Facing The Fear

I don’t do Halloween.
Our neighbours do…

Yes, it’s not very clear – had to take it quickly because there were people walking around it and I don’t like to put random strangers (at least their faces) on here without permission.
That’s just one section of the yard – there’s lots more to see. And at least some of them are movement activated, so we’re getting strange sounds drifting across from time to time.

Skeletons don’t scare me, but I have been putting off carving my lino block for my next assessment.
I’m very good at procrastination.
Got started on it today and, as usual, it wasn’t as hard as I’d thought it would be. Not the design or design transfer anyway. The actual carving requires more energy than I had today, so I’ll continue tomorrow. Of course, it would all be easier if I didn’t take aeons to think about everything that could go wrong!
The block that I’m using is 40 years old, so it might not be as easy to use as these new-fangled lino blocks…

Yes, I have carved a bit more than that!

I think I’m so tired today because we were out yesterday (I pretty much came home to bed). Glad to be able to be out and about, though 🙂
We went to our favourite place.

🙂
Checked out the flowers before going in.

I don’t know what these are, but they look like tiny parrots.
Pink seemed to be the order of the day.

…and a welcome cup of hot chocolate.

I did find my own little monster for the windowsill.

A…dinochicken? Chickosaur?

Like I said earlier – I don’t do Halloween.
I do, however, do “silly”.

😀

Published in: on October 31, 2024 at 9:00 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Time Out

Don’t mind me.
I’m just trying to distract myself from the need to finish an essay for the nearly due assessment.

Look!
11, K9, 10, and a floral TARDIS!
😀
(got them off Facebook yesterday…)

Yes, I’ll stop procrastinating. Soon.
A lot of the questions I’ve been answering for my assessment are about my opinions on things. They’re taking longer than I thought they would… I’ve had to do a fair bit of reading, even if I know a bit about a topic. After all, how can I give an opinion on something if I’m not clear on what the something is?
Also – there are a lot of interesting side quests along the path of research!

So – I need to take time out, and clear my head a bit.
Tonight it’s a blog post.
Yesterday it was coffee (or hot chocolate) out.

I feel rested just looking at it 🙂

Well, back to the essay.
Or a bit more scrolling.
Whatever.
😆

Published in: on September 5, 2024 at 7:37 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Let The Storm Rage On…

At least for a couple more minutes!
We’ve had a few bucketloads of water dumped on us, but it seems to have disappeared now.
The skies were brooding, and there was some spectacular lightning, but now it’s all sunset and light.
Still, the rain we have had has made the grass shoot up a bit. Also this –

I’m not sure what it is, but I’m thinking something in the gourd family? I shall let it grow and see what happens.
My rose bush is still throwing out flowers, seemingly from nowhere. I have so many photos I could bore you with. I’ll just choose some 🙂

Abundance!

So delicate, and so beautifully formed.

Little living works of art.
❤

This is from today, complete with raindrops!
Of course, my other plants are loving the rain.

The frangipani seems to have settled in.

This last couple of weeks have had their ups and downs.
I’ve done more around the house lately – even got the linen cupboard sorted today.
Had a clinic visit last week to look at some stuff – nothing major, but niggly. Have you ever been to one of those doctors who talk over you, never seem to hear what you’ve actually said, speak like they’re trying to catch you out – as though you’re being sick “wrong”.
Yeah.
Felt quite discouraged for a few days.
Still, maybe I should just – let it go…
I’ve taken some things on board, and have also decided to put some things back in place that I’ve let slide.
And there’s always the chance to have a cuppa out.
Went to our usual place last week. It’s been rearranged a bit.

There’s treasure to be found!

We usually try to sit on the sofa, but that’s suddenly moved to the window.

Think I’ll try for that rocking chair next time 🙂
Wherever the chairs are, I will still enjoy my hot chocolate.

…and continue to muse on beauty, even in the storm.

Published in: on November 29, 2023 at 6:42 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Textures, Sunsets And Songs In The Wasteland

It’s been a week or so of leaden days, with a few shivering mornings as well.
The sunsets have been pretty good, though.

We went to the cafe the other day – we’re trying to make it a regular thing. It was so cold they had blankets folded on the outside tables for anyone brave enough to sit there.
That wasn’t us…
I like the mix of textures they have there (although we did briefly muse about the difficulties of dusting). There are interesting things wherever you look.

Lots of shells and seedpods.

Many friendly bunnies, strategically placed.

……………………………

😆

A whole display of shell necklaces (I have my eye on a couple, when I have some spare cash 😀 )

Painterly effects…

My world sometimes seems small in scope, and it’s tempting to drop into sadness. I love this house – a good thing, since I’m so often here! – but in some ways it should be more difficult. We’re on a main road and diagonal to a pub (potential noise), we look out onto shops and have no garden to speak of (but plenty of flowers!), our neighbours are very close (potential lack of privacy).
What could be barren can become beautiful…
and we can still choose to hear the music in the wastelands.

Published in: on July 14, 2023 at 9:27 pm  Leave a Comment  
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My Life, In Coffee

The last few days, at least!
I had a busy Thursday/Friday – those are the days my Babe is away at uni until late. They were also the days we were given to inspect a couple of houses…
I don’t travel well these days. In my youth 🙂 I could walk wherever I needed to, carrying whatever was necessary for the day. At the moment it’s too much to walk to the bus stop from here, so I get a lift in when my Babe goes in to catch the train. This usually means sitting in a cafe with my coffee, waiting for the time of the appointment I’m supposed to be going to that day.

There are worse things to do with my time.

Thursday was an 8am drop off, with a viewing time of 1.30pm. That meant whiling away some time at breakfast, a bit of shopping, sitting in the library…unfortunately that viewing (the only reason I was in town) was cancelled at the last minute. I got the message just as I was gathering up my things to get the bus to the house.
Friday started off even earlier – 7am drop off at the other end of town. I found a cafe open at that time –

This was my view.
This was also my view!

It was still a bit chilly at that time of the morning, so I did move to the indoor section fairly soon after this.

The first house viewing was at 10am, which left a few hours to sit around or wander in. The boys came down to look with me – that house wasn’t as small as it looked from outside, but I’m unsure about it. We put in an application for both places though.
I was reminded of a verse earlier that morning, so I looked up the psalm it came from. Do you think Someone’s trying to tell me something? 😀

Went to my regular cafe with my boys after, then library for a bit, then the viewing that was cancelled the day before.
Why do houses never look, in reality, the way they do in the real estate ads? We know to compensate for the photo stretching that seems to infect all the listings, but it still can be hard to work out what you’re really looking at. This house was the one we were most interested in. It is probably still the one, but there were differences to the photos. For one thing, the people living there at the moment have “stuff” lying about everywhere, and there were quite a lot of other people also looking at the place, which made it hard to gauge sizes of rooms or overall space. They also have pets (dogs, I think), so there was some sort of pet fur pretty much everywhere, piled up in the window/door runners. The screens in the outside doors were full of claw marks, or almost torn out in some places. We were assured it would be cleaned before the next tenants came in.

It’s been a long few days, but I’m feeling optimistic.
I was glad to have been able to get to where I needed to, but I hurt today…for some reason, overdoing things seems to also make me feel a bit flu-ey.
Today, and probably tomorrow, was/will be taking it easy days. There’s still packing to do, as well as the regular stuff. For me, most days are doing things bit by bit.

Hopefully, by next week we’ll have more of an idea of where we are.
Or where we’re going!
Until then –

❤

Published in: on October 16, 2022 at 12:27 am  Comments (2)  
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And The Earth Smiles Again

…even though it seems a bit unsure what the season is! 😆
It’s nice to have a bit of a slight chill from time to time, but I can feel the summer lurking behind, waiting for its turn.
Last week I was in town for most of the day. My Babe was out to uni early, so I hitched a lift in for a very early (for me) breakfast.

A composition of contentment. 🙂

The cafe I go to has a lot of greenery, both inside and out. There’s lots of little “still life” areas – wherever you choose to sit is welcoming.

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There are flowers bursting out everywhere!

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I had to get the bus to my appointment, then had planned to get a bus back to town, so I could get another bus home. I don’t know what was happening with delays, but I eventually decided to walk back in to where I needed to catch the bus home.
Guess what?
More flowers! 😀

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Everywhere, signs of new growth in amongst the old.

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It was a very long day for me, but I managed it – almost pre-covid energy levels! I’ve had to take it easy this week. Fatigue has whacked me over the head again, and I’ve got similar journeys that I need to do in the next few days. We’ve got a couple of house inspections, and have already filled out as much of the application for tomorrow’s property as we can (you have to go to the inspection and get a code to proceed with finalising the application). We’ve got a good feeling about tomorrow!

I got home mid-afternoon last week.
There was another pigface smiling at me as I got through the gate to the complex. This is from the gardens further down from us. They don’t have as many flowers as us, but the ones they do have are very big.

We’re about ready to really get in to packing and moving…
Roll on tomorrow!

Published in: on October 12, 2022 at 5:07 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Small Beautiful

I finally got around to reorganising my roses.
Aren’t they sweet?

That vase is probably only a couple of centimetres tall, so that gives you an idea of how big the roses are. They’re among the remains of a bunch of roses I was given a while back. I find that if I leave them in the vase, they will dry quite nicely. Often the big roses don’t dry as well – they lose their colour and can start to get mouldy. The tiny buds and miniature roses dry better, and can keep quite vibrant colour.

I’ve been enjoying the rain, and even darted out quickly yesterday to change library books and pick up a hot chocolate and a brownie.

They gave me a lovely pink cup ❤ (they’re usually white), and an unexpected marshmallow bonus 🙂

Small steps, still.
But surrounded by beauty.

Published in: on July 2, 2022 at 9:03 pm  Comments (2)  
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Crying Sideways

I didn’t get out much last week.
When Saturday came around, I thought it might be a chance to enjoy a quiet coffee in my favourite cafe.
Seems like everyone else had the same idea…

This Sunday’s sermon mentioned something about “souls crying sideways” – when we don’t acknowledge pain and hurt, stuff it down inside, it tends to come out in other ways. That may be physical illness, mental instability, or maybe just crying copiously in public. Who knows? We all have our idiosyncrasies.

When I go out by myself for coffee (and cake 🙂 ) it tends to be a big deal for me, both because I generally have to spend a fair bit of my energy reserves to get there, and because I just enjoy the whole experience. I’m also not very good at suddenly changing plans.
Saturdays are very busy. My favourite cafe is very good, but I’ve come to realise that Saturday morning is not the best time for one person to be able to sit inside and enjoy a leisurely breakfast…
I had already had some problems with wobbly legs and shaky hands while walking down the street to get there, and the tables outside can be a bit wonky (there’s a bit of a hill). I had ordered a filter coffee, which I hadn’t realised didn’t come with milk. I couldn’t ask for milk easily because I couldn’t carry everything inside, although I did eventually get a small jug of milk. My cosy morning out was turning into a bit of an ordeal, which tipped over into chaos when I managed to tip the whole cup of coffee into my lap (shaky hands/small jug). Cue the crying!
I don’t identify myself exactly with the sideways crying scenario – I don’t think it was a case of stuffed emotions – more probably my energy levels just suddenly dipped into practically non-existent. The crying was definitely disproportionate to the event, though. Thankfully I can cry quietly 🙂 One of the other patrons did notice, and asked if I was OK. I took myself around the corner to calm down a bit, then went back to my table to try to finish the coffee that was left in the pot. It had, of course, been tidied away. 😆

My morning finished better than it started.
I got back in line to get a takeaway latte, which was given to me free, along with a lovely lemon slice. That kindness almost undid me (again) – none of it was the fault of the cafe, but they showed grace to the weeping twit in the shadows, when they would be well within their rights to ignore me.
I did some therapeutic shopping in the charity shop down the road, then spent some time in the library. No-one seemed to notice the huge coffee stains down my front, and they’d dried by then.

I haven’t got any deep philosophy to impart from all this, but I was reminded of an important truth while I was watching the last scene from the last season of House.
Time’s moving on…

Published in: on July 19, 2021 at 10:47 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Emptying The Thought Patterns

I wrote here a few days ago about being in my favourite cafe without anyone else around – it was “empty” for a good period of time.
Here’s a view towards where I was sitting.

It occurs to me now that this is obviously not an empty room – it’s just empty of people.

I was talking to my Biggest Boy this morning about unconscious bias – he’s studying screen and media, and has been learning about storytelling and scriptwriting. We discussed the fact that we all have prejudices and blind spots. We come from our own unique backgrounds and experiences, so the way we see the world will not be the way the next person sees their world. To a large extent that just creates variety… but sometimes it allows cruelty and offensiveness towards others. We just don’t see where our blind spots are obscuring another’s reality.
The cafe dining room was full – cluttered, in fact. There were many obstacles to my chosen seat (the couch at the back) but I was able to navigate there safely because I could see the chairs/tables clearly, and I have been there often enough to know my way around – I don’t really “see” those other things anymore.
What else am I not seeing? What unconscious biases am I letting slide because I don’t realise they’re there?
As Maria and Captain von Trapp (and also the Bible!) say – “Nothing comes from nothing…”

What am I unconscious of?

As it’s the weekend, and you probably need to sit down and have a cuppa, I’ll just share a couple of songs that came to my notice today.
🙂
❤

Published in: on May 8, 2021 at 5:03 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Sage Thoughts And Planted Bulbs

Today has been a busy day.
Due to various circumstances, I spent part of the morning picking up groceries that we hadn’t had time or opportunity to get to before. For me this means buses and walking, which was quite nice this morning, in the fog.
I started off early, having breakfast in my favourite cafe – I was the only one there for a time 🙂
It was like sitting in my own lounge/dining room, except with more chairs…

Off on the bus to Market Organics after that, then wandering back to town – bits of shopping, library, then the bus home. Everybody seemed chatty today – people I knew, people I didn’t… there’s always time for kindness, whether given or received.

I finally got the bulbs in the ground the other day, where they will sleep their winter sleep and hopefully emerge in spring, looking like this (but less cardboard-y)

The sage is now safely gathered in – past its best, but quite abundant.
I’d previously frozen the basil in olive oil, and yesterday chopped half the sage into olive oil to freeze as well. The rest of the sage went into honey to steep for a few weeks, when it will be ready for sore throats and medicinal tea.

Tired now, but happy!
I think tomorrow will be a quiet day at home…

Published in: on May 4, 2021 at 8:03 pm  Leave a Comment  
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