A walk from Lewisham to Dulwich Hill and back today provided plenty of photo opportunities. I couldn’t resist cherry blossom against a deep blue sky.
The magnolia blooms in the garden have begun to open, capturing images of them is becoming an obsession.
Paperwork
Yesterday trickled like water through my fingers. Our first job was to set up the dining table; the perfect surface to get everything together for the annual tax return. We sorted 12 months worth of receipts into categories ready for data entry and then the motivation to complete the task evaporated.
Spring’s just around the corner
Already the flowers on west facing magnolias are changing from magenta to pale pink while some maple trees haven’t fully shaken off their leaves from last year. Early flowing jasmine buds, tinged with pink look ready to set loose waves of intoxicating fragrance upon the streets of Sydney.
The beautiful blue skied sunny day typical for Winter in Sydney could not be wasted by staying indoors. Following a couple of false starts we walked with Stan from Lewisham, through the suburbs of Petersham, Stanmore, Newtown and Erskineville. We stopped briefly at parks and trees for Stan to mark and connect with our route.
Relief from the dusty road
After walking for five kilometres we were ready for lunch at Bitton, a French inspired cafe in Alexandria. An outside table and a bottle of Baron Edmond de Rothschild Les Laurets, Puisseguin-Saint-Emilion were the perfect accompaniment to slow roasted pork shoulder with fennel slaw and a salmon burger. We did not really need the bread and pudding with sauce Anglaise or rhubarb tart, but it is still Winter after all!
Following lunch it took just over one hour to walk home through Erskineville, Newtown, Marrickville and Petersham. An afternoon nap and the satisfaction of a ten kilometres round trip were the perfect tonic to ease my hot feet.
View toward Erskineville from Bitton Cafe.
Your post ties in beautifully to my most recent one on theINFP thank you
This part of Ireland has quite a lot of interesting early Christian remains, so last weekend I visited the ruins of the monastic settlement in Castledermot. It is a site which is left somewhat untended, so that the crosses and tombs have a certain craggy beauty in a natural setting. Rough stones, some seeming unfinished. And yet, unfinished or ongoing does not mean “not right”, much as we tend to prefer tidyness and a clear direction or order. We often think we have to be the finished product, or have everything resolved and clear, so that other people will give us the feedback that we are doing OK. Seeing this “lack of completion” reminded me of these words from Jung – which echo the idea from Pema Chodren posted last Friday. We never really arrive at “perfection” (even though the mind thinks in terms of it) but rather at…
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Order – disorder
I’m a contradiction! My mind works in a seemingly disorganised way; thoughts come and go, they may or not connect with each other. In contrast when writing my electronic journal I know that it’s unnecessary to order tags yet I conscientiously do so.
Similarly I read the same notices and signs over and over again, day after day – a behaviour that seems to border on being obsessive-compulsive. Perhaps it’s a hangover from my school days when my name, class and date had to be written in a certain way, in a particular place on a page.
Creative constraint
I find creating things a challenge because I have difficulty letting myself go. I work according to many self imposed rules – colouring within the lines! Having said this I don’t possess the accuracy or patience needed for technical drawing or graphic design.
I exist in a state of limbo where nothing I create is quite good enough. As you can imagine self doubt and not being able to live up to my self imposed standards knocks my self confidence.
As I don’t have the benefit of self approval, I seek feedback from others. I know from experience that I don’t react well to negative criticism, what a predicament!
As part of the July Bloggers For Peace challenge Rarasaur made and sent friendship bracelets all over the World. I am proudly modelling my bracelet. It arrived with a hand written note to my home in Sydney, Australia yesterday.
Thank you Rara,
Robert x
I am not the ‘I’ I was,
Nor the ‘I’ I shall become,
I am,
Now,
Present,
Only in this moment.
Thoughts of health and work fill every moment;
I think that I’ve strayed so far from the track.
Days of confusion and discontentment;
I believe that I won’t find my way back.
A chorus of raucous cockatoos squark,
In reply to my thoughts as they fly by.
Walk in urban sprawl that pretends to talk
Of civilisation; a dot, a lie
In the wilderness within and around,
Terra Australis my chosen home found.
Walk home at dusk as showers start.
Tree shape standing against rose-pink sky, shifts;
Reminds me of micro-macro tension.
The shroud of fog that clouds my vision lifts,
Providing a glimpse of comprehension;
Explore the Universe within my heart!
For as long as I can remember I have felt a yearning to create. Conforming to the expectations of society led me to follow predictable jobs and safe paths. I directed my creative talents to cooking and cake decorating. As my confidence grew I branched out into painting and photography. More recently I have begun to write poetry. When it comes to my creations I am my harshest critic so I need objective feedback from others. I am going to share with you the steps I followed to engage critics of my work.
Creative path
I began my writing journey by creating an annual newsletter to let friends and family in the UK know what life was like in Australia. As my circle of friends in Australia grew I tried to keep in touch everyone using Facebook. I quickly realised that this was great for keeping track of photos but not much use for written work.
Next I tried Twitter, this has a much wider target group, but the 140 characters length of tweets proved even more limiting. I found salvation in the form of blogging – I signed up for an account with WordPress in September 2012. I belong to a virtual family in the blogosphere. Over 350 people around the world follow my blog. As my posts feed into Facebook and Twitter the exposure of the blog has grown to 1,925 directly linked people plus anyone else who stumbles across it while surfing the web.
No looking back
I have stopped reading the daily news, preferring instead to spend time catching up with the 500+ blogs I follow. I ‘like’, ‘comment’, ‘reblog’ and ‘ping back’ to posts that inspire me. So far I have found blogging to be the best platform for me to share my creative thoughts. Reaching an unbiased audience who is willing to provide constructive criticism helps me to grow, to improve and provides an opportunity to connect with others around the world.
Thank you for reading my blog,
Robert
theINFP 