Moments of Calm

Well what a chaotic week it's been ~ one thing after another!

 But I'm not going to focus on that ~ what's the point? 

 Instead I'll show you (and me!) the good bits, the pieces of calm in between.

You'll notice we've had more frosty mornings

 and the land owner across the river has been burning off

 so the smoke has made for some interesting views.  

I noticed this 'still life' while I was weeding around a rose bush.

These leaves were floating on the water trough when I went to feed the chooks.

They look as though they are surrounded by a starry night sky!

These seed cases are from our local  Blackwood tree, an Acacia. I love the curls and squiggles!

Well it's done me good to see the bits of beauty 

that I would otherwise have forgotten amidst the chaos.

I hope you've had a week where you've noticed something special

even if it's been just in passing.  I'd love to hear about it!

bye for now

Winter's Chill

I was up early, not from choice really, but because my dear husband went fishing, 

leaving home at 4 am.  So inevitably I too was awake!  

Breakfast, stoke the fire, shower, make the bed, check emails...still only 5.30am.

 Peek outside and it's cold.

A few weeks ago it was really cold around the south and east of Australia,

 but life got in the way of me getting in the car

 and driving an hour or so inland and uphill to the snow.

 So today I decided to go and check out the frost instead. 

I've got way too many photos here, but I'm not very good at culling!

And then on the way home you can see that time has passed

 and the frost has melted to a sunny day.

Smoke from winter burning off fills the horizon and melds the mountains seamlessly.  

It also helps to produce irresistibly colourful sunsets!

We were both home too late to enjoy the fruits of the day out on the water, 

but don't worry, fish was on the menu the next night!   

I know I should go too, but when you work together sometimes it's nice to do your own thing.

Do you go in different directions or enjoy similar hobbies?  Just wondering! 

Bye for now 

What does it all mean?

Waking later than usual, I hurried to the kitchen for a strong cup of coffee. I threw open the curtains to check on today's weather and was met by  'a shower of white fire' which made me jump back in astonishment!  What was a single cattle egret doing sitting on my garden wall?

I dared not open the sliding door onto the verandah but instead took this photo through the glass. This one is the best of the three I managed to click off in quick succession before this stunning creature flew off to a tree quite some distance away, and then was nowhere to be seen.

'A shower of white fire' is a phrase from this lovely poem Egrets by Mary Oliver.

There is much symbolism attached to herons and egrets

 from ancient cultures such as Greece, Egypt, China, Native America. 

Grace, patience, balance, tranquility, good luck, 

or determination, intelligence, independence, resourcefulness....the list goes on.  

To be honest, I could do with more than a sprinkling of each one of those attributes!

I searched in vain for the solitary egret.

I looked in the places egrets go, those transitional places between water, earth and air.

No sign of it on a cow's back either, which is where they are often seen plucking ticks etc.

Looking up into the sky as afternoon was closing in.....could it be....is it my egret?

That cloud really was in the sky that day, and I haven't seen the egret any more since then.  

I do like to think that we notice things for a reason.

What do you think?

I'm planning on grounding myself firmly on my own two feet,

 occasionally treading fearlessly into deeper waters, and delighting in gracefully taking flight.

But I draw the line at picking ticks from a cow's back!

Bye for now

PS.  If you'd like to know more about egrets in Australia this post " Egrets-I've had a few" 

from Paula Peeters at Paperbark Writer is informative and fun!

PPS. Here's another poem about Egrets, this one by Australian poet Judith Wright

One week later....here I am!

Yes, thanks to all your encouragement in comments on my last post, I'm here a week later. 

 It's amazing how accountability helps to keep you on track  

Well, it works for me anyway!

What a week it's been.  The big story being that we had twins!  Alright then, it wasn't exactly WE, but one of our cows.  To cut a long story short...I was walking back from the cattle yards on dusk in the freezing cold, wind blowing half a gale. My eyes were drawn to ripples on the dam...not duck type ripples...no, they were bigger than that.  I went to investigate.  It was a calf close to the dam wall but bobbing in the water.  Yells, screams and next thing I know hubby is stripping off and heading into the freezing cold water, grabbing the little calf and pulling him up onto the bank. It was really hard work for him, and exhausting.  I ran home for old towels and, puffing and panting, we rubbed him down, leaving the head so that the mother would recognise the smell of her calf.
We were worried because it was so very cold, but nature is incredible and this tired little calf  was up and drinking from his Mum next morning, along with his sister. Unfortunately, no chance for photos, too much going on, but I do have one of the little fella a couple of days later.

This last photo is the dam at sunrise just a few days after the drama unfolded.  

All calm as if nothing had ever happened.  

This is how life is, one thing after another, 

up then down, crazy then calm, despair then delight.  

Just as it should be.

~~~~

I hope your week has been more up than down, more calm than crazy.  

Tell me about it.  I'd love to hear...

Bye for now 

As you blog, so you are...

I need to get organised, have a routine, all that sort of stuff.  I'm intermittent with my blog posts just as I am intermittent with all the essentials in my life.  I write to do lists but I don't follow them.  

I read this post today from zen habits, and I'm going to give it a try...starting here with my blog. One post once a week.  Not too hard, right?  Wrong!  But I'll try it because if I can do that, then according to this post I'll gain in confidence and feel better about myself and so habits will become easier to follow.

So.....today this is what I noticed as I went about my day....

Do you have trouble with doing the things you need to do on a regular basis

 or are you an organised person?

I'm really interested to hear because it is something I struggle with

so any advice would be warmly welcomed!