Thinking…. | 1000 Fields of Roses

Pe-e-e-egs!

Not quite sure what it says about me, but I was extremely excited to get some new pegs (and a peg bag) today – now it will be easy to colour co-ordinate all my washing when I hang it out!

Also – fly swats! With the recent heat has come a multitude of flies. It doesn’t matter how careful we are to keep doors and windows closed – they still get in… Today was another sweltering day, with unexpected breezes at random intervals. We went to Rafter and Rose this morning for coffee and cheesecake, but had to sit outside as there were no seats in the (airconditioned) interior… we were the only ones out there, though.

Worth it! 🙂

We used the time to discuss and plan – Christmas, curriculum…
We also made friends with the resident lizard, Kenny.

Hi, Kenny! 🙂

Looking forward to a cool change tomorrow…

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on November 7, 2018 at 9:12 pm Leave a Comment

Enjoying A Day Of Wellbeing

Today was a day of languor and industry, interspersed with coffee and old movies (we’re watching “Summer Holiday” at the moment). I had intended to work on the mending that’s been sitting around for a while. I ended up weeding the planter boxes instead…

Here’s some more thoughts from Wellbeing magazine – it’s been that sort of day!

Nourish – provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition

Soaking in a bath is one of my favourite nourishing activities 🙂 Sometimes it’s just sitting reading a book for a bit, though – or making sure to eat well and get enough sleep. Different things to different people…

Reflection – the return of light and sound waves from a surface, a thought, idea or opinion formed or a remark made as a result of meditation.

Being still often leads to reflection – leaving the space to reflect thoughts from the surface of our mind or life helps to refine ideas and opinions.

Resilience – an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change, the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, elasticity.

Another necessity of life, but often we wear ourselves down by doing too much and taking on more than we need to – then shattering rather than bouncing back.

Companionship – the fellowship existing among companions, the good feeling that comes from being with someone else.

We all need those people (or animals!) around us with whom we feel able to be ourselves – however weird and wonderful that may be 🙂 Good thing there’s always someone out there who fits the bill – even if it sometimes takes time to find them!

Partnership – the state of being a partner or partners.

A step or two on from companionship, and well worth finding. Regardless of how sociable we naturally are, we all seem to be built for deeper connections…

Flow – to issue or move in a stream, to move with a continual change of place among the constituent particles, to proceed smoothly or readily.

Sometimes time slows down and anything seems possible. Who knows what might flow then?

Surrender – to give (oneself) over to something (such as an influence)

Relax. Sink in. Sleep peacefully.

Smile – to produce or exhibit a smile, to bestow approval, to appear pleasant or agreeable.

Shine, and be beautiful.

Intention – a thing intended, an aim or a plan, a determination to act in a certain way.

Slowing down and being alone with your thoughts can mean being confronted with the realisation that your life has lost direction – that everything you do is just reaction to events, and there’s no time to catch your breath. It’s never too late to set your intention and start moving towards what’s important to you!

Perspective – a mental view or prospect.

There’s always a bright side somewhere – regardless of the size of the clouds.

😀

And finally – a word from Oprah…

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on November 3, 2018 at 9:44 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: wellbeing magazine

Rising Up

Just been watching the third episode of the new series of Doctor Who, where they interact with Rosa Parks, and ultimately ensure that history is made in spite of alien shenanigans…
I was intitially a little skeptical that it would turn out well – there are so many ways it could have been handled badly. Thoroughly enjoyed it 🙂

My post title comes from the end credits, and a song that fits well with Rosa’s story. It wasn’t written for the show – it’s a few years old, and has become an unofficial anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement.

I’ve really been enjoying this new series. It’s different in a lot of ways (and also the same in many). I can’t quite put my finger on just how it’s different… obviously different writer, and that shows. The companions seem to be more prominent in the storylines than we’ve seen before, and I think that’s working well. Mostly, with this episode, we got a bit of a history lesson (a concept that I believe was part of the very early origins of the show), and perhaps a bit of a reminder for the future…
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana
Perhaps it’s time to look around and take stock of where we stand right now?

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on October 22, 2018 at 9:02 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Andra Day, dOCTOR Who, George Santayana

Extracting The Best From The Week

Another good week – worked our way through the rest of the experiments I’d planned to do, from seeing how yeast reacts to different environments to extracting DNA from a kiwi fruit and having a look under the microscope…

First we had a quick look at osmosis, using cucumber slices in distilled water and a saline solution. Osmosis is “the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalise the solute concentrations on the two sides”. in this case water moving through cell walls to equalise both sides. The distilled water moves into the cucumber cells, the water in the cells moves out into the saline solution, making one slice turgid and the other squishy and reduced.

Next we looked at the properties of water and other liquids by freezing water, salt water, olive oil and tomato sauce, then placing them in their liquid form. The ice floated, the others sank. We were unsure of the sauce – it sort of hovered – but it was very slowly sinking. We put it in water just to see what would happen, and it sank…

Ice floats, unlike the other liquids, because the molecules freeze in a hexagonal structure, spacing them apart and making the solid less dense than the liquid.

Next was looking at the growth of yeast.

We put yeast in four glasses – hot water, tap water, warm water and warm water covered in cling wrap. As yeast is a living organism the hot water killed it and nothing happened. The tap water didn’t do much – it would have needed more time to activate.

The warm water was the best environment, and there wasn’t much difference in growth. Given more time we may have seen a difference, as the plastic kept the carbon dioxide that was being given off inside the glass, and it would eventually kill the yeast.

The final experiment – DNA!
The kiwi fruit was mashed and mixed with salt and washing up liquid, then warmed. This was to disrupt the cells and extract the DNA. DNA is soluble in water, but not in alcohol, so we added methylated spirits to precipitate the DNA. This made it possible to pull some out with a paper clip.

We had a look under the microscope, which was interesting, although I’m not sure what we were actually seeing…

Sweet Bean had fun checking it out, then went on to look at some other things 🙂
A successful week. Feels good to have one of those!

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on October 19, 2018 at 8:11 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Science experiments

My Beautiful Weekend

Sweet Bean was away over the weekend, so we took the chance to go and have fun together. We were originally going to go away for the weekend, but that didn’t work out… Saturday morning was an early start to the markets, where we stocked up on fresh food before enjoying a leisurely breakfast in the bright, not too cold, air. Also – fresh, colourful flowers to browse through!

Rainbows and roses and a sunflower too!
Disappointingly, none of the flowers appeared to be scented…

I was on my own in the afternoon so went to the library, then looked around the antiques place down the road.

I’ve been wanting to go for ages, but the opening hours are a little different and I haven’t been able to. I enjoyed wandering round – it’s packed full of random things, and can feel a little overwhelming. Worth the trip, though.

Sunday we decided to check out the morning service of the church we go to in the evenings. It starts a bit earlier than we’re used to, so I set my alarm for 8am, thinking it would warn us when it was getting time to go. Woke up to it going off, so had to scramble to get out the door… 😀
The service was good, and we met new people. Went for lunch at a cafe down the road. It was cold (we sat outside) but good food warms you up.
The decor was cheerful

and the food was good (we only had half portions of mains, and shared a chocolate pudding)

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A fun, stress-free weekend.
We picked up Sweet Bean in the afternoon – back to everyday!

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on October 2, 2018 at 12:04 am Leave a Comment
Tags: cafe 63

Singing In The Spring

The days are getting warmer and the evenings longer. The birds are singing, flowers fling sweet scent into the air, and the skies are bright with blue surrounded banked clouds.

Spring is sweeping out the winter, ready for new ventures…

We were privileged today to watch four baptisms – each with different stories, each signifying a new beginning. One of the words spoken was about animals hibernating, but waking in the spring – every year a new spring…
It’s a time for awakening.
For the possibilities of new directions, fresh understandings. Anything is possible!

Songs for tonight –

The final reading for the service tonight, a promise for whatever is to come.

Isaiah 59:21 – 60:5
²¹“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

60    Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
²For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.
³And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
    they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
    and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
⁵Then you shall see and be radiant;
    your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

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on September 23, 2018 at 10:09 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Bethel, Hillsong, Isaiah 59-60, spring

24

Winding down the day now, thinking about an early night. We were up early to get to the markets this morning – it’s our 24th anniversary today, so we celebrated by getting fruit and veg, followed by breakfast (gluten free pancakes – yay!)

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I haven’t been for ages! I’d forgotten how lovely it is to stock up on fresh food, then sit back and enjoy a cuppa with breakfast, watching the varied world go by.

The place we get out coffee/tea also sells poffertjes, and is surrounded by windmills…

We were home by 8.30am, and Babe took me to see a couple of historic houses round 10ish (he sat outside in the car doing work on the laptop – not a fan of crowded history!) I enjoyed looking round.

Fairy Knoll – very crowded, but I’ve been wanting to have a look inside for ages. The view from the verandah was amazing – I would love to be able to sit out there and gaze across to the mountains any time I felt like it. None of my photos turned out very well, though…

Rockton House – the view was not as good, but it felt more cosy, like a well lived in house. There were paintings of various kinds all over the house, some by well known names, and lots of beautiful tea sets and knick-knacks. It didn’t feel as crowded, even though there were probably as many people there as at Fairy Knoll.

It’s mostly been a quiet day. Sweet Bean decided to mark his recently advanced age by walking into town on his own for the first time. He was gone for a few hours and came home quite tired, but enjoyed his adventure…
We had a special dinner (and the strawberries-and-cream ice creams were nice…) but as our ages are far more advanced than Sweet Bean’s, we haven’t overdone the celebrations.

Maybe next year!
❤

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on September 15, 2018 at 9:51 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Fairy Knoll, Rockton House

Sunshine, Rain And Clouds Again…

It’s Sweet Bean’s birthday on Monday, so he had a celebration today with his friends – watching a DVD while eating pizzas and various sweets. All we had to do was provide food and leave them to it! This morning we took him to spend some of his birthday money – great excitement beforehand, and happiness after 😀
It’s been wet quite a lot lately – if not actually raining, then overcast and threatening. It’s been a while since there was any sort of prolonged rain, so it’s good to see.

Apart from the actual weather we’ve had sun interspersed with clouds – good news, some setbacks, some opportunities and possibilities… just the time to have a coffee and talk things over!

This is where we sat, with lots of greenery, and lowering skies. Apparently there were also bees…

The view. With mocha cheesecake.

…and mocha.

Old buckets and boxes in a transient glow. The small tables are new (at least since I was last here). They’re made from the bases of old treadle sewing machines.

The weather has almost matched my mood this week – sudden descent into flat grey for some of it. Not too drastic, and I know I just have to get through for a few days until the sun shines again. This week I allowed myself to just stop – at least for a time. To not do everything I felt I should be doing – just for one day – just to decide not to feel guilty. I know I am incredibly privileged to be able to do that. It did make a difference for me.
We still have Sweet Bean’s actual birthday to celebrate. This is most likely to involve ice cream. And another year beginning, with the sun shining through future clouds.

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Thinking....

on September 8, 2018 at 11:16 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: rafter and rose

Snippets

…of life and thoughts lately. It’s the first day of Spring, apparently – just the time to contemplate the bits and pieces.

I went to a conference last Saturday, where I got a little wooden stand with various cards to put in it.

This one is one of my favourite verses, against a background of the arena to practise it in. Well, maybe not the moon. At least not yet…

This is my view when I swing at the park, especially if I really get going 😀

Such blue skies at the moment! Lots of birdsong, too.

Here’s some flowers I got the other week, surrounded by feathers I’ve picked up over the years, and an abandoned nest.

A close up, because they’re beautiful ❤

…and here is my song for the evening.

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on September 1, 2018 at 9:33 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Hillsong

All Present (And Correct)

Sweet Bean did his science presentation today, after much anxiety and practice. He tends to stress about public speaking, but when it comes to the time, he’s always very good. This term’s question was “Does the presence of music in film affect emotions?”
Here is his display, complete with multi-coloured pie charts and a laptop that had been playing a clip using acting with different music for the same scene.

All the other displays were amazing – it’s interesting to see other people’s thought processes, and hear how they investigated the things that they were curious about.

…what’s that you say? Does music in film affect emotions?
Listen to this to find out!
🙂