Photography

Bizarre dream

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Flowers in the front garden

On Monday morning, I awoke remembering a conversation I was having with a girl, the top of whose skull had been removed leaving the exposed brain covered with a layer of soil. There were flowers growing out of the soil.

I had been chatting with her about my physical limitations, coming to the conclusion my reduced capacity rendered me next to useless. I wonder what if anything the dream means.

During a trip to Bunnings at lunchtime on the same day, I realised my incapacity.

I had forgotten all about being able to take a midday dose of paracetamol for osteoarthritis.

The walk from the car park to the entrance, right to the garden section, left to the trade desk and centre to pay rendered my right leg stiff and barely at a shuffling pace. It had been so long since visiting this hardware superstore, I had not even considered the distances involved.

After knocking over a small display of liquid fertiliser bottles with the trolley, I was attempting to steer, I avoided looking at peoples faces.

Thankfully my husband managed logistics by moving a lawnmower, two 65 Lt. bags of potting compost, and a 4m length of cable ducting onto two trolleys and in and out of the car.

Stan and the flamingo’s new habitat

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For the last week, my husband has been rabidly unpacking boxes. He says it’s like Christmas because of my eccentric packing method and my failure in detailing all contents, resulting in oddities appearing amongst the expected.

Since moving in day, we have mostly had unseasonably warm days and blue skies. Australia’s March temperature records has been broken amidst reports of a delayed end to Summer.

Stan, our almost thirteen year old, fur baby, foodle is thoroughly enjoying being able to play fetch in the backyard as this blurry snapshot shows.

The commute to work takes about 60 minutes door to door. As I’m able to work half the time from home, only two days this week.

April is a great month because we have three public holidays. More time to enjoy our new home.!

Round mirror

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Living room

I am both short and long sighted. My spectacles get in the way when shaving, so I have to get close to the mirror. The one over the sink is too far away, providing only an impression of my face.

For the last four and a half years a round ivory coloured flower relief mirror has hung on the ensuite bathroom wall. It was useful when shaving the right side of my face whilst I faced the window.

Every time I stand up in there, the view straight ahead is so embedded in my brain, I experience a shock that I do not see a reflection of my head, shoulders, upper torso; only a painted wall.

I do not know where the bubble wrapped beauty is hiding in our ever evolving ware house.

Belated Shrove Tuesday post

/ Robert / 2 Comments

Growing up in the UK, we always had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. It was a big deal, celebrated at home and at school. I have vague memories of pancake tossing (as in flipping) races.

In our household, it was a token nod to the eating of vice-ridden food stuffs before giving them up for Lent, a forty day period of fasting before Easter.

The pancake batter was the same recipe as for Yorkshire Pudding; eggs, milk, water, flour. We had one large sized frying pan, the resulting pancakes were thin, lightly toasted deliciousness served sprinkled with lemon juice and granulated sugar.

Throughout our thirty years together, my husband and I have infrequently enjoyed pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. This year my husband surprised me with Donna Hay Vanilla Bean Pancake mix in a neat plastic container.

Shake the vessel. Add a beaten egg to the dry ingredients along with melted butter and milk. Shake until a smooth batter emerges.

The mixture yields eight 12 mm diameter sweet, fluffy, American style pancakes. Personally, I like vanilla in moderation and prefer savoury over sweet foods. We were disappointed because they were not the pancakes of our childhood memories.

The photo has nothing to do with Shrove Tuesday or pancakes. It is a record of a mad day when we bleached and died my hair. My resourceful husband made the horns from a cornflakes packet

Guilty

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Old master sky blue

This morning, I awoke with a start. In my sleep, I dreamt of staying in a house with a pool. It had been snowing, the pool appeared to be frozen.

I hobbled outside to test my weight on the ice. Of course it was thin, sinking into remarkably warm water, I swam around, fully clothed.

At length, I emerged and returned to the house. The dripping wet silver grey tracky dacks seemed to have dried, no squelching was observed.

In the kitchen diner, people who appeared familiar were busying themselves in assembling a fruit platter to accompany hot beverages.

My mother stood in the living room folding clean washing. ‘These are yours, Rob’, she said, indicating white socks with orange heels and toes.

After undressing, I stood in front of two wardrobes, the right was assigned to my brother. The left contained pressed, white cotton, long sleeved shirts on wooden hangers. Below three lidded boxes lay on their sides.

Whilst pulling the left one out, a memory flashed through my mind. I had spent $8k+ on three pairs of shoes. It was a buy now pay later deal. What will my husband say when I tell him? The cost would have to be covered from the proceeds of the house sale!

Feeling guilty, I gingerly, removed the white lid. Inside nestled a pair of highly polished, walnut coloured, round toed loafers. The soles extended about 5 mm all around. Disconcertedly noting no tissue paper protected them from scuffing in the box, I removed the shoe tree and put on the left one. The softest most comfortable Italian leather enveloped my foot.

A price sticker inside the right advertised $2399.99. I held my breath as I carefully put them away. A red sale sticker, I had not previously noticed, declared ‘reduced $1499.99’, not so bad, gulp.

The middle graphite box contained boxer style boots in old master sky blue, kid leather with graphite laces.

Awaking, I felt thankful it was a dream.

It’s official

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A few days before the deadline, the finance was confirmed; relief. Now we can finish packing up the household and ticking off our to do lists.

In around five weeks we will have moved into our new single storey three bedroom home on a 686 m2 sized block of land. Sporting forty solar panels, we can easily add a rainwater harvesting system.

There is space enough and northwest facing back/side garden for growing veggies, herbs, and fruit plus a covered outdoor area and room for a pool.

Liking resort style living, this property has the potential for us to make adjustments to suit our inside/outside lifestyle.

It differs from the Palm Springs mid-century modern I had in mind we were looking for.

I find it amusing to think we will be ninety when the mortgage is due to be paid off.

Omne trium perfectum

/ Robert / 1 Comment

Latin for the rule of three; my husband’s favourite number.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Home
Unusually for a Tuesday, I am taking a day’s leave. Our original plans have changed and there is a forecast for thunder storms.

We sold our house at the first open inspection, to a cash buyer. We arranged for a 60 days settlement period to allow time to find a new place. The weekend after the sale, we found a ‘late mid century modern’ (1980) house to buy.

In line with the terms of contract the building and pest inspection condition has been ticked off, only the finance approval to go. Fingers crossed this will occur by the end of the week.

Health
This morning, we walked to one of the local supermarkets to buy supplies so that we could have scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

By the time we arrived at Morningside Plaza the recently diagnosed osteoarthritis in my right hip had slowed me down to a snail’s pace.

Knowing exactly where to find our loaf of choice, I headed to the bakery counter. A burly baker asked me if he could help me. I pointed to the racks of loaves behind him, requesting a white, sourdough Vienna. I thought he asked if I wanted ‘normal’ or ‘finest’.

At times my slight bilateral hearing loss leaves me unsure, so I said, ‘sorry?’ An equally proportioned woman sporting curly burgundy coloured hair flattened by an oversized dark brown hairnet shouted back, ‘HE SAID, NORMAL OR FINEST!’ She then went back to wiping down the stainless steel surfaces.

My ‘finest’ loaf was bagged and labelled after I refused the offer of it being sliced.

Hubris
I exited the store into the shopping centre. While mulling over the fact I usually purchase discounted bread at the end of the day off the shelf without the need to interact with dubious assistants, I was confronted with a supersized picture of a tabby entitled ‘how’s your health’. Cogetating for a second or two, I thought there’s no vet in here. Then I saw ‘sugaring’ and ‘waxing’, I guessed the ad was related to beauty treatments.

Convinced others are seeing me as some sort of elderly idiot, I am now frightened my brain may be slowing down; quelle horreur!

Eight aitch words

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On Thursday, I used two words, I seldom, if ever use, haywire and hullabaloo.

The former in relation to my new work laptop connecting to a landscape, wide screen monitor, after I returned from lunch. The mesmerising resizing action of Google Chrome browser and Microsoft Outlook windows appeared completely out of control.

The latter when describing havoc related incidents at large scale events.

Being the eighth* letter of the alphabet, I’m surprised I haven’t thought more about aitches.

Havelock was my grand father’s middle name. According to https://www.meaningofthename.com/havelock, it has Norse ancestry meaning sea battler and from the Germanic elf warrior; olive tree.

Haphazard, our reality while in limbo. Could also be used to describe the seemingly random posts on this blog.

Heart, home, hearth; an oasis of warmth, caring, and kindred spirit.

Homo; the same.

* read more https://theinfp.com/2022/10/30/numerology/

Amber Gambler

/ Robert / 4 Comments

My husband exclaimed, ‘don’t they know what amber means!’ as we encountered a second car speed through another set of traffic lights.

Another Amber Gambler*!

It was late afternoon on Monday, we were returning with a lime green, lemongrass zest fragrant candle from Dusk candle and homewares store. The advertising boasts ‘A refreshing mix of aromatic lemongrass, zingy citrus fruits and verbena for an exotic, uplifting fragrance. ‘ Close up my husband says it smells like creosote. Luckily when caught on a waft it smells devine.

This is the chosen aroma for our open house scheduled for Saturday morning from 8:45 am. Our home is officially on the market!

Fingers crossed the sale will be the green light for us to move on to the next chapter of our antipodean adventure.

*According to Wikipedia, ‘Amber Gambler is a metaphorical phrase and the title of a British public information film from the 1970s, about the dangers of speeding through traffic lights before the amber changes to red “when there is ample time to stop”, or in advance of it turning to green.