Welcome to ‘Gaelyne’s Sanctuary’. If you’ve visited in the past (welcome back!) you probably noticed I’ve given my site a new name and look. I’ve spent several months working on this revamp – mostly trying to find the time to work on it. I chose the name ‘sanctuary’ because I found working on it has given me a sense of peace while the rest of my world seems to be falling apart. My husband was fighting lung cancer, so life was a little crazy then. It’s a place where I can come and make one small corner of the world a little brighter.
I have a variety of interests but they boil down to cooking, writing, taking photos and playing Bingo on Facebook. I hope you enjoy your visit and feel free to talk to me in comments or on the contact page.
What's in my Sanctuary?
My Blog
I had a few off-site blogs before deciding to have a blog on my own site. I don't blog very often, but when I have something I want to share, I'll write about it. The topics range from general, fitness, cancer, diabetes, vaping and maybe a rant here and there.
Recipes
I love cooking, sharing recipes and enjoying myself in the kitchen. Most are recipes I wanted to share with my kids or have available so I wouldn't lose them. I don't do fancy stuff, but I like challenging myself with learning to cook something I've never made before.
Photos
I enjoy taking photos with my camera and have a few projects I do such as Photo of the Day, and 12 of 12 days and a group on Flickr and Facebook called Challenge Friday. If I happen to cook something I'm pleased with, I'll often take a photo of it for my pic of the day. Mostly the photos I take are snapshots of my life, which is pretty mundane, I think. But my world is different from what my family in the USA experiences so sharing seems a nice thing to do.
What's New?
Highlights for 02-27 May 2019
Finally, the rain has come! Thursday, May 02, 2019 We’ve been needing rain for months now and last night and today we finally have had
Highlights for 22 April – 28 April 2019
This was a weird week because Monday was a public holiday – Easter Monday – and Thursday was also a public holiday – Anzac Day.
Highlights for 14 April – 22 April 2019
I’ve had an interesting week… Sunday, April 14, 2019 This past week had some super wonderful highs, some majors lows and lots of in-between. As
Highlights for the Week of 31 March – 7th April 2019
Sunday Beach Highlight Sunday, March 31, 2019 I had a lovely walk by the beach this evening, and I’m not sure what magic made it
Highlights for the Week of 26-29 March 2019
It’s here! Tuesday, March 26, 2019 My new rowing machine is here and man is big. I love it – and even learned how to
Highlights for the Week of 18-24th March 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019 I have an old rowing machine and I’ve been working at using it more but it has issues. (Like you come
Don't Miss...
Roof Restoration
Last year I had a roof leak repaired and they showed me photos of work that needed done on the roof. It took quite a
Photo a Day 2020
These photos are 2020 my Photo a Day selections. I try to take photos on most days, even if it’s just what I made for
Photo a Day 2019
These photos are my Photo a Day 2019 selections. I don’t take pics everyday, but I try to on most days, even if it’s pretty
Photo a Day 2018
These photos are my Photo a Day 2018 selections. I don’t take pics everyday, but I try to on most days, even if it’s pretty
Challenge Friday
I’ve joined another photo group, where a challenge word is given on Fridays and we have a week to take photos that represent our interpretations
Random Instagram Pics
My Facebook Fitness Page
25Feb21 It was a lovely Thursday evening (late night shopping) so I went to the beach for a bit of a walk and relaxation before doing my weekly shop. It made for a really nice change. These are a few of my favourite pics. #2021pad #beach #sunset #christiesbeach
24Jan21 There was a fire a few suburbs away. The wind changed and the smoke started coming in our direction. When the sun went down you could see the glow of the fire in the distance. Fortunately some much welcome rain came through and helped put it out. #2021pad #fire #wildfiresmoke
06Mar21 And once again, Erik is the only one noticing me. But hey, I can’t compete with food. And mine is on the table just the other side of Shaun. I better sit down and get to it! March 2022 Lunch Group. #lunchgroup
04Mar21 This is a grocery bag. As I live in Australia, using a cooler bag for cold items makes a bit of sense. Although some baggers (in other stores - you bag your own stuff at Aldi) need to be told that cold items go into the cooler bag, which always perplexes me. Have they no LIFE experience?? #cf21 #blue #AldiAU #coolerbag #grocerybag
11Feb21 Sesame Beef Stirfry - This was a new recipe I tried and I'll be having this again. it was delicious. This particular recipe came from @cafedelites #2021pad #cooking #cookingforone #sesame #beef #stirfry
29Jan21 Salmon and cream cheese on sour dough rolls in profile. #2021pad #cf21 #profile #smokedsalmon #sourdough
22Jan21 Stretching when you have 3 legs can be quite a challenge. It's easy to imaging he has his full complement of legs, but this is his front leg (in the air) and his back leg on the bed. I like the way this photo turned out. #2021pad #tripodkitty #threeleggedcatsofinstagram ##catsofinstagram
23Feb21 Beef stir fry with ramen. I tossed some frozen cut up green and red bell peppers (capsicum) in along with some soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. It came out lovely. The beef strips were from @gdaymeat and I chopped them into bite size pieces. These were very tender. I'm thinking I'll order more next time. #2021pad #gdaymeat #ichoosesa #cooking #foodies #cookingforone
27Jan21 My old Android phone wouldn't turn on and the battery lid had come off on it's own because this battery, which I'd bought in 2019 had swollen. Yikes! So I've been searching my house for the other ones I'm pretty sure I still have. Meanwhile though, I put this near the front door so I'd remember to take it to be properly disposed. Scary stuff! I sure hoped it didn't explode (and it didn't). Not a a good example of American workmanship. #2021pad...
25Jan21 This was an experiment. I took a kilo package of frozen buffalo wings and used the pressure cooker part of the Instant Pot to thaw and partially cook the wings. Then I used the air fryer part to finish cooking and crisp them up. They came out perfect! This is the finished product. They were falling off the bone done, tender and crispy. This was a few meals worth for me. #2021pad #cooking #cookingforone #instantpot #chickenwings
27Jan21 I spent some time back on the rower again, testing out whether my hands would be ok with the handle with the damper set on 0. There's vibration in the chain as you move on the rower and it's that which causes an issue for carpal tunnel. I wore my splints as a precaution. After doing drills and a warm up, I rowed 15 minutes. I didn't have a problem until a day later so had a couple days before getting back on the rower again. #latergram #2021pad #rowing #darkhorserowing ...
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