A Winter Walk

   

 When things are not quite right one of the surest things to help get me back on track is sunshine! After many, many days of rain and miserably cold temperatures some beautiful sun came our way. So I got outside and I walked. Along with sunshine, walking is the other thing that does wonders for my morale. Needless to say I enjoyed my winter walk immensely. 

     Life here is slowly returning to normal after my unexpected visit to hospital a month ago which was followed by a short time at home recovering. I can't deny that the experience threw me much more than I would ever have anticipated. I believed that I had a very good handle on life, with all its ups and downs, but this episode certainly tripped me up. 

     Getting out this week and going for a walk and feeling the sun on my face was so key to helping me get back on track when life has been feeling as if it's getting out of whack. Taking time to reflect, create and garden are other activities which nourish my soul. My arm's still not strong enough for heavy gardening but I do hope to get in some more reflection time and creativity in the next few days.
     The other aspect which frustrated challenged me was that at times it was simply a matter of resting. No reflecting, no walking, no working, just resting. Which was all very weird when work sat untouched in my bag, my laptop lay idle and the carpet cried out for a clean. 
     In the meantime I have discovered that exercises do work and do make a whole lot of difference.
     Patience, my friend.
     So today I am very grateful for cheery, winter walks in the warm sunshine and I'm grateful for the unexpected beauty that appears here and there along the path. 

     And I'm grateful for the feeling of getting back on my feet. 

Half-hour Posting

Half-hour posting is what I do when I don't have loads of time but I still want to stop by and say hello.
Half-hour blogging is also what I do when I haven't blogged for quite a while and I want to get back into it but I'm not sure where to start.
Half-hour blogging also means there's no pressure. It can just be a few quick words. It doesn't have to be an unforgettable script.

So here I am. It's been a couple of months since I last posted. Health has challenged me. Work has been demanding. 

Mr S tried out for a new full-time job. There was hope. A little bit of hope. Determination. Nine hours a day. Two ten-minute breaks. Same repetitive task. Hands swollen. Fingers infected. Nails coming off. 

Now, at last, life is not so busy. I can breathe. And think. 

Here we're getting ready for Christmas. Mr S and I would both like a quiet Christmas with time to enjoy the simple everyday rhythms of life... but family and friends beckon. It's Christmas time, they say. I'm happy to join them but I'm yearning for  simplicity. And lots of rest. And sunshine. 

Perhaps contrary to what I've just said, Mr S and I are preparing for a Christmas gathering with friends next week. My goal is to keep it simple and cheerful. I won't be buying presents. I like to think that the gift of being together is gift enough. They are good friends and time with them is richness. It's a chance for me to decorate and I do so enjoy a little exercise in creativity. 

For me, it's always been Christmas at Mum's. She has always insisted it's at her house. Her way. So I really cherish the opportunity to create some Christmas in my home.

Stay tuned  and I'll let you know how it  goes. It's a gorgeous, sunny day outside so there's much to do. But I welcome such demands. Work around home and garden. Making this house a home. And a haven.

Happy Sunday!

Mr S has learnt how to make mince pies. Guess what's on the menu next week!

I'm getting back to walking each day. And eventually back to running. I love holidays because everything is that much more possible. 

We have a lovely neighbourhood and I'm so glad I get time now to enjoy it.

The week that was

It's been a lovely holiday. There was time to relax and lots of sun to enjoy. For the first time in what seems forever, I had time to do some of those hard-to-get-to jobs around the house. I always enjoy working around the home when there's no rush and no pressure to get  school work and other outside tasks done. It's been wonderful to be able to stop and pause a while as the mood takes me. 

Mr S has been working on building up the vegie garden. He saw a wheelbarrow lying on the street for a few days and grabbed it one morning and brought it home. 

We've been able to sit outside and make the most of the sunshine. I would love to start every day with a cuppa and a seat outside looking out at the garden.

Spring is here and, even though I feel I've neglected the garden, there have still been many colourful delights popping up here and there.

I had a couple of lovely days on the Bellarine Peninsula. I spent some time with family and then caught up with a friend browsing in bric-a-brac shops and eating out. I really appreciated the good, long chats. 

I seem to have small piles of clutter tucked away here and there. These holidays I managed to declutter several of those piles. It's like having a detox from the outside in!!  It's quite an achievement to shake off some of those stubborn piles. I did a lot of cooking. Some dishes were more successful than others. I made a carrot cake - the cake tasted great- and am now in the process of  learning how to make icing with cream cheese - I'm not there yet!

There's more sunshine today. It always makes me feel so good. I even feel positive about tackling some of my school work. Daylight savings started today. I won't appreciate it in the morning but I'm looking forward to having extra time in the evening for gardening and running.

I hope there's some sunshine shining in your lives today. Happy Sunday and have a good week.

A lazy Sunday,

It's a crispy, cold Sunday morning but the sun is shining and deceivingly inviting. It's a lazy Sunday for us, but that's OK. 
I came down with another bad cold a couple of days ago so I am happy to take the time to recuperate. We're getting to the tail end of the term so holidays are just around the corner. Together with today's sunshine it's made me feel OK that I'm not doing a lot. I'm hoping that in a day or two I will be back to running around and getting more done. 

One of the highlights of the last week was making some invitations for a small party we're having next month. Of course, I didn't need to do them. A text would suffice but it was an opportunity to get creative, and so I did. In line with the vibe of the party, the design and materials were kept simple. I really want the focus to be about friends coming together. 
I found making the invitations quite relaxing. I think this was because, I had come up with a design that was so simple and the element of repetition meant I didn't have to overthink it. 
It also helped that all of the materials could be contained to one shoe box. I was able to work on the project over three nights without having to make a big mess and stress about cleaning it up each time.
The only downside was that I had wanted to keep costs down and I probably ended up paying a little more than necessary. When I got to the big supplies store there was very little choice available in the sort of paper that I wanted. In fact, had I done a trial run earlier I would probably have been able to adapt the design to materials I already had.
The photos I have do not show the final product. I ran out of the right-sized doilies but the idea is to wrap the invitation in a doiley and tie it with ribbon.

Again, I found that taking time to create was rewarding. I'm glad I listened to my gut feeling. Normally, parties and the like make me nervous. I really want to keep perspective on this event, keep it simple and ensure the occasion is warm and welcoming. I'm not a fancy cook but I am hoping to make it a lovely evening by focussing on what I can do rather than what I can't.
So back to my lazy Sunday. I'll put some washing on, check my weekly planner and tidy up a little. I've got  schoolwork to do and I'd like to declutter another spot in the front room-soon-to-be-office. 
I hope the sun shines your way today.

Gratitude Part 2

To be authentic I felt I needed to write a follow-up to Gratitude (which became Gratitude Part 1). It would have been easy to write about feeling down the other day , and leaving it at that, but that wouldn't tell the whole story. Or I might have made it show too easily how being "positive" can result in what you hope for.  So I decided to write a little more about that day and add what happened next.

Pittwater NSW 

It was a real struggle that day. I did feel down and the weather had been grey for days. Sunshine is the salve on  most of my wounds but I couldn't look to that the other day. As I said, focussing on "positive things" in my life certainly helped me shift from not wanting to do anything to being able to get up and get some things done. Even then, later that day there were lapses into feeling sad and not wanting anyone to see that.

At the end of Gratitude 1 I had written about embracing what is, as is, now. It really resonated with where I was at and I was keen to spend time reflecting on it. With those words in mind, I was determined to finish the last bits and pieces so the office would be ready once and for all...
...which is about the time when I hurt my back!!
...which was shortly followed by the news that Mr S had been given  a job!!!!

For so long I had been looking forward to that moment and when it finally arrived I could barely cheer.

Three days on and life is better. My back is still healing but thankfully I'm on holidays and there's no pressure to be doing things. Mr S has picked up in spirits and so have I. I must say I was a little sad at first because the new job means he will be away from home each week.  But I know how important it is to him and it's in such a lovely country area with lovely old cottages and shopfronts.

I'm sure there will be more challenges and more adventures along the pot-holed road of life but, for now, I'm very thankful for the wonderful opportunity given to Mr S and I'm certainly grateful that my back is healing and it's getting easier to do things around home.

On the road: simple travelling

Two weeks ago I was travelling on the road and feeling invigorated by life. It was a simple, no frills trip. Now I'm back home and, again, swimming in the busyness of life. The sun was shining today and I was itching to be out and about, enjoying this gorgeous world.

Tonight I had my blogging class  and now I'm back home getting ready for some guests who will be arriving tomorrow. It's going to be 34 degrees so I will need to find time to water the garden before I head off to work in the morning. There's beauty around me, even here in suburbia, but not a lot of time to savour it.

I'm putting up some snaps taken while I was over in South Australia recently.  I love getting in the car and driving away from the hustle and bustle. When I'm in the car, out on the open road, I really can't respond to phone calls, student problems or the sight of a messy house waiting for some attention.

   

I'm free when I drive.

 I love listening to radio broadcasts unless of course, it's a Saturday and every station is broadcasting sports events. Now that's a tough ride. I've gotten used to driving interstate so now I know the radio stations in each region, as well as good places to stop. As someone who was fairly uncomfortable with public toilets, I must say that the ones at the parks  approaching the Victorian/South Australian borders are impressively clean.

This time I managed to get a few photos along the way which is not always easy when you're driving down a highway with heavily-laden trucks and 100 km speed limits. It was clearly hay-making season in the rural areas, whereas the previous time I went across the fields were covered in bright, yellow canola.

Canoe Tree - on the road from Strathalbyn to Goolwa

 I've travelled extensively over the years. When I was younger and backpacking around the world I cut down on sight-seeing to stretch the money as far as I could. Now that I'm a little older I still like to keep travelling simple. Like my homelife!! I can squeeze three landmarks into a day if I choose, or I can take on one landmark that I'm really interested in (not necessarily the ones the tourist brochures insist I like). These days I much prefer to find a good walking track or a lovely place to sit , drink coffee and absorb the local atmosphere.

My friends in South Australia are on a tight budget so there were no fancy dinners. We took a walk to the top of a hill which I had expected to  take thirty minutes, thinking it was not far from their house. It was a warm day and we started late. The top of the hill turned out to be beyond the edge of their suburb, in and around the farmland. During my trip I saw many tumbledown farmsheds and rotting fences. I couldn't help thinking that we will lose all those untold stories as they rust and fall to pieces.

An hour and a half later we got back home. I had gone without water and was terribly thirsty but I managed to make it to the top of the hill  and all the way down. There was some beautiful countryside and my legs got plenty of exercise. As we walked, our chatter wandered in all directions, except when we got to the steepest part of the hill....at which point I couldn't do too much talking and had to conserve energy!

I was relieved to get back home but proud to say that I had made it to the top. The fresh air, beautiful views and good company were just as satisfying as any fancy dinner or some over-the-top, contrived landmark. This was my kind of travelling: simple, easy, enjoyable, good company, natural, authentic.

Sunshine

When I started on this blog I was so looking forward to sharing many wonderful things about life. Yet, the last two weeks have been a struggle. Fatigue gave way to laryngitis and I almost felt I was starting to lose sight of what it was like to feel good and enjoy day-to-day living.
Then the sun came out. One thing that keeps me going in life is the sunshine. I can feel down and depressed but once that sun comes out it seems to signal to me a ray of hope, even if it's just the hope of finding beauty in my surroundings.
With the finer weather I got outside and did some gardening. Having something that lifts your spirits is so important. Knowing those things is an important gift to yourself. And if you're lucky those things will be available and inexpensive!
Some of the things that lift my spirits are

• working in the garden: I rarely get beyond the weeding stage but I love being out there
• listening to music: I've got my favourite music on my ipod, it's amazing what a good song can do for you
• sunshine: what a boost and when it comes after days of grey it's like gold
• a nice, hot bath: sometimes we forget to spoil ourselves

The last couple of weeks have been trying and tiring. After getting out in the garden yesterday I still found myself feeling very confined when I had to spend yet another evening on my own. I wanted to scream several times over the last few days but with a weakened voice I couldn't. It was very frustrating and it also got lonely.
 Thank goodness the sunshine came and rescued me!!

What lifts your spirits?