1000 Fields of Roses

Nope To The Rope

It’s been a fairly quiet week.
We did go out midweek for a…

😆

Not quite like that.
More coffee based.

Yay!
😀

Apart from that, it’s been mostly a stay at home kind of week.
Home, that was briefly invaded today.

I do not expect to go to the back steps and see this.
And yes – that is our top step just in the photo.
My Babe managed to get it to go back downstairs and out of our yard (at least, we think so…)
It did make its way further up the stairs and into our sunroom.
A (little) bit of a panic ensued – for us and the snake, which was probably terrified and glad to be shot of us.
We think it was most likely to be harmless (a green tree snake? It was greener than it looks there).
Still not the most welcome visitor to our house.

Well, we are de-snaked.
Although I still check out the floor when I go to the sunroom.

It’s late.

Good night!
❤

Published in:

on February 21, 2025 at 11:51 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Mark Seymour & The Undertow, Missy Higgins

Dried And Done

Just sent in another assessment!
It’s due tomorrow, so I’m cutting it a bit fine.
Took me ages to decide what to do for my pieces – decided in the end to do two fairly simple watercolours. Which meant waiting between colours for the paint to dry – I didn’t want the shapes to blur.
It would also have helped if I’d checked that the pen I used for outlining was waterproof.
Something to think about next time 😆

I also pared down the lovely bouquet from my birthday.

The bigger roses just wilted and died, except for that yellow one at the back. I’m waiting to see if it lasts.
The miniatures generally seem to dry well, so I’ll keep them in this little bud vase.

What to do with my suddenly expanded free time this evening?
Obviously, listen to randomly recommended YouTube clips!

I don’t overdose on news, but I like to be aware of what’s going on.
This seems like it’s still relevant…

Published in:

on February 13, 2025 at 10:50 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: John Farnham

Rhapsody In Time

Look what I was doing this arvo! 😀

We haven’t really used the TV, or the DVD player, for a while. The TV has served as a handy support for a small quilted artwork, but otherwise has just…sat there.
My beautiful boys have heard me saying that I wanted to watch the more recent Doctor Who episodes (they’ve been on the Disney channel, which we don’t have), so they clubbed together to get me the 60th anniversary specials for my birthday.
In Blu-ray.
I (didn’t) have a blu-ray player, so they tried to find a DVD set for me. Nope. Nothing available.

What to do?
Obviously – buy me a blu-ray player.
Which they did! ❤

My Babe set it up today, and I decided to watch just one episode.
…three episodes later 😆 I had caught up a bit with The Doctor(/Donna), and will be keeping an eye out for the most recent series.
I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon!
😀

(also – because it just came out today 🙂 )

Published in:

on February 8, 2025 at 9:28 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: dOCTOR Who, Home Free

Once More Round The Sun

Another year older…

I have had such a lovely day!
From not being able to venture far from my door these last few years, to rambling round the second hand book and charity shops of suburban Brisbane! 🙂
Bit tired now, though.

We started out in Paddington, in a charity shop I’ve been to before.

A nice, leafy part of the suburb.
One of the things I like about this place is that they have a big section outside with free books – yay!

The CDs were from inside, so, not free (but just $1 each), and the C.S.Lewis trilogy at the top was from Koorong – marked down drastically to $10 because of the “tear” on the front cover. Yes – that tiny flap on the top right… All the others were free, and included books from three series that I collect 😀

From there we went to check out The Cupboard Under The Stage, which is inside an antiques shop, presumably in a building that used to be a theatre.

It was very blue.

…and theatrical.

No books for me, but I was glad to have seen it.

From there, we wandered across to West End.
Looked around, didn’t buy anything.
Saw a mural, hidden round the back of a shop, and peeling a bit.

We had morning tea at Hope Street Cafe.

Pretty 🙂
I only had a taste, though.

I had a hot chocolate with cardamom and rosewater syrup.
It was…interesting. A bit coconut-y, for some reason. But nice.

The greenery made lovely shadows on the wall.

I enjoyed being out and about.
I also enjoyed coming home and having a cup of tea!

Apart from my books, I picked up some lovely things, and my Mum gave me some more.

The perfume bottle has dragonflies around it.

The jingly lavender-scented bird is guarding some of my books.

As is the happy little mermaid.

And the tiny unicorn (with the broken horn 😦 ) has made its home at the end of a rainbow.

❤

All of this, and a beautiful bouquet from church 🙂

This getting older’s not so bad!

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Thinking....

on February 4, 2025 at 11:20 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday, Catalyst Church, Hope Street Cafe, Koorong, The Cupboard Under The Stage, Yesterdays Thrift Shop

These Streets

What’s happening in the higher echelons of the world?
There’s a lot going on, in various ways.
Sometimes you can think that the world is spinning in the wrong direction…

I don’t have the ear of anyone on Earth who can change things to any great extent.
I do have the ear of Someone Who is listening (as does anyone who wants to pray…)
As for my role in the world – here’s a clue.

(also good to read in context)

So, I can’t storm the parliaments.
I can pay attention, as I walk through the streets of my town.
Help when I can.
Pray when I can’t.

And continue to notice beauty – like the sunset the other night.

The street gardens.

Flora and fauna! 🙂

There’s always the possibility of surprise.

…and, just because I enjoyed this –

You never know what your streets might hold.
❤

Published in:

on February 1, 2025 at 8:51 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Ren & Sam Tompkins

In The Waiting Room

It’s hard to believe that January’s almost over.
I have been moving into the schedules for the year, but it’s been hard to get a good rhythm going. Some commitments haven’t quite started yet, so when they do, that will help to get the week sorted.

I had decided to get some online study done yesterday (Monday – it was a public holiday here).
I did the washing, sorted the dry things, and then…
creeping pain, and derailment of the day.
I get random bouts of pain, and these days I tend to just breathe through and move on. The last time I mentioned it at the doctors’ surgery, they told me off for not going to the hospital to get checked, so I decided that the “next time” I would.
Yesterday was the “next time”…

No point in anyone else having to sit around with me, and my Babe had a busy day set up, so I got him to drop me off at A&E.
Not as busy as it can be. I was seen fairly quickly, at least for the initial checks. Got a cannula put in, in case it was needed later, and a ECG. I wasn’t expecting anything major to be found, and it wasn’t in the end, but there were various tests to be done just in case 🙂
Spent the next hours sitting in the main waiting room, with the dots from the ECG sticking in various places, and a cannula that hurt when I moved my hand too much.
In some ways, it seemed like all the world paraded past.
Accidents, illnesses. People at their lowest ebb. A few children, who thankfully seemed to be not too sick/hurt (and were, on the whole, quieter and better behaved than some of the adults).
All up, I think I was there for around 8ish hours. Mostly waiting.
There were two calls for security while I was there, and also two police escorts with patients in tow.
Mostly we just sat and snoozed, uncomfortably, in the seats.
Still – when you’re in A&E, it’s pretty much a good thing when you’re deemed low priority! 😀

Eventually I made it back behind the scenes.
Got follow up tests, was finally pronounced “good to go”, and made my way out to the fresh air – yay!

FREEDOM!

Also, there’s a nice little garden-y sort of area down the bottom of the hospital where you can wait to be picked up.

One thing about these episodes is that I can tend to be quite tired for a day or two afterwards, and I was pretty tired by then. I also hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, and only half a cup of water.
We picked up some food on the way home, from the only place that seemed to be open by then.
So, I didn’t get to do the writing I had planned to do yesterday.
But I did get to have a lovely parmi and chips, and a big cup of strong, milky tea to settle in back home again.
❤

Published in:

on January 29, 2025 at 12:15 am Leave a Comment

The Good, The Cute, And The Funny…

After briefly wondering at the state of the world yesterday, I thought I’d seek out some good things today.
The funny and cute just seemed to tag along…

A cup of coffee – always a good start to the day!

A big slice of cheesecake.

Not mine.
But I did get one of the freckles!
🙂

Admired the painterly feel of the shadows from the greenery in the cafe.

Also, the sun shining through the bottle, like a little piece of fire.

I started a book by Richard Osman – the first in a new series.

When I start a book, I tend to check the back for authors’ notes and acknowledgements. You often find explanations or research if the book has historical elements, and I like to read those first so the end of the story is the end of the book for me.
So, it was a surprise to read this.

Thanks, Richard.

All the doings of the day washed down with a creaming soda flavoured kombucha.

Such a pretty colour 🙂

I have been whiling away the evening watching auditions from talent shows.
Some can be quite bad. Some good. Or funny. And some both touching and amazing.

And then – something so cute, you just Can’t Stand It.

I don’t think I could stop smiling even if I tried.
❤

Published in:

on January 22, 2025 at 11:27 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Britain's Got Talent, Murakata Nonoka, rafter and rose, Richard Osman

Doing Right

I don’t really know what this year is doing.
Yes, that probably describes every year…but this one seems particularly opaque.
I’ve spoken to various people, in varying situations, and a lot of us feel that something’s coming.
Good? Bad?
Certainly different.
Whatever comes, I’ll try to keep walking.
…bringing light into the picture, wherever I can.

Published in:

on January 21, 2025 at 11:29 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Jon Guerra

So…

I think I’ve made it into 2025.
I’ve started with some mulling/praying/writing about what this year’s focus should be.
I’ll be working on my second piece for assessment this month – it’s taken a while because the idea I came up with first didn’t seem right, so I didn’t get around to starting it.
The mulling etc., brought up another idea which seems more suitable, and doable.
Which I also haven’t started…
Oh well. I’ve got a few days to sort it out.

My new chair is ready for sitting in 🙂

The cover has been cleaned and put on it.
Still not sure which cushion fits best.
Probably both.

And, because YouTube has given me another random suggestion –
here’s some Siberian…pop/rock? dance music?
Enjoy!

Published in:

on January 14, 2025 at 11:22 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: OTYKEN

Back To The Real World

I took the tree down yesterday, so it’s goodbye to Christmas…
I’ve started getting some work done (things due next week!) but finding it hard to really get going on the year.
Still, I feel like I’m on track to getting it all done on time 🙂

What have I done so far this year?

Had hot chocolate and cake.

Worked on spending as much time in the art room as I can, with music on and incense burning.

It’s hard to photograph smoke clearly.

And we have a new (to us) lounge chair!

Comfy!

It needs a teensy bit more cleaning, and it came with a removable cover. Not sure if the colour will suit the little lion cushion, so he may not get to sleep there in the long term.

To round off my evening, YouTube has randomly selected a new song/group for me to experience.