Living in the moment.The ever changing scenes of a week gone.
A Diary of sorts

31 May being the last day of Autumn.
Remnants of Roses. A fleeting glimpse of Summer gone.

1 June the first day of Winter.
Braving the cold wind in the garden

2 June
Mending day with 60 year old faithful

3 June Saturday
Grey skies so I always go looking for colour in the garden

4 June. Sunday
Sharing Birthday lunch with family and friends.
Boys…Friends and cousins showing off their trampoline skills
Then hurrying off to fish in the dam over the hill

Driving home through the always beautiful countryside.
Worrombi and Cobbity- my favourites
Observing the low sun created shadows as it hastes to bed amongst the hills


5 June Monday
Taking deep into the soul brilliant blue skies and warm hued Autumn leaves
Finding sunny nooks amongst Winter shadows for a slow morning tea
Sitting in a warm sunroom before dusk approaches
Seeing a molten gold sun slip silently behind the western hills

6 June Tuesday
A mending, bed linen washing, soup making kind of day.
Starting off clear and windy for line drying but changing to cold and wet. Needing a cheerful fire and happy flowers kind of day recently enjoyed at our friends home.

7 June
My beloveds birthday
Wet and cold. Double bar gas heating start to damp morning
Boys in school uniforms to be picked up
Happy birthday to be sung to grandpa….we love our grandchildren. Big and small.

I love these sorts of weeks
The plain, the mundane, the grey, the ordinary mixed with the extraordinary
Find exquisite beauty where you can
However small or humble

Linking up with What Joy is mine

Memories of a recent school run whence I picked up and drove home two of our grandsons

Question – Bailey, are there puddles at school after all the rain?

Answer – Yes, a big one on the Basketball court. But last week is was REALLY BIG!

Question – Bailey can you climb into your car seat without stepping in this big river of water in the gutter?

Answer – Look Grandma, as he carefully dips the toe of his shoe in the water…the water goes around my shoe.

Boys and water are attracting poles on magnets.

Boys of all sizes loving the Beach!

~*~

So on we drive through the country

“Grandma, did you know it isn’t Summer anymore?

It is”. ..pause…

I help with the starting syllable, Au…

“AUTUMN” is the response

“I have to look at our house for the coloured leaves ” was the wise comment from Mr5yr old who has just started school.

~*~

Having completed my grandma love errand and remembering Bailey’s words I then made this observation.

It being March 2nd, the leaves on the Manchurian Pear trees not two minutes from our house are changing colour to the brightest red and falling.
What beauty surrounds us if we can but see it

We had heat wave maybe a week past then cool change.
Presently sunshine, grey skies, rain and humidity

Poor nature is so confused

Lawns are growing so lush and fast they look to be on steroids.

Maybe the rain will ease enough for the lawn mowers to go out to work…it has been very quiet on that front in the neighbourhood!

A note for hubby. Buy fuel for the mower before the can is empty and lawns are humungeous . He discovered this for himself having gotten changed into gardening attire ready for action.

But a feast for the eyes is the greenness everywhere on hills which would normally be brown.

A benefit too is the fact that there is no need to water the garden…the postman delivered our latest water bill …need I say more?

Even though our Australian summer was very hot and dry I could not starve the garden. I love being out there too much.

Thankful for our beautiful surroundings which creates food for the soul.

Joining Our World Tuesday

Impressions from my sister in law.
Memories of 1978.

#farmergetsawife
Agriculturalists gets a wife
City bride new to the country
City spouse new to the country
City girl marries her farmer
City miss weds her rancher

All of the above are depending on from where you live in this world.
Different expressions….same meaning

“I married my beloved farmer or rancher as the Americans say. A young lady who lived nowhere near the country but by the sea. Near Semaphore in Adelaide, South Australia.

Well all this came to nought. No happy catch up time. No time for chit chat.

Country life line

Rather, a call had been received from my parents in law asking that we return to the farm property immediately for my husband to help with the grain cleaning. In those days you needed to wait having made a booking for a man to go to your property or ranch on a set day to do this job …well that time slot had come early!

There was no new bride to be carried over the threshold. I ventured into our stone cottage myself.

But I love our life here. Over the years we’ve lived in a few different houses. First was that stone cottage.

Cycles of family life.

Alexa back here again.
Our cycles of life
The years roll by
Silently but ever moving

Our family visiting the Farm

Now I must search out that pastie recipe from an old school book when we did Home Economics at High School. My sister in law bakes an awesome one.
Best eaten on a cold day which is the opposite to what we have here presently in Australia. Summer heat waves. Yet I guess you could eat it with a salad.
I think I will wait though so that the oven does not over heat the already warm house.

What a pity I did not keep my copy when I culled all my books during our recent move. The modern copy is rather pricey now.
Live and learn.

Recipe of pasty…….
Page 7 of 8
“Cookery the Australian Way” 50 some years old and still serving and teaching our young.

Memories are the threads of life
A tapestry in the making

On the first day of August
Which now seems light years away

It being the last month of official Winter in Australia.

I was wishfully speeding the approaching Spring on
to valiantly burst out of Winter’s very tight coat

Apple blossom finally bursting from its tight winter coat now in October

So,

I took a stroll with one of the grandsons
A quick walk before the early winter darkness encroached
Because little boys need to wind down for sleep soon

Hand in hand for a run up the winding path to our little park

Quickly a swing, a slide and another swing

See the street lights are flickering on
Time to run back

But wait, what a find

Usually all finds end up in little hands

Look at this leaf

It is mine

I carefully hold it by the stalk
and selfishly do not give it to my little companion

It is mine

Much too precious to share
Brim full of the essence of life

Then that very night
Photographed under mean kitchen lights
A fluke of a picture

The rivers of life
Days and nights of weather encapsulated in one single leaf
Alone on the path

Leaf

“I study the leaf veins
they are little streams of life
yearning for the sun
static trees stand sentinel
watching our brief lives go by ” A Poem by Andy Brookes

I sit here now enjoying the afternoon sunshine after this mornings grey gloominess.

The Simple Life.
So easy to find.

May your week be Blessed

#messageinaleaf #momentintime #whatdoyousee #considerthelilly

What do you see
Your first impression
When you compare

First fleeting impressions hit the eye immediately.

How plain
How happy
How tall she walks
How sad they look
How harried they appear
How naughty that child

Wow, beautiful or handsome
Wish I had some of that

But that is only an impression
Not the true picture

Yet rarely do we say anything of people’s character
That they have a generous spirit
Are kind or thoughtful
You child are trying so very hard

These thoughts arose after looking through some photos I took recently of what at first may appear as junk, old, obsolete or old-fashioned….

“A gift to myself”
A visit to the country
Spending time to wander round
In quietness observe with a different eye
Sights and impressions not noticed in an everyday rush

The very first morning I hurried outside to make the most of beautiful weather not knowing what the morrow would bring.
I needed to savour these delights.

As the days continued I found more treasures to lift my soul.
Sights unseen on the ordinary day

Colours, combinations, textures, shapes, shades, forms, sharp, soft, lofty or insignificant.

Images of time
Of labour
Of life
Past

Yet in essence they were rusted drums, old tanks, fencing wire, peeling paint, weary old stone cottage with its silent walls and long gone school children and families.

It presented me with beauty, character and charm in a palette of rich colours.

Then as I attempted to choose which photos to use I observed another layer of impressions.

How many lessons taught to bring education to children in this cottage school house

How many throats cooled and thirsts quenched from the now empty and old, rusted rain water tanks.

How many Kilo-meters or miles of fencing put up over the years and repaired again and again

Those drums asked how many machines were serviced to provide food and sustenance for this and other households over the decades

How many litres or gallons of diesel used over the decades to to run a farm

These shutters spoke of shelter from the rain or cooling relief from breezes.

Old door
Battered door knob,
Big key hole for long shafted key
Sturdy lock standing the test of time

How many bodies have brushed through this door
Slowly and carefully carrying a heavy load
Or rushing headlong as children do with much banging
How much joy or sadness entered these doors
Now stealthily visited by critters

How many different views through this now empty window

If walls could talk

Look around you, what do you see. More than skin deep. See depth. A multi layered depth.

What story do you see around you, yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Till later

Also Linking here

Winter is on its way

Wishing with all my heart that I could paint…
Longing to paint and capture that emotion

Holding our youngest grandson recently

At one with the calm Australian bush scene before me

Quietly standing sheltered from the rain
Under the pattering metal roofed verandah

Falling big plops of rain
Dripping from the corrugated iron roof edge
Splashing on the bottom step
One footstep away

Little fingers outstretched and reaching
Little brain processing that new-found sensation
Cold rain in an endless stream of splashing
Splashing on a tiny hand

Watching
Escapee hens enjoying new-found freedom
Speckled, black, white
Iridescent red with browns
Leading endlessly long charmed lives
For now
No fox getting near enough for a taste

Escapee Long Legs

In the rain
Sparkling orbs of reflected light
Rain drops on lush green grass

Clucking hens pecking merrily away
Beady eyes endlessly searching
Then darting for that perfect morsel
Around and under and over
an abandoned for now toy car
Brightest of primary hues
Yellow, red and blue,
Little Tykes, a pedal powered car

Like a artists paint palette before us
Those vibrant and clashing hues
Eye popping in the ozone charged air

Nature versus man-made
It’s own tapestry creating

My arms were full of a sweet munchy little boy
…so precious

With no room for camera
…so sad

No candid shots today

Memory snap shots will have to suffice
So too that all surrounding Earthy, clean washed and lingering remembered scent

No “wow” for all the world to exclaim over

But

A simple still moment

Try it

Savour it

Food for the soul

Balm

Savour that moment today because these ever rolling years have wings and stop for none…they run without a pause button

Time is like a child, it runs

Indeed wings as I found.
This draft was prepared near a year ago and only published now

It was a time of rain

As the Flower of the field, it toils not nor spins…

Cherish each day

A last burst of summer sunshine to gladden the heart

Embrace the seasons and stages of life
Finding joy and beauty where you may

#savour-the-moment

Such has been life….

Moving into another house. Loving it here. A snip of a Rose here, finding a home for this. Food for a group , or just for one. Trying out this magic Thermal cooking machine the Bellini Intelli and Skinnymixers recipes or filing these papers(sigh).

Oh the garden is calling me again.

Sad to see the roses slowly finishing their season in the sun

Thinking of dear ones who are not with us any more, or ageing mother far away.

Time marching on.

Are we really that old?
I am young inside.
Yet today I seem to creak.

Fun visiting the farm

Were we ever that young?

But go it has!

I was reading through some old diary notes and this one struck a chord. March 2015. Fourteen long months ago.

Utter joy

U.N.F.O.R.G.E.T.A.B.L.E

Fast forward to yesterday morning.
Walking in the Botanic Gardens.

Two older preschool cousins and little Austin walking across rustic stepping-stones. Perfectly placed for little boys.

Us Singing songs, counting steps, pretending being on a bridge in a creek. I say “Can you hear the water?”
But children have such imagination with no prompting needed from adults!
I turn around and see…
Boys lying on stones , pretending to be on the deck of a boat.
Toes to head, head to toes.
Three little bodies all in a row

Repeat again and again.

Singing the ABC song as the stones were stepped upon.

Following the leader and singing the song. Little Austin chiming in and singing too….Bailey stopping mid stride and looking at me as if to say “how can little Austin know this song” ….

In all seriousness he wisely said “I learned him the song”

Infinitely P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S.

Just an ordinary day sharing morning tea.
Definitely not ordinary.

Finding a thing of beauty through the eyes of a child.

Budding artist and his abstract number flowers

If I do pause to reminisce and check my last article then the internet may drop out. The pause will be like discovering a drawer full of old photos. Memories. Ghosts. Sadness. Years passing with the speed of light. Joy. Laughter. Loud laughter and silent chuckles. Sadness for a dear sister lost. Sadness for alone ageing parent too far away to see often enough.

Time has passed taking with it sickness and death, an inevitable part of the cycle of life. Yet when it is family it brings with it a vulnerability. It says to me, you too are getting older.

Today, after a morning tea and play with the little grandsons and family I waved them off to their various destinations. Littlest one to sleep, older two to play some more. One mum to shop and the other to share precious time with visiting in-Laws

Having time to spare I decided to stay and explore the beauteous spring showcase at the Mount Annan Botanical Gardens. It beats browsing any Harvey Norman, Domain, Myers or other big name store hands down.

One section was titled “A room with a view”

There are vast green spreading lawns, small bushland gardens or tropical rainforest settings…..a thing of beauty.

By a still pool a timber bench was placed inviting a passer-by to stop, rest and contemplate.

The unobtrusive memorial plaque said it all.

“Find a thing of beauty in every day”

Flower shop in Stirling

Delicate snow drops in spring garden

Courtesy binks@morgueFile free photos

My thing of beauty this very instant is listening to the frogs merrily creaking and croaking away in the distant creek thinking of how I will grow a few summer salad plants when we move into our house God Willing in a month.

Missing fresh Rocket in my salad

That itself is another page in our journey. From a two storey home where we lived for twenty-nine years to a single storey home a little further out but with a nice size block just under quarter acre. I would have loved living a bit further out still but the voice of reason spoke.

Where we will live is still close enough to country with the likes of Cobbitty and its surrounds. Nice for a drive and a coffee should we desire.

We always said we would move before we were too old to negotiate stairs in the house.

It is the journey to love and cherish. To prepare, savour and enjoy. A move whilst we are able to make our choices and decisions.

Do find your moment of beauty this day.
Blessings…

Many a dream,
Of hope and maybe

Full of memories
Sad and good,
Joy and reflection

Is it a noun or verb or I know not what?

A word full of Life’s lessons past or future
Full of the maybe, what if, I’m not sure,
or shall we

Is it wise or is it not

To me #when was an immediate flash back to childhood times.
Three blond little girls in a family

When, that single word.
A brief glimpse back
Deja vu

Happiness and joy of children playing in the countryside…without any technology and gadgets
Just fresh air Remember when

Five minute Friday

Courtesy Pennywise@morgueFile free photos

My kitchen table
Bare feet
Perfect for sitting and thinking
Door open to the back garden
Slight breeze from outside
Slow whirling fan on the other side

How blessed

Washing on line showing off its drying flip flying dance

Courtesy SavaMatkovitch@morguFile free photos

I can just sit and ponder
At nature, even in a small suburban back yard
Dreaming of the country

There is nothing earth shattering here
Just peace and contentment
Clean and fresh scented sheets for this evening

Now a battered straw hat by my feet
A garden inspected and watered
New growth shooting forth from recently planted hedging

Mud dauber wasps with their dangling long legs
Searching for that perfect bit of mud and soil
Ponderously flying like a water laden fire fighting plane
In orange and black hues
Beware they say to me

Thinking back

Where have the years gone
Our very first experience of grandparent hood
Joy and adventure
Seventeen years and a few days
The birth of our first granchild, Renee

Courtesy GaborfromHungary@morgueFile free photos

A new era
Precious
All of them
Family

My five minutes of contentment on this day
Enjoyed doubly by writing
Hoping you too found a moment to pause.

Joining With some Grace
For Flog Yo Blog on Fridays