
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.
Affiliate Links
Want to see some of the cool gadgets I use, or buy something that I've shown in my photos or videos? This page will give you all the links to things I've used myself and found worthy of sharing. Affiliate links earn me a little bit of money which helps me to continue hobbies like doing videos and taking photos, but it doesn't cost you anything extra when you buy from one of my links.
What's New?

Rowing, Home Automations and other Challenges
As I write this, I have a cat that’s reminding me it’s time to go to bed – and before I do, to feed her.

A Permanent Memorial for Rod
On Easter weekend a drunk driver hit a truck parked on the street, which lurched forward and knocked over my almost indestructible letterbox that Rod’s

Thoughts / Contemplations
24 March 2021 Some people live their entire lives without changes that affect the way they look at photos except with maybe age, moving to

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
Random Instagram Pics
My Facebook Fitness Page
19Feb22 Lentil patties with a quickly made garlic aioli and horseradish sauce for it. They turned out good, but it was quite a bit more work than I'd prefer. I still want to experiment with making other patties with lentils. I think they'd be ideal for lunches. I also liked the one lentil ball that I made from the same mixture. I think those were nice because it was just about two bites. Oh, and to keep me company there's my Mom (on the left) with my Aunt Viola on the right,...

10Feb23 My Pink Tigger! The pink is from my nightlight, which makes everything pink when it's bright when I first come to bed and it slowly fades to very dim through the night. But isn't GaliLEO so cute stretched out and about as conked out as you can get? #2023pad #catsofinstagram #pinkcat #sleepingcatsofinstagram

15Sep22 I bought a rotisserie chicken for a quick dinner and then a day or so later made some very nice chicken soup with the carcass and breast meat leftover. I cooked the noodles separately in some of the broth I took from the soup and then just put them in my bowl. There was a lot of chicken on that little bird! I still have the other breast, all shredded and ready for a couple meals in the future. Not bad - 5 meals out of a $10 hot chicken! #2022pad #cooking #cookingforone #chickensoup ...

09Feb22 A bit red and sweaty after a rowing session. I spent six consecutive days rowing in order to complete this year's Concept 2 Valentine's Day Challenge. And yes, I rowed more than 14,000 km and completed the challenge. #2022pad #rowing #darkhorserowing #homegymlife #keepmoving #iamadarkhorse #latergram #selfie #rowingselfie

7Jan22 My Christmas card from America came with an official NASA First Moon Landing stamp. Which I'm keeping. That was part of my childhood. #nasa #moonlanding #stamp

07Feb23 I ordered this for my desk as I realised a lot of space was being taken up by loose items on my desk that could be better in a more contained space. It worked great, and I love the 'free pen' that came with it - it even writes nice! Find my affiliate links in my Linktree link

17Jan22 And here it is all built and ready for a ride - my new, much better fitting recumbent bike. If you know me and have an interest in my old recumbent bike get a hold of me. My preference is for a friend to have it to use. If I don't get any takers then I'll put it up for sale. #2022pad #recumbentbike #bike #homegymlife #keepmoving

05Feb22 Lunch with Shaun. Lunch group was cancelled because a member was in hospital so we were on our own this time. Years ago every six months or so Shaun and I would have lunch together and catch up on all the gossip. No gossip this time around because we talk more often. But it was nice to have a visit. He has new speakers in his ceiling so we watched a movie in the afternoon to test them out. My choice this time was the 2006 version of Pink Panther with Steve Martin. So I spent an ...

30Jan22 When I bought this bread, I just thought maybe there was garlic in the crust or something. Once I got it sliced, I realised that whole cloves of garlic were baked right into the loaf - see the small rectangular shaped hole? The facing slice of bread had a half clove there. This was so nice. And lucky for me it was half off - because I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay $6 for a loaf. But this would probably be worth it for a party or something. And apologies to my Coles Baker...

17Feb22 I had a nap and these two decided to have their naps with me. Those who've seen my other cats on my bed photos might notice ... today they decided to swap sides! The book I'm reading is "Your Head is a Houseboat" by Campbell Walker. It's a great book and I love the illustrations (also by Campbell Walker) @struthless69 #2022pad #catsofinstagram #tripodkitty #threeleggedcatsofinstagram

18Jan22 Oh ick. I am NOT showing you what the porch light looked like. Cleaning the porch and porch light were not my job and wasn't something I even thought about over the last 3yrs. Until it started looking like this. The blackness is from the dust and dirt across the road (where there's a large horse paddock). When the wind comes from that direction, even with the windows closed I get a film of dust and dirt over everything. And obviously cobwebs are not immune from it. So I ...

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