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This piano is out of place, left outside in the elements, on the veranda of a neglected building. I noticed it at the same place as the vehicles I posted a couple of days ago.
Piano
18 Wednesday Apr 2018
Posted in remembering / musing
Category Archives: remembering / musing
Neglected vehicles
16 Monday Apr 2018
Posted in remembering / musing
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I wonder what stories these vehicles would tell, where they have been, who travelled in them?
Changing Seasons – March
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in 52 challenge, remembering / musing
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This month has been busy with visitors, a cousin from the UK and our daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Any excuse to be a tour guide for our favourite places here in Tasmania….
… Hobart city
… the stunning East Coast
… Port Arthur Historic Site – early convict settlement
… Richmond – oldest stone bridge in Australia
… Bonorong Animal Sanctuary – kangaroos, wombats, Tasmanian Devils
… Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
There are signs of autumn amongst the roses and flowering gum trees. I’m collecting conkers. A habit that goes back to when our daughters were small.
This is my contribution to Changing Seasons hosted by Su.
Bricks
17 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in photography, remembering / musing
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Sometimes, a photo challenge prompt gets into my subconscious. I have been noticing bricks, in various situations and locations.
1833 is part of a sculpture trail, marking the date of the “new wharf” in Hobart when locally quarried sandstone warehouses were built to serve the influx of ships that loaded and unloaded cargoes of wheat and timber, livestock and leather, rum and flour, salt pork and muskets.
Old buildings made from bricks with these broad arrows, bricks that were convict made and were government property. The arrow supposedly prevented pilfering.
This Memorial Wall contains many original headstones of the early European Settlers in Hobart. The wall is in St David’s Park, which was the site of a cemetery until 1872.
Antiques Anyone?
06 Tuesday Mar 2018
Posted in remembering / musing
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We recently found the most awesome antique shop. Corridors and numerous rooms were full of all sorts of everything. Outside there were even more objects, large and small.
Here are a few collages to show just some of the pre-loved things for sale.
Changing Seasons – February
26 Monday Feb 2018
Posted in 52 challenge, remembering / musing
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February has continued to be a month of leisure. We’ve enjoyed drives to remote beaches, bush walks, just being in touch with nature.
But also, the joyful experience of live music in the city, jazz evenings, Symphony Orchestra concerts, marching bands.
The Botanical Gardens were less colourful in these late weeks of summer. Still a delight to explore, to appreciate the paper daisies, the Japanese Garden. Flowering gum trees have been beautiful but there are now hints of autumn in the city parks.
It has been a busy month for cruise ship visits. Some days it seemed that these huge floating hotels were jostling for a “parking space” alongside navy and Antarctic ice breaker ships on our waterfront, even though I know it was all carefully choreographed.
The Urban Art Festival has ended. The variety of new art, the vibrant colours and designs have brightened up this back lane.
This is my contribution to the “changing seasons” theme, hosted by Su.
#babylife
14 Wednesday Feb 2018
Posted in all about me, remembering / musing
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This is a “guest post” written by my daughter.
As background, our first grandchild is almost six months old and he is now on the move! Since birth, he has thrown back some of every feed, just like his mother, his auntie and apparently, his NanR!
I had a message the other day, “I now have a mobile spewing machine!!!”
Then she posted this ….
You know those mornings when the only option is to cry or write a poem…
#babylife
#poeticgenius
#thiswasbefore9am
#pleaseletmefinishmyteatoday
He spewed with the sparrows
In the bed, on the floor
He spewed while she weed
And then twenty times more
He spewed while she cleaned,
Spewing and smearing
Then looked in her eyes
Somehow endearing
He spewed while she changed him,
Once then again,
He spews with a dummy,
Still comes out all the same
But there she thought
“How lucky am I?
To have this little boy”,
With a tear in her eye
How he laughs and smiles,
Cuddles in for a pat,
And watched as he…
Shat on her thrice cleaned yoga mat!
She’d placed him on his play mat, facing the opposite direction. Oh the memories, I’ve been there, done that, worn that t shirt. But I don’t remember writing a poem about it. Love my kids!! xxx
Changing Seasons – January
29 Monday Jan 2018
Posted in 52 challenge, photography, remembering / musing
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Summer in Hobart is glorious. Temperatures generally in the mid-twenties, lots of sunshine but not the extreme heat or humidity of mainland Australia.
January feels like a holiday month, running over from Christmas and the New Year, “The Taste” food festival, MONA FOMA music and art festival, through to Australia Day. The kids on summer break, some businesses close for extended holidays.
For me, it has definitely been a holiday month. My work contract finished at the end of December and I am taking a slow approach to finding a new job. So I have had TIME during January.
Time to walk every day, along coastal paths, on the beach.
Time to stop and smell the roses, admire the structure of passion flowers, the delicate gum nuts in the eucalyptus trees.
Time to be calm, to be still, to balance stones on a grate. I blogged earlier about a community challenge to add to the stone stacks. Strong winds knocked them flat but several people seem to stop and build anew. My skills have improved no end, balancing nine stones on a few occasions.
Time to move photos to a hard drive. What a job that has turned into, but a joy to revisit holidays and favourite times and places as I attempt to reduce my photo archive.
Time to meet friends for coffee, a smoothie, or lunch. Time to chat, to relax. Time to enjoy a good book. Time to waste time.
I’m joining the “changing seasons” project, now hosted by Su at Zimmerbitch,
where you can get a glimpse of January through the eyes of other bloggers across the world.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Variations on a theme – Poppy
25 Thursday Jan 2018
Posted in remembering / musing, weekly photo challenge
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We have a ceramic poppy that sits beside our herb box, on our balcony, in Hobart.
Four years ago, our poppy was one of thousands, planted at The Tower of London, as part of the centenary commemorations of the First World War.
I was fortunate to see the display at The Tower, on several occasions, as I worked nearby and often strolled to the Tower during my lunch breaks.
Our poppy had several resting places, in our home in the UK, then spent a couple of years in its box. It joined us in Australia last month and is part of our home again.
There is a website, “Where are the poppies now?” which aims “to reunite digitally the 888,246 ceramic poppies from artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper’s 2014 installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red originally staged by Historic Royal Palaces at HM Tower of London in 2014.” Each poppy represented a British or Commonwealth military fatality during the war.
I “planted” our poppy on the website today, adding to the 30,000 others that have been registered. Ours is one of eight in Tasmania.
Sentences and pixels
13 Saturday Jan 2018
Posted in all about me, remembering / musing
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I have just started my third, 3 year “sentence a day” book. This is my 7th year of recording a sentence or two about each day.
One book is titled “The highlight of my day” which more accurately reflects what I write.
I don’t follow the prompts for each day. Sometimes I write about what I’ve done, where I’ve been, what I’ve seen or read. Sometimes I mention world news, but not often. Sometimes it is just an ordinary day.
I enjoy looking back. On this date on previous years, we’ve been tourists in London, we went to an ice sculpture exhibition, we spent the day at The Old Bailey, observing cases in the law courts. We visited a Music and Arts festival, and after a day at work, I searched for a mural that I’d heard about. Back in 2012, I commented on the global financial crisis, which was relevant to my job at the time.
A new idea that my daughter shared is “my year in pixels”. I’m recording a colour for each day in excel, while she has coloured pens and is recording in her diary planner. We will look back on each month, on the overall trend, within the context of our current life, her as a new stay at home mum with a teething baby, me currently enjoying a period of summer non-employment and daily beach walks.
