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

Words for this day in Australia. Resilience. Support.

Life can be fragile ….like the poppy.

My version of resilience in a tough environment.

Planted nearly fifty years ago on a farm. An apple tree.

Love and care.

Wordless Wednesday

Courtesy Pennywise@morgueFile free photos

Last night just thinking of myself and craving a snack I found a recipe for Chocolate Chia pudding.

I pottered about in a hum drum sort of way and put the prepared healthy pudding in the fridge to soak ready for the next morning.

Morning arrives and with much anticipation I prepare to be delighted by a delicious sustaining meal…..

Oh dear. I discovered that I had used Quinoa instead of Chia. Ahhhhh!
Not to be deterred I strained out the Quinoa and added chia seed and returned it to the fridge to do its soak.
The Quinoa will be experimented with another day.
And yes my pudding did turn out. Cold, thick and refreshing on a hot day.

In between it seemed we lived in a different world, a parallel universe.

By pippalou @morgueFile free photos. With thanks

As the stars in our vast wide country heavens so brilliantly pulsated last night, and most of Australia slept, a scene of unimagined horror climaxed and exploded in the madness of the Martin Place siege.

In a Lindt Cafe.

A happy place, a refuge and a meeting point on an ordinary Sydney day.

For ordinary people starting their day.

Instead, horror and the resultant aftermath.

A day to be forever remembered.

Lives forever changed.

In my life, thankful for our safe families sleeping in their own beds free from danger. By God’s grace.

For support network of friends when in times of need after the event.

Courtesy kamuelaboy@morgueFile free photos

Courtesy wallyir@morgueFile free photos

For those who give their lives
For those who save lives
For those who protect
For those who mourn
For those traumatised

Forever thankful for memories of quiet peaceful times at the Thomas family Moorlands farm.

For the silence of growing grain in our vast land.

For the old apple tree with battered lichen encrusted branches still quietly sending out delicate blossoms and the resultant apples.

Peace

Joining #IBOT

Courtesy Peonia@morgueFile free photos

Australia is indeed a spacious land. A safe Haven mainly, where we can explore and wander and discover, if we are so inclined.

Courtesy pshubert@morgue file free photos

In the 1950′s Australia was billed as a Land of Milk and Honey to migrants. A land of untapped wealth and needing workers. So they came, to help build the infrastructure and to discover. In a way they were pioneers with sight, prepared to make a better life, learn and work hard in a strange land. They were from all walks of life and prepared to take any work.

Courtesy taliesin@morgueFile free photos

Look at a few of these examples. Migrant City folk who had to learn about the land, agriculture, livestock, farming, animal husbandry. Or farming folk, homesteaders in their own country having to adapt to an extremely different climate. Australia being a land of flood AND drought. A vast land. Then the labourers, brick layers, hardy men on their own hoping to bring family to this new country and working hard to save.

Old Photo courtesy BThomas

Old Photo courtesy BThomas

We were privileged because our family was befriended by kind and generous Australians who taught my parents about the new country. My mother was a city girl and my father knew or had learnt tool making. Both longed for a new safe place to call home, raise a family and were prepared to work for it. So thanks to the family of Mr Malthouse a hard working farmer near Bradbury, South Australia our family started their life in a new country. I feel sad though because as happens in life we lost contact, and this is my mother’s constant regret in her age where she has time to reflect.

I was a child in a strange land and it was only later as adults did we truly realise the blessings we had and have around us. The abundance, even when making do. We knew no different. There was freedom of space to discover and learn.

Courtesy stweedlie@morgueFile free photos

We also learnt that if it rained and we missed the bus to school we had to walk in the rain. There was no car! Instead, with raincoats and gum boots on we set off remembering to beware one particular bend on that narrow road near a Beech Forest in Stirling. A dip in the road where a monstrously long puddle formed next to the footpath. You see we had to strategically plan this stretch because if we didn’t take it at a run from one end to the next we were bound to get drenched. I know I got soaked at least once when I didn’t see a truck approaching the bends. A snaking road past ancient, dark and looming trees on a huge property. Huge and menacing to a child and it hasn’t really changed much now.

Courtesy gracey@ morgueFile free photos

So now a few generations on as my little grandson and I take a walk…

I have learnt how to go walking with toddlers
I have learnt how a grandmother can alleviate cabin fever
I have discovered exercise can be fun

…to be continued in Part 2

Joining in with Our World Tuesdays

Endless road.
Long dark ribbon straight ahead
Sweeping
to some lonesome level crossing.

A road trip with a purpose
A lonely drive
Being guided
by this Mallee Highway

Where do you go, this lonely car, so early in the morning
Driving on an endless quest to what, to where I know not.
Driving onwards and some more.

To sadness, to sorrow, to emergency
or to support and more
To be cheered, to share, to deliver
A new job?
Or what or where

And then

the heavy silence again
heard only in the country

These thoughts crossed my mind last night as I lay abed in this lonely farmhouse in the wee dark morning hours unable to return to sleep. Too many recent thoughts, impressions and emotions flitting through my mind.

I should have gotten up then to write, instead of scribbling in the car this morning, during OUR journey going from country to the city…

…and now with the traveller maybe long arrived at his destination and us arriving in the city for another day… I’m wishing for a homemade Florentine biscuit and a freshly brewed coffee to kick-start another day, again.

Thankful for this kindly gift of staying in the country with family.

ps…no photos today due to country broadband issues

Joining in with Essentially Jess for IBOT

Photo by hotblack @morgueFile free photo

Anzac Day, a public holiday celebrated mainly in Australia and New Zealand to remember those who served and died in WW1 as depicted in our newspapers and Poppies used as a symbol of remembrance

For us it was a drive in the country from Bawley Point to Sydney early on Anzac morning…

Queen Anne’s Lace grasping onto the side of the rural road with its last flush of summer flowers in the icy breeze

Photo courtesy marykbaird@morgueFile free photos

Deserted shops on Anzac morning in Milton. A few cafés open, bursting at the seams and over flowing with their queue of hungry people or coffee addicts needing their morning wake up jolt

A chalk board sign “a yawn is a silent SCREAM for coffee”

Us deciding to continue driving through the rich dairy country with its brief ocean view and find brekky elsewhere to end our holiday

Cycle track winding through bush fire ravaged eucalyptus forest now sprouting an abundance of new growth…a hardy tree is our eucalyptus

Husband now wishing he’d been able to have his homemade gourmet meat pie earlier at a bakery as it’s a bit of a haul to the next proper town for breakfast….

Well, brekky was had at Maccas in Nowra ….fresh and hot…soft egg and bacon brekky mcmuffin and piping hot tea…who needs a gourmet cafe anyway ;). There’s always another time!

A small spot of trivia as we chatted….being Anzac Day here in Australia…this year is 100 years since WW 1

More scenes spotted on our drive…people enjoying the break from work and able to work on their autumn chores in the garden…so nice seeing a husband and wife team together setting out pot plants along the front picket fence for a bit of colour …

Names driven past that caught my imagination.
MJ Fox Plumber
Roger Roberts Creek
Foxground
Gerringong
Kiama Downs

After having spent a magic time weather and family wise it’s home to Sydney and rain happening on the last stretch but not at home!

Rain and Anzac or cold and Anzac go together typically at this time of year. But we were blessedly spoilt for our time at the beach.

I typed in the car as we travelled along and prettied up this article once home, having unpacked and loads of washing done with me having done two back to back trips.

…anyone for coffee?

Older memories of Anzac Day when our children were little in Adelaide, South Australia. It being that time when all short-sleeved t-shirts and tops were packed away and winter clothing prepared and thought about hastily as inevitably pants legs and sleeves were too short. So too with PJs and dressing gowns and slippers for little toes. Things were passed down, sewn or as a last resort purchased. Days before eBay, Target, Kmart or Big W. The sewing machine got going and knitting needles a clicking.

Do you have childhood memories of this transition Autumn to Winter time?

By pippalou @morgueFile free photos. With thanks

Starry night in the country…and travelling in a fuel efficient car…..we took the small car!…Do you think before you travel?

Last night we had to do an unexpected trip down from Sydney to past Goulbourn and back again. We left after work driving into the evening sun and me being the first driver wished that I had my sunglasses for the glare.

We stopped briefly for a dinner of sorts and continued on with my husband now driving. It gave me the chance for a while till dusk, to look at the passing scene. The further we got from Sydney the less dense became the traffic…except for the trucks!

As darkness fell and the city lights faded I marvelled again at the beauty of the heavens through my side window. The brightness of the swathes of stars visible was wonderful. It took my mind far away from the smallness of man. We indeed are puny when set against the vastness of nature.

Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens.
Stars, the jewel of the night.
Ice cold twinkling stars of all sizes to light the traveller’s path with a crescent moon on its way down the heavens.

So completed a very brief visit to ageing friend in hospital and a return home before midnight.

By Irish_Eyes@morgueFile free photos. With thanks

We drove through a land which provides food for the many but a region also at times in drought…..Australia, a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains. Of contrasts. A land I would love to explore more one day. A blessed land.

I try to be thankful for what we have each day. It so puts things into perspective doesn’t it.

My night-time routine, or ritual, in the dim light is to pause on the landing and gaze out at the dark skies. It is an unconscious act. A calming act and I guess part of the winding down process for the day. Looking out at the shadows of trees near and far, the vast heavens, homes at rest and the always different dark skies. Recent skies were clear with some large twinkling, shivering and almost trembling stars.

I leave the stars and heaven’s dark orb beyond this small upstairs window to find the last light in another room.

A day is at rest. Peace and calm restored..for the most part.

Imagine the night-time view out of these windows looking over the Linden trees in Germany where my mother lived as a teenager. Those vast heavens in every direction.

Heppenheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany

And so ends another day….How do you find that moment of calm?

Till next time then.
Alexa

5 Random Things I am thankful for this day

1..Summer Fun and memories
2..Cool days a coming
3..New lavender buds-love them
4..Comfort food for a cool morning
5..Observations from being with little boys

1..Thankful for the lovely family and friend times we shared outdoors during our summer here in Australia. Summer fun, Beach fun, picnic times, impromptu cricket games in the true Australian fashion when all that was available was a tennis ball and bats. Camp chair and Esky/chilly bins were pressed into service as stumps. Fun had by all…

Summer time is also our wedding anniversary so am thankful for the lovely time and meal we shared a La restaurant@home and a fabulous bunch of red roses from Aldi for $5. So love them.

Eating out at home in pleasant atmosphere

2..On to today and Oh so sad…today being the last day of Summer and the sky is definitely NOT showing summer weather. It’s grey and miserable with constant drizzle. Cool enough for me to search out my sheepskin scuff slippers this morning instead of bare feet. Thankful for warm feet.

Cold weather approaching and summer has passed

An upside of overcast weather is that photographs come out much better because the sun is not leaching out colour. I just use my iPad for convenience

3..Lots of buds happening in my garden on my Lavender hedge which I grew completely from my own rooted cuttings with a huge dose of patience. Happy days cause I love Lavender.

4..Cool weather this morning made for wanting a warmer breakfast but not as heavy as porridge. So out comes the trusty Couscous. A very easy and quick meal with only the breakfast bowl to wash up….cook according to directions on pack. I used the microwave. Towards the end add a few sultanas. Allow to stand for a while. I also add a drizzle of olive oil when cooking. I make sure there’s a bit of liquid left once couscous is cooked or else add some more then stir in a bit of milk powder and a drizzle of Maple Syrup. Breakfast done and nice warm stomach…thankful..(I think making it with quinoa would also work and be somewhat healthier, but more expensive.)

5..Observed one little boy on Wednesday…daddy snoozing on lounge chair after a long day at work. B going up to daddy with…Tickle Tickle…not much response…sometime later B climbs up and crawls under daddy’s arm, daddy cuddles him and continues napping…B rubs his fingers on daddy’s arm for a while, lies there for a while and slithers out again down the side of the chair…like a little puppy. It was so cute but because I was cooking I couldn’t take a photo and just observed. Too sweet and precious daddy time x

Observation about B’s little cousin on Tuesday during showering time. I put a bit of shampoo on H head and then proceeded to wash and rinse shampoo off….little voice piping up “awww grandmaaa” every time I put a container of water on his head…I was spoiling his fun playing with his toys…awww grandmaaa

Drawing of a field of flowers with colourful “blooms”

Grandchildren are SO precious and take our mind away from the cares of the everyday. Indeed thankful for blessings.

What are you thankful for on this day? Count them and you’ll be surprised.

So another week ends. Blessings

By Alexa
Photos belong to me too

Joining in and thanks ….
A rural journal blogspot Random 5 Friday