On Essential Prose Zoe asks the question "What does your blog want to be when it grows up?"
When writing the List of the things I wanted from the new year, blogging was on it. I wanted to have a blog, because I was reading blogs, and enjoying them and thought "I could do that too". So I began the blog, then other things got in front of it and it didn't get off the ground.
Joining in the NaBloPoMo challenge of posting every day for the month of November is a great opportunity to see if I can make it happen.
I am not sure what I want my blog to be. I simply like the idea of having somewhere to express myself, to write some of my ideas and thoughts with the possibility that someday someone might read them and find something there to connect with.
At the end of the challenge, I expect to have more idea of who I am as a blogger, for now, I am still finding out.
Friday, 7 November 2008
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Froggy visitor
This is a tiny visitor that I had last summer. Sitting at my desk in the study, I was vaguely aware of something moving behind me. It jumped right in from the verandah, across the family room and behind my chair, stopping in the corner beside my desk. I thought it might be a baby cane toad (a dreaded introduced species which eat the local frogs). It was so tiny that I couldn't really tell was it was, so to get a better look, I took a picture of it.
It is a Striped Marsh Frog, and grows to about 65mm, or just over 2 inches. It is the first time I have seen one in the 16 years that I have lived here. It visited 3 times in a week, and then hopped off, and didn't come back after that.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Endings, Beginnings
Today was the end of my tax return - I finally got it done. Why do I put it off so long? It wasn't even that difficult once I got down to it.
This evening I had a lovely dinner with the people from my old team at my job. It was wonderful and sad. It was to celebrate the good times we had, and a last goodbye to me as their boss. They thanked me for being a good boss and it was important for me to hear that. It was what I tried to be, but you know that old self-doubt voice had been trying to tell me that they might be glad to get rid of me!
Tomorrow I get to be the "new girl" as I start to re-learn a job that I haven't done for fifteen years.
And the USA got a new president today - hopefully a turning point for America and the rest of us.
This evening I had a lovely dinner with the people from my old team at my job. It was wonderful and sad. It was to celebrate the good times we had, and a last goodbye to me as their boss. They thanked me for being a good boss and it was important for me to hear that. It was what I tried to be, but you know that old self-doubt voice had been trying to tell me that they might be glad to get rid of me!
Tomorrow I get to be the "new girl" as I start to re-learn a job that I haven't done for fifteen years.
And the USA got a new president today - hopefully a turning point for America and the rest of us.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
First knitting project of the year
On my List for the year is Creativity through knitting. Years ago I knitted - a lot.
I was given my first knitting set by an Aunty when I was four years old. It had 4 little balls of brightly coloured wool and a pair of red plastic needles. It was a gift to help ease the experience of my first visit to the dentist to get a tooth out. I don't remember what I made, but I know by the age of twelve I could follow a pattern enough to make the front of a cardigan that mum was making for me, and it just went on from there.
After moving to a much warmer climate, I eventually stopped knitting, but my interest was rekindled a couple of years ago. My sisters were knitting a "love rug" for our mum, and I knitted a few squares while visiting them. It was fun, and relaxing, too. On that same visit my mum gave my daughter a pattern for a hot water bottle cover. It appealed to the practical streak in me, as here was something that I could use. So I knitted three of them in time for winter.
These are the first two. I used them as a sampler for various stitch patterns (from a book from the local library). The purple one was knitted first and is more elaborate than the red one, which came next. That's because I found it hard to watch Battlestar Galactica without making mistakes. All those changes in patterns did not go well with all those Cylons!
This is the last one I made, and it is for our dog. It is the simplest - just a row of hearts along the top to show the luurve. This to keep her warm in winter when she has to be left alone outside during the day, she's only little, and one of those trembly breeds - have to treat her right.
I love the textures created by the different stitch patterns. My favourite is the diamond sort of pattern on the red one - King Charles Brocade. I think I love the name as much as the pattern.
I was given my first knitting set by an Aunty when I was four years old. It had 4 little balls of brightly coloured wool and a pair of red plastic needles. It was a gift to help ease the experience of my first visit to the dentist to get a tooth out. I don't remember what I made, but I know by the age of twelve I could follow a pattern enough to make the front of a cardigan that mum was making for me, and it just went on from there.
After moving to a much warmer climate, I eventually stopped knitting, but my interest was rekindled a couple of years ago. My sisters were knitting a "love rug" for our mum, and I knitted a few squares while visiting them. It was fun, and relaxing, too. On that same visit my mum gave my daughter a pattern for a hot water bottle cover. It appealed to the practical streak in me, as here was something that I could use. So I knitted three of them in time for winter.
These are the first two. I used them as a sampler for various stitch patterns (from a book from the local library). The purple one was knitted first and is more elaborate than the red one, which came next. That's because I found it hard to watch Battlestar Galactica without making mistakes. All those changes in patterns did not go well with all those Cylons!
This is the last one I made, and it is for our dog. It is the simplest - just a row of hearts along the top to show the luurve. This to keep her warm in winter when she has to be left alone outside during the day, she's only little, and one of those trembly breeds - have to treat her right.
I love the textures created by the different stitch patterns. My favourite is the diamond sort of pattern on the red one - King Charles Brocade. I think I love the name as much as the pattern.
Monday, 3 November 2008
A Rose for the Anzac Boys
A Rose for the Anzac Boys by Jackie French is one of the best books I have read. It is a YA (Young Adult) book, but don't let that put you off, if that's not your usual genre. This is a wonderful book, so well written, that tells a beautiful story.
It is the story of Midge and her two school friends Anne and Ethel, who take themselves of to France during the First World War to run a voluntary canteen, so that they can "do their bit" for the soldiers fighting in the war.
I had read a little about the war, and seen documentaries about it. This was the war that devastated a generation of young men. I had heard of the horrors of the Somme, and the trenches, the fields of Paschendale, and understood intellectually that this was a terrible event in history.
In this novel, Jackie French made it real for me. She tells of the experience of Midge and her friends, running their canteen in a French village to feed soldiers travelling to the front and back, soldiers who are barely older than these three schoolgirls. Through Jackie French's writing I shared their hope and optimism, their exhaustion, their sorrow, their pain. She shows what it was like, for the soldiers, and importantly for the families of the "boys" who were fighting.
This year I have been researching my family history, and found that both of my grandfathers served in World War I. Reading this story I felt a connection to them somehow.
In the author's note Jackie French explains that many of the diaries and letters written at the time have been published by the families of the participants who are no longer alive. She used these to do the research for the book, wondering at times if she could continue writing as she was so moved by the stories.
I am glad that she did; she has created a beautiful story about a horrific time, that honours those that were involved.
It is the story of Midge and her two school friends Anne and Ethel, who take themselves of to France during the First World War to run a voluntary canteen, so that they can "do their bit" for the soldiers fighting in the war.
I had read a little about the war, and seen documentaries about it. This was the war that devastated a generation of young men. I had heard of the horrors of the Somme, and the trenches, the fields of Paschendale, and understood intellectually that this was a terrible event in history.
In this novel, Jackie French made it real for me. She tells of the experience of Midge and her friends, running their canteen in a French village to feed soldiers travelling to the front and back, soldiers who are barely older than these three schoolgirls. Through Jackie French's writing I shared their hope and optimism, their exhaustion, their sorrow, their pain. She shows what it was like, for the soldiers, and importantly for the families of the "boys" who were fighting.
This year I have been researching my family history, and found that both of my grandfathers served in World War I. Reading this story I felt a connection to them somehow.
In the author's note Jackie French explains that many of the diaries and letters written at the time have been published by the families of the participants who are no longer alive. She used these to do the research for the book, wondering at times if she could continue writing as she was so moved by the stories.
I am glad that she did; she has created a beautiful story about a horrific time, that honours those that were involved.
Sunday, 2 November 2008
NaBloPoMo
Just a few days ago I stumbled across NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). It was one of those serendipitous things; in an unexpected email. Write a blog post every day for a month. It seems like just the thing to get my blog off the ground.
It all began at the beginning of the year when I made the list for the year of things I would like to happen in my life. One of them was "to write a blog".
Things on the list were:
Create a beautiful energy in my home through decluttering
Become stronger and fitter
Have robust financial health
Write a novel
Write a blog
Creativity through Knitting and Sewing
Family history- find out about my grandparents and their parents
Photography - learn more about my new camera, about organizing the photos and uploading them to my blog
Shakespeare - read/listen/watch
Poetry - read some, write some: Sonnets and Haiku
Work - Have my job in it's right place in my life
Some of these have already happened, some not yet. It looks like the time for blogging has arrived.
Blogging here I come.
It all began at the beginning of the year when I made the list for the year of things I would like to happen in my life. One of them was "to write a blog".
Things on the list were:
Create a beautiful energy in my home through decluttering
Become stronger and fitter
Have robust financial health
Write a novel
Write a blog
Creativity through Knitting and Sewing
Family history- find out about my grandparents and their parents
Photography - learn more about my new camera, about organizing the photos and uploading them to my blog
Shakespeare - read/listen/watch
Poetry - read some, write some: Sonnets and Haiku
Work - Have my job in it's right place in my life
Some of these have already happened, some not yet. It looks like the time for blogging has arrived.
Blogging here I come.
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Slowing down and moving on
I finished up yesterday in a position I have worked in for fifteen years, and these are the flowers given to me by the people in the team I led. Aren't they beautiful? They are so perfect, so beautifully formed I want them to last forever.I loved this job, and yet it was challenging and consuming. I struggled with it for along time, compromised my health to do it and finally made the decision to move on.
In the last few weeks as I was winding up and passing on information to the next person, I had a lot of letting go to do. There are some things in life, even though we know it's time to move on, it's a wrench when the moment comes to say goodbye.
I am not sure how I feel about it right now. I will be in another position in the same work place so it doesn't feel as if I have really left. And yet, when I go there next week, it will be so different. I won't be part of the same team, and I won't be in charge of anything. I won't have much to do with those people I have worked with, and yet will still be working nearby.
I am ready to step down from the responsibility that I have had, yet sad at having to let go of something that I have put so much of myself into. At the same time I feel free. I am excited - I am on the verge of a new phase in my life. I am excited at the prospect of having more time and more energy. I am excited to be getting my life back.
Monday, 14 January 2008
The power of writing it down
At this time of year I find myself thinking about the year ahead and what may come from it. It spreads out before me, an unknown, and I want to put some shape to it. By the end of it I want to be different in some way from what I am now, to feel that I am progressing in some way and not stagnating. I think about my desires, what I want to have and to do and I think a little of who I want to be.
Resolutions don't work for me; they smack of regimentation and discipline - of things that must be done, otherwise I fail, and when I don't achieve them I feel worse than if I hadn't made them at all. I don't do so well either with goals with schedules and deadlines - I feel pressured and overwhelmed by them. However it is easy for me to drift, to put off and then to feel bad for not getting things done, and now I am at an age (mid-fifties) where I feel I'm running out of time for drifting.
I stumbled across a way to get around this last year, and it is in The power of writing it down. A way to have goals without them becoming a burden. I had some main areas in my life that I wanted to improve, so I wrote them down in my journal, and then I didn't do an awful lot about them. I didn't draw up a schedule, or plan a list of actions with dates. I wrote them down and roughly every couple of months I would think Oh, I haven't done anything about those goals. Instead of revving myself into high gear with much anxiety and making myself generally a little crazy I would write them down again.
One of them was to be stronger and fitter so that I could be more active when I went on holiday with my family - I didn't want to be the one that had to be pushed from behind to get up the path off the beach because I wasn't strong enough to make it up by myself like I had been the previous year. ( I know, appalling isn't it?). So I wrote it down, and I thought that I would walk five times a week in the winter (too hot for me in the summer). Well I made it about five times in the whole of winter, and I thought how am I going to get fitter in time? Well spring came and I went on holiday, and to my surprise I got onto the beach and back up just fine and went for two half hour walks every day, which I had been completely incapable of the year before! So how does that work? I wrote it down and then I wrote it down again and again, and somehow without all the fussing and worrying and calling myself names, it happened.
So goals for me have become about writing it down and letting it unfold. It's a gentler and calmer way and it works for me - how? I don't know. It's a mystery - but it does. I love it and I'm doing it again this year.
Resolutions don't work for me; they smack of regimentation and discipline - of things that must be done, otherwise I fail, and when I don't achieve them I feel worse than if I hadn't made them at all. I don't do so well either with goals with schedules and deadlines - I feel pressured and overwhelmed by them. However it is easy for me to drift, to put off and then to feel bad for not getting things done, and now I am at an age (mid-fifties) where I feel I'm running out of time for drifting.
I stumbled across a way to get around this last year, and it is in The power of writing it down. A way to have goals without them becoming a burden. I had some main areas in my life that I wanted to improve, so I wrote them down in my journal, and then I didn't do an awful lot about them. I didn't draw up a schedule, or plan a list of actions with dates. I wrote them down and roughly every couple of months I would think Oh, I haven't done anything about those goals. Instead of revving myself into high gear with much anxiety and making myself generally a little crazy I would write them down again.
One of them was to be stronger and fitter so that I could be more active when I went on holiday with my family - I didn't want to be the one that had to be pushed from behind to get up the path off the beach because I wasn't strong enough to make it up by myself like I had been the previous year. ( I know, appalling isn't it?). So I wrote it down, and I thought that I would walk five times a week in the winter (too hot for me in the summer). Well I made it about five times in the whole of winter, and I thought how am I going to get fitter in time? Well spring came and I went on holiday, and to my surprise I got onto the beach and back up just fine and went for two half hour walks every day, which I had been completely incapable of the year before! So how does that work? I wrote it down and then I wrote it down again and again, and somehow without all the fussing and worrying and calling myself names, it happened.
So goals for me have become about writing it down and letting it unfold. It's a gentler and calmer way and it works for me - how? I don't know. It's a mystery - but it does. I love it and I'm doing it again this year.
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