“Want”

So easy to say and yet so hard to get there.

Sitting at my desk, one of my inspiration corners.

…behind the story.

I went for a walk yesterday to give out some leaflets in mail boxes in a suburb some distance away. Being a hot day I dreaded it but got on with the job. As I walked along I observed around me. I had taken a folded piece of paper and biro in my carry bag and soon dragged it out as I became absorbed in the happenings and sights, all different in every place I walked past. My A4 sheet of paper folded into four soon was covered with line after line after line of what I was seeing. That was only one long street of about 100 houses.

I moved the car a few times to continue along the various streets still carrying that precious piece of paper as I put things into pockets and out of pockets in the process.

The street ambience was changing from pleasant with character to tired, dusty and weary and unkempt. But in between as I had just written luscious grass next to dry crackling grass my world wanted to dissolve into tears…big gulping tears, because I had put my carefully collected painting of words into someone’s letterbox instead of the leaflet itself. I noticed it two houses along. Back tracking and thinking I’d dropped it I discovered of all places for it to happen was at a locked mail box with locked high gates and roller shutter windows…ahhhh

…all I could do was to leave a note in mail box explaining what happened including my mobile number. I haven’t heard back, even dropping by this morning to no avail.

I so wanted to have those notes back, but wanting won’t help. I’ll either have to go back and try to recapture the atmosphere with pen and paper or attempt to retrieve from my mind like that party game “what is on the tray”….looking at 30 items on tray and then writing down from memory. Too too hard and far too many impressions.

Aging leaning house, with fence like crooked teeth next, to tiny old triangle of a park with old fashioned long chained swings idly moving with ghostly memories. Worn Wooden seat used by long gone children at play. High push, low glide, wavering wobble with shrieking laughter. All now silent and alone.

Gardener thinking he is still in his home country. Crowded suburban front garden full to bursting and overflowing with fruit trees and all manner of vegetables and herbs. Such a joyful atmosphere. Reminds me of maybe Italy in the country with their small plots but every corner filled with usefulness.

Skinny but long vegetable garden wrapped round the sunny side of a brilliant white house with crazy winding track of a path edged with ancient bricks like jagged points.

Pictures, Impressions, reminders of far away lands and families, smells of Middle Eastern cooking, whiff of a herb as I brush past a huge bush of Basil covered with flowers and the attendant bees….

…so I return home and water my own tiny pin prick of a vegetable garden which really is more like a herb garden with Basil, Rocket, Spring Onions, bit of spinach and rhubarb. Lettuce and tomatoes long finished with the heat.

Back now to the every day, with memory an ache of a oh so tiny thing by life’s happenings of what I lost, but hope with action to get back.

Back to work men repairing a leaking pipe which happily was on the Water Board side so we had no bill to pay!

Such is life. If we pick ourselves up and continue on we won’t have lost.

A comment I once read…

“What did I learn that I didn’t expect…”

Well maybe me observing my unfamiliar surroundings along every step of the way helped to complete a job which in itself was wearisome on a hot day! This wasn’t expect, until having gone quite some distance I noticed lifted spirits and a savouring of the added beauty of the ordinary. It took no extra effort just a refocusing of the mind.

What about you? Do you have any unexpected gems to share with readers? Do you think they made a difference?

So on we go and with a smile.

Have a lovely day one and all and thanks for visiting,

Alexa

Photos and words belong to www.Alexa-simpleliife.com
Except where stated.

{Lightfoot at morgueFile free photos }

So a little chicken talk turned into a story, which goes to show how much is involved if one chooses to keep these feathered friends….

This is how I ended my last post, but on further reflection with a rested and refreshed mind there is so much more that can be gained from these memories and ideas.

As with everything in life we need to investigate, learn and prepare …and learn Spanish…shall we??

Life can be an adventure….

… I am thankful for the many different life happenings I have experienced from a young age, for they do teach us many, many things….how to care, to be thankful, to be patient, to try again, to understand others, to try new ways, to listen to the young also cause they can teach us a thing or two, not to judge-hard to do cause it’s in our nature, to make do, to re-use…and so the list goes on.

We don’t need an online education for the above. We have life skills….

Hand washing country style by jdurham at morgueFile.com

…As I stand here with my iPad on the kitchen bench looking out the back door and pretending to have a rural vista, I see blue sky, freshly washed laundry on the line, a green lawn of sorts edged with a newly established Lavender hedge atop a rock wall and I think …

What are life skills…let’s look it up on the internet with mr Google. The first item that comes up is this

noun
plural noun: life skills
1.
a skill that is necessary or desirable for full participation in everyday life.
“sharing with a sibling can help children learn important life skills”

So, returning to the scene at my back door, there are quite a few life skills even in the everyday taken for granted scene.

O.K…even my iPad, I had to learn how to use this tool and am still learning as there is so much new technology and older brains take longer to process and take it all in and grasp the concept. Yet a younger child who is using this new technology all the time is quick to grasp the workings and can show her grandma a thing or two without any fuss, but I have to remember for next time….practise, practise grandma.

{Monosodium at morgueFile.com}

Then there’s the laundry freshly washed. We do it all the time without thought except that we keep an eye on the weather, how full is the wash basket, what needs special stain treatment, hot wash or cold wash, washing sorted into light and darks, by country- just joking, fluffy away from darks, TISSUES OUT OF POCKETS, is all the dirty washing out of the children’s rooms, delicates washing, uniforms needed for the morning…quick quick. Yet give it to a child with no experience and see what happens.

Now a lawn needs some looking after. Depending on the time we have to spend and how fussy or particular we are there are many steps to learn. The real basic ones are that Lawns need water, especially in our hot Australian summers. They need to be cut and the edges done either by hand shears or an edger like a whipper snipper. Lawn trimmings need to be disposed of. Prickles in the lawn need to be poisoned off or pulled out so children can play on it with bare feet in summer. Then there’s the need to feed lawn if you have time. All these are learned skills through necessity so you can have a lawn of sorts. Ours gets cut and watered and has to survive. It still gives a space to enjoy, a buffer from neighbors and respite from the heat rather than having bare concrete.

{Kaparti Gabor at morgueFile.com}

My new lavender hedge needed lots of preparation to get to where it is now. Maybe over a year as I had the time,to research and to propagate and grow many cuttings from the main lavender bush. Over the years I’ve done gardening, learnt and observed from my mother since I was a child. It is something that is enjoyable and brings desirable results. The lavender hedge garden was at one time a mish mash of plants and creepers that were growing old and needed a replacement that was easy to take care of as we approach retirement.The old plants had to be dug out or poisoned and wait for the poison to work. Patience and energy and perseverance. It was hard but I got there!

So lots of life skills are part of the everyday, but at the beginning needed to be learnt, understood, practised, nurtured and just done cause they are part of what makes our life happen….and passed on!

{handl at morgueFile.com}

So what new skill have you had to learn or master, passed on or just worked at in a different way.

Make a hard job beautiful by looking forward.

Alexa

Thank you to morgueFile.com free photos

Refreshing water on grass (by Rollingroscoe)

Hallo

Word picture written on a Thursday 5th December 2013:-

Sights and sounds of summer yesterday…
A hot still blue sky
Cicadas chirping, um screeching
Missing the hiss of a sprinkler
….old fashioned sound from my youth …no water restrictions
….Children’s hysterical laughter as they run and play, chase and scream under the sprinkler’s rainbow

A summer day (By imelenchon)

Word picture written on Monday 16th December 2013:-

A new lavender hedge grown enough to proudly show off its plump flower buds….look at me, look at me,
Overcast skies and an occasional sprinkling of light rain but with a balmy temperature
…Hope you can enjoy a lovely moment today if only briefly
Love you dearest sister
Hugs and God Bless you and all yours

Sounds this summer morning Friday 10th January 2014
Listen…..What’s that screeching buzzing noise …. Ahh Cicadas. That’s what set the theme for this post.

Now at this very moment of writing….At it’s usual
time ..the amphibious water taxi flying l.o.w. and s.l.o.w. overhead on its way from base to Rose Bay close to Sydney Harbour.

What a fabulous job being able to fly over our beautiful Sydney Harbour and surrounds each day in nice weather. Then back again to base at 5pm. L.o.w. and s.l.o.w. A nostalgic sight. Always makes me think of the “Biggles” books our son read many, many moons ago.

Now the mundane everyday happenings which keep a household running smoothly. Give the veggie patch some water and put snail bait out for the pesky slugs getting to my lush young Basil plants. Check the new rocket seedlings. All looking good for tasty additions to salads. Oh, and those spring onions are shooting nicely where I planted the white onion bulb ends from bought spring onions / shallots.

Wash a woollen blanket for a quick dry today so I can sort out some spare linen and quilts and put away in space bags. Tidy cupboard. Yay!

…and so a day continues in its cycle. Heavy work, easy work, paper work, thinking work, planning work, finishing work. A balance and a harmony.

Hand washing country style by jdurham

Life can be a struggle sometimes don’t you think…and when it gets a bit too much find something beautiful in the day.

Alexa