Grains of Sand on a Small Dark Nose

My small dog, Snoopy. Little treasure. When does that thing happen, when you look at their little face, and suddenly it has started to look old? I think it’s the grey eyebrows. Can’t pinpoint when they “turned”. Such a dear little face, little grains of sand stuck to his nose. Very happy because (a) he’s at the beach and (b) he’s at the beach with his Mama.

We can learn SO much from dogs. It really is the little things that make them happy. They truly don’t ask for much. Just to be loved. A simple beach walk. A gentle touch from a loved one. So easy. So special.

Metamorphosis

I think about myself quite alot.  Comes from living alone I guess.  The fact that I manage to confuse myself about me, may well contribute to my 2 failed marriages.  If I can’t understand me, how the hell is anyone else supposed to?

As a child, I went through a lion’s share of disturbing experiences, that in some people, I guess, would have contributed to their total down fall.  Through school I was shy, very shy, would never put up my hand in class, or draw attention to myself.  If anyone hurt or upset me, I would run and hide rather than stand up for myself.  As I grew older, that personality trait didn’t disappear, it merely camouflaged itself better.  The thing is, the me that I know now, is almost the complete flip side of that person.  If my friends or family were to describe me, they would say I am a total extrovert, always happy, laughing, making people laugh, outgoing, outrageous, confident, can talk to anyone about anything etc etc.

My head is wondering, when did this change take place?  Sure, there’s still a little bit of shy left in me, but generally it’s hidden pretty deep.  How does this one person (me) go from one extreme to the other so completely?  That old saying “a leopard can’t change it’s spots” didn’t apply to me.  I am pretty thankful that I have changed.  So dramatically.  I would have ended up being a recluse otherwise I think.  Anyway, I don’t really know where I’m going with this conversation, just trying to analyse feelings, emotions, headspace I guess.  The workings of the human mind fascinate me incredibly.  I’m an over-thinker.  That just occurred to me.  Why do your fears and worries seem a gazillion times worse at 2 o’clock in the morning?  Why do your problems feel insurmountable then, when the light of day makes it all so much more manageable? I had a song going through my head at 2 am, “The night they drove old dixie down”.  It ran over and over in my head.  No matter what I tried, I couldn’t shut it up.  “You can’t raise the cane back up, when it’s in the field”. That particular line really stuck.  Was my subconscious trying to tell me something?  Let go this life situation that you want desperately to work out, but that you can’t change?  Let it go and move on?  No matter what the cost and the pain?  Hell, who needs therapy.  I can therapise myself!  Yeah, sorry, I made that word up.  Crazy like a fox.  Sometimes it just fits 🙂

Hello Doggie

I’m a bit of a weird girl really I think, although perhaps I would be kinder to myself to say I’m “quirky”. I have the ability to be pleased and excited about small things in life, and some little things give me joy for no expected reason.

When I drive to work, I pass the “Total Span” building, they manufacture sheds and stuff like that. Anyway, their mascot is a big tin dog and parked outside their building, is said big tin dog sitting on a trailer. He is probably around 6 foot tall, and one day as I was driving, I saw him being towed along on his trailer behind a car. I nearly crashed in my excitement at seeing him. So every morning as I would go past him parked outside the building, I would say out loud “Hello Doggie”.

Then Christmas / New Year came. Doggie went away and I did not see him for weeks. I missed seeing his goofy tin smile every morning. I got unreasonably excited a week ago to drive past and see him once more on guard duty outside his work. So this morning I decided to stop and take his picture. He’s a fine looking canine with a very friendly face. I love him. 🙂

Birthday Treats

Do you ever have that thing happen where you are out doing pretend shopping (aka browsing) and you find ten hundred things you want to buy, but don’t have the $ to buy them with? But then when you DO have some $ to spend, you can’t think of one thing to spend it on?

Well, I’m going to be a birthday girl tomorrow, and somebody who loves me like the whole world, has given me $ to buy myself treats for my special day. It is a nice chubby substantial bit of money which is very yummy, but do you think I can think what I want to spend it on??

I know that I DO want to spend it on something special, something that I can keep forever, so that rules out anything edible, or perfume, or clothing, or beauty treatments, or bubbly wine, although I do love all those things. So I’m thinking a compromise is a good idea. There is a pair of super bright pink Skechers that I have been lusting after for several months and also a gorgeous Elie Saab perfume that the tester thereof made me smell like a million dollars, AND also a beautiful bright and gorgeous crazy spring time dress which will make me feel like I look a million dollars.

So, here my friends is the compromise, I spend some $ on something biggish and furnitureyish that I can add to my small but growing collection of “all my own” furniture, and then spend the rest on the above forementioned more fleeting type of lovelies.

Yup, thanks for your help guys, that’s what I’m gonna do. Yay, that’s a whole bunch of birthday happiness just in that blog hey? 🙂

Life’s Passion – Where are you???

This question has troubled me my whole life long. You know the children, at primary school, saying “I want to be a fireman, or a ballerina, or a cook, or a teacher, or a painter, a dancer, banker” whatever. Well, I was never one of those. I just wanted to grow up and be happy.

Childhood was not a particularly safe or happy place. Peace of mind and ambition or success didn’t really feature there. Just aiming to be happy seemed like a good plan. And it seemed that as I mosied my way along through life, there didn’t seem to be any particular thing that I excelled at. I did ballet, gymnastics, played violin, viola, piano, running sports, athletics etc. I was “good” at all of them, but not “excellent” at any of them. None of them was a passion for me.

My working life involved much in the way of executive secretarial work, all of which I was highly efficient at, but hey, it was just a job. When my 3 beautiful children came along, they WERE my passion, and still are, even though they are grown and need me only a little and only sometimes. The sun shines out of them, and my mother’s pride of them knows no bounds.

So, now at 48 years old, I’m still trying to be passionately good at something. I have not found a talent that I am so good at that I can call it a passion. I love to garden, passionately, it’s more of a hobby though and not an “occupation”. Flowers nurture my soul, tending my plants, loving and growing them. Colours, rich and exciting, soft, delicate and pretty.

I love to talk, that’s probably a passion, and I do talk alot in my current job, but still, not really a talent. I love to make people laugh and feel good, still not a definable passion/talent. So… where does this leave me?

Waiting for that gorgeous man, custom built just for me, that doesn’t need any tweaking to fit in with who I am. Who can love, adore and desire me madly, just how I am and I in return. My big question is “what if my life’s passion is not a some thing, but a some one”? Because I think that it might be. People without passion bore me. I’m sorry that sounds really superior, but it’s true. Boring people terrify me, because I’m terrified of becoming one. I have to be loud, over the top, in your face, cuddling you close, making you laugh, teasing you mercilessly, gazing intently at you. Watching you talk, asking you questions, millions of questions. I’m curiouser than any cat, inquisitive.

PASSION – even the word is beautiful. Sexy even. Righto Mr Life’s Passion – that’s your cue to walk on in the door!!

Quiet Happiness

This little bit of quiet happiness happened on my coffee table last night. The roses are blooming early and vigorously this Spring. Yesterday’s weather was crazy like a basket-full of kittens! The sky was a glowering black most of the morning, thunder rumbled around for hours, heavy rain, and then sunshine. The humidity jumped up and warm damp took over.

The gardens are looking very lush and the roses are beside themselves with spring fever.

As I was sitting on the sofa last night, my eyes were appreciating the beautiful bowl of roses I had picked in the early afternoon, my happy fairy lights twinkled in the background, and my vanilla candle scented the room along with the roses. It just looked so pretty that I wanted to share it with you. Here I am, doing that thing again, working on finding happiness in the small things in life 🙂

Yellow – One day this colour will change the world!

Wikipedia says that Yellow is ” is commonly associated with gold, wealth, sunshine, reason, optimism and pleasure, but also with cowardice, envy, jealousy and betrayal. It plays an important part in Asian culture, particularly in China (personally I don’t believe the bit about the bad associations….).

Simply put, yellow is the color the eye sees when it looks at light with a wavelength between 570 and 590 nanometers, the wavelength of light between green and orange.

In the language of optics, yellow is the evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M (long and medium wavelength) cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S (short-wavelength) cone cells.[12] Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green. Yellow’s traditional RYB complementary color is purple, violet, or indigo, while its colorimetrically defined complementary color in both RGB and CMYK color spaces is blue.

Who knew that my favourite colour in the world was worthy of such a lengthy, technical and wordy description?

Yellow has been my favourite colour forever. I find it impossible to look at the warmth and happiness of yellow without feeling just a little bit better about life. Tragically I am unable to wear the colour yellow as it makes me look insipid and scary. This is a matter of some distress to me. However, I compensate by planting plenty of yellow in my garden, hence my pic of these beautiful yellow daisies. Cheerfulness in a pot.

Yellow has to be the right yellow. Not a cold bluey yellow, or a sickly mustard yellow, but bright and clear like a canary or a daffodil. Yeah, that’s the way to rock yellow.

So next time you are feeling a little blue, expose yourself to a little yellow colour therapy. See if it doesn’t just make your day that tiny bit brighter 🙂 ♥

Do you see this beautiful thing?

This, is the “first of the morning” cup of tea. It is a thing of beauty and delight. Sometimes it’s the first of several, sometimes it stands alone in the day, as one loving friend might. That first sip, savoured slowly. The subtle taste of the bergamot. Hmmm, love in a cup.

I only drink one kind of tea. Twinings – Early Grey. Stirred, not shaken. And I can only drink it in one kind of receptacle – a fine bone china cup. Anything else just feels wrong, wrong wrong, and the tea just does not taste the same. The delicacy of the rim of a fine bone china cup just matches to perfection with the fragrance of my tea.

I have only a couple of such special cups, this particular one is my bestest favourite, bought for me by my wonderful 80 year old mummy when we went on a holiday to the Gold Coast, Australia recently.

So, happiness comes in all shapes and sizes, but this is the happiness that starts of my day.

Joyful George

This is Joyful George. He’s a lovely little Thrush that lives in my yard, Every morning without fail he is seranading the entire world from the heights of the tallest tree. He sings, he warbles, trills, chirps non-stop for hours. Then returns at dusk to do it all again. He doesn’t just sing, he sings with all his tiny heart. Usually his little beak is pointed entirely skyward, as open as it can get.

I’m trying to figure out if he is romancing the love of his life, OR trying to find himself a harem of hot chicks. He’s happy beyond belief! What woman could resist that!

I’ve learned from Joyful George that it is possible to find something lovely in every day (no matter how small it may seem) and each morning when I wake to hear him, I send up a silent thanks that it’s such a beautiful way to start the day.

🙂

Spring has sprung !

As only a spring blossom can do, I defy anyone to not feel their spirit lifted by the sight of these beauties. Spring has definately sprung in the southern hemisphere, blossoms are everywhere, grass is lush and green, and the birds are happier than ever.

Not sure how to define what it is about Spring that infuses that extra bit of hope and belief into our hearts, but it’s really like a miracle drug. Even big problems feel just that little tiny bit lighter when viewed under the gentle warmth of the Spring sun.

Chocolate also helps with that…..

Just say’n 🙂