds crushed  for a rough praline

Final layer of wafer biscuits Gluten free of course

Before the sugar police jump up and down about how bad this is and how much fat and sugar is in it, consider that it will be shared with up to 30 people each having a piece smaller than a normal serve of cake.

It is a yummy gooey treat that should be eaten with moderation and much joy.

Happy Birthday to my niece who is not related but is a very important part of my life.

Night Sky

I had the most amazing opportunity the other night, the chance to hook my camera to a telescope.

One of the teachers at the local high school is a mad keen astrologist, after a lot of talk and promises to show me the stars it finally happened. When I thought about taking photos of the stars, I imagined that we would go somewhere out bush with plenty of dark, so when we started making firm plans to catch up I was very surprised to find he decided my backyard was the perfect spot.

Let me tell you is is much easier to set up a lens than it is to set up the telescope, there was weights and counter balance, motorised swivel heads, web cams and lots of other gadgets I had no idea what they could be and lots  and lots of cables.

I am a see it and shoot sort of photographer so it was fascinating to watch the set up procedure of the telescope using the webcam the telescope focused on 3 bright stars in the sky, these were used to set the tracking then using a 'star gazing' program coordinates were programed and the telescope moved and zoomed in to the stars/solar systems.

I felt like a bit of a fraud claiming I took these photos, as all I did was connect the camera and set the ISO and time  (they were all taken in bulb mode requiring the need to set a time) my camera did not recognise the telescope as a lens so the fstop was 00, however it was pointed out to me as a photographer this is what we do, I did get the telescope moved a few times to get a better composition. So I am owning this photos and the whole experience.

The lens getting set up in the backyard

The bright star in the middle of the bright area is Eta Carinae a binary star in the constellation Carina approximately 7500 light years away from the sun

M8 and M20 - the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulea, 2 famous nebulae in Sagittarius (I was actually able to see the scorpion in the sky) 

M 83 is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light years away in the constellation Hydra, it is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky

I am really looking forward to doing this again, it is not something I will be spending money on (phew says HWMBO) the best nights for star photography is clear dark nights and the best time for clear skies is winter....I am not a fan of the cold. This year is very cold at night.

Photo photos and website

I have been a very busy and important photographer lately (I might have made the bit up about important....but I have been busy)

Every month I have to have photos to display in the Beerwah library and being the control freak I am I nearly always want to go out and take new photos for each month...then I freak out about getting them printed and framed  During the planning meetingd when we decide what the theme is I try and think what I have in my portfolio agree that I have something suitable - then try for something different.

June the theme is Australia - easy peasy I have heaps....but what do I do I go looking for something more. Lucky I saw a koala in the wild only the second time since I got my camera....both times I was lucky enough to have the camera with me. 

These are the images I have on display this month.

Huntsman spider

Summer days at the beach

Sunburnt county

Salty

Wallabies

Earlier this year a storm was heading towards Glasshouse, after my successful lightning shots late last year I headed out to a lookout in hope of more lightning from a different angle....no lightning just a huge rain and wind storm this is a shot I got before the rain came, 5 minutes later the mountains were not visible.  I got very wet as I bunkered down to wait out the rain. #1 was with me and thought it was a great adventure.

This image will be one of 12 in the Glasshouse Mountains Rotary Calendar for 2015, my prize = 400 6x4 prints from Australia Zoo (I am not sure I am going to collect these - unless the prints are mine printed for me, seriously who gives photos as a prize to photographers?)

I 'borrowed' an idea from a fellow photographer and brought a crystal sphyre to use in some of my photos, I am very happy with the result and will play with it a bit more, these photos are getting very positive reviews with others now asking me where to get the balls from. ***BTW eBay for under $10 for 60mm dia***

flowers in the garden

Noosa Beach

A lesson to be learned here, do not put the ball on a plastic tripod, it acts like a big magnifying glass and will burn....it took me a while to work out where the smoke was coming from. 

Be nice to your friends

Roz

100 Days of Happy

There is a new challenge going around Facebook, #100HappyDays, http://100happydays.com/ a few weeks ago a friend was telling me about it and said it would be good for me to do.....I agreed it was a good idea then made excuses why I wouldn't be able to do it now, not enough time to process my photo, when I am working I don't always take a photo, the clarity on my phone camera is not good, I will wait until I get a new one, I am too busy, blah blah blah...I was one of the 71% who would find an excuse not to be happy.

I was making excuses alright but as I thought about it I realised I can find something to make me happy any day, all I had to do was take a photo of it....or find one from my collection, I was stressing about the taking a photo yet the challenge is to submit a photo.

When my girls were little I used to ask how their day was, I would get 'fine', 'good', 'alright' as answers, when asked what they did they would tell me  'stuff', 'played', 'work', you know the same answers all parents get, I found when I asked what was the best part of the day they were more giving with their answers and soon it was a competition to see who had the best day. I did not have to ask the question many times before it became natural to share the best part of your day with the family. I now get txt messages from all my girls saying 'guess what' when they have something exciting to share with me. (I will often reply with something totally random)

I won't bore you with all the photos I will be sharing on Facebook, just the really special things that make me happy, some days the hard part is deciding which happy to post.

I joined a group of photographer at 5:30am to shoot the sunrise over Brisbane, I am not a sunrise photogragher as I am usually driving to work as the sun comes up, I don't want to get up early on my days off. This day I was starting work a bit later and had plenty of time to do both. It was also the first really cold day of the year and boy was that a surprise.

With Mothers day approaching the shops are full of pots of flowers, I treated myself to a pot of daffodils - these were going to be my happy photo for the day. After a few macro shots of the flowers I decided to take an 'in the garden' photo. My gorgeous Lilly  decided to see what I was doing on the ground, this was the perfect result

Seeing my photos displayed in the local library  - this is a seriously happy moment.

Spending the afternoon with friends and showing them a new photography trick. (I have had 2 requests from other people to try this since posting on FB)

I have not been a good little blogger this year, I am full of excuses and reasons why I have not been blogging this year. I have been busy with work and photography, then there is all the editing...and the family time and blah blah blah, excuses! I think the main reason I am not blogging so much is because I am sulking. That's right sulking at the internet.

I am sure everyone who starts a blog expects the same thing, it would be slow for a while then the wide world of the web would bring people from everywhere to my blog and there would be snorts of laughter at my words and gasps of surprise at the awesomeness of my photos. I have had one blog post that has over 61,000 views, I know wow, why can't that happen on every post.  http://rozzy35.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/kit-kat-lasagna.htmlThis is why I am sulking....61,000 people like my throw away post about  a chocolate loaded cake for my daughter and no one come back for my photos.

Time to put on my big girl panties and stop sulking, after all who is going to read my blog if I don't write it? I am going to forget about the Kit Kat Lasagne post  going viral and go back to the reason I started in the first time.....for me.

 I am going to share the photos that I have taken that made me go wow when I looked at them on the computer, some times I know when I have taken a good shot other times it is the nice moment when I see my images large on 

the screen.

Dude with an Umbrella, 

this guy was walking around the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane, keeping cool with shades and a brolly.

Paddleboarder at Bribie Island

a perfect afternoon at Bribie Island, watching other people excercise

Paleheader Rosella

A very shy bird, the slighest bit of movement will scare these birds away.

The wedding of Leanne and Darren

I was best friends with Leanne in Grade 10. (about 100 years ago)

Beautiful Lion at Adelaide Zoo

Frangipanis in our backyard

I love this colour so much

The patient husband

All around the world there are husbands waiting outside shops 

Chris and Nicole's Wedding

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Nicole and Chris, a beautiful young kiwi couple who are very much in love, they have a gorgeous daughter with another baby due in 2 months. 

Chris was one of ‘my boys’. I use a labour hire company at work and usually get the same group of guys each time, he is one of the nicest good natured people I know, he is a great worker with a very layback personality.  

The ceremony was at the Brisbane Registry Office 110 George Street., I was pleasantly surprised by the venue and the helpfulness of the staff, I am not sure if I had a preconceived idea or if I stereotyped   government employees, the Justice of the Peace who performed the service went beyond just doing his job. The music for the ceremony was on an iPhone that refused to connect to the stereo system, so the JP downloaded the song the bride wanted on to his own phone because he knew his would work – it was an Adele song so I guess there was a charge from itunes, this was not even mentioned or considered.

I was very happy to be able to share this special day with one of ‘My Boys’ and his beautiful bride and I am flattered that they asked me.

Gorgeous Family

Simply stunning

Brothers

Given away by her brother

There was tears

Kiss the bride

It's official

An Uncle's love

Beautiful family

Quick peak

My Boys

The beautiful Korah