Picture Perfect
Hosted by the lovely Linda this week
Bob Dylan Concert Santa Barbara 7th September 2008
Once in a Blue Moon, you remember the feel of an evening as
you absorb the music rather than simply hear it
you see someone you know you may never see again
and you share it all with someone who holds part of your soul
one of my faves...
Dear Self,
You are so far behind.. I thought I would write down a few reminders to get you back on track as it were.
Here are a few things I really think you should get done this week:
* get some new gym clothes, to rival those of Buxom Blonde on the treadmill next door (in a different colour so they can tell us apart)
* get new swim goggles, red eyes dont look as fetching as you think they do!
* mail that package that has been sitting in your car all week
* paint the wall in the guest room, the paint is tired of waiting!
* new fabric for cushion
* sand scrape and paint old bench
* get new frames up for sweet-peas
*repaint the Adirondack chairs
* buy an umbrella stand so you can put your brand new gorgeous umbrella up in the backyard, its uv resistent for heavens sakes...so take it out of the garage and put the darn thing up, summers about to happen
* write more..write more often..and actually transfer it to your computer
* get a laptop
* learn to whistle like the girl in isle 5..in tune at a perfect pitch, one never knows when that skill could come in handy
* mail the old audiobook back so you can get a new one for the drive down to LA next week
* change winter sheets for bright summer cotton
* make closet room
* Buy big jar of dill pickles
* work for 6 nights
much love
Me
I didn't go with the popularity poll when it came to choosing the colour of the bench, and I'm not sure what that says about me as a person...(laughs) in fact I chose the least popular!! I did find all your colours in the fabric I chose for the cushions though...yellow..(bright and soft) orange..red...and purple..and even green. Just so no one feels left out or anything...
The area around the pond is filled with pink, purple and white flowering plants and it looks so bright and fresh I may tackle the other garden furniture..but not today..and tomorrows not looking good either...
this is what it looked like yesterday in the evening..after one coat of primer
in the bright morning light...and 2 coats of primer
Today Im scraping off the old paint and sanding down the Blue Bench, priming it..and painting it white...the job is tedious and laborious, its wonderfully warm outside though and with a little help from my friend...
it will soon be all done!
I love the show.
I love the emotional growth and the confidence they all gain as they shed the pounds. After two sessions this week with a personal trainer I am quite sure I wouldn't last a day on that campus! As every muscle of mine aches and joints creak and as the sweat pours off my body, I have total respect for those folk who weigh half a ton and have the stamina and perseverance to take control of their lives and make life long changes. I weep through most of every episode.
Since Jonathan died, my weight and fitness level have fluctuated frequently. My job changes and recent relocation...have all had an effect as they have sapped my energy and reduced my ability to remain motivated and committed to any exercise regime. After twisting my ankle quite badly..twice, a few months ago, my running became too painful and I had to reduce it to walking, then I just seemed to have one cold after the other the rest of the winter, and even walking was a drag!! I hate myself when I'm not exercising, I truly do, the control in other areas of my life tends to slip then too and as we all know misery becomes a vicious cycle.
I'm more of a summer person I must say, I love the feeling of the sun on my back and I don't mind sweating in the least, getting up early on a cold winters day doesn't turn me on much!
So I've been back in the gym, for about 3 weeks now, slowly building up my fitness, I ran on the treadmill for 10 minutes today which caused no pain in my ankle at all, and tomorrow I'm going to mix it up and swim for a bit. I'm sore today though, really achy, hell even laughing is painful.
After my workout this morning I sat in the steam-room for 20 minutes, and as my skin tingled and the sweat dripped, my muscles relaxed and I realized I felt better than I have done in months!
The Picture Perfect theme this week is
'Out of Place'
I found this on a recent visit to Monterey, while walking through the backstreets..
..who would adorn their garden
with works of art
instead of their walls?
My grandfather aquired this piece of kiaat in Swaziland near the tiny village of Piggs Peak where my sister and I grew up, almost 50yrs ago.
My dad fashioned some legs for it and its been in the family ever since. My sister and I grew up playing cards on this table, my children too..and my grandchildren had dinner aound it as it was just the right height from little legs to kneel next to. It has some slight cracks in it now, a few stains and bumps, but generally its weathered beautifully!
We havent played this in forever! It can be very over pretty quickly, remember it only lasts as long as the first correct guess.
If no one seems close..I will offer a hint or two!
Have Fun
Things just pile up during the week I work, and then on days off (unless I plan a trip) I find myself in catch-up mode, housework garden, car, pool, taxes.. a seemingly never ending stream of boring things that just have to be accomplished before I can relax (with any clear conscious and do fun stuff. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom made me eat my veggies first..and then the meat...and then, only then (once a week treat) would we get a healthy helping of bread and butter pudding!!
Suddenly though its all done and I find myself with time to walk the dogs along my favourite paths through the almond orchards and down along the canal, the grass is green under the trees the air and the earth damp, and the deeper one walks the quieter it gets. I let the dogs off their leashes and allow them to run/walk at their own pace.
We had a huge storm this week, lots of good rains but some gale force winds too. I was sad to come across an almond tree which had been blown over, the dogs seemed a bit puzzled by the horizontal lump of wood in their path and Senga ran all the way up the trunk, nose down, just to make sure there weren't any squirrels or lizards lurking!
The canals criss-cross through all of Bakersfield, allowing farmers to irrigate orchards and farms along the way, in dry and dusty, the sides are steep and the water is swift and I am ever mindful of the dogs getting too close..Senga who (was a lab in a previous life) is totally addicted to water, and would love any excuse to jump in. Ducks drift by occasionally and she watches them wistfully, but she is pretty well behaved and responds quickly to my voice each time she ventures near. Hughey plods along behind us, thinking 'all these trees for me to pee on? Must be in doggy heaven!!'
We walk alongside the rushing water as the light flickers and fades across the water, and then we cut back across the orchards with the sun setting behind us, and as I look back it sets neatly between the rows of almonds reminding me of the Manhattan-Henge pictures last year.
Summer brings a lot of changes to my little universe. Maggie and Nev are putting their trip on hold and will be returning to Cali for 6 months. Nev has some business issues which need attending, but most importantly they are getting married on the beach on Catalina Island at the end of May!! I haven't attended a wedding in years, and now I have two in one month, so exciting!! My mum is thrilled but dreading the 1hr crossing by ferry, poor thing, cant blame her!
Blue is staying in La Paz, she will be emptied of all valuable items and then left moored in the marina until fall. They are sad about the change in their travel plans, but so many folk they have spoken to say its very common to spend some time at home in between their sailing trips and I hope that knowledge softens the blow. I think they're worried that the business will keep them at home and off the water for longer than they want to be.
Summer will soon be here, the desert heat will wash over us and we will nonchalantly forget that the cold ever was, hearts will heal, travel plans already made will come to fruition and life will return to the fullness it was meant to have.
I breathe it all in deeply and savour the richness of life..and of love.
Its Picture Perfect time
the theme this week is:
I spy with my little eye..something beginning with 'F'
The view through the misty glass
(taken on automatic setting with my Canon DSL)
A Burst of Sunshine
Every time I visit the Monterey Aquarium I head for the Jellies..Im sure I take the same old pictures everytime, but I experience new joy each time I click...
Picture Perfect ~ sharing the fun!
For us it is a saddening sight - a magnificent bull elephant struck down in his old age.
But for the starving of Zimbabwe, it was little short of a miracle.
The carcass provided a vital source of food, and hundreds of desperate villagers in the Gonarezhou National Park descended on the dead animal within minutes of its discovery.
Using machetes, axes and knives made from tin cans they set upon the six-ton carcass, which was found deep in scrubland.
Fallen giant: The corpse of the bull elephant lies undisturbed in deep scrubland in Gonarezhou National Park
The desperate descend: Within minutes, starving villagers arrive at the carcass
Fights broke out as villagers battled to strip chunks of flesh from the animal and drag them away to feed their families.
It took just one hour and 47 minutes for the 13ft-tall elephant to be reduced to a skeleton. Every part was used for food, even the trunk and ears.
The bones of the 70-year-old animal were taken to boil for soup and within 24 hours nothing was left but a blood-stained patch of earth.
The images are undeniably shocking. But they illustrate the terrible lengths to which Zimbabweans are forced to go just to survive under Robert Mugabe.
Yesterday, the Red Cross warned the situation in the former British colony is 'critical' with 2.17million - one in four of the population - requiring urgent food aid.
Battle begins: Soon, the villagers are fighting to get the urgently-needed meat
Audience: People gather on a hill a short distance away to watch village men get to work
Emma Kundishora, of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, said: 'In some parts of the country, the food situation is as bad as many of our volunteers and staff have ever seen.'
Conditions are expected to deteriorate further this year following the collapse of agriculture caused by President Mugabe's violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms since 2000.
Erratic rain has also damaged crops of corn. Harvests could produce just 500,000-tons this year, less than a third of the amount required to feed the nation.
Photographer David Chancellor said: 'Just after dawn a villager spotted the carcass as he passed on a bicycle.
'It was in the middle of nowhere, but within 15 minutes hundreds of people had arrived from all directions.
Brutally effective: Nothing goes to waste, with the skin, trunk and ears all removed
Starving: Zimbabweans grapple with each other as they set upon the elephant to get meat
Stripped: After less than two hours, only bones remain. Even these will later be taken
