Share Four Somethings - May

My May was going to be great fun but I finally got COVID, 3 and a half years in and it wiped me out. It also wiped out half the house so I'm THAT asshole. In my illness/Iso, I missed a boat day, Winston Surfshirt, Dylan Moran, Mother's Day lunch, the visit of my friend from Brisbane who I haven't seen for well over a year, my trip to Melbourne with another friend and book trivia for the writer's festival and a dinner with Mah Jong group...so far!

Something I'm Loving: As I am isolating with COVID (it's been weeks - actually 9 days but it feels like forever), I am loving delivery. The local supermarket has been delivering each day and I have no idea how we survived before this.  We've had Chinese food delivered and the kids wanted pizza....I am pumping them with powerade and I am living on mandarins...the kids seem to be recovering quickly but I don't. This stupid thing blows. I have no idea how we survived without the world at our finger tips?! 

Something I'm Reading: Nothing. Brain and energy are fried. I have started listening to The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan for bookclub. Only in chapter 3 so too soon to say anything.

Something I'm Learning: Covid can mess with your mood. I got very overwhelmed and teary the day I had to cancel Melbourne. It was weird. I was basically crying about it. I sent this ranty text to a friend and she said her other friend had also sent her a very depressed email and that it's the way COVID effects some people. That made me feel better (then of course the kids got sick so I was too busy to deal with me and had to deal with them, so that of course distracted me and fixed my mood). Yesterday it came back because I was sure I'd be negative but I'm not. Husband and non sick kid moved out but will come back tomorrow. One of the kids is now negative and I'm pretty sure the second one isn't far behind (even though she tested positive about a week after me)....I am not a good patient. 

Something I'm Eating: The night before I tested positve (with no symptoms!) I went to Pazar pop up. The food was brilliant, as always. It is the last interesting thing I've eaten. I'm living on mandarins, toasties and yesterday I got frozen chips from the supermarket to eat with Nandos sauce...

I feel this might be the most boring Share Four Somethings so a few of the pictures are just to make it more interesting. And one thing I discovered while endlessly scrolling Insta this week, was this song. It made me laugh. Note some skin and possibly not suitable for work images, so maybe save it for later. But it did cheer me up and make me laugh. I forget who posted it but the tiktok was pretty funny.

Here's to next month being sensational!!

Linking with #ShareFourSomethings #FloralFridayFoto #WWandP #TheRandom and #MondayMusicMovesMe

Parachutes

 I came across this on twitter. Children's author Kelly Yang taking on Scholastic in regards to standing up for authors in the US to the deranged book banning frenzy currently going on in many states.  I then read this article and was perplex that some how learning about and acknowledging racism was somehow also something children needed to be protected from.

I am white and not LBGT but I understand that reading about people and experiences different to my own help me grow, or at least broaden my views and understanding of how the world works. And as Kelly Yang points out, being 'seen' is something valuable when you are in a minority.

I read Parachutes - picked at random - as I'd never read any of her books. It is a children's book (teen) but it dealt with some tough issues (sexual assault as well as racism). It was uncomfortable but I thought handled with great care. I see no reason why this book would be inappropriate for teenagers. 

I will track down her new book, Finally Seen as I think she has quite a lot to say, and she writing from experiences I know nothing about or have never given thought to. As Stephen King says' "if they ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don't want you to read."

This is a clip on the experience and process that lead to Finally Seen being written.

Parachutes is written at a level for teens, so expect that but it's written from alternating points of view, and covers a range of issues - different wealth status, difference in race, power imbalance with teachers and students, pressures to have sex and of course, sexual assault.

As an aside, by coincidence, yesterday I watched an episode of Blackish called ToysRn'tUs that also deals on lack of representation. Worth a watch.

Linking with #IMWAYR #Sundaypost #SundaySalon #Bookdate #StackingtheShelves

Tell Us about Gardens....

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you will know I love gardens. When I travel I seek out gardens.  Even in big cities, the gardens tell you a lot about the place, as well as being a sheer delight to enjoy the outdoors. The first time I went to Versailles, I spent 6 hours in the garden before I made it into the palace...I had such an amazing day but I also surprised myself, as I assumed I was more into the oppulance of the chateau but instead just kept getting lured to explore a little bit further in the magnificent garden...

But the garden in literature and imagery is one of my favourite of all. There is an invitation to explore and discover, and more often than not is is a discovery within oneself or an aspect to tame and manage.

 'Tend your garden' is one of the best pieces of life advice in The Little Prince  (discussed in this blog post) A more nuanced version of 'The Grass is always Greener...where you water it' as discussed here years ago. 

Gardens are a symbol of work we do for enjoyment, and to reap rewards of beauty or sustinance later. They are taming nature to our will, working with seasons and animals (insects) to aid survival and allow beauty to bloom. 

Think in fairy stories how gardens are left in neglect while evil reigns, and are restored and tamed once right wins. Think of the hunger caused by barren land and gardens gone to seed but then curses are lifted and prosperity returns.

Of course, the most famous garden of all, the one I have spent my life spying longingly through the keyhole at, too big to enter the door, much like Alice. No matter how hard I try to drink the potion and get in, I am destined to be that grown up who can't quite gain access. But if I squint, for awhile, I can see it all clearly. (I've written at least 12 blog posts about Alice in Wonderland so I probably don't need to go into the importance of that book again here).

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) summed it up perfectly 'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need'.

(Note most of the photos are gardens in Tokyo but the teapot and gardens ith little characters in them I found on the streets of the Inner West Sydney quite by accident, but they filled me with delight).

Linking with #FloralFridayFoto

“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.” – Aesop

While I'm not usually a fan of the sky rat, these two were so clean and shiny, and 'kissing' that they seemed more like lovebirds than the germy, pooping pests I normally view them as.

Proving in the right light, everything is beautiful. 

Linking with #DND #SundayBest #GardenAffair #WordlessWednesday #WildbirdWednesday #SaturdayCritters #AwwMondays

Sunset seaplanes

 

While on Cockatoo Island, I watched seaplanes taking in the magnicent sunset view....

Covid still knocking me about so this is all I have today....

Linking with #WordlessWednesday #WWOT #WWOAT #YourMoment #HeidisGlimmelsblick #ThruMyLens and #SkyWatch

Favourite things...

It seems like Raindrops on Roses IS actually one of my favourite things.

In my head the next line is Lipstick on Kittens....(I know it's whiskers but that doesn't do so much for me).

Obviously, rainbows or any refracted light is one of mine, as my endless posts show....

What are your favourite things?

Linking with #TellUsAbout

Moon rise

On Cockatoo Island I was lucky enough to not only enjoy a magnicent sunset but a beautiful moon rise.

Normally I see the moon, but not as it moves up the sky, nor with such a stunning backdrop.

The clouds, the colours, the bright yellow moon all worked in unison to inspire my sheer delight.

It's funny how these things we are usually to busy to pay attention to, when you give them your full attention, are quite joyful and suddenly feel quite special. Perhaps I shouldn't usually be in the kitchen making dinner at this time?

Sometimes time to take in your surroundings is all you really need.

Linking with #NaturesNotes #SkyWatch and #Heidihimmelsblick