Claris in Paris

My kids didn't really know Claris, as the first book was published in 2018 though the youngest had a little stint with Angelina the ballet mouse books...my question, what is it with fancy girl mice books? Personally I'm a Hello Kitty fan, or Miffy so I don't get the mouse thing at all. Ha!

Claris has apparently taken the world by storm and even Bvlgari and Valentino have done collaborations.

The website is here with all the guff for those that don't know or want to look at the collabs.

We were having friends for lunch from Greece so I headed to The Grounds to pick up a pav, the quintessential Australian dessert.

I got the lasts snaps of the Claris laneway, as it was being dismantled the next day to be set up for Snow White. Not you have to have purchased something to be able to walk through nowadays, due to the crowds.

I have to admit it was very pretty and adorable to see the little girls all dressed up in their Parisian chic. And some of the parents too!

Linking with   #WeekendCoffeeShare#TheRandom #WordlessWednesday #SundayBest

"Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy"

The title is spoken by the Blue Fairy to Pinocchio.

While we were in Kingscliff, we went to the Tweed Regional Gallery. There is a very life like bronze statue outside, and I decided to make him real...

I brought him to life in the early 1970s...

but in B&W you really couldn't tell he wasn't alive.

And this is literally how my brain works. You're welcome.

Do you think he looks real?

I guess the lesson is we can change what we see if we change the way we look at it....

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After the cyclone

The cyclone never really hit in full force, just storms and strong winds by the time Alfred reached land. And flooding.

I was surprised at Kingscliff how little damage there was, given the ferocity.

The coastal erosion was the most noticeable damage and some trees down.

Otherwise it was just excessive leaves on the ground and some roads flooded (& detours) were the only signs it had ever been rampaging through.

So Queensland was very lucky!

Hopefully this is not the start of Cyclone Season!

Linking #WednesdayAroundtheWorld with  #ThruMyLens #TalkaboutitTuesday#WordlessWednesday #NaturesNotes and #GardenAffair (nature)

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. Boris Pasternak

We had spent the evening at the Recital Hall and were making our way from the auditorium, discussing the talk we'd just listened to.

Suddenly the fire exit doors opened and we followed the trail of people to descent in the plain concrete stairwell....

However, as we entered, we discovered it was adorned with murals all the way down.

"Surprise is key in all art". Oscar Niemeyer

Suddenly I was joyfully snapping away, delighted that we were let in on this secret.

Sometimes I guess the discovery elevates the enjoyment of the thing we find... 

Linking with #WordlessWednesday #MuralMondays #TalkaboutitTuesday

"Time will pass and seasons will come and go."

I'm away this weekend, as my book club takes it's annual road trip. We are heading to a cyclone destroyed beach. Hoping the food makes it back to the supermarkets for the people up there.

So comments may be MIA or not until next week.

I've been given the medical all clear to have the occasional drink - so a magnum with friends was in order! (There were 10 of us, less than 2 glasses each - still being boringly responsible)

Seasonal wild flowers and rainy sunrises are the season we are in it seems. Yet still better than Cyclone season.

Linking with #WaterThursday #KeithsRamblings #TforTuesday #MySundayPhoto #GardenAffair for the Australian Native bouquet #WeekendReflection #FloralFridayFoto

“I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention” ― John le Carre

We are constantly changing. There's a problem if we are not. We should be learning new things and gaining greater understanding and if we are fixed to the knowledge we thought we once had, we never grow.

So we are constantly reinventing ourselves.

Sometimes by choice, think about how your musical taste might have changed over the years?

Sometimes by force, the arrival of children, a divorce, a death. We are forced to reinvent our whole lives, even though we had intellectually nailed that life as our permanent one.

You are allowed to reinvent yourself as often as you need. As I wrote here, these new beginnings slip by unheralded.  You just keep marching forward and look back to see you climbed a mountain.

I saw this quote yesterday, and I think it's the most positive reason to reinvent yourself as you need to. "If you do not swim with the person you are becoming, you will drown under the weight of who you used to be".

If you don't like an aspect of your life, including who you are, work to change it. Reinvent yourself, follow that ridiculous dream, make the world the way it should be.

"At its core, reinvention is inextricably linked to hope: the hope that we can find another way, take another shape.” ― Vivek Shraya, People Change

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#Skywatch #GaleriaHimmelsblick

Race season

It's finally back!

I'm a little off all the driver line ups and rookies - no idea why, just a bit meh about it all so not listened to the off season podcasts like I usually do.

I need them to start racing to get hyped again...

Though seeing these as I walked out of Melbourne airport made me smile.

I'm not booked for Singapore because we were going to do a reno. Now we don't have the money for that so I'm eyeing off if I try and go. Elton John definitely adds to the appeal....

Linking with #WWOT #WordlessWednesday #MySundaySnapshot #TheRandom