Covid lockdown - share my snaps!

I am thrilled to be getting out of lockdown. I have no faith that the government is doing the right thing but I am figuring once the kids go back to school it is irrelevant what I do as they'll be mixing with a huge pool of people from all over Sydney. So other than making sure the youngest is fully vaxxed by then, I'm just rolling with it and trying not to worry to much.

I hope this is the last we see of this for awhile, though suspect our xmas plans and Jan holdays might see us back in lockdown.

For now I am looking forward to saying goodbye to the empty places. 

The chalked signs are positive.

Even encouraging community games.

The professional graffiti artists are getting angrier.

Redacted.

Back in July a few weeks into lockdown the vibe was very different. I was more positive about it. Then in August the sadness and fatigue was setting in. Don't get me wrong, I don't beleive we should be cavillier with the deaths, whether aged or with underlying conditions, and I do think in Australia we've so far been spared what most of the world has gone through. I just hope it isn't about to hit us. We are no better than the people in Squid Game if we are allowing deaths for our own self interest. Like them, we need to choose to work together to demand the safety of all, even if it costs us something.

For now, I am celebrating the pending return of some sort of social life, and hoping it is all behind us. 

Take care in October people.

Linking with #Lifethisweek and #WeekendCoffeeShare, because if we were sharing coffee, we'd be picking a date for dinner out and which restaurant, while also discussing our concerns about openning up. It's a verty strange and confusing time.

Also linking with #TrafficJamWeekend #OurWorldTuesday #MCOW #WednesdayAroundtheWorld #WordlessWednesday

Time and reflection, moreover, little by little modify our vision - Cezanne

 

While watching the kids play ping pong on The Goods Line, I suddenly noticed all the buildings and trees reflected in the windows of the Frank Gehry building, appearing like frames photos hanging on the brick walls.

Sometimes we need to really look to see the full picture. Life is in the details.

Short and Sweet with #KeiithsRamblings #WWOT #ThruMyLens #WeekendReflection and #Sundaybest

Sometimes it only takes one good song to bring back thousands of good, old memories...

This was left out in the rain...with a cake near Macarther Park. Not really. It just made me think of the lyric. Music is like that. Woven into our memories & subconscious, sometimes even the key. Quite by accident we curate a soundtrack to our lives. 
 

May the melody of life make your heart sing.

Linking with #WildWednesdays #PicturePerfectLinky #WordlessWednesday #WeekendinB&W #WWOAT #WonderfulWednesday

“I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.” ― Herbert Rappaport

In lockdown you have to make a little more effort to contact your friends. You aren't organising a catch up and there is not 'get together' on the horizon. Some people are better at it than others. I have to make an effort each day to reach out to someone - just a text, sometimes a call and with a few, an offer for a walk.

Like tending a garden. You have to put in the work in the off season, so you can enjoy it when the time is right.

“Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

Linking with #Blogtober21 on Flowers

 #NaturesNotes #FridayBliss  #DND  #GardenAffair and #FloralFridayFoto

 

Linking with #RubyTuesdayToo and #BlueMonday

1. All Seasons is open from Sunday through Wednesday 5pm, Sydney Time. 
2. Please link one  'seasonal' post a week. 

3. Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Why I write...(again)

I wrote a lengthy post on it here, but I saw this quote and thought it summed it up perfectly 

'We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.”

― Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Short and sweet for #WednesdayWithoutWords

Haunted 2021

 

I've started mucking around with this series again.  I think I used to have much better filters. However. I still like some of these, though I don't seem to be able to make them as spooky as before.

If nothing eles it gets me really looking at my surroundings on the dog walks.

“Looking is one thing, seeing is another. Some only see with their eyes while others see with their minds also. However, inability to see with the mind is the worst kind of blindness.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu

Linking with #ShadowShot

Linking with #WeekendinB&W and #WonderfulWednesday #KeithsRamblings

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans” – John Lennon.

The John Lennon line sums up lockdown completely. You were busy with lots of things on the horizon and then wham. Nothing at all. And nothing to plan beyond what food you'd order on Friday and what could you do to lure the kids outside.

But life indeed does go on.

This week I have looked at accomodation in Thailand, and then a beach house in Sydney for January, hours of investigating only to book nothing. I can't work out what I think will be possible. Or what I will feel comfortable doing.

So begins the next phase.

I will be happy when we get our 10kms back and we can go back to the Botanic gardens.

And swimming somewhere.

And even a little 'bush walk'.

I will be extremely happy if we can go and stay in regional areas.

I miss everything at the moment but I'm also dreading the surge. I am very worried people don't really understand what it will involve. I do believe '‘the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members’ and I worry that yet again, we will be failing them.

These are not numbers and statistics, they are people. 

All I can do is hope somehow it skips us. I hope somehow we 'get it right'.

 Linking with #GardenAffair

1. All Seasons is open from Sunday through Wednesday 5pm, Sydney Time. 
2. Please link one  'seasonal' post a week. 

3. Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Share Four Somethings - September

Linking with #MakroTex on Round.

This month seems to have flown. We have a few more restrictions eased - we are allowed picnics with 5 freinds, if fully vaxxed.

This is a fb memory that popped up from an exhibition in Singapore. Seems relevant to what I'm about to write.

Linking with #RubyTuesdayToo

Something Loved: My eldest is moving out. It is defintely time. She has unfortunately had two of her University years online. Even though her partner has lived with us for those years in lockdown, she has lost much of her life - her band gigs, the parties, the nights out and all the other fun of being a youthful adult. This next step is at least moving forward in a time of stagnation. I am so grateful they chose somewhere very close to home, so I know I can be there if she needs me. I'm so happy for her, but very sad for us. It will be a little hole in our family. Our 6 will now be merely 4 around the dinner table. It will be very strange indeed. I am having fun buying her little bits and pieces for the kitchen and bathroom etc. Trying not to overstep but I want to make it a stressfree and lovely experience for her. It's been a pretty sad two years for the 16-25 year olds. They've lost so much of the best part of life. I love my little family and I will mourn the beginning of the end of it, but I guess that's what love is - while I'm so sad for us left behind, I can only be happy and excited for her. 

I had planned to share a song about leaving home or moving out but when you listen to the lyrics, they are all so negative (think the Beatles, Carole Bayer Sager and even De Hofnar's Moving On...) so going with this one for the freedom she is gaining, even in lockdown.

Something Read (or Said): I can not recommend the Anthony Horowitz 'Hawthorne' series enough! They are delightful. The books are funny and clever in execution, as well as all the comfort of a familliar detective story. I've devoured them one straight after another. They've been the perfect antidote to these dreary lockdown days. 

Something Treasured: I mentioned my Storybox award last month. Here is the Story box flash fiction on the theme of Community. You can follow Storybox on Insta or other socials. 

I also got some good feedback on my historical fiction short for the NYC Midnight competition, coming 4th in my group. However I've not done so well with my second attempt, a thriller. I am hoping others struggled as I might still go through if I can somehow manage 6th, lower than that and I suspect I miss the cut. I signed up to the 250 word comp in October so either way, I've something to look forward to. These pats on the back are really helping with my flagging inspiration and creativity. They are something to be treasured in these endless, shut away days.

Cafe Paci Potato and Molasses Bread is still the absolute bomb! #Somethingloved

Get #PicnicReady with #NipofCourage

Something Ahead: Picnics. Walks with friends. Outdoor restaurant plans. The whole household will be fully vaxxed soon so I can breathe a little easier. Not entirely, as we need to remember the vaccines only protect you from catching and spreading it by 40-50% (much high rates of minimising severe illness). However, even mild cases can cause long term issues, so risks still need to be assessed. I've already worked out a restaurant plan, and am waiting for the email to say they are taking bookings! Keen to book weekends away, if not even a week or two somewhere. This varies from Tasmania, Overseas, up the coast or a hotel in Sydney depending on how disasterous I feel the 'openning up' is going to be.  To be honest, I don't think it really matters. I'm getting a little spark of energy to be able to start making plans. It doesn't matter how big or small. It's the thinking about planning that seems to be doing the trick!

That  wraps it up for another month. Stay safe to all of you in lockdown and to borrow from someone on Twitter, I'm vaxxed, relaxed and ready for snacks!

  Linking with the first photo with MakroTex - the moon and the water tower are both round.