As 2016 comes to a close

Can you believe it is nearly the end of 2016 already? 2016 has flown by so quickly. This is the time of the year for looking back over the past year and planning for the future. We've had a few changes in lifestyle in 2016 as my husband retired at the beginning of the year so there has been lots more time spent enjoying time together - a year of reconnecting for us. 

I hope that 2016 has been good to you. 

This time of year I also take the opportunity to thank you my dear readers, as without you this blog just wouldn't be. You have helped me to continue to write down my thoughts and share my photos, and I hope you have enjoyed what I have shared. I have certainly enjoyed our conversations  and connecting with you through your blogs. 

It is eight years since I tentatively started my blog in July 2008. My posts have evolved over that time and I have made many wonderful connections all over the world. I am grateful for the way blogging has expanded my world.  One benefit of blogging for me is that it has become a diary of sorts for me, a great way for me to document, and look about over, our journeys, activities, special moments and thoughts through my photography and jottings. 

This is the way my blog for this week started last week, but then over the last few days as I went about preparing for Christmas my thoughts went in a different direction as I thought about the people in my life who are going through grief, stress or trauma at the moment.

My friend whose divorce came through a few weeks ago, our neighbour whose husband passed away from cancer on Christmas eve 2015, my brother-in-law whose brother passed away a few months ago, two friend's whose mothers passed away this year, a friend who is caring for her very ill mother in Esperance, a friend who is desperate to reconnect with her daughter if only she knew where she was (please make contact), my blogging friend who recently had encouraging medical reports on her cancer journey, and another blogging friend who has had multiple health issues during the year. 

But there has been joy too for some of these friends welcoming new life into their families.

A shared my poem - The Ghosts of Christmas Past - in my last blog. You can click here if you missed it - Christmas is a time for family

 And I realized that I have much to be grateful for. 

Time spent with our family and two grandsons. We are so lucky to live close to our son and his family so that we can be a part of our grandsons lives as they grow up.  They lost their other grand mother not long before our second grandson was born, and I've always felt her absence in their lives.

My husband and I lost our remaining parents in the latter half of 2014, my father in September 2014 and my mother-in law on 26 December, but since then we have celebrated new life within my sister's family -  the birth of three grandsons, a wedding and another baby on the way.  

I read recently that it is very important for us to mourn, but then turn the page and concentrate on the living and celebrate life. How true these words are.

 
 Time spent with friends. We especially enjoyed a couple of holidays this year with friends at Coral Bay and camping north of Broome. 

Being a part of three vibrant groups through writing with the South Side Quills, photography with the Photography Group of Bunbury, and dancing with the Sol y Sombra Spanish Dance Company. Very different groups, with very different people, and all adding something to my life, skills, outlook and stretching my confidence. 

South Side Quills launched their first anthology in August, and Sol y Sombra won their section of the Eisteddfod in June. 

 The opportunity to travel through our magnificent country. We have had various trips from only a few days to 6 weeks this year. If you go to the INDEX in the top tab, you can go to the links there to read blog posts from our travels. Western Australia is so vast and so varied in landscapes. I feel so lucky to be able to explore it.

The opportunity for personal growth through attending artistic workshops, facilitating photography workshops, portrait shoots for family and friends, and a food photography shoot.  I was very excited when one of my portraits appeared on a cd cover.

Since my retirement I've enjoyed attending various art workshops and trying new things, but I have also had the opportunity to facilitate workshops too - which has tested and added to my confidence. It is amazing what we can achieve if we just take that first step. 

The opportunity to photograph our amazing wildflowers, especially varieties new to me. I am passionate about wildflower photography, and with thousands of varieties in Western Australia, how lucky am I?

Grey Leafed Bottlebrush -Dryandra 2016

 In June I experienced the totally unexpected thrill and excitement of having my wildflower photography noticed by a national magazine - Australian Photography. 

 Health, a comfortable home, a loving and supportive family, learning from others and the opportunity and time to connect, indulge passions, and explore learn new skills and pathways.
 
This blog post has turned out very different to what I had at first intended. I thank you for taking the time to stop by and for being a part of my world.  You can connect to any of my old posts through the side bar or via the INDEX in the tabs at the top of my blog. 

 You might also like to visit my travel blog - Tour Western Australia

kangaroo paws flowering in my summer garden

I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

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

Mosaic Monday 
Life Thru the Lens 

Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Travel Photo Thursday 
The Lovin' Life Team over at Lifestyle Fifty
The Weekly Postcard 
Sky Watch Friday



 

How do we want to be remembered.....

This morning as I write the day is cloudy and threatening rain. I've started to prune my roses and I picked the last three rose buds. My washing is hanging limp on the clothes line and it is unlikely to get dry today, but my orange and lemon trees are looking fabulous offering up their winter bounty. There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh oranges picked from a tree in your own backyard.

 Inside we have had our main living room and bedroom painted, plus all our doors and door frames, and on Wednesday the carpet layer is coming to lay new carpet in those rooms. After thirty years our house needed a lift. We were going to paint when we moved in 20 years ago....oh well, we have finally gotten around to it... no rush. 

In the process of getting ready for the painters and carpet-layers we had to pack up our lifetime of book collecting, photos, pictures, travel collectables, music cds, china and glassware, so we could move cupboards and furniture out of our lounge room. There is furniture and boxes stacked all over the place. Some of the china belonged to my mother and mother-in-law.  As I packed I started to wonder why do we collect all these "things"? Are they what really defines us? 

Are they really important to us? Perhaps in a way what we read, what we collect, what music we listen to, does say something about us. But is this what people will remember?

On Saturday in the West Australian newspaper I read a very tragic story about a well known Western Australian business man who took his own life last year. Sadly he didn't seek help from those that loved him. His wife, son and daughter are still struggling to come to terms with what happened, and they have so many unanswered questions. Their memories of the good times with their husband and father are all they have left to hold on to. I wonder how he wanted to be remembered - by his life and achievements, or will the fact that he ended his own life override all else that was good about him?

I wondered how I would like to be remembered? Will it be for where I worked or the grades I got a school?  I don't think so, so why am I keeping those old school reports? Or the dragon boat racing I did for over 20 years, or the Flamenco I am trying to master right now? Probably not.
I am sure it will not be for the books I read, the things collected on holidays, or the "good" china I have collecting dust in my china cabinet. I've made a pact with myself to not buy any more, and to start using the "good stuff". Why have it if it just sits in a cupboard? I'm also going to sort through my "stuff" as I put it back into my cupboards, and see what there is that has no use to me anymore. I think we need to "clear out" from time to time, don't you? Twenty years in this house, so a clear out is overdue.

Perhaps I would want to be remembered by those I have helped, by those who I may have made some small difference to their lives, to those that I have sympathised with or listened to without judgement. Not given a solution, but just been there to listen when they have needed me.

Perhaps also through the photos I take with my camera, a few of which find their way onto my wall, or into a magazine, but mostly that pile up in files on my computer. In a way my blog is recording some of my life for my family to look back on in later years. But will they?  Last year I started making photo books of our trips away, but will anyone actually look at them or treasure them? Why would "my" memories mean anything to them? Hopefully the shared memories will.

1986 on the Tropic of Capricorn, Western Australia

Shared memories - I think this is how I would want to be remembered, by the good times, and yes the difficult times too, spent together making memories with family, friends, children and grandchildren. Will my grandchildren remember the fun times we spent together, the places we went and the things we did together? Will they remember that we made biscuits together and ate them hot from the oven? I hope so.

It is winter here and the sun is hidden behind the clouds, perhaps the reason for my reflections this morning that I have been tossing around like a piece of old newspaper. It is nearly lunch time. Would you like to stop by for a chat and share a bowl of winter warming soup? You can find the recipe over on my blog post - Winter soup warmers 

I'd love to hear from you in the comments how you would like to be remembered.

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. 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 
Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

Remembering those we have loved

 These beautiful kangaroo paws are flowering in my garden right now in time for Christmas, and I am reminded to take time to see and experience the beauty around us and the joy we can gain from simple things. 

I wish all my dear blogging friends a lovely Christmas season spent in the company of those they love.  Thank you so much for your support this year and for taking the time to stop by and say hi. I really appreciate every one of you. 

A forest of sunflowers

Today I have some creative writing for you - a writing group exercise this week.
My grandmother did have a huge vegetable garden, and there was a man that lived over the lane we used to visit, but I don't remember his name, and I don't remember any sunflowers, so this story is partly true and partly fictional.

A Forest of Sunflowers

There is a forest of sunflowers at the bottom of my grandmother’s garden, up against the back picket fence between the chook pen and the outhouse under the weeping trees.

The sunflowers are so tall that when we stand amongst them we can only just see over the top. We crouch down on the dusty dry red dirt amongst their stiff scratchy stalks. The sunflower heads are so big they form a canopy shading us from the hot sun and casting a yellow glow over us. Sometimes we take a book with us and read it sitting amongst the sunflowers. It’s our secret world where anything is possible.  As we doze in the sun the world of the Faraway Tree comes to life under the sunflowers.

Please click on "read more" to keep reading!

Where I'm From

I belong to a writing group called South Side Quills. I wrote this for our latest assignment.......

Where I’m From

I’m from Jackson and Clayden

From Bilbarin, Corrigin, Kulyaling and Moorumbine

The big kitchen table

And the long back yard at my grandmothers

The outhouse under the weeping trees in the dark

Singing with my sister on the wooden bench under the kitchen window

The gravel footpath.

Gum trees and wheat fields

The cellar under the yard filled with jars of fruit

And the loving embrace of my Aunt.

I’m from Rivervale, Tranby and Belmont

And the inviting smell of a new reading book

The pathway through the bush garden

And a boy named Tony whose father was hanged.

I am from a teacher who frightened me from my sums

Skipping in the playground until the Tranby ship’s bell rang.

And wanting to go to dancing lessons with my Russian friend Anna

With the long name that no-one could spell.

I am from the diesel on my father

And the prickles on his chin

Climbing up to sit beside him in the big tanker truck.

The feel of crushing grapes between my fingers

And the big pot of grape jam on the wood stove.

I’m from the knitting on my mother’s knee

And the treadle sewing machine on the back veranda.

Her singing that filled the house

The pictures that she drew

And listening to her recite Banjo Patterson.

I am from books borrowed from the travelling library van

And sitting on the floor in the cool of the passage way reading on a hot summer’s day.

Running under the sprinkler

And the delicious strawberry nectar of a push up icecream.

The cubbie under the wattle tree

And flying up into the air on the swing on the back shed.

I am from the sound of the milk-cart horse in the early morning

The roar of the cockeyed bob that lifted our roof

Pulling down a Guide tent in the rain while the earthquake cracked!

The front row seat at Oliver Twist and the smiles of the actors just for me.

I am from burnt toast and sloppy cabbage

Lemon meringue pie and Sunday roast

Afternoon tea in a floral tea-set

And buying icecream buckets with my father at the drive-in.

I am from the feel of the hymn book in my gloved hands

As I gaze up at the stained glass of the Wesleyan church

dreaming of my wedding day.

I am from teenage love

And two boys

The eldest unfairly forced to grow up at the age of two

because of a world turned upside down by Down Syndrome

Feeling different because of the label on my forehead that everyone can see.

I am from a life changing accident

Two precious perfect grandsons

The passion of a dragon boat

and selfish stolen moments.

I am from the camera in my hand

And the images and words in my head.

Bush walks and wildflowers and travelling through my country.

And learning too late who I want to be.

I am

By Jill Harrison

September 2011

some more Western Australian wild flowers from our recent trip..........

I'm linking up to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House. To enjoy the work of Mary and other wonderful photographers, please click on the link - Mosaic Monday
I am also linking up to Kim Klassen and her Beyond Layers Course - click here - Beyond Layers

Have a wonderful week. Perhaps you would like to write your own "Where I'm From"

To see more images from our trip go to my post - hopetoun-fitzgerald-river-national-park
 I hope to bring you more images soon - once I've sorted through them!

You can also see my posts - 52 weeks touring around Western Australia - here - Tour Western Australia
A blog I have created from our travels over a number of years around our amazing state of Western Australia.