Rainy Season

A month's worth of rain has been forecast for the next week. I woke this morning to the down pour and I'm already sick of it.

I had planned to walk the 6 kms to tonight's event but that's out.

As is any other outdoor exercise.

Lots of tearing around in the car and some how 'exercising' the dog indoors.

So while I sulk about the weather, here's the pics from last week's morning walk.

And a couple of the cheery graffiti that is popping up all over the inner city.

Housekeeping: I might be MIA next week until the 15th. So there is a chance I'll just extend this linky for 2 weeks. 

#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

Animal Safari

 

I was on a dog walk when I saw this...

then suddenly, wild life abounded.

Sort of.

I went back a few weeks later and the bear is still there.

The ibis is not.

Sometimes there's a little magic in the mundane.

Linking with #AwwMondays #NaturesNotes & #MySundaySnapshot

June Reading

Witness for the Prosecution - This came up on a few blogs so I thought I'd track it down. I have read it and seen the play so I just listened to it. It's a short 1 hour story. I really liked it, though it sort of came back to me as it went along. I think Agatha Christie was really ahead of her time in her thinking. And she was on point with this one. I also discovered Agatha Christie surfed. She was an early adopter, thought to be the first British woman to surf standing up (not 100% sure this can be proved). She tried prone surfing (lying down) in 1922 in South Africa but in Hawaii she learnt to stand up surf. She also visited Australia and New Zealand in her 'British Empire Mission', visiting Melbourne and Tasmania.

Taboo - I really enjoyed this. So much to think about. Very measured I thought, but aware of how and why things are the way they are. And what we need to work on to change. Great book.

Calypso - I normally love David Sedaris but this one felt a bit mean. Just before the end I discovered I was listening to it at .8 normal speed. The drawn out drawl disappeared and the timing and intonation was quite different, more the Sedaris I know. So I think the flippant remarks and jokes took on a nasty tone when said in this slow twang. I feel I had the wrong reaction to much of the book, though a lot is about hard ageing and suicide and very difficult dynamics, so it is also more difficult topics than his usual books. The thing I will take away is the Bulgarian saying 'May you build a house from your kidney stones.'

Beloved - I was sure I'd read this but couldn't remember it so I read it again. Bits seemed very familiar but also not familiar so I've really no idea if I read it or it's just heard it talked about so much that I knew the names and events. It's very sad and at times confronting, but I will admit also at times I drifted off and wanted it to end. But that may have been me at the time rather than a reflection of this multi-award winning book. It's very tough going. What a terrible insight into the lack of humanity in that history.

Give unto Others - we are doing a Donna Leon for bookclub. I do really enjoy her crime. Strong sense of place, usually about topical current events and an insight into the political side of Italy. This one is no different. The funniest part of this book is that it was obviously written during or just after the lockdowns. It took me a while to work out Brunetti wasn't just weirdly obsessed with masks and lockdown. So it's set in that time where we are all out and about but it was still all in our minds. When I first started reading Leon (or when she first started writing the crime books), I had just spent 2 weeks in Venice for Carnivale. I knew all the streets she mentioned and I had a strong map in my head of the places action took place. Even the outer suburbs and islands. Now I'm just the average tourist - knowing the main sights but little more. It's funny to think I've been growing up with these characters for 30 years! This is the 31st book in the series but by no means the latest. The first one was published in 1992 and I believe there's one due soon, though her 33rd book in the series came out in 2024. So she's sort of the modern day Agatha Christie, but Venice is the locked room.

What have you been reading?

Linking with #Bookdate #SundaySalon #SundayPost #StackingtheShelves #SeniorSalonPitstop

Share Four Somethings - June

I can't believe I'm here already!

Something I loved VIVID has made it a great month, and I've had plenty of good times with friends. I have a friend who just stopped coming to things, and barely kept in touch (despite my efforts, but I knew it was her headspace, not personal). She came to two things this month. She lives up the coast so it's quite the effort too. It was lovely to see her, and lovely to see her back to her old self. 

Something I learned That Napoleon banned the theatre production of Coriolanus in 1806 for being anti- authority and would reflect badly on him. Given the current production, I can see why.

Something that went well I got my tooth fixed. I was hit by a bottle (I was sitting on the ground drinking out of a bottle - classy, and the person in front of me stepped backwards and banged it against my mouth, damaging my front tooth).  20 years later it needed root canal therapy as it started to die, and it was whitened inside. It started to go black again and the dentist told me I'd need it removed as it was too thin for a veneer. I put it off cos it sounded so terrible a procedure but his offsider decided on my next visit that we could whiten it from the inside again. That appears to have worked. Final procedure tomorrow. This is the only work I've ever had done, no fillings on any other teeth, no braces, so it's quite the drama and I'm a baby about it. But happy with the results none the less.

Something I let go of  The idea of a last 'family' holiday with my youngest. She doesn't want to go anywhere so I think we may have had it. I'm still trying to come up with ideas but the costs are so high, even to Queensland in the school holidays. So I think we may have already had it in January this year. I've not quite given up yet but I'm working on letting go of it.... 

The photos are just things that made me happy. The broken dreams is the recycling of your lotto tickets at the newsagent. Alas, I use it too frequently. I've no idea what the left one is, it was just on my roll but I like it. 

Linking with #ShareFourSomethings and #FloralFridayFoto

" 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue" William Shakespeare.

I mentioned how excited I was to see this poster advertising Coriolanus during the election. I mentioned in this post that I love this play because it was the first Shakespeare play I saw where I did not know what happened, and watched it unfold on stage, gripped in the events.

This production focuses more on the political aspect, and it seems as true now as it was then. I went with a friend who I'd seen the John Howard production with. We were discussing it in interval when we realised that was 32 years ago! (Which explains why I was hazy on which was the Berkoff production and which was the Howard production). We both exclaimed 'How did I get so old!' in unison. Where does the time go?

This production has a really fun interactive aspect, you are either a Patrician scrambling to hold on to power or a Plebeian rising up, sick of poverty at the hands of the profiteering nobles. I will leave that as a surprise but it's rowdy and raucous in parts, very funny and spirited. The staging is unusual and I really enjoyed that part, watching the moving parts come together.

In the course of our conversation, I said to my friend 'I know this will sound odd to you, but I don't really like Shakespeare that much'. The irony was, I'd just seen Sport for Jove's magnificent 'Timon of Athens' last week. It was a brilliant production and if you get a chance to see it, go. The warning in the foyer was enough to pique my interest. 

Wonderful acting, hilarious at times, devastatingly tragic at others. One of the most interesting parts was the use of nudity. The first time was for laughs but the second time if was heart wrenchingly sad, a broken man left with nothing. It was so clever. (And if anyone from Sport for Jove sees this, I'm still wondering about the stunt fall from the top of the scaffolding. I was the loud horrified gasp on the last night).

I did of course also go to the magnificent Player Kings which I really adored. 

So I guess I like Shakespeare if it's done well. And I've been lucky that the 15 hours I've spent with the bard in the last 2 months has been thoroughly enjoyable. 400 years later and still relevant. Says something about him and a lot more about us. 

"Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?" William Shakespeare

Linking with #WBOYC

Would also like to say a bit thanks to the Bell Shakespeare theatre for having Negroni on your bar list. And the Serendipity ice creams. It really makes for a more enjoyable night!

(To clarify, you can't go wrong with Macbeth or Richard III, they are kick ass plays.) 

Lastly, this cracked me up as it made me think of the Dr Seuss Wacky Wednesday book.

Linking with #WBOYC