“No matter how far away we are from each other in distance, or in time, when we look up into the clear night Sky. We will always see the same Moon.” ― Adam Stanley

 

The moon was so low over Sydney last night, it was practically in the city.

Alas neither my camera nor my phone could deal with the tree branches that kept mucking up the focus. 

But look for some good shots others got. It was amazing! 

It was also really bright orange, which showed a bit on the phone but the camera washed out. 

Keep watch over the next few nights!  

Linking with #NaturesNotes 

Whale Season

 

We are reaching the end of the Southern Migration, so by the end of October, the whales should all be back in Antarctica for another year. 

They swim North to calf from May and back September/October to feed, living on the Antarctic krill.

Prompted by the huge show we got from North Head, I booked a whale watching trip on the weekend. The morning boat was booked out so we went in the afternoon. 

There were whales doing full body breaches on the horizon (I could just see the huge splashes) but we had up close encounters instead. Because they were swimming under the boat and popping up either side, we had to wait until the left to start the engines.

We went on the Fantasea 2 hour cruise and if you're an NRMA member, you get a discount, however, we've done it with all of them over the year and I find them all much the same. But definitely worth doing!

If you haven't been, it really is the most wonderful thing to do. We are so lucky to live on the Humpback Highway.

#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 or event.  Please link relevant posts only.

Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post. 

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

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This would have been the best shot - three whales (one fluke). Alas blurry....

And this shot you can see the tail, the fluke, but it's under water.

October Reading

After the heaviness of Lessons, I thought I'd read something light. This is a complex heist story, though also commenting on class and appearance as much as the fast paced storyline.

Spoilers ahead so do not read until you've read the book.

I adore this book. I read it first for the HSC. We as a class decided we hated Washington Square (too dull) and so as none of us would write about it for the exams, we spent double the time on Gatsby. I still get jealous of people reading it for the first time. I loved my feelings I had when I read it for the first time, the story unknown. I got so caught up in that era and landscape. I still 'see' it in places to this day. Visiting Fernhill makes me think of the parties on the sweeping lawns, the flickering light on the point at Currawong, while looking at the sparkling lights in the distance (of Palm Beach across the water) makes me think of West Egg and the green light. The images are so concrete in my head, it's like a place I remember.

The characters are broken people being selfish and awful. I think the openly flawed characters made them seem more interesting. And sadder, in the 'what was it all for?' kind of way.

I remember so clearly the shock of the car crash. I had to turn back the page and re read it because I thought I'd misread somehow. It was so unexpected (thought the tension had been building) and arresting. It was, by the way, the first automobile accident in literature, so imagine how much more shocking it must have been to readers at the time! 

We are warned over and over about these people, so many lines tell us what they are like. And yet when the end comes, we, like Nick, feel a little betrayed and disgusted in them all. And we do feel sorry for Gatsby even though he is far from a stand up guy himself. I think the book is so clever and so beautiful, while telling a very ugly tale of violence and the actions of awful people. There is a lot of violence in the book - the war, the mafia criminals, the domestic violence and yet it's dressed as this shiny and floaty elegance and joie de vivre. I think that's where the poetry lies. The whole book is just building tension for the big moment, and yet we are shocked nonetheless when it happens.

Fitzgerald had lots of different titles for the book - some of them terrible. The editor was the one who pushed for The Great Gatsby, and even wanted to change the title after it was published.

I can't tell you how many times I've read this now, but I never tire of it, and I never cease to notice some new detail I don't recall.

Look forward to hearing what the bookclub podders have to say. (And for those that love all things Gatsby, the Gatsby at the Green Light cabaret will be back this December - great fun!)

I really enjoyed this - it's only about 2 hours, borrowed from the library on Hoopla. If you've read A Moveable Feast, it's further background. There were so many great writers, poets and artists all kicking around Paris & France at that time. This is how the country influenced them, and they all learnt and got inspired from each other. It also showed a different side to Hemingway, as he really pushed other writers and helped them get published.

In an absolute score I got the Miles Franklin winner in the street library. I've just finished his earlier book which I loved (The Whitewash) so can't wait to start reading this (Just have to finish the Ryu Murakami I just started first)

Linking with #AnythingGoes #IMWAYR (I was 17 when I read Gatsby for the first time so suitable for teens - and all ages) #Bookdate #MonthlyBookworms #SundayPost #StackingtheShelves and #SundaySalon #TalkaboutitTuesday

Morning walk

 

It is such a pleasant start to the day to walk with a friend, and even though the scenery doesn't change, the view does.

The light, the birds, the reflections.

I'm not sure who put this up, or what it's from but I agree that there is an intimacy with the landscape in those familiar routes.

Linking with #WeekendReflection #WordlessWednesday 

#Skywatch #GaleriaHimmelsblick

I noticed this one the other day on a path I walk frequently. I'm not sure why I've never seen it before, or never registered it, I guess as it is certainly not new. It looks like something left over from childhood, tatty with age but still adorable.

It's all how you look at it.

I was in a mood, and I said to my friend "I'm having a glass half empty kind of day, so you're just going to have to listen to me complain about it". I've completely forgotten what 'it' was, which was annoying me.

So when I took these pics, I had in mind that if I changed them into B&W, they would look quite different from the originals.

This one looks sad and forgotten, decaying slowly with time.

This seemed a little unsafe, as if a sketchy part of town.

Even the sunrise seemed threatening, the dawn of a doom.

A lot of the time it really is just all how you look at it.

Linking with  #HappyNow #HappyTuesday #YourtheStar #WeekendinBlackandWhite

I used to play this song to the kids all the time when they were little.

Look again! Again.

Many years ago I wrote this post and was reminded of it yesterday when I popped into David Jones to see they'd mixed the Lego Botanicals with their florist's display. 

From a distance is was a gorgeous abundance of colour and floral magnificence.

Up close, it was a remembrance of childhood delight and appreciation of beauty (well, prettiness at least).

It did make me smile and feel a tingle of delight.

Well played, David Jones!

Linking with #FloralFridayFoto #GardenAffair #TheRandom

Tell Us about....Kindness

 Last month I had to write a post on the fly, as I didn't know the prompt until after the link up was posted. This month I had a whole month to think about it, yet here I am rushing out a post.

I am in a choir, and we sang Mamma Mia. I've never been an ABBA fan, so while I knew the song, I'd never paid attention to the lyrics. They are terrible. Total red flag relationship with the singer accepting cheating behaviour because she loves him, and they both having fights knowing they will be back together for more of the same. So when I started thinking of Kindness, I thought of this song, which I loved as a kid.

He gets it's bad but he doesn't say 'Enough, I deserve better!'. It's just sort of left open.

In the 70's (probably before no fault divorce or just when that came in) there were a lot of songs about accepting terrible relationships. Yet now we know the grass is always greener where you water it. I'm not going to repeat myself too much, but people often save their best self for work and friends (and even strangers) but have nothing left for their partner. As Nietzsche said "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages". 

I like the songs now, women demanding better. Lyrically much better! 

  

However, the kindness I want to talk about to day, is the kindness we need to show ourselves. So many times I've had to pull up friends who can't accept a compliment or whose self description doesn't match what I see in them, or when I look at them. But even I, when asked to write a letter to my enemy, knew it had to be to that little voice in my head!

As I have mentioned before, as children we are born with self love and confidence, or at least self satisfaction but very quickly, as early as the age of 4 or 5 (probably when we mix with other kids at school or preschool) it gets whittled away. The 'shoulds' and comparisons take on a weight that for many of us, especially women, crushes us. How it gets to be so loud and so mean is beyond me. And yet it does. Why do we let our inner monologue treat us in a way we would never treat anyone else? It says things constantly to us that we would never let someone say to a friend without jumping in to defend them! There is a saying 'you are not your thoughts' but you are the one that hears them.

The good news is that it can be dulled. It can be ignored. Most importantly, it can be rewired. The brain believes what it hears - that's the thinking behind affirmations, that it rewires neural pathways auditorily. For me, I'm not so into affirmations but my enthusiasm for quotes I think is a similar thing. Most of my posts these days have quotes in them, and I think my subconscious likes seeking them out and grabbing on to them. Clever little phrases that stick in my mind. If you're friends talk themselves down, interrupt it. It's habit forming. The more you stop it, the less they will do it. And the same applies to you. If you interrupt the negative self thinking, it disrupts the habit.

You can also just say 'not today' as Amy Poehler discussed in her book. I am much better at that. When I decide I look stupid or too fat in an outfit, I often just think 'I don't have time for this' and wear it anyway. Usually a stranger compliments me, which shows that the mean voice was distorting my vision.

Years ago, I wrote about my Epiphany (dated badly with all the red flags Kanye now is but ignore that part) and when I read it now, I barely recognise the person. You can't turn a freight train around in a single moment, it takes time. But as the mean voice has had years to chip away at yourself esteem, you may be surprised that after a year of arguing back, you need to do it less and less. Don't give up, thinking it's not working. Your active thinking just needs to be louder.  Most importantly, don't give up on yourself. "There is only one you for all time Fearlessly be yourself" - Anthony Rapp. That post covered shutting down the little voice in detail (and again with more Kanye - so just remember, don't go full Kanye. Or only go old Kanye, not 2025 Kanye).

Ultimately, we are the only people that we spend our whole life with, so be kinder to yourself. You don't have to believe everything you think, and you certainly don't have to listen to someone who is trash talking you, especially when  the call is coming from inside the building!

I leave you with a song about kindness. At the moment, think of how all the LBGT people and migrants must be feeling with all the negative talk in the newspapers and media in the US and UK (shame on you both, and in Australia, the Indian community in particular but all non white migrants to some extent - shame on us). That's not 'debate' or intellectual for them. It's a avalanche of hate that must be crushing so as the song says, be the beacon reaching out in the world that's lost it's mind.  

Linking with #TellUsAbout #TalkaboutitTuesday #SeniorSalonPitstop (the badge is not saving for me today? My end no doubt) #TrafficJamReboot #MondayMusicMovesMe 

Was chuffed to be featured blogger over at #WeekendCoffeeShare this week! Just had to share the lovely badge.