On Salad Bowls, And The Coming Of The Light

I’ve been trying to ramp up my leafy green consumption lately.
Summer seems like a good time to do it.

Isn’t it pretty!
More pink than I’d expected.
(And yes – it’s not just salad…)

I could say “Sumer Is Icumen In”, but it’s more like summer has come barrelling in, flattening all before it.
Still, the days have become brighter, and the sun picks out flashes of colour and light.
I have (finally) got around to displaying some of my jewellery – including a new “cat” badge.

Can you tell which one it is? 😀

I don’t really wear jewellery much. I prefer to decorate with it.
The different metals catch the light, and glow contentedly in their space.

Glass sparkles on the shelf…

Even seemingly plain feathers find their colour in the light!

A shy little glass flower reflects…

And the rainbows continue to sing – sometimes captured…

Sometimes on their own, dreaming.

Summer is here, and we can bask/dream/sing in the sun.
We were made to live in the light!
❤

Published in: on October 23, 2025 at 10:06 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Cats, Cappuccinos, And Two Happy Feet!

It’s been a busy week – out on the town a few times, and feeling energetic as well! I even went out last night, for the first time in weeks 🙂
Today came crashing down a bit. Pain, so couldn’t sleep (finished off a book, though…). Lethargic and slow moving today.

Overall, I am doing well.
Getting hit with the pain, after a good day or two, can sometimes feel harder – the contrast feels greater. But I just have to look at the wider picture, and see how much more I’ve done this week 😀

Yesterday, we went out for a cuppa – another thing that’s been infrequent for quite a while.
I enjoyed the cappuccino break I had the other day so much, I decided to reprise it…

Different place – back to our regular cafe!
We sat on the sofa, with a cute little plant pot beside us –

and surrounded by leather and leaves.

We talked of many things…
❤

Of course, because I haven’t been out much these last few weeks, I had so much to check out at the charity shops around town. I found some things that I have needed for a bit, which is always helpful.
I also found things that I hadn’t realised I needed… 😆

I’ve had the blue-flower cat for a long time, and it has held some of my rings. I can only put so many on its tail before it starts to tip over. The new cat will help out, when I find where I packed the rest of my rings 🙂
There was also another cat, who will hold my favourite rings.

Today has been a bit hard, and the level of discomfort hard to take. Ideally, of course, every day would be full of energy and ability. But if this season has to include the pain, for some reason, then I am glad for the Very Good days!
One thing that I caught up with this week was replacing some worn out or missing items – the things you don’t need right away, so they just keep getting put on the back burner. My unicorn slippers have steadily been getting shredded, to the point where the holes in the sides are so big, I have to grab the slippers with my toes when I walk. Otherwise my feet stick out in all the wrong places…
So, I got myself some new slippers. Yay!
I know it’s getting hotter, but these floors can be hard, especially first thing in the morning. I need a bit of padding sometimes.
Behold – my happy feet!

And now…
let us dance.
❤

Published in: on October 16, 2025 at 10:02 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Date With An Artist

Me!
❤

Went into town this morning.
Sweet Bean had an appointment, so we all piled in the car to do whatever we were doing, until he was ready to come home.

I have, over the years, tried out some of the exercises from Julia Cameron‘s book “The Artist’s Way”. The only one I’ve (sort of) kept up with has been going out on an artist’s date, although I haven’t been able to lately…
Today, I was feeling out of sorts. There was a shop I wanted to check out. It turned out to be disappointing, but in the process, I found myself sitting with a cappuccino, in the open air.

There was a musician playing in the corner.
Singing “Dancing in the Dark”, which was a bit odd, considering it was full sunshine.

It took me ages to figure out that I was looking at a mirror image.
I thought the building just…stopped suddenly.

Here’s the real one!

With oddly spherical cloud above.

Here is what was right above me, which I discovered because I just felt like tipping my head back as far as it could go.

I don’t get out much.

I wandered towards the library (always a good place to go!), and browsed through a few colourful, fun places on the way.
And – my grumpy day became an impromptu artist’s date. Refreshing. Sparking a few creative thoughts. Just clearing out the grey, really.

Also – my heart (cloud) for today – right in the middle of my cappuccino-brightened sky!

❤

Published in: on October 10, 2025 at 9:57 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Adrift, On A Sea Of Paper

I have finally, after holding out as long as I could, succumbed to the call of the air conditioner. It took a while to figure out how to work the remote, and I only had it on long enough to chill the air for the fan to then circulate it, but…
worth it!

Another “not well” day, which is very annoying.
I’ve been doing so well, and even got back into a bit of an exercise routine.
Today – not so much.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the last few weeks have felt like a bit of a rollercoaster. Not overtly. Just some sort of shift in the air. Part of this has been a lightening of expectation – both put on me from outside voices, and absorbed from my own self imposed schedules.
I have also been hearing a lot about the importance of being still.
Very refreshing 🙂

Outside, the heat has been draining.
The plovers have been squawking when we go near the backyard, but as long as we don’t venture past the washing line, we seem to be able to share.
We’re keeping an eye on a rogue tomato bush.

Who knows where it came from?
It pretty much just appeared, and is fruiting merrily, with abandon.
We shall see what we end up with, and what else in the garden likes tomatoes 😀

One of the things I have been feeling called to do in this season is to sort through my papers. Not so much “paperwork” papers (although that could do with a clean-up), but the random notepads. exercise books, and scraps of paper I have used over the years to write things down. I have transferred some scraps to books, but have also had a bad habit of forgetting what I’ve put where, and starting on another book.

Time to sail the ephemera seas, till I reach the safe harbour of documental organisation.

Or something…

Making some sense of (partially catalogued) chaos, is what I mean.

Another thing I’ve taken time for lately is reading library books. I get the cosies, and sometimes art/craft books, but also the ones that make me think.
This world, as it stands, makes me want to exercise my thinking ability.
Here’s what I’ve read lately.

And there’s more where that came from!!
(seriously – get to your local library. You never know what you’ll find.)

Books. Papers.
Who knows where my ship will land?

In the meantime, I will settle in my comfy chair, and broaden my mind.

Accompanied by a happy little unicorn.
❤

Published in: on October 8, 2025 at 6:57 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Dolly In Springtime

…Parton, that is.
I’ve had a lovely day of catching up with this and that, enjoying the (slightly) cool day, and reminiscing with music. One of those CDs was a Dolly Parton “Greatest Hits” – I don’t know all her songs, but there are some I remember from many years ago (my first cassette tape was a country hits tape 🙂 )
Her voice is distinctive, and comforting. She seems like someone you’d like to meet, too!

I popped in to a bakery down the road this morning.
Indulged in a BBQ pork bánh mì, then saw some Neenish tarts in the display case.

Haven’t had one in ages!
I remember my Dad liked them. I don’t remember the ones he had being quite so violently pink, though.
It was an experience 🙂
The icing was hard (it cracked, rather than behaving as icing should…) The filling is mock cream, with a base of jam, so – a bit richer than I like these days. It also seemed to be a lot bigger than I remember.

But – that was my day.
Bimbling (mentally 🙂 )
Listening to Dolly.
Eating a Neenish tart.

Reminiscing.

It’s not the way I thought my day would go, but that’s OK.

(and if you want to reminisce along with me, as well as feeling the springtime vibe…)

❤

Published in: on October 4, 2025 at 8:21 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

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.
❤

Published in: on October 1, 2025 at 10:39 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Reflecting On The Journey

Feels like I’m climbing out of the (not so fun) side quest that our life has been lately…
We went out to the shops today, just to see if we could. Went pretty well overall, although a bit tiring. I wore my mask (still unsure if I’m broadcasting germs – I don’t think so, but don’t want to risk sharing to the general public). It co-ordinated nicely with what I was wearing 😀
I’ve been catching up with online classes today, and probably tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ve been ensconcing myself in my comfy reading nest.

…with my coffee at my side, and a lovely breeze through the windows.

Because we’ve been out of action for so long, it feels like we’ve stepped out of the flow of life for a bit. A bit disorientating – it probably doesn’t help that lately it seems like the world has spun off its axis in some ways!
We’ll be back. And moving forward.
Here’s a song to help settle the existential swirl.

Looking at my calendar, I see that it’s been just over three months (thirteen weeks) since we first heard that we had to leave the previous house. It’s been an eventful few months! A lot of changes, and a bit of uncertainty as to where we were headed. Some things are still up in the air.
Time to fly!
❤

Published in: on September 24, 2025 at 10:39 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

It’s The Little Things…

Another week of rest and recuperation…
I’ve been up and about more, though 🙂
Did some organising in the art room, which included excavating some tiny things from a soapstone box that I haven’t really seen for years!
Lots of little trinkets – finally figured out what to do with the glass beads I brought back from Venice, many years ago.

It’s a bit difficult to focus properly when there’s glass around, and not much space to maneuver. They’re prettier than they look…
There were shells at the top of the box. I’m pretty sure I picked at least some of them off the beach. Possibly all?

We (briefly) ventured out on Monday. It was our anniversary, so we popped out (suitably masked) to the local bakery.

I celebrated with a lemon meringue tart, and half a vanilla slice.

Next week should see us slowly getting back into gear.
There are things to do! Places to be!
And a song to share, which seemed to fit the “breaking back out into life” vibe.

Dolly always makes me smile.
❤

Published in: on September 20, 2025 at 11:20 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Night Vision

I was trying to take photos of the shadow shapes in my art room the other night.
It didn’t start too well.
I’d thought that the street light coming from outside would be enough for me to just use the default setting, but I found it hard to keep still enough to focus, and there was an overall fuzzy feeling.

So I tried the “night” setting.
I’ve used it before – mostly for trying to capture the moon – but it’s always felt a bit disappointing. And it also requires a steady hand.
Surprise! 😀

Not only did it sharpen the shadow lines, it also picked out light that I hadn’t seen with my eyes.

There was more colour than would seem likely in a night composition.

A delightful serendipity, with sparkles!

I don’t know how it does it.
Difference in timing? Focus?
But I’m glad there’s a way to get a better picture.

This week, for our family, has been one of bed rest and coughing. We’re all at different stages of some sort of flu, and we all tend to deal with it by secluding ourselves with misery and tissues…

I had intended to write this on any one of the last three days, but I just couldn’t make the words work.
Today, I felt cheerful, for the first time in a while. Like coming out from under a heavy grey cloud, or finding a bright warm path after being enshrouded by mist.
We all have seemed to be in a better state today. We had to do an online Coles order (nobody here is likely to go outside the house for a bit), so the boys were hovering to give their lists. Tendency to forgetfulness, foggy minds, and random fits of coughing also led to (slightly fevered) giggling and a lovely family moment ❤

This world has been a bit too foggy lately.
Darkness gathering, and sometimes difficulty in discerning just where the shadows fall.
But the light shone in for today. A bit of clarity for the journey.
Maybe it’s the timing.
Or maybe just focusing with a different lens…

Published in: on September 13, 2025 at 9:32 pm  Leave a Comment  

Lavender In My Coffee

My art room is looking good!
Everything is…somewhere…


I’ll look at it again tomorrow and reassess – it all looked good today, but I’ll check practicality after I’ve had a sleep…

I read somewhere that interior design shouldn’t have too many colours, or perhaps have one bolder colour as a focus, surrounded by neutrals.

I don’t really do that.

You could say that the chair cover’s neutral?

I also like things with faces…

😀

These last couple of days I’ve been taking it easy, after a day in town on Tuesday.
I ended up carrying too much (lots of books – yay!), so I’ve been a bit achey since. I took the bus home – my first time on this route.
And I started my morning with coffee and cake.
GF orange and almond slice…

…and a “lavender latte”. It was basically a latte with lavender syrup. Should have had lavender cream on top, but they’d run out. Still nice, though.
Very lavendery.

Sweet!
❤

Published in: on September 4, 2025 at 11:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »