In Life It Is Important To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”  

Stephen Covey

I have spent most of my life doing a myriad of things and not doing any of them particularly well. I love all sorts of art amd craft. I love writing. I love cooking. I love gardening. I start a lot of things and never finish them.


I spent a lot of my adult years wondering why it was so hard for me to get  some things done. If it wasn't something I was particularly interested in, like housework, it seemed to take me for ever and just never seemed to get finished. Other people seemed to have immaculate houses and no matter what I did I just couldn't seem achieve it. When I was 40 I saw a psychiatrist and I began to understand why I had such a problem. I suffer from adult ADHD without so much of the hyperactivity (unfortunately. I would like a bit more 'get up and go'). I now take medication for adult attention deficit disorder.


Over the years I have created all sorts of systems to try and get things done and still believe one day I will find the right system and things will fall into place.

I have been trying to follow Stehen Covey's suggestion and choose the main things in areas of my life and work on getting these done this week.



Writing
I have been writing for Medium so I plan to write one article at a time and not bits of many.

Gardening
This week in the garden I will plant seeds for coriander in my herb patch.

House Cleaning
My hall is a bit of a dumping ground for all sorts of things so this week I plan to make it immaculate.


One thing I have found is that I need to write things down and stick to working on these - not get sidetracked.  Writing things down and crossing them off helps me organise things.

Of course the really important things in my life are my Christian faith, my partner, and my family.  They always take precedence. But after that I will just aim at these 3 things in the next couple of days and anything else is a bonus.

                                                               ...🌝🌝🌝...


A new granddaughter.

There is a beautiful, new granddaughter in our lives. Genevieve Rose. She is 8 weeks old and just starting to put on weight. She is grandchild number 8 and granddaughter number 7.

Tulips at Bowral

We visited the tulips on the mountain at Bowral which is located a 90-minute drive southwest of Sydney. The annual Tulip Time festival features over 75,000 tulips planted throughout Bowral's Corbett Gardens and the surrounding Shire. 

We took Mum and had a very enjoyable day.

My Sydney Rock Orchids 

My own Sydney Rock Orchids in my front garden have been putting on a beautiful display. It is a pity they don't flower for longer.

They get absolutely not attention. The other day when i was gardening I fell over right in the middle of them so I am hoping they are not damaged.


The lake

As we took our morning walk around Lake Illawarra we came across this flock of Little Pied Cormorants slowly making its way around the edge of the lake.

 

Rhiannon's art prize

My very talented daughter Rhiannon recently won first prize for $1000 at an art exhibition at the Polish Association in Keiraville, Wollongong.

 

Her work was painted with acrylics on canvas and is entitled Decomposers. We are very proud of her.

Interesting sites


1. Strange collages of buildings

Photo source

 Click here to see the strange collages of Matthais Jung.


2.  The environment effects why some people succeed

Photo source

The environment effects why so few people succeed and others don't. Click here to read why.


3. Esther the Wonder Pig beats cancer

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Click here to read a great story about Esther the Wonder Pig.

 

ONE OF THE GREATEST GIFTS (Jan 2017)

It is always easy to say nothing. Just to let time pass. For we lucky ones there are so many people we could thank for being part of our lives - so many people who make a difference. 

As a teacher it was wonderful to hear from an ex-student I had not seen for 30 years. I was surprised he even remembered me, but then to have him say that I had made a difference to his life when he was 15 because I convinced others not to give up on him, was lovely. I was even more surprised to find that he was a deputy headmaster of a high school! He hated school when he was 15. But no doubt he will understand students who have difficulty with school and I am certain he will make a difference for being in the lives of his students.

It really encourages others to let them know that you appreciate having them in your life or having been in your life.

Decorating

Below is a picture of my table in January 2016. My daughter Rhiannon did the painting about 20 years ago when she was in her teens. There are various other frogs on the table.

Here is my table today in my Scandi-Christmas theme. 

The picture was $6 at the Salvos. (It is actually straight. I have to work on my photography.)The bowl with the balls in it is one Mum bought at a garage sale. The candle sticks are from Vinnies and sprayed silver (as you can see here.)
The table cloths are from Vinnies as well. The little oblong basket, also an op-shop buy, contains a pair of Peter's glasses. The dried flowers are from flowers Peter has bought me over the years. For some reason I always start my decorating with my table. Peter's back is a lot better on a straight chair so we spend most of our time sitting, at the table.

This cricket in my kitchen had been annoying me for days, being very noisy chirping.

He was finally found hiding in a dusty recess in the kitchen. I gently delivered him outside for which I am sure he was most grateful.

(Years ago we had a pet baby water dragon living in a large glass terrarium, and we fed him on crickets bought from the pet shop. The first time I bought the crickets I was unaware that as soon as I took the lid off the box holding them, tiny crickets would leap out like an explosion. I spent days picking up tiny crickets from all over the house. I certainly knew better next time!)



Speaking of my kitchen, it has seen better days. The veneer was painted 13 years ago as a temporary measure, as it was going to be remodelled. But life circumstances meant it is still the same. It looks worse because a utensils rod has fallen down.

One day it will be redone, but meanwhile a coat of flat black, and some white tile paint, like the one below may be a good idea...as well as a new utensils rod.

Photo source

One of my favourite birds is the Superb Fairy wren.
Last week Mum bought me this life size one, which I love.

Craft

Fairy villages in cups are quite popular at the moment. This was my first attempt and needs some refining. (And no...it is not in a cup.)

In the Garden

There is some great fungus growing on some wood on my back deck.

I am a 'fungusphile'. Fungus is beautiful. (Although I am not keen on mould in the fridge or general household mildew.) But the forest and garden have beautiful fungi.

The problem is that the wood is rotting and disintegrating, so it is going to need protection to keep it intact.

Meanwhile, this vine was winding its way up a poor neglected dracaena .

The vine was removed to give the dracaena a fighting chance. 

In October a tree was removed from the front yard and this is how it looked.

This morning I took a photo and this was my garden after Peter has helped me move a lot of mulch.

I have a vision for it now and plan to put some paths in there.

Reading

Today, in my reading travels, I came upon this poem, For Once, Then, Something by Robert Frost. He is an American poet who is one of my favourites. He uses aspects of his surroundings in rural New England as subjects for metaphors on life. In this poem he uses the idea of kneeling over the edge of a well as a metaphor for seeing his real self. I love his imagery.

For Once, Then, Something

Photo source

  

By Robert Frost          

Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs

Always wrong to the light, so never seeing

Deeper down in the well than where the water

Gives me back in a shining surface picture

Me myself in the summer heaven godlike

Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.

Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,

I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,

Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,

Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.

Water came to rebuke the too clear water.

One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple

Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,

Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?

Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something

Frost uses the metaphor of looking into the well to explore the idea of looking into ourselves and seeing ourselves as other see us. I love his use of imagery. I don't think the photo I found quite does it justice.


This rural theme and closeness to nature links with the book I am currently reading - Walden, by Thoreau.

I am enjoying this book but finding it slow going. To put it simply, it is about a man who gives up 'civilised' life for 2 years and builds himself a log cabin by Walden Pond. He lives a very simple life, relying on his own devices to feed and clothe himself. 

The core of his introduction deals with the idea that owning a lot of things such as a big house or farm becomes a millstone around one's neck, and that the idea of abundant living comes through owning less.

I am always interested in these 'sea-change' stories, especially when they are linked to self-sufficiency and making things such as furniture from found objects.

This is one of the reasons I love the film Ring Of Bright Water, made in the 1960's  where the main character goes to a small town on the coast of Scotland to take his otter to live and to become a writer. He relies on what he can find and ingenuity to furnish his house and provide his food. 

Interesting sites


1.

Ballroom at Flinders St Station

Photo source

Flinders Street Station, the busiest railway hub in all of Australia, is home to a decaying beauty of a ballroom, an abandoned leftover from the bygone era of railroad romance. It id about to be refurbished. Click here to read about it.


 2.

Greatest science books of 2016

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Click here to discover the greatest science books of 2016.

3.   

 Self-driving cars are better

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Self-driving cars don't have to be perfect - just better than human driven cars. Click here to read more.

THE DETAILS OF DAILY LIFE (Jan 2017)

“…the true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life…”

-- William Morris, “The Aims of Art,” in The Collected Works of William Morris

I like this quote. It goes to the heart of why I write my blog. I began writing about 5 years ago when I was feeling a bit down and I decided I was going to write about the good things in my life, even if they were just little things - ' the details of daily life.'

 From here I have had trouble with the size of the text. No matter how much I have tried to edit it, it remains the same.

Decorating
My house has been painted blue for the last thirteen years. Blue is my favourite colour but I have decided I want it whiter and brighter.

Click here to visit Apartment Therapy with Janel and see the difference when an old room is painted white.

Peter has painted my back room white and I continue to spray paint furniture and other items white. I rig up a sort of booth on my back deck.

I have discovered that an undercoat of silver paint really seems to help cover cane furniture before giving it a coat of white.

This was a cane table I picked up from the side of the road and sprayed white.

 And this was an old cane set of shelves I had stuffed in a cupboard to store things on.

In the garden

I have a tiny strip of garden where nothing will grow. It bakes in the summer. Even nasturtiums won't grow there. So I decided the plant a few of the agave we potted up on this day.

My talented daughter Rhiannon made these sculptures many years when she was studying art at TAFE. I love them in my garden. (Peter isn't so sure! Although Peter isn't sure about my blog at all!)

I added a few toadstools I bought on special at the Reject Shop.

The lyrebird was back on my deck this morning.

How wonderful to have such a beautiful bird displaying its plumage and going through its repertoire of sounds. So many people I know have never seen a lyrebird.

Craft

This week I made a pink macramé owl from the string builders use.

Unfortunately it has a bit of a nasty look on it's face and two different sized eyes which I did by mistake. I made him to hang around my neck when I tutor. The company I work for asks tutors to wear black and white with hot pink accessories. It actually doesn't look too bad over a black top.

I sort of copied it from this picture, which I lost track of half way through.

I plan to make a bigger, more robust one for my front entrance if I can find the right colour material.

Food

A recipe worth sharing is one I make for lamb and lentil soup. You can omit the lamb and to make it vegan if you wish.

Hearty Lamb and Lentil Soup   Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 onion

2 large carrots

2 cloves garlic sliced

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 450g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 cups of dried soup mix

left over lamb bone from roast

6 cups water

4 teaspoons of stock powder such as Vegeta

Method

1. In a large heavy based pot heat oil.
2. Whiz onions and carrots in food processor (I use a mini) and add to oil, cooking until the onion starts to become translucent.
3. Add garlic and paprika and cook for further 30 seconds
4. Add the tin of tomatoes.
5. Add the soup mix, lamb bone, water and stock powder.
6. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until lentils are tender and soup is rich and thick.
7. Remove lamb bone and take off any remaining meat and chop finely and return to pot.

This freezes well.

Book review

Last week I mentioned moving some shelves and coming across a treasure trove of books, I had either not read for years or not read at all.

Once that caught my eye immediately was The Complete Idiot's Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition.

I will have bought this on line. There is a link in last week's post if you are interested in purchasing it from Booktopia. I will have bought this from Amazon some years ago, but have found the postage has increased too much to buy from there any more.

I am pleased to have come across this again. It gives a wealth of practical information including a section explaining where to obtain specific vitamins and minerals. It also has some useful and simple recipes.

While I still struggle with my weight for various reasons feel it is my plant based diet that keeps my cholesterol at a reasonable level without medication, and also it was replacing cow's milk and other dairy products with with soy milk that helped me sail through menopause without a single symptom. I have absolutely no scientific evidence for this except that soy milk has compounds that can mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. You can read more about that here. But there is an ongoing debate as to whether this is a good or bad thing, especially for men. This book mentions nothing about estrogen.

This book is a wealth of information if you want to start a plant-based diet. 

I do eat fish. This makes me a piscatorian. I also drink cow's milk and will eat other flesh when I am out, so as not to embarrass anyone, including myself. 

 This week I intend to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

 


Don't forget to go to Bean Stuff to see what my daughter and son-in-law are up to.

Interesting Sites

1.

Photo source

Click here to see this horse enjoy playing with a squeaky toy


2.

 2016 Comedy Wildlife Photos

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Click here to see more winners of the 2016 Comedy Wildlife Photos 

3.

 Londond bridge transported to Arizona

 

Photo source

 Click here  to read about London Bridge being transported to Arizona