 The months of winter have been full of change for me. I've started work, finished my cert three course studying marine conservation and restoration, completed my last pracks and organised vocational placement for my studies and have had a heap of new projects going on. I've been filming many different YouTube videos, cooking and creating new recipes for my website, setting up a new garden at the back of our home and much more. But among the busyness and daily challenges there's also been so much beauty. We've had the changing of the seasons, less storms and rain, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets and the peace that comes with being out in nature. Graduating from my course had brought a lot of change and uncertainty for me. I don't have a clear direction of where I'm going moving forward, but I feel as though I'm in the right place in my life. I had mixed feelings after finishing the course. I felt quite sad as I wouldn't see a lot of my friends that I'd made during the course as often as before, but at the same time I was really excited to start the next chapter of my life. I just can't stand and there's just like this little rainbow. Good morning guys, it is 5 50 a.m. in the morning so the sun isn't even up yet. It's probably just starting to rise just above the horizon now. I'm so excited. I'm going diving today near Cleveland like in Morton Bay area. I'll come near Brisbane where there's like a shipwreck and I'm so excited doing this for my TAFE course as part of like our coral monitoring unit I think for the course. So there's lots of coral and coral reefs established around this shipwreck that sunk a long time ago. So we're going to dive out there. I'm so excited. I've never dived near a shipwreck before so I don't know what to expect but I imagine it's going to be incredible. But it's absolutely freezing. It's four degrees at the moment and it's pitch black and I woke up and I was like I just want to get back to but it is so cold. But yeah I have to get going. I'm going to ride all the way to the dive center which isn't too far thankfully. For one of our last practical classes for the course we took a ferry out to Morton Bay Island and went scuba diving among the sunken shipwrecks there to study the corals and artificial reefs that had formed over time on these ships. On our trip out to the island we saw dolphins swimming right next to the boat which I just love as I've rarely ever seen dolphins in the wild before or being so close to them. One of my dreams is to be able to go diving with them out in the ocean and to have the chance to observe them up close and watch how they interact with one another. The Tangaluma wrecks are made up of a cluster of ships purposefully sunk by the Queensland government back in 1963 and 1984 to provide safe anchorage spots for recreational boat owners on the eastern side of Morton Bay. Since then corals of all forms have established on these wrecks forming artificial reefs and have created an ecosystem filled with over a hundred different species of fish and sometimes even dolphins or bigongs and dugongs. On the day we went diving the water clarity was about eight meters so the visibility was a little murky compared to other days. The current was quite strong in the water which was turning up the sand surrounding the boats causing the murkiness in the water. I've never seen sunken ships before so this experience was so surreal for me and I hope to be able to dive there again in the future to explore the inside of the wrecks. It was like a whole new underwater world there. Our last practical for the year was learning how to make and install diversity enhancers which just helped to increase biodiversity in a certain area such as new sea walls. We made the structures out of concrete and practiced using the underwater tools to install them out in the ocean. I got that! On our last night as a group we had a dinner provided to us at Seoul Gardens in Carumbum Valley and got to spend one last evening together before we all graduated and went our separate ways. I was really sad to say goodbye to new friends and to the course I've loved so much. I felt like I was officially stepping out into the unknown and that really scared me. I wasn't sure what my next steps would be and I'm still not sure but I trust the path will present itself once at a time and I'm learning it's okay to not have all the answers and to feel a loss sometimes. On the 21st of June we had the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year about nine hours and 53 minutes of daylight in Australia. It usually occurs on the 22nd of June but this year it came about a day earlier on the 21st. I wanted to make the most of every minute of sunlight I could that day so I got up at dawn about 5 a.m and rode my bike over to the beach to watch the sunrise. My gran used to love this day as it meant every day after this one was a little brighter for a little longer and I have to agree. It was one of the most incredible sunrises I've seen. The sky was completely orange and purple and it just looked so beautiful. Once the sun made it over the horizon and the sunlight hit my face I felt reborn and my body was filled with warmth and energy. Whenever I can I like to watch the sunrise on the ocean so I feel so much more energy on days like this and time seems to slow down so I'm not rushing to catch up with it the whole day. This winter turned out to be a surprisingly cold one this year. As I live up north the weather tends to be more on the tropical side but we had a very cold winter this year something I definitely wasn't prepared for. My wardrobe was full of summery warm clothes so I had only a few trackies and one jumper to keep warm with. At the first chance I could I rode my bike to one of my favourite local thrift stores in Burley called the Burley Op Shop and bought an assortment of new winter clothes to fill my cupboard with for next winter. The only things left that I still need are a beanie and a coat which I'll probably wait until next year to get as we're heading into spring now. One of my biggest dreams this past year since moving out is to have a veggie garden out the back of our house like I did back home. I haven't had the time or money before now to be able to set one up but this June I finally made it a priority to start one. I've been building up the soil over the past year using my compost to create really rich healthy soil for the plants to grow in. I then collected plants and seeds from bunnings in the nursery at Conara organic marketplace on the Sunshine Coast choosing organic though possible to grow these seeds in the garden. I bought an aloe plant as I've been wanting to use aloe vera in my skincare routine for a while but I haven't had any on hand to use. I also bought a raspberry clipping from bunnings to hopefully grow a raspberry bush out the back. So far I haven't seen too much change so I'm looking at what I need to do to encourage more growth and hopefully by spring there'll be some showing through. And I also bought some seeds of basil, calendula and a mix of bee-loving flowers and herbs to attract more bees to our area. This helps not only the bee population but it also allows more pollination for the plants. We've had a few issues with bush turkeys coming and digging up our garden from time to time so I'm growing the seeds in pots until they're more established to then transplant into the soil and hopefully even if the bush turkeys do come they'll be able to withstand them and continue to grow. I'm hoping by summer the garden will start to show through and will have some new plants to show for it. Thank you for joining me over this past winter and sharing in my ups and downs of everyday life. I do my best to read all your comments and it really means so much to me to see your love and support left on each of my videos. I look forward to sharing more moments of my spring soon and I hope you all take care of each other. Sending you tons of love from the Aussie Coast.