I found this advise on Facebook somewhere, at some time, not knowing who wrote the words, but wanted to share them as I write this with only ten minutes left in 2013.
Happy New Year to everyone….and as we begin 2014 at various times during the upcoming hours, plan on this new year being the beginning of something really special. There’s nothing like a new year to wipe the old slate clean of all we don’t want in our lives, to make room for all of the new and amazing people and things we wish to have surrounding us!
….and I think I can smell Christmas dinner roasting in the oven and the beautiful scent of the real pine Christmas trees my dad used to chop down every year in the bush, haul up onto the roof of the car and bring home for mum and I to decorate in the lounge room.
My imagination is working overtime, as is my body, seated mostly now in front of my sewing machine, as I spend my days madly sewing away at the last few orders that I must deliver this week.
I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year. The house is decorated, most of my shopping is done and my daughter and I have planned our Christmas cooking days for early next week. This is what Christmas is all about, isn’t it, the get-together with loved ones, the food, the gladness, listening to Christmas carols, relaxing. In Australia, it also mostly includes a swim in the pool after a huge Christmas dinner has been devoured, or falling asleep on the coolest available couch we can find around the house, preferably in front of an open window with a cool breeze blowing through.
For now though, for me, it’s back to work. So much to do, so little time! Yet I’m happy and organised and filled with anticipation.
Has anyone considered what their “word” for 2014 will be yet? Most years I struggle for ideas, this year though I already know what mine will be. But more about that later; the rest of 2013 is still here and to be enjoyed.  🙂
My other daughter (not the afore mentioned who loves to cook), knowing how much I love the Christmas carol “The Little Drummer Boy”, sent me a link to the song which I’d like to share with you all. It gives me goosebumps to hear this song, no matter what version it is I’m listening to. That little boy sure had amazing insight over two-thousand years ago, knowing the birth of this baby to be something special, and here we are, still celebrating his birth so many years later. And what better gift for the drummer boy to give the baby than that of his music. Priceless.
“When someone shares their favourite songs with you, embrace them, because they’re giving you a small glimpse into their soul.”
With ideas of putting my self-proclaimed title of “Most Inconsistent Blogger in The Universe” behind me, I’ve decided to take you for a look around one of my favourite book stores. (I hear a collective gasp of “what, two posts in the one week?”) Of course, I cannot leave this shop without being poorer of pocket yet richer in knowledge, but hey, what is a great bookstore for, other than to go into them and buy books?
Reading nooks, so private, so peaceful…
This place has atmosphere, it’s inviting, there’s even a coffee shop right next door. Comfy couches are in abundance, as are ladders and stools. The staff is friendly, helpful, and somehow manage to keep track of the ca-zillion books in the place. I browsed for hours in search of a book, any book, by Rumi. A couple of days later I returned and approached a helpful person who walked straight up to the shelf where Rumi could be found. (Hadn’t I already looked there?) These Rumi’s were new books. You may, she suggested, look in the used book poetry section (yes, they stock both new and second-hand books!) but she felt quite sure that any second-hand Rumi’s that came through the door were grabbed almost before they hit the shelves. I looked. She was right. Of course.
Shelf after shelf of books…
Some of the books are so valuable that they are displayed behind glass doors, under lock and key, behind the front counter. Other books are valued by their age, the price-tag being irrelevant to book lovers (like me!)
I love the matching series of books so often found here, in the second-hand section.
The Jane Austen series of five books that followed me home  (or I may have just purchased them, blind to the asking price) are a third edition hard back series, published in 1933, with each book selling individually at that time for the princely sum of seven shillings and sixpence. I’m not brilliant at maths, but according to my calculations, (and some help from Google,) taking into account the basic wage of the day, conversions of pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents and the inflation rate, I estimate the books to have cost the equivalent of $125.00 AU in today’s money, each. Which leads me to a further thought, just how accessible were books back in those long-gone days, if the cost was so high? Or perhaps Jane Austen had reached a pinnacle in her popularity, increasing the value of her work?
My Jane Austen finds, safely tucked up on one of my book shelves at home.
Adding to the character and the atmosphere in the store is the polished cement floor throughout all the main area, reading rooms and comfy book viewing nooks.
Characterful, polished cement floors.
Did I mention where these rooms of beauty, warmth and indulgence are? Just twenty kilometers inland from Noosa Heads (the destination of my very recent holiday)Â sits a sleepy little village by the name of Eumundi. The whole village comes alive every Wednesday and Saturday with a huge market-place, making Eumundi a must-visit area for those who prefer the non-commercialized village markets any day over a huge, ritzy shopping centre.
I may have written something about Eumundi way back in the archives of time. Let me check…..here ’tis, and it goes way back to the early days when this blog was just a baby in August 2010. I aptly named the post “The Town that Time Forgot”.
Surrounded by books, books high, books low, books everywhere. 🙂
I’ve lost track of the number of books I have read during this year, so I really must be more organised next year. (Note to self ~ add a Currently Reading tally into the side column of my blog. Further note ~ remember to read this note!)Â Currently, I’m reading “Committed” by Elizabeth Gilbert, which is the follow-up to her earlier book and travel diary, “Eat Pray Love”. I swear that whilst reading the first third of the book, every mouthful of food I ate tasted better than ever before! (You’ll know what I mean if you have ever read the book!)Â Prior to that, I read Yann Martel’s “The Life of Pi” and before that I became inspired to read an Australian novel turned mini series, “Cloudstreet”, written by Tim Winton, when my son brought it home from school, being his novel to read during second term of school. I’ll have to think about what I read before “Cloudstreet”, that’s why I need to keep tally….
(no, wait, it was Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal Dreams”!)
Why must it be that the best laid plans of mice and men, (and women,) often go astray?
Whilst working at my sewing machine during the past few weeks I’ve dreamed about my planned time away from home, on holiday, in Noosa, spending time at a resort I have visited many times before, picturing the free time I would find, the blog reading I could catch up on, the posts I would be writing, the books I would read from cover to cover, along with spending time visiting some of my favourite landmarks in the area with my family.
Late afternoon at Noosa Beach.
So here I sit at my computer, finally penning (typing, actually) a blog post, on the last day of my holiday.
Where did the last week go? I need another week away!
A great restaurant for a birthday celebration.
Such collective plans my girls and I had made before we left home! We would visit the markets at Eumundi and have a family dinner at a lovely restaurant on the river in Noosaville on the Saturday night, that being an early celebration for Emma’s birthday in December. Those plans were kept. The markets were fabulous, we walked around ooh-ing and ah-ing at everything and buying some irresistible items, after which we realized that we had spent the grand total of five-and-a-half hours shopping! No wonder our feet were sore.
A healthy treat!
Hayley could only spend the weekend with us, so Emma and I had to manage without her on the other days, which was sad, but manage we did, with a trip to the Ginger Factory at Yandina (we took Hayley there the next day as well, just for a quick visit!) and yesterday before Emma had to leave to go home again we went into the Sunshine Coast hinterland to visit Montville.
Montville.
Alone, I have walked around the boardwalk area at Noosa Beach and I’ve also taken a couple of walks along the river, one taking me to a cute little second-hand bookshop that we had discovered years ago when we were here holidaying with our very young children.
The Ginger Factory at Yandina.
I think that today may be the first day that we haven’t had any rain here during the last week. I also think that on some days we have experienced the full gamut of seasons. On my first day here the weather turned so cold that I needed to wear the “for when it turns cold” cardigan that I had packed but never dreamed I would need. Most days have given us at least a few hours of the less-than-pleasant, typical humidity to be expected in this area and something a little unexpected at this time of year as it usually occurs during the hotter summer months is stormy weather, including gusty winds and even hail.
At lunch with Emma.
Notwithstanding the unpredictable weather, we have had a wonderful time here, but where did my quiet moments, which I expected to have each day get to? My days seem to have come down to the question of do I enjoy the moment, or write about the moment? I have chosen to enjoy. The writing can come later.
On Sunday morning the boys came with us for a walk along the shore of the lake.
And the reading, did I get any done? Well yes, seeing as you ask, I did! I finished one book, bought another which I have started to read, didn’t read the book I had brought to read and I bought six craft magazines which have inspired me with some sewing projects for when I get home.
Stormy skies at Montville.
Tomorrow morning I head back home again, leaving Noosa behind, and yet again I will leave with beautiful memories and expectations of my next visit here.
My girls ❤
Emma and I are already planning our next visit. 🙂
A quiet bay, my kind of beach. Note to Self ~ I must spend more time visiting the beach.
Some of the most memorable conversations I have are brief, and with total strangers.
During the past week I had a phone call from a woman who identified herself as Marina, from a magazine I have subscribed to for the last ten years.
“What a lovely name you have”, I told Marina, to which she exclaimed, “I’ve asked my mother what was she thinking, naming me after a place where boats were kept!” And so our conversation began.
You may remember last year, (when my sewing shelves were much tidier than they are now!) I received a brand new wooden sewing box in the mail, along with other goodies that I had ordered over the phone from this same magazine company. Well, it is that time of year again, when they tempt me, the sewing and craft lover, with no end of fabulous paraphernalia, in an effort to have me part company with some cash.
I have to tell you, this is cash that I am happy to part with! They offer tremendous deals and as their offerings are purchased sight-unseen, when the boxes arrive in the mail it is like opening up a whole array of exciting Christmas presents!
But back to Marina. When I spoke to her, her manner reminded me of that of my daughter Emma, honest, friendly and easy to talk to, and whilst very good at her job, she loves a chat with the customers too.
She told me that she wondered what I would be finding to make with all of my new fabrics and threads when they arrived and I assured her that I had plenty of craft magazines on hand to give me inspiration.
I went on to tell Marina that it was only within the last year that I had returned to my love of craft and sewing for fun, that my priority of being a mother for so many years had meant my own interests had taken a back seat.
“It’s so good to know that there will come a time when I will get my “me time” back again!” Marina said, as she explained that she found being a mother was both demanding and time-consuming.
Whilst I wouldn’t have changed my last twenty-eight years of living in the Land of Motherdom, I must admit to feeling relieved that my children are now almost all independent of my motherly care and their dependence on my time is diminishing.
My brief conversation with Marina reminded me of those days, so long ago yet they seem like only yesterday, when my children were young. I recalled their sweet young faces and innocent ways, noticing my feelings erring towards accepted nostalgia rather than sadness of a time long gone.
When Marina told me that she was looking forward to her freedom I advised her to enjoy the days with her young children rather than wishing her life away; she told me she’d try.
Occasionally I have thought of my conversation with Marina a few days ago and it has helped me to realise that I am contented with the place I have reached in my life. The days when I look into the mirror and wonder who that person with the older face is are diminishing. She has earned the lines on her face, the greying hair and the skin that is beginning to age and sag. These are the signs of a life well lived.
As my conversation with Marina drew to a close she gave me her direct phone number to contact her, should I have any questions at any time, she would be there most days until six in the evening, she said. What a long day that is, no wonder Marina had no free time to herself for her own enjoyment!
This morning I came across a quote which reminded me of Marina. I get the impression that she may be a fun and quirky woman, however short of time she may be feeling. It is also a reminder to myself, a reminder of what true freedom really is ~
“Freedom begins in the moment you allow yourself to be you; the you that is fun and silly, quirky and different, unique and splendid, funky and kooky.
Hide not the parts of you, the expression of which fills you with joy and rapture, beauty and contentment, humanity and aliveness. It is by revealing those aspects that you radiate to the world the shining light you are and that we all yearn to see. “ ~ Robert Beno.
I’ve reached a place in my life where I am far more comfortable with revealing the real me, albeit with wrinkles! 🙂
In My World 