• 18 things for 2018
  • 2015 Challenge – 52 in 52
  • 2016 challenge – 52 new things
  • 2017 Challenge – 17 things
  • Bucket List – Done and dusted
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  • This is Me – May 2015
  • This was Me – August 2014

RuthsArc

~ Looking forward, looking back & enjoying now.

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Tag Archives: me

High Tea

27 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by RuthsArc in days out

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Tags

me, Tasmania

I’ve spent a relaxed time with girlfriends, enjoying High Tea at the local Riversdale Estate. The setting was delightful.

The food was delicious, presented on tiered cake stands. Sandwiches, savoury pastries, scones, with jam and cream, various cakes and desserts. We chose different teas, some black, some fruit or floral. 

Happy Sunday.

52 Things in 52 Weeks

22 Saturday Jan 2022

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, all about me

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

52 Things, me

I need to send this out into the universe. I’m committing to “52 things in 52 weeks” challenge. Some are daily, some weekly, some are one-off challenges. I want 2022 to be a memorable year for positive reasons, not just another year living with covid. Some things I’ve done before but there are several brand new ideas too. In no particular oder ….

1 ~ Visit the Northeast corner of Tasmania  

2 ~ Visit Ben Lomond and drive up “Jacob’s Ladder”
3 ~ Spend more time out in nature
4 ~ Create new health habits and make them stick
5 ~ Exercise before breakfast on week days
6 ~ Pay it Forward
7 ~ Reduce our environmental impact
8 ~ Review and reduce our rubbish and recycling every three months
9 ~ Do something special on public holidays
10 ~ See a show at The Playhouse, Hobart
11 ~ Swim in the ocean on Christmas Day
12 ~ Keep my diary up to date, include sketch noting
13 ~ Complete another year of Photo a Day 
14 ~ Change my job within current organisation
15 ~ Update our driftwood Christmas tree throughout the year
16 ~ Complete another year of Sentence a Day journal 
17 ~ Learn more about indigenous culture and history
18 ~ Read a meaningful book every month
19 ~ Visit a new restaurant every 3 months
20 ~ Attend two workshop to learn new skills
21 ~ Try a new craft activity
22 ~ Ride an e-scooter
23 ~ Go to a drive in movie
24 ~ Fly in a sea plane 
25 ~ Go to a basketball match
26 ~ Visit all exhibitions at TMAG Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
27 ~ Take part in a painting workshop
28 ~ Revisit MONA regularly 
29 ~ Get to a healthy weight and maintain it
30 ~ Add a new recipe to our diet every two months

31 ~ Try a new ingredient every month
32 ~ Go to a Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concert
33 ~ Review and use photography techniques 
34 ~ Join a reading challenge
35 ~ Ride a Jet Ski 
36 ~ Take a moonlit walk on a beach 
37 ~ Review and reduce my photo catalogue 
38 ~ Visit the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens every season
39 ~ Grow more veggies and herbs
40 ~ Make use of local library and street libraries
41 ~ Visit Phillip Island
42 ~ Visit Brighton Beach, Melbourne, to see the beach huts
43 ~ Reduce my alcohol intake, have alcohol free weekdays unless special occasion 
44 ~ Go to a live comedy show
45 ~ Regularly go to the local farmers market 
46 ~ Visit Canberra
47 ~ Go Blueberry picking
48 ~ Visit Evandale for their Penny Farthing Fair
49 ~ Decide on blog direction, expand my blog network 
50 ~ Try six new tea flavours
51 ~ Sort out my wardrobe and be realistic 
52 ~ Take a selfie every week for a year 

2022 – A year to drift or to achieve?

09 Sunday Jan 2022

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

art, me

January is usually my time to review, reflect and think about what I want for my future. This new year I feel rather flat, lacking in energy, enthusiasm and motivation.

So …. Today I have drawn a mind map, thinking about ideas to nurture my body, mind and soul. I don’t want to spend 2022 just drifting, which is how the past two years feel. 

I had such big plans for 2020, a zero birthday, a new decade. It started brilliantly with New Year and my birthday in New Zealand. But then the pandemic hit and everything else fell by the wayside. 

 I achieve a lot more if I have a list, or a challenge, so this mind map is a starting point. How do you take stock of a year, of your achievements, your wishes for the future?

Human Connections

13 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, photography

≈ 10 Comments

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family, me

How have you connected with family and friends during the current social distance restrictions?

I’ve had spontaneous calls with our toddler grandson, shared matching Easter Eggs, compared items in our fruit bowls.
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I’ve had regular “coffee meetings” with my Mum for five years. I arranged similar online Skype chats with UK girlfriends this weekend.
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Our London based daughter called on Face Time for a “breakfast chat”. She was so happy that she’d been able to buy a tin of Milo. Her dinner was cereal with Milo. I had my usual porridge with blueberries and we had a lovely catch up.
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I’ve had “afternoon tea” online chats and phone conversations with friends.
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I’ve shared emails and Facebook comments and messages.
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I’ve been able to share everyday moments with our two week old granddaughter, see her safe in her mother’s arms, see photos of her older brother interacting with her. My daughter even took her phone for a nappy change and continued chatting to us. It felt as though we were there in the room, just without the smell.
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And I’ve enjoyed creating photos to reflect all these different connections.

Happy New Year from New Zealand

01 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, photography

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

me, New Zealand

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 2020. May we all “live our best lives”.
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My daily commute

28 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, making changes, remembering / musing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

me, work

On this day 5 years ago, I said goodbye to my London Banking career.

My daily commute then was a packed train through city suburbs into London Bridge Station and London Cannon Street Station.
transport

Today my commute starts at a bus stop overlooking the river and mountain, with a journey on an uncrowded bus passing the beach.

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There are several stops and depending on the weather, I try to walk a while rather than waiting at the nearest stop. I enjoy watching the seabirds, whilst walking and waiting – cormorants, oyster catchers, plovers, herons, dab chicks as well as gulls.

There is a bus stop with a shelter, up the hill which is convenient on cold or rainy days.
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Buses before 8.30am are an express route, picking up passengers this end but then non-stop into the city. I have to remember to get off at the local shopping centre and change to another slow bus to work. I’m sure one day I will be so engrossed in a book that I‘ll miss the interchange and end up across the bridge in the city centre.

#plasticfreejuly Wrap Up

31 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, making changes

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

me

As I review the Challenge Checklist I am pleasantly surprised by what we were already doing and what we’ve achieved in just one month. It has been easy to create new habits with our shopping, with storing food in the fridge.

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I’ve bought this book by a local Hobart family who have been living a specific lifestyle for a few years. I’ve only read the early chapters but it is inspiring and practical. It focuses on the key R’s of waste free living:
Refuse
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Rot
Reframe

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The book talks about our consumer society, food miles and the benefit of buying local, eating seasonal produce, connecting again with where our food comes from, the effort and energy needed to grow it.

It talks about composting, growing your own, getting to know your local farm shops and markets, being part of a local community, buying in bulk, preserving food that is in season to last through winter, foraging, natural remedies, repurposing, upcycling. It talks about thinking how our parents and grandparents lived before plastic. Is there anything we can learn from them?

It has recipes, suggestions, solutions. I don’t know that I’ll be making my own mascara or toothpaste but never say never.

So I’ll wrap up Plastic Free July in beeswax. Thanks for all the support, comments, inspiration and for joining the discussion. Let’s all try to make a difference, no matter how small. Our changes have a ripple effect. Let’s create a new normal. Hopefully our politicians and multi-national companies will soon get on board.

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#PlasticFreeJuly – Dilemmas

29 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, making changes

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

me

I’m looking at the plastic that is still ending up in our recycling bin and I have a dilemma.

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We purposefully buy locally produced milk and orange juice and both come in plastic bottles. We could buy them in tetra pak cartons, but then the food miles is a huge compromise and we are not supporting our local Tasmanian economy. I was surprised to see one carton of juice on the shelf with this labelling.
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We need to find a butcher in our new suburb. We have taken the convenient option and been buying prepacked meat from the supermarket. That needs to change.

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Another dilemma is soft fruit and cherry tomatoes, that are packed in plastic boxes. Raspberries and blueberries are a favourite with my breakfast cereal or porridge. Small tomatoes are sweet and an easy option with my packed lunch. So far I haven’t given up these favoured healthy foods. I have frozen blueberries in the freezer but they are a “Product of Chile”. So more food miles and still in plastic packaging. I plan to grow tomatoes so that will be a seasonal solution. Perhaps I could plant some raspberry canes too.

This month I have only really tackled our food shopping. Cleaning products and toiletries are a whole different quandary.

#plasticfreejuly is just the beginning ……

Although our council collects recycling rubbish each fortnight, there are concerns where our plastics go when they are out of our vicinity, out of sight. Australia has a big problem. Two years ago, China stopped taking our recycled products. Now, Indonesia is returning several shipping containers of “contaminated waste”.

There are companies here making products from recycled plastic. The reusable produce bags I purchased, street furniture, public benches, bollards. Some councils are resurfacing roads with a plastic by-product. I have pencils and a rain jacket made from recycled plastics. But so much more needs to be done on a national level as well as local and individual scale.

Tasmanian beaches are generally rubbish free, but I have picked up some bottles and the plastic rings from bottle tops. I now purposely cut the plastic rings before I put any in our recycling bin, so they can’t strangle a bird or animal if they end up somewhere unexpected.
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#PlasticFreeJuly – Positive Changes

22 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, making changes

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

me

Three weeks into this challenge and I’ve made some positive changes

I’ve stopped using plastic produce bags that are provided in our supermarkets. I’ve bought reusable produce bags, some cotton ones, others that are made from recycled plastic bottles. They work well for shopping and keeping cauliflower, lettuce, etc in the fridge.

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Where possible I’ve bought produce from farmers markets or at local shops.

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Some items on the checklist have been easy to tick. For over a year, I’ve been using a keep cup for any take away coffee. We have metal drink bottles that we take out instead of buying water. At home we have a Soda Stream for sparling water or flavoured drinks. I don’t use straws and haven’t bought balloons for many years, although balloons were always a part of birthdays when our daughters were young.

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I guess I’ve been making conscious decisions for a while. When we moved and had an outdoor washing line again, I bought metal pegs, not plastic ones.

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We have also changed to a sustainable, ethical, plastic free toilet paper, made from bamboo.

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We are far from being “plastic free” but we are making changes and reducing the amount of plastic that we buy and place in our recycle bin.

Work anniversary

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by RuthsArc in creativity, more to life

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

me, work

I have been in my current job for twelve months. It’s nice to celebrate my first anniversary with this Aged Care service provider.

I enjoy my admin and finance work, processing supplier invoices, creating client contribution bills, taking phone payments and reconciling our bank account. I admire colleagues who deal directly clients, organising the services they require. I admire our Social Workers, Exercise Physiologists and others who visit clients in the home. I’m happy in the background working the numbers. And I can knit at work!

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This company has a great ethic of health and wellbeing for clients and staff. We have a monthly staff program that encourages us to step away from our desks, computers and phones for a few minutes during the work day. We have team exercise challenges, we’ve had “Where’s Wally?” hunts around the office. Most recently we were all encouraged to knit squares for a charity blanket. We all took turns knitting a few rows of the squares, during our work day. It inspired several new knitters and created a warm, colourful blanket.

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We write on the bathroom mirrors, compliments…. a gratitude journal. All these ideas create a friendly and joyful workplace.

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