Here are the things I found this week on the web:

• Are you a party girl who is getting fed up with the fall out of constant partying? You may be interested in this wonderful six week program and community to get you back on track and healthier than you’ve ever been before.
• Angeline Jolie’s double mastectomy has caused a lot of controversy and not just in the wellness industry but also in feminist circles with outrage at some responses by men which are pretty sickening. I choose to focus on Lissa Rankin’s comment on the whole debacle. You can read more discussion on the topic on her Facebook page.
• I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and You Can Heal Your Life and was reinvigorated on my path to teaching holistic wellness.
• Salivating all over myself for this Spring Salad.
• Diet related illness has become the biggest killer on the planet, and we need to take action, join the food revolution!
• Going cross-eyed over this incredible luxury lingerie collection…
• If you like dark edgy and alternative fashion, take a look at Seriously Ruined by Aussie Renee Ruin, she’s been blogging up a storm lately with some really great designers.
• Insane styrofoam cup art.
• Custom romantic animated movie engagement ring boxes.
• I love this explanation why exercise feels hard and how it affects your body.
• Cats taking selfies. You’re welcome.
• “This movie does for health what The Secret did for wealth”. If you care about your wellbeing, watch it.

I’ve missed out on many weeks of belly dance class unfortunately, but this video is stunning, not only is the lady a Goddess, but look at that hair!!!

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Here’s what I found this week on the web:

• I love the advice Sarah got from her mom and aunt’s, what great advice have the women in your life given you?
• The Great Gatsby inspired lingerie. I’ll have number 3 please.
• Annie of Hyperbole and a Half is back and explains depression perfectly in cartoon form for those who still don’t get it. Please, if you have people in your life suffering from depression, please make the effort to understand what depression is, it will help so much.
• Fellow Institute of Integrative Nutrition student, Rebecca of VeganSparkles.com makes the most divine recipes, this week I made her Vegan Laksa and it was TO DIE FOR. Ok so I used chicken instead of Tofu cos I was cooking for my mom, but I could have eaten this all day and night, SO delish! I’m a huge fan of Thai food
• I love these tips on how to make everyday more awesome!

Such a great feel good video, had my laughing hysterically!

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I want to hike every day, in between trees and up trails, I want to slip on wellies and take the dogs for a run on the beach, I want to tend to my food garden and cook for my guests, I want to ride horses into the mountains bareback and bitless, I want to cuddle baby goats and throw corn to a sea of chooks, I want to be suntanned and squinty eyed looking over an expanse of land that is all mine, all giving and all divine.

I want to swim in natural pools and discover a piece of nature untouched where I can secret away and connect to my higher self, I want to dig my hands into the earth and suck up her electro magnetic love.

I want six cats and a husband that adores everything about me. I want us to be surrounded by shelves of books and pots of tea and coffee, with avocado on toast a good idea any time of the day.

I want to grow old surrounded by trees, close to the water, away from the crowds.

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Down a footpath that seemed to go right through someone’s property, we found that they were selling their hen’s eggs. After being hissed and squawked at by the best guard dogs in the world, geese, we collected our eggs and left behind a £1 in the jar.

When we got home I made a delicious frittata.

Everyone’s gardens have come to life and it’s so beautiful.

It’s so beautiful to be able to go out into fields and have the noise of people reduced. The only sounds I could hear were birds and the occasional plane and sometimes a tractor.

I think I may have started a new hobby, taking pictures of my beautiful bike in the beautiful settings we discover.

I love that I have to lift my heavy bike over turnstiles, not only am I getting a workout in my legs and ass but also my arms!

And once over that turnstile, I found myself in this field sporting this pretty pond with a dead tree fallen over into it. It was the perfect place to sit on that tree and take it all in. I decided this would be my meditation spot so crossed my legs and breathed deeply.

I’m not very good at emptying my mind as meditation expects, so instead I simply think about all the things I am grateful for and that completely lifts my mood.

I’m so grateful for public footpaths. I also had to lift my bike over two turnstiles!

The little lambs were real inquisitive of me until their mammas came over and told them to scram.

I took this picture ofter bombing down a tree covered pathway with both feet up on the middle of the bike like I was a little kid again.

All the photos are taken with my iPhone so apologies for the quality. I just love these beautiful country houses and wish it was me living in them.

I love to cook and I especially enjoy cooking vegetarian food. Above are all the ingredients for a great dhal I found on Vegan Sparkles, another student of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I only cook with coconut oil and I’ve found one that tastes so good, I often eat it out of the container. It’s great to put on your skin as a moisturiser (super model Valentina does!) and to use for oil pulling. The brand I use above is from Pink Sun and I buy it from Amazon.

I’ve been starting my day with Jason Vale’s Swamp Juice smoothies with added spirulina and wheat grass. So yum! And keeps me feeling full for ages, which is new, since I am usually hungry every half hour!

My student materials arrived from Institute of Integrative Nutrition through which I am training to become a certified Holistic Health Coach

On recommendation from Rosie, I got these fabulous sparkly ballet pumps from Zara in time for summer.

Marly would rather curl up and snore. #dealwithit

What do you love to do in springtime? What are your favourite adventures when the weather is fine? Do you make an effort to get outside every day?

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It was an upstairs downstairs made of wood and stone, very spacious with balconies looking over the tree filled garden.

Ever since that day, I have dreamed of having or building my own home with the ocean or a large body of water as my front yard and a mountain as my back yard.

Even as a little kid before I knew about permaculture and living off the land, I envisioned I would grow my own food. Of course I was (and still am to a degree) obsessed with horses, so I drew in a stable block and paddocks. I also made space for the goats and geese that I would have. And I think I imagined that I drove a black four by four.

At 34, I am still dreaming of this perfect life, and with the help of Tumblr, I get to curate pictures of what I would like this life to look like.

Lately I’ve been daydreaming about going for long walks in my wellingtons with a couple dogs and perhaps a good man by my side.

The older I get, the less I want kids, I am much happier with fur babies than real children, but a part of me has a place in my heart for two little boys. I don’t know why, but it’s always been there. Part of the reason why I love Bekah’s blog at A Well Traveled Woman.

Bekah is a seamstress with two of the most beautiful sons I have ever seen who lives on a farm with goats and chickens. Her life appears to be exactly what I have always wanted for myself, but I know, none of us are without struggles and heartache.

I was never the little girl who grew up dreaming about her wedding day or getting married and having kids. For me, it was always about having a farm.

I guess I got distracted.

But now I’m back on the path of my dream. Spending 12 weeks on the guest farm in South Africa last year must’ve reawakened it because while I was there, all I wanted was for the farm to be my own. Now it’s my single desire.  The last time I remember being the happiest I have ever been was when I volunteered on a farm in Australia.

My mood lifts higher the further away I get from buildings and people. The more green I can see around me, the more my heart sings.

I want to wake up with a job to do, animals to tend to, farm jobs to complete, produce to grow and harvest.  I want my livelihood to be my work.

At the moment I am training to become an holistic health coach, I also have an interest in training as an equine assisted therapist. Equine assisted therapy is using horses to help people with problems to recover or improve.

My dream life would be to own my own guest farm, where people can come and stay to be rehabilitated through diet and therapy work with horses. I would grow and prepare the food they eat and help them to develop confidence and experience healing through the acceptance and trust horses give us.

What does your dream life look like?

[Most photos found on Tumblr, goats and two blonde boys from A Well Traveled Women, lady with horse from EAQ]

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• Why you should raise your kids in Australia. Like I need more reasons to want to move there!
• How to write the blog posts people are looking for.
• Who doesn’t love natural organic beauty recommendations straight from the super model’s mouth?
• I LOVE Jessica Mullen, 6 Ways To NGAF and her meditations are awesome. I love her voice and her permanent smile and glow.
• How to get glowing skin in 3 weeks – it’s all about your digestion, not fancy creams!
• I love Gala Darling’s 20 Ways To Celebrate Spring list.
• DIY flower crowns!
• Mom paints daily lunchbox napkin – wins all the mom awards!

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On our last day we strolled around the nearby neighbourhoods to our apartment, in between very tall buildings so close together I wondered how they managed to build them so big!

Through quite alleyways and around corners we discovered secrets of Barcelona like this old building in the middle of it all.

After having lunch at our favourite pinxto bar we sat outside this church soaking up sun rays and people watching.

On our slow walk back to our apartment, I marvelled at the beautiful, romantic architecture of some of the buildings.

I have no explanation!

Even the coach station was impressive!

Quite an impressive doorknob don’t you think!?

One last look at the Arc de Triumph. Barcelona was sunny, clean, spacious and beautiful. The coffee was great and the tourist areas delivered. I’m sure there is so much more to discover about this lovely city and I wouldn’t say no to spending an extended time here. I definitely recommend a visit.

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It reminded me so much of Sydney’s Botanical Gardens, without the giant bats.

It seemed absolutely everyone in Barcelona had dogs!

I wonder if this heron had escaped from the zoo at the bottom of the park.

The above artwork and the below back wall of this restaurant was the only nice thing about it…

We found some guess inside a church courtyard.

Back to the gothic area, on our way to our favourite pinxto restaurant.

The street flow team getting a talking to about busking…

Come back tomorrow for our final day or strolling through the gothic area yet again, I really loved the warm, quiet streets away from the tourist areas, looking up at the beautiful architecture.

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As you step out of the Metro and turn around, you are taken back by the sudden appearance and grand stature of the Sagrada Familia.

Apparently the building is being finished roughly according to Gaudi’s design and is estimated to be finished by 2026. Personally, I prefer the new parts, mainly because the old parts are creepy and some of it even looks like it’s melting…

You could stare at the buildings for ages, always finding new things. I noticed a lot of words all over the building. And fruit.

The queue to go inside was around the block so we decided to head to Park Guell.

After hiking an extremely steep and long hill, so steep and long it had an escalator on it, which I decided not to use to burn off some of the holiday food calories, we found ourselves at the top of Park Guell looking over Barcelona.

We remarked at how the Sagrada Familia didnt seem so large from the ground but how it towers over all of Barcelona, which is saying something because all of Barcelona is made up of a maze of very large and tall buildings.

These girls were singing and dancing to whatever the song was that the buskers were playing, it was funny, they were really into it!

So. Many. Tourists!

Casa Batllo, another tourist surrounded building, but the lesser creepy looking one of the lot in my opinion.

We then took ourselves across town to visit the Barcelona Football Club shop and stadium. I personally don’t care about football but my mom is a huge fan, so I wanted to get her something.

There was a sign explaining these unusual figurines, apparently its some sort of traditional symbol to bring luck!

Come back tomorrow for day three in sunny Barcelona!

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The next three days will be photo essays of our explorations in this clean and spacious city where everyone seems to have dogs and you can’t blame skaters for visiting from all over the world due to the vast smooth and flat spaces perfect for skating.

It would be so wonderful if the trains in London and England were this clean and spacious – and space age!

We rented an apartment through AirBnB which was situated around the corner from the very impressive Arc de Triumph.

I seem to have a thing for architecture, so prepare yourself for many photos of buildings…

There are plenty of street performers in Barcelona, this was the first crew we saw.

Our first day appeared to have been the same day as the Barcelona marathon and there was a huge market underneath the Arc.

Mmmm! Fooood!

Barcelona is like being inside a giant maze made of apartment buildings.

More glorious things to eat. Unlike Madrid, Barcelona had decent coffee!

I found the churches in Barcelona really, really creepy. I was not in the slightest awe inspired like I was in the ones in Madrid.

In Placa Nova we discovered this great pintxo restaurant, Bilbao Berria which totally spoiled us for anywhere else in Barcelona and we ended up eating there three days in a row! Happily, they have a branch in London too!

Displayed all along the long bar are plate after plate of what are sort of party canapés, handful sized morsels of delicious combinations which you select onto your little plate and happily eat either standing at the bar or sitting at one of the busy tables. You pay by the stick, which you place into a tube on your table. Each pintxos was €1.65 and the deserts are heavenly also.

Above is goat’s cheese and pine nuts with pureéd olives on a slice of baguette with salad leaves, nice, but I dont like olives so my favourite was the goat’s cheese on a thin slice of apple with caramalized sugar on the top. Delish!

I got into trouble for taking the above photo, but each picture in the frames is a photograph which have had sections sliced out to create a sense of depth. Very cleaver and really great shots!

You may wonder why there is a photo of a couple of gargoyles but look closely. We were in the gothic quarter where some of the buildings are ancient and each gargoyle looked suitably medieval except for this one, which looked like it was modeled on the cricket in A Bug’s Life!

In Placa Nova, we got to watch the funny and talented Street Flow b-boy team do their thing.

Spotted this gorgeous Lana Del Rey looking lady in the crowd

The roses in Barca were amazing, I haven’t seen such lovely roses anywhere else and we were there on their Sant Jordi day which is a kind of Valentines Day in Spain where they sell beautiful big roses on every corner.

This building looked straight out of Elizabeth Taylor’s epic Cleopatra movie!

Part of the Barceloneta beach front.

Did not expect to see surfing at this little city beach!

We had such a good laugh at this daddy piggy backing three kids!

Oh the view at the beach was lovely…!

So that was day one, we walked over 10kms and were so exhausted, come back tomorrow for our discoveries of famous Gaudi art!

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