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

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

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

Today I have just a few little lines on “to remember”

From Webster Dictionary
re·mem·ber verb
: to cause (something) to come back into your mind
: to keep (information) in your mind : to not forget (something)

Today I remember
Those who would love to feel the dew on the grass again
To walk on their own into the fresh air
To go outside and feel the air brush the face
…whenever they want
To look at the sky but not through a window
To sit by the ocean but not just dream the murmur of the waves
…whenever they want

Remember them, whoever they may be.
You may know them or of them.
Remember them and be thankful that you maybe can
Whenever you want
Feel the dew on the grass
Walk in the fresh air
Look up at the sky
Sit by the ocean

May they be surrounded by love, find inner strength and peace.

Photographs untouched and all taken by my trusty iPad
Joining in with a Essentially Jess for IBOT

Courtesy mensatic@morgueFile free photos

Finish…
A chosen title

Joining in with 5 minute Friday

I’m a slow Slow typist…

START..

Finish…a word my dearest man has been waiting for many months
Hanging in there at a stressful job more suited to a younger age group
More suited to a faster typist
But he stuck it out
Counting down one day at a time
Keeping going
Keeping his resolve
And then it was
Finish
Forty nine years of work
Day after day after day
Providing and supporting
During the young energetic years
During young family years
During stressful time
During a change of city
EnDuring years of fighting suburban gridlock traffic
Then as the years have aged him being blessed to find closer to home work
Just a little drive
Happy to find work in the waning work years
Happy and enthused and interesting
Then overnight it all changes again
But the job must continue
But it will kill him
So the days get counted down, and the tension falls like petals
Till Finished…June 30
Ah…
Thank you my dearly beloved x

New adventures
New horizons

STOP

Courtesy GaborfromHungary@morgueFilefree photos

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

What of this day…

With our typical Sydney summer’s day of blue sky and cicadas shrilling away in the background, I pause for a moment to reflect on the last few happy but busy family days.

Some vibrant jewel coloured Gerbera flowers in a bouquet given by a little hand. Red and orange and yellow and cream…a luscious mix.

Stunning little smile with pearly teeth when a little boy sees that grandma is there in HIS house in the middle of the night as he stands in a dim hallway having wakened suddenly.

Same little boy desperately fighting sleep with his eyes opened oh so wide as he holds on to the awake moment, then stating so suddenly “sleep please” whence he is gently rolled and tucked into bed.

The quiet of night with all asleep as compared to the busy happenings of family and children.

Quiet absorbed play of a little one with a large plastic container full of water and two cups. Pour from one cup to the other…over a nearby leaf….onto toes….onto grass …into sandpit…Hand in water to make handprint on wood like grandma did….foot into water and footprint all with his own thinking…Drink water ….all this showing that we really don’t need much to keep us happy….think back to when a small thing was really appreciated. What was it?

…for me I think back to sharing a moment with family. Even though it was just brief meeting at Adelaide airport a year or so ago. As I was preparing to fly back home to Sydney from Adelaide airport, having with my girls and their little ones visited my mother. My sister flew in from Perth to visit our mother too. It was a planned overlap for mum to have a longer family time to enjoy. Yet us sisters, my girls and their babies only manage 30 minutes due to flight times and little children. A meet and greet and hug and laugh and kiss and tear up, as we all had to continue on our life’s journeys.

Back to the present…..Older children happily devouring a favourite home made meal pre prepared by mum of lasagne…”we always have seconds of lasagne …”

Large Backpack school bags ready packed for first day back to school. Food and drinks and books and caps. Big black school shoes ready to go, boot/ trunk of car filled with school bags and swimming gear for little one.

courtesy jeltovski at morgueFile free photos

Courtesy jeltovski at MorgueFile free photos

Everyone in car, little one likes grandma’s car seat, seat belts on and off we drive in the semi rural countryside…and so starts another school year for everyone here in Sydney….the precious summer holidays are over….more on that another time.

Family life is a busy one, and with a little one and older siblings it covers a whole range of needs.

Many lessons are there for us along life’s journey. To Find Patience, tolerance, kindness, to be a peacemaker, helper, prompter, learner, discoverer, mediator, and learner again.

No matter what age we are, young to old, these apply. In all avenues from work to play.

….So, soon it’s time for grandma to go back to her home…..a little voice says, “Grandma stay at my house? Grandma sleep in my house?….” Precious memories.

Now I’m back to my own life, a different world. Retirement boring? Never

A little catching up and reading…..words….words…
Frugal Fatigue…Blogosphere…Frugal is make your money work for you…and I like this one, thank you Heather…Time is wealth…..

All these are a world away from life of the last few days that I was privileged to share.

Courtesy hotblack at MorgueFile free photos

Tag words given for the above photo were woman, girl, reading, coffee, shop, leisure, relax, quiet, peace, alone. My addition would be joy in the aloneness to refresh the soul and to garner strength for the next need that arises.

…later I will continue on my little journey started the other day.

Have a good day all.

By Alexa

Photos as stated with thanks from http://www.morguefile.com