First of the Season

 And just like that, the cherry blossom is beginning to bloom!

Always a sign that Spring is here (or at least soon to be here).

Now if it would just stop raining so we could enjoy it, instead of hurrying past!

The Magnolias are out right now too! I find it interesting that I wait for the Cherry Blossom as the sign Winter is over and my husband waits for the Magnolias to flower....same, same but different! 

As I write this, I can hear him playing the song from Magnolia the movie. Ha!

(I am offline due to personal obligations for the next two days so will get to commenting on the weekend, if not before)

#Allseasons linky runs  from Thursday to Wednesday each week. 

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration. 

Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post. 

Please comment on the post before yours and the host. Don't dump and run.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tell us about....Accident

Firstly, a trigger warning. If you have experienced loss due to a car accident, don't bother reading this. It's just a little poem and not worth any emotional distress it might cause.

I was really at a loss for what to talk about this month so this is all you get:

The sounds in that moment is all I can recall.

A high pitched screech of rubber failing to grip the tar.

Tinkling as glass implodes.

The clangoring of metal concertinaing into the wall.

The order often changes when I am forced to think of that shattering moment. 

Just an agonizing echo of the tumult

when I look where my leg used to be,

or at the passenger seat, now forever empty.

Linking with #TellUsAbout.

Another rain song

I know I'm harping on about the rain but it really is doing my head in. 

I guess the dams are filling (and endless problem in Sydney) and the gardens are green but the clothes aren't drying unless we use the dryer  (for the Americans, this is frowned upon here as lazy and kind of selfish due to the environmental damage and wastefulness, like cage eggs, we never want to admit we are doing it. We do love the smell of clothes dried in the sun!) and more importantly, it's ruining my ability to walk everywhere. I regularly squeeze in a 3-5km walk by getting to the theatre or show on foot.

However, I was lucky enough to get a dry window for my 11km walk this Sunday and got some fabulous pics as a reward.

Even got up close to a bush turkey who seemed to want to dry off for a bit!

And of course, the rainbow finished off the morning! A good reminder that we need a little rain to appreciate the rainbow!

 

Linking with #WildbirdWednesday

 

#Allseasons linky runs  from Thursday to Wednesday each week. 

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration. 

Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post. 

Please comment on the post before yours and the host. Don't dump and run.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

  

I'm leaving you with Takashi Wakasugi's brilliant bit about the shame of having to buy cage eggs when all the other eggs are sold out. 

“Just when you feel you have no time to relax, know that this is the moment you most need to make time to relax.” ― Matt Haig

 I've been spending far too much time in the hospital carpark, visiting a relative daily. It's an hour away from me so the stress and the exhaustion was really beginning to hit. I sort of had a moment of mental collapse on Sunday while trying to order food at a pub. I didn't want to eat anything on the menu and I sort of became mentally paralysed. Guessing that's some sort of transference. Anyway, I snapped out of it but when I next hit the carpark, which is costing so much money*, I decided I may as well have a little fun.

To adapt a Mother Teresa quote inner 'peace begins with a smile' and it did make me smile.

I know many of you will find this odd, but taking these photos, playing around with the framing, really put a spring in my step. It was a quick way to shake off the mental load. And as Jane Austen said "One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other." 

Do you find joy is strange things?

The car park shots made me think of Jeffrey Smart, an artist whose work I love. So there's a little nod to him in the last three.

Linking with #WWOT #TheRandom #SundayBest #SundaySnapshot #WeekendReflection #TrafficJamReboot #MCoW #WednesdayAroundtheWorld #WordlessWednesday #TalkaboutitTuesday

*I hate that hospital carparks are some of the most expensive in the country. It's bad enough you have to visit people with cancer or have cancer but then you need to drain your bank account with each visit. There's something morally offensive about that. I know that's probably how they had to pay for the carpark to be built but there should be a better way....

“It were a grief so brief to part with thee. Farewell.” William Shakespeare

I loved these boots, but alas they split on the top, allowing water in, which defeated the point. I wore them through puddles, to shows and muddy festivals. They've been there for the storm clouds and rain. They were often met with compliments from strangers. It was a hard goodbye, after 10 or 15 years of good times.

It's a sad goodbye when you aren't ready for it.

The farewells that are forced upon you.

 

Okay, well the lover bit isn't appropriate but as they say in The Castle, 'the whole vibe of the thing' fits. 

They've been replaced with these snuggly and sparkly boots, though these are heavier so may not be as good for the mud and dancing at Bluesfest or other outdoor dancing.

Do you get sad when you have to replace old favourites?

Linking with #SeniorSalonPitstop #TalkaboutitTuesday #TuesdayTwirl #MondaayMusicMovesMe #Stylewithasmile #AwwMondays (for both the goodbye to my favs and my baby!)

Forget your troubles and dance - Bob Marley

I mentioned awhile back The Wednesday Club booked into Boot Scootin' and the date finally came round.

Despite my lack of co-ordination and difficulty remembering my left and right (for real!) it was relatively easy and a LOT of energetic fun!

The best part, it was quick. You spend less than 5 minutes learning the dance, then you did the dance to a whole song and then you moved on to the next dance. 

I had been worried that we would spend an hour learning one dance as I had in other dance classes.  However, these dance moves are repetitive, so you actually get better at it as the song progresses. It didn't take long not to care about skill and if you mucked it up, it was easy enough to get back in time with the group, so great for beginners like us.

We all had a good time and are booked in to go again at the next available session. It is booked out months in advance so if keen, there might be somewhere closer to you.

I had said while venting to my husband that I was 'maxxed' out on stress levels just a few hours before, due to family issues and work problems (all falling on me at the same time), plus trying to juggle the kids needs. I walked to the venue to get some exercise but was still grumbly on arrival.

However, it didn't take long to transform that!

I was laughing at how bad I was, and then I was bouncing around energetically with the music plus the bonus of memory exercise. By the time we left I felt transformed! 

As an aside, the teacher was hilarious - there was a warning before we were filmed (to avoid a Cold Play moment) and she made fun of us (in a funny way, not hurtful) as we were a jumble of fairly hopeless skill levels. So there was quite a comedic element to the frivolity too.

I was too busy dancing to take photos and while I just wore sneakers, I was very taken with the instructor's glitter heeled boot!

As they say, there are shortcuts to Happiness and dancing is one of them!

Thus another thing is ticked off the Torschlusspanik List.

Torschlusspanik List

1. Shooting (check)
2. Fencing (check)
3. Play croquet at Croquet Club
4. Laser skeet (check)
5. Off road buggy driving
6. Play Assassins Creed
7. Jetpacking (check)
8. The Color Run (check)
9. Invent something
10. Cooking Masterclass (check)
11. Master a Masterclass (check)
12. Perform a rap song (check)
13. Trampoline adventure (check)
14. BMX Riding (check)
15. Do a cart wheel (check)
16. Ride an Electric Bike (check)
17. Astonish Myself
18. Write a book.
19. Participate in a distance event (check)
20. Climb Sydney Tower (check)
21. Dance in a dance class (check)
22. Trust a stranger

23. Get a truck for the Landmine Museum and Relief Centre in Siem Reap

24. Paint a picture 

25. Go Rollerskating (check)

26. Do Chinese Square Dancing

27. Do some life drawing (Check)

28. Make something on a pottery wheel (check)

29. Try Axe Throwing (Check)

30. Get into a nightclub with 'a strict dress code'. (check)

31. Go to a gig that starts after midnight. (check)

32. Glass Blowing (Check)

33. Go line dancing  (check) 

Linking with #TalkaboutitTuesday  #HappyNow #HappyTuesday

 #TrafficJamReboot #You'retheStar #SeniorSalonPitstop

Rainy Season

Sydney is in full rainy season. It's the pits. Nothing dries, it's a pain getting around. Overall bleagh fills the house, or at least my mood.

And it's cold. 

It is snowing all over NSW in crazy amounts.

I hope it is better weather where you are....

Linking with #WordlessWednesday and #Skywatch & #GalleriaHimmelsblick - not a nice sky to watch at all but it is very much the mood here!