D is for ... [ and some important Cs I missed ]

• David ... my second son. He is severely autistic and lives with me. This is my choice. Stephen, Nadie and I are not comfortable with the idea of him living in a Community Res. Unit. He is currently 10 kgs lighter and has one less chin than when this was taken :]
• dancing ...since the age of 3. I've done ballet, jazz ballet, line dancing, rock 'n roll, swing, jive, two-stepping, clogging and bellydancing. Dancing was and is a huge part of my life obviously. Dancing makes me happy.
• dirt. I live on a dirt road off another dirt road, in the middle of acres of the stuff, which means:
• dust... on all horizontal surfaces ... my aunts will be horrified to learn that I only dust a] when I can see it or b] when visitors are due. There are visitors on average every two weeks. You work it out.
• daughter... just the one: Nadie. She's hard working, funny, thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate, articulate, ... all the things I like in people... and beautiful... and a total adrenalin junky. This came as a bit of a shock. She seems so quiet. Jump out of plane. check. Dive with sharks. check. Hasn't had the easiest life growing up after David but doesn't use it as an excuse.
• dreams. Don't have many. I'm not a good sleeper and rarely go deeper than a very light sleep state.
• drought. We're now being told that this is not a once in 100 years drought... not just the worst in recorded history...all I know is that the water situation is bad. Probably not the best time to move to the bush.
• dam... still has water in it but not a lot. This is not to be used for anything except fighting bushfires. Needless to say, I hope that I never have to use it.
• dragons. This is really a Nadie word. She has been drawing dragons ever since she was tiny. Strangely for such a fantasy freak, she has never read the Dragons of Pern series. [ okay I've been corrected... she has SO read them ]
• dragonflies. love watching them. Heard this weird, loud sound one day last summer and went out to discover thousands of dragonflies hovering high over the rose garden. There must have been a swarm of small insects or something to attract them but for about half an hour the noise was incredible.
• daffodils. I'm not a big fan of the colour yellow EXCEPT at the beginning of Spring. I adore the sight of vast drifts of daffs. They never fail to make me smile.
• dentist. I've had a wonderful dentist for 30 years who understood my difficult mouth and was compensated accordingly ... in fact I think I bought his last 3 cars. Of course, when I moved up here I changed Dental providers and being new in town, got shuffled onto one of the junior partners. In one visit he ruined 30 years of work. Really. I won't go into detail .My jaw is now completely out of whack again. Extreme pain. Migraines. Original dentist estimates it will take about $10,000 to fix with no guarantees. I am not happy. This is one of those times that I wished I was the sort of person who sues. Sorry to end on a negative note folks.

postscript: not sure how I managed to miss three very important Cs : Chris [ Stephen's much loved Godfather, and frequent visitor up here with his lovely missus Maz ] the other Chris [ Nadie's v. nice bf ] and Christina, my gorgeous DIL and mother-to-be of my grandson ] I'll move this bit over to the C is ... post later but it's here for now so you don't miss it.