Allowing time to sit in my winter garden

One of my favourite poems as a teenager in high school was this one by TS Eliot. The words easily conjure up the pictures in my mind. See if you can see the pictures too.

Prelude

The winter evening settles down
With smells of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots;
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

I can't bring you images of gusty showers, chimney-pots, and lonely cab-horses, but I can bring you withered leaves and a few images from my winter garden. 

A month or so I blogged about life running too fast - Is life running too fast?
and I must tell you that life hasn't slowed down since then, if anything it has sped up even more. Amongst a full day yesterday of a couple of hours paid work, a quick visit to my writer's group, a meeting with a care agency, and dance class, I took time out to visit my dear artist friend who is an alternative therapist.... no I am no sick, I just needed time out. What came out of it all is that I need to give myself permission to let go of what does not work for me anymore and to not feel I have to be everything for everyone. That I have a choice about what I take on. When I left my job in April, I relished the idea of having time to contemplate who I was, what I wanted, and to start along the creative path that I wanted to go. But since then I have had people clamoring from all different angles for my time and energy, which is actually taking me away from what I want to do. It feels a little self-indulgent and selfish, but I need to give my self permission to say no, to only do what works for me, to be who I want to be, to take much needed time out to sit in my garden and nurture who I am. Then I will be a much happier person.

So today I bring you time out in my winter garden..... enjoy! 

 On my way home from seeing my friend I stopped for a short while at Crooked Brook Reserve in the Ferguson Valley.  It is a lovely place for a walk in spring when the wildflowers are out.  I found that the Prickly Hakeas have started to bloom. I love the way the leaves are wrapped around the stem and the flowers nestled in each leaf.

Bring on the rain.
It's been a strange winter. We don't have snow in my corner of the world, but we haven't had any where near the amount of rain we should have had by this stage. I hope we get some soon. Our farmers are in desperate need of it.

I blogged last week about our stay at Wooleen Station on the Murchison River. (please go to the link if  you missed it -  Camping at Wooleen Station) 
It rained the night before we left, and in the morning we had to pack up in the rain. All our canvas was wet and so were we. The track was awash with water on the way out turning it to red mud and the Murchison River was flowing over the cement crossing. In the pics below you can see the sign which shows the 2006 flood levels. This is an amazing amount of water when you consider it is flat country around here.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return.
I hope you make time for yourself and let go of what is not useful to you anymore - you don't need it. Be happy and have a wonderful week.

 I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday
Travel Photo Mondays
Our World Tuesday
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global

Agent Mystery Case
What's It Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday