I'm alive! This might have been the longest I've gone without updating on here. So much has happened and changed in the past four and a half months that the longer I leave it the harder it gets to tell you what I've been doing.

I have so many photos and things to share. I wonder if I will ever make time for it because I seem to always be busy with something these days and I'm never bored. When I do have time to spare the last thing I seem to do is want to touch a computer or spend time on the internet. This is a huge difference for me and something that has been happening gradually for well over a year now but the only two things I seem to be able to keep up with on the Internet are Instagram and Twitter. I don't know why but they don't seem like the "Internet" to me. They seem so unique and individualized and not at all like the rest of the internet. Perhaps it is because I only use my tiny little hand held device for them. Or perhaps it is the way the "feed" structure works and how there is nothing else 'polluting' the things I read and watch.

I don't want to analyse it too much. But don't worry I do come back here and read many of your blog posts. I don't usually comment these days even when I really want to because I am enjoying not feeling tied to SuicideGirls feeling like I have an obligation to keep the conversations going. I really hope that doesn't sound as bad as it probably does because I appreciate each and every comment and things you all leave me and I do read them all. I just remember back to when I used to make an effort to reply to everyone and keep in touch on here and it was my whole life.

Since I haven't done this in so long I have been able to stay much more productive with both jobs I have been doing - photography and art. If you follow me on Instagram [cherryrae] or on my Facebook Page you'll see how busy I've been getting numerous paintings completed and I've been lucky enough to be in a few art shows since May! Things are finally rolling with that and my effort seems to be beginning to pay off... I put all this down to me being very disciplined in the way I use my time.

I am going to do my best to keep this blog updated a little more often though and I promise I will start replying a little more!

Even though I don't have all of my photos to share with you right now... I have so many to share from my visits from some of my favourite people in the whole world including Dwam, P_Mod and AnnaLee. I've also been on many adventures with Phoenix and Choplogik, so I probably have hundreds of photos kicking around that need to see the light of day some time. It would have been nice to get my memories of those times into words sooner too, but perhaps it will be more fun looking back on those times and recounting them to you at some point?

For now here are some photos of my first gluten and dairy free pie that I baked today. I usually find baking so relaxing and calming as it is my meditation - my true 'me' time. This was a whole different story. Suffice it to say I learned that trying to make pastry by hand on a hot 30C (85C) day is almost impossible.

The beauty and calm of my photos are misleading but I like it that way...










I recently changed my diet to be strictly gluten and dairy free. I have been vegan in the past so dairy free is not such a big deal to me. But after discovering (almost accidentally) that I am allergic to gluten and casein (the protein in all dairy incl goats sheep etc), and researching the effects of improperly digesting these proteins I decided it was high time I didn't consume them at all.

It has been quite shocking to discover just how much of an effect they have on me not only physically but even more mentally. I won't go into preachy detail here about why these proteins are so dangerous and bad if they are not digested correctly but I will say I have experienced some absolutely awful withdrawal from cutting them from my diet. This is due to the proteins creating peptides when digested incorrectly. These particular peptides behave almost exactly as opiates such as morphine or heroin in the brain... hence withdrawal.

I think I might be getting through it soon... my head is clearing some what and the insomnia is a little less but these past few weeks have been hugely stressful.

One positive I have discovered so far is that I am having so much fun learning to bake and cook without wheat, rye or gluten containing grains. I have researched so much about various grains, grasses and roots used in food and it has been a wonderful discovery to learn of the ancient foods we used to eat and are still widely eaten in other parts of the world. I am finding them so much more delicious and I am already feeling much healthier after just a few weeks of being very strict.

Okay, I will leave this here for now... There'll be some sets I shot showing up very soon (finally!) and I will be back with far more interesting stories and photos, I hope.

Here's a couple more photos that I have taken or artwork I have completed recently for a reward for being such wonderful and supportive friends here: