An Early Morning Visitor….Come back later, around midday, okay?

February 19, 2012 Joanne11 Comments

My camera shy visitor — My camera-shy visitor

Over the past few months we’ve had a regular visitor to our back garden, or to be more precise, to our swimming pool.

A duck must have mistaken our pool for a nice relaxing pond, in which to float around and casually pass the time of day. Obviously the chlorine and salt added to the pool has not had any adverse effect to his health as he has returned, again and again, even occasionally bringing his lady friend along with him!

In the eighteen years that we have had the pool this is the first duck that has taken a liking to it, which has left me wondering….why? Is this the first duck to ever notice, over the past eighteen years, that the pool is there? Or, have the others been put off by the smell of salt and chlorine?

Perhaps our visitor is simply an eccentric duck!

Look this way... — I'm up here, Mr Duck. Look this way!

I’ve tried to get a photo of this cute little guy for ages, but every time the camera has reached my face, he flies away!

This morning, however, at 7am, armed with both camera and determination, I actually photographed him! They are not the best photos of all time, that’s a certainty, but at least they are proof that I’m not hallucinating!

I’ve noticed that all the photos I take in the early morning and also later in the afternoon have a fuzzy look to them, so just to satisfy myself that the light of the day can make a huge difference to the quality of a photo, I took another photo of the same place, same zoom, but at 1pm this afternoon.

Bring Mrs Duck with you next time. Midday would suit me just fine!

The result? Much clearer, and far more vivid in colour.

Now, if the duck will just make a visit around midday, my camera will be waiting. Hey, I’ll even invite his lady friend! 🙂

Australia · Changes · gratitude · happiness · summer · Tweed Valley · vision

Sunrise Through the Misty Morning

February 4, 2012 Joanne4 Comments

“In the morning, everything is new.
The day’s blank slate lies before me,
ready for my writing.
May it be words of beauty I write.
May it be deeds of grace I do.
May it be thoughts of joy I think….
As I go through the day,
keep my eyes open wide.
May I not miss beauty.
May I not miss joy.
May I not miss wonder.
Keep me awake and aware of the world.
It is my privilege to perform my morning prayers.
It is my honor to do what should be done.
As I rise with the morning, fog lifting slowly for my mind,
I pray not to forget these truths”. ~ Ceisiwr Serith

Usually at this time of year the heat of the day is so intense that working, or any chore carried out, even one as simple as walking to the kitchen for a glass of water can be a major task. Beads of sweat drip down the centre of our backs, forming into tiny streams of water which feel for all the world as if a spider is running along our skin.

Night time brings hardly any relief to the heat of the day. Temperatures may drop by a few degrees, but the humidity remains. Sleeping becomes a problem. Our diet usually consists of meat cooked outdoors on the bar-b-que and dishes of tossed salad. And water. Glass after glass of precious, hydrating liquid.

Psychological relief from the rising temperatures can usually be found by imagining time spent in the snow of the northern hemisphere as I lap up image after image of snow-covered roads, trees and buildings. It helps, temporarily.

This summer has been a different story though. Snow photos from friends and family in the northern reaches of the world are few. Feelings of spiders running down my back are even fewer.

Usually, as the days begin to cool by late March or early April, pockets of mist can settle into the valley below us, forming oceans of mist. These “oceans” can appear at any time throughout the cooler weather, depending on how far the temperatures rise during the day.

This year, here it is, early February, and the misty mornings have already begun. What a delight to behold! The misty mornings are eerie, quiet and magical. And good for the soul.

“When in the fresh mornings I go into my garden before anyone is awake, I go for the time being into perfect happiness.”~ Cecilia Thaxter

Changes · freedom · summer

We are Becoming…..

January 31, 2012 Joanne4 Comments

“You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” ~ Jim Rohn.

The month of January is often a challenge for me, in many ways.

With children home from school for most of the month, it is difficult to find any time to be peaceful, when they have music playing constantly in the house. I look forward to the house becoming quiet for a change, and hearing the sounds of silence yet again.

And there is always the heat issue, including our rainy season in the sub-tropics, which contributes to the humidity. Funnily enough, though, this summer has been unseasonally cool, an unexpected luxury which I am revelling in! While I have expected the heat to arrive I realise, with huge amounts of delight, that with each day of little heat, we move one day closer to autumn, when the weather will become cooler again. Ah…bliss!

None of us has any control over summer school holidays or the weather, so we might as well accept the inevitable and find the pleasure in each moment of every day. We can’t change these things.

It is incredibly easy to find the pleasure behind the noise in the house all day. The noise tells me that my children are still young enough to live at home. I can enjoy their company and they are indeed very good company!

And the warmer days allow myself and the rest of my family the freedom to enjoy our swimming pool, finding relief from the humidity of the days.

What we are becoming, on a personal level, is a matter in which we do have some control over. We have the choice of how we allow the people who we interact with throughout our lives to affect us.

Everyone we meet can, and does, influence our behaviour at the time of our meeting. They may also shape our future thoughts and feelings, unknowingly painting a picture of the person we have become, who we are constantly in the process of becoming.

The month of January has given me the opportunity to ponder the question of who we are becoming, taking my mind off the few days when it has been warm and when I have missed my solitude, and it is with much pleasure that I have written these thoughts in my article at the Calm Space this month, “An Infinite Work of Art ~ You”.

gratitude · happiness · inspiration · son · Tweed Valley

As the Day Winds Down…

December 12, 2011 Joanne8 Comments

I’ve been parousing my photos this afternoon, looking for a particular series taken in May of this year, to add to Facebook.

However…I’m easily distracted!

Instead, I have come across another series of photos, taken not so long ago, which I think are really good. Not that I’m any kind of photographic expert, but I do believe that if you see something special in a photo, chances are, someone else out there may also appreciate it.

So, why not share?

My husband and son were still hard at it, killing weeds and mowing the lawn; my contribution to their efforts was to take their photo!

Don’t the leaves of the trees looks beautiful against the sky? One of my favourite photos to take is at the time of day when the sun decides to peer through the branches and leaves of the trees foliage, so sparkly and pretty.

Back now to the original task…Facebook awaits. 🙂

Australia · old house · Tweed Valley

The Grounds around “Lisnagar”

October 12, 2011 Joanne4 Comments

Today I will continue with part two of my “Lisnagar” story. If you missed part one, where I showed some photographs of the house itself, you can see it here.

The old homestead of “Lisnagar” is in the quiet country village of Kynnumboon, on the banks of the Rous River. The home itself appears upon entering to be “the house that time forgot” and the very same can be said for the surrounding grounds.

Various farming implements and carts once drawn into town by draught horses are dotted throughout the property, unused, weeds growing through any crevices where they can manage to find light.

The old garden shed would have likely seen many days of hard toil, perhaps carried out by Edward Twohill himself, the Irish immigrant who built the homestead in the early years of last century, to house himself, his wife and their large family.

The look and size of some of the trees within the grounds would suggest that they were already on the land when Edward chose the property for his future home. Perhaps Edward planted some of these large trees himself. Who knows?

Nowadays, this tree provides shelter for farming equipment which has long since passed its used by date. I wonder whether the Twohill children and their friends once climbed this tree, back in the glory days of “Lisnagar”.

Edward Twohill was one of the early settlers in the Tweed area. He is also the great-great grandfather of my children. I don’t think any of my children realise just how fortunate they all are, knowing that this property was built and owned by one of their ancestors, but one day they will, when they have children of their own to show the house to.

Here at “Lisnagar”, my children have the opportunity to not only know who their ancestors were, but to see how they lived, walk inside the rooms of the home they once called home and catch a glimpse of how their lives may have been.

I can imagine it must be quite some experience to know you are walking along the same roads, through the same grounds, that your own ancestors once walked upon!

I know there was one area of the grounds that both of my girls got a kick out of seeing and being in, but that story will have to wait until tomorrow. 🙂

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

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