Thoughts About Who I Am

Dean and I have been happily married for more than 36 years now and, apparently, that’s a rare thing these days.  We have three adult daughters, Kathryn (Kate), Michelle (Shelley) and Melissa (Moo), and we love them dearly.

Still happy after almost 30 years.

That’s me there with my husband Dean.  This photo was taken in 2012, so, I’m a little older now and (I like to think) a little wiser.

Perhaps I’m also a little more wrinkly – ok, a lot more wrinkly – but I love this photo because it captures the joy that exists between us.

Here’s an updated photo that was taken recently.

(Nov 27, 2021)

Yes, we’re both a little older and a little more wrinkly these days.

And here’s our latest ‘Family Photo’.

(March13, 2022)

Back Row – Moo and Dean
Front Row – Kate, Shelley and Me.

A Little Background

In June 2014, I was told there was no longer a place for me in the organisation in which I worked.  I was devastated! How could this have happened! And yet it did and all I kept thinking was, “Be positive!  It’s ok!  You’ll get through this!”

But my favourite thought I kept having was:

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

So with that, Dean and I decided to turn a negative into a positive and made the (relatively easy) decision to go on a trip of a lifetime and travel around Australia.

My intention with this blog (initially titled Clare & Dean), was to keep a diary of our experiences, sharing with family and friends the amazing destinations in which we found ourselves and the adventures we had along the way.  

I never imagined others would also be interested in reading about our journey.  Nor did I imagine I would discover so much joy in sharing our story and the photographs I took.

Our big adventure began on Friday, October 31, 2014.  We spent 20 months on the road:

Loving living and laughing all the way.

–⋅ o ♥ o ⋅–

And Then

Blogging certainly made the task of keeping everyone up to date an easy and enjoyable task.  In fact, I loved it so much that I created another blog called My Creative Cosmos where I could post creative articles that had nothing to do with our trip.

When our big adventure was finally over, I decided to combine both blogs into one.  It was not an easy decision, and I put a lot of thought into doing so.

The hardest question to answer however was “What do I call this ‘new’ blog?”

So . . . what do you get when you join Clare & Dean with My Creative Cosmos?

Retrospectively speaking, that answer was simple.

You get . . .

–⋅ o ♥ o ⋅–

And Now

After travelling around Australia, we never returned to our point of origin (Brisbane, Queensland), but rather, we purchased a block of land and had a house built in Caloundra – a suburb of the Sunshine Coast, one hour north of Brisbane.

It was exciting and I blogged a lot about this at the time.

It was nine months before we took possession of our new home, and then began the task of ‘settling in’ – doing all those things we didn’t pay the builder to do such as establishing the gardens just to mention one thing, and there were many things we decided to do ourselves.

These days my blog has become an eclectic collection of all things Clare. A system (or space) for documenting my thoughts because, as I get older, it has become important for me to do that.

I come here to write about all manner of things that grab my attention – from what’s happening in my life, to what’s growing in my garden or being created in my kitchen.

I also love the Moon and often share photographs I’ve taken because I now own a camera that makes taking those shots an effortless task.  An important priority for a self-professed lunatic – I mean, selenophile.

So yes, it certainly is a bit of a cosmos here – my personal galaxy of thoughts and creativity.

By all means, have a dig around.  I hope you enjoy what you find.

49 thoughts

  2. Yes, to changing life’s negatives into positives. We were fulltime motorhomers for a few years, and one of our goals was to circumnavigate Australia. Unfortunately, that’s now not possible though we have ventured on shorter trips and they were enjoyable. I enjoyed reading your “About” page.

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    1. Thank you, Suzanne. We loved our time on the road and would return to it in a heartbeat. Alas, life is vastly different for us these days with a home, a business, and all those dreaded bills. I do feel that, at least in the foreseeable future, there will be lots of ‘home soil holidays’ and (perhaps) a boom in the caravan industry as many of us look to visiting areas of our own country instead of anywhere overseas. Here’ hoping you get the opportunity to venture further. Here’s hoping Dean and I can do also 🙂

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  4. Pingback: Top of the morning to you! | The life of B

  5. So glad to find you! I’m drinking lemonade as I write this! Lol
    We’re RVing around the SE USA. We hope to see all of our lower 48….grandsons have fenced us into the SE. But we’re happy!!!
    Look forward to looking at your blog.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Hi Gill,

      Sorry for the late response. I only just found your message, somehow it filtered into spam. Thank you so much for the nomination. I’ll attend to this as soon as I can

      Clare

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Thank you Hilary,

      I don’t know what to say beyond thank you for the recognition and for understanding the internet constraints we face while travelling. I’ll do what I can, least of all, display that gorgeous button on our blog. Woohoo!! I’ve made it to the Sisterhood 🙂 Thank you.

      Clare

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    1. Hi Carissa,

      Thanx for stopping by and following our journey around Australia. We’re stationary at the moment while we house sitting through winter, however we are still enjoying little adventurers in the area we now find ourselves. We’ll be back on the road early September and can hardly wait as this next part takes us to places neither of us have been before. I hope you continue to enjoy.

      Clare

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      2. We are still finding different and interesting things to do and have already started our countdown.

        Only 50 days and we’re back on the road. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

  9. How fabulous that you were able to smash those lemons and make some juicy lemonade! I am so happy that I found your trip blog and this fabulous photography! You just found a new follower!

    Liked by 2 people

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