Finding The New

Not sure what’s happening to spring.
Bit too summery for me.

We tried out a new (to us) cafe today. It was nice…a bit small. There was one tiny table inside, and some more outside. I can see it would be nice in the cool of the morning, but it was too hot by the time we got there. We had to huddle round the table inside, trying not to knock the pot plants off.
I got to eat this, though.

Pistachio and raspberry croissant.
Yum!!

We checked out a “free shop” after – it’s not far from us, and we’ve passed it quite a few times. Seems like a good place to drop off some food from time to time.

I had a look through what was there, tidied some things, read the various signs.
I will definitely be getting supplies for this.

There was a time, a few years back, when we spent some months homeless.
Food was available, if a bit sparse, but there were other things we had to do without. One of the things that I found difficult to source (and very expensive) was sanitary items. Such a necessary thing, and provides that extra dignity that shouldn’t be so hard to come by.

So – a day of new things.
In this season of renewal, I had expected to find a bit more colour in the natural landscape. There are new things growing, but I was mostly seeing the remains of winter.
This pretty pot plant in the cafe was lovely 🙂

Stripy! And curly!

The fence by the free shop had the remnants of some sort of plant peeking through.

Dead. Papery. But still beautiful.

I had to spend some time outside our house this arvo.
We’ve had issues with the smoke alarms since we moved in – randomly going off for no reason, a couple of times at 2ish in the morning. Today they decided to scream at us every 8-10 minutes for about three hours, until the electrician came and (temporarily) fixed it. It finally got a bit much, so biggest boy and I escaped to the driveway for a bit.
I’d hoped to find some fresh flowers or leaves while I was out there…but there were just more dead ones.
This one was a leaf I picked up on our travels this morning.

Still colourful, and a lovely crisp texture in the light.

In our yard there was a life cycle of leaves…

On another day, I will go out and see new shoots and bright flowers.
Today I will appreciate what I see.
Because a recognition of the beauty that can hide in the corners is another chance to grasp new joy.
❤