Month: March 2020

Photo of the Week Challenge: Changing Seasons

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In Australia, we will be going into our second month of autumn on Wednesday. On the last day of summer, my son and daughter-in-law had their Australian wedding. It was a beautiful day. Since then however, I haven’t spent anytime out in nature. So I thought I would go for mindful walk around the neighbourhood to see what had changed. As I headed down the driveway, my first surprise was the budding camellias.

Then around the next block I found flowering frangipani trees. I love frangipanis, especially the pink ones.

Halfway through my walk the skies opened and in true autumn in Australia fashion, it started raining. No warning, just rain. Then I saw the first changing leaves of the season. In our cities you don’t get the amazing amount of leaves that change colour and drop to the ground that you do in the country areas. When we lived in country NSW, we spent many days playing in and with the autumn leaves everywhere we went.

Another change I noticed was the growth of berries and nuts on the trees.

On returning home slightly damp, I ventured out into our backyard to find the citrus trees are full of fruit. All in varying shades of green through to yellow.

And lastly I discovered the trees my husband had severely trimmed in summer were full of new growth.

Vulnerability

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  • Vulnerability quote

I love this quote by Brene Brown. It puts simply everything we always knew without realising it. Coming back to blogging after over a 2 year break, I feel as vulnerable as I did when I posted my first blog post – Mother’s Day 2014. Each day however it got easier. As I connected with more people, my feeling of vulnerability lessened and I found my voice.

At present in most of the world we have an unprecedented way of life with restrictions that can change daily. In Australia, life last Friday week was so different to life yesterday. As a result, we accept that next Friday it could be very different again. We are all feeling vulnerable. But we are using the current situation to get creative and focus on what we can do and how we need to change things to get through. I’m a huge believer that many of the innovations that we put in place will become the new norm after the crisis as they will make everyday life better.

What are some of the innovating changes you have made lately?

The Big UGG Boots

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Australians love visiting big tourist attractions. They are large sized versions of what the town or area is known for e.g. the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, the first big thing I ever visited back in the 1970’s. Today in Australia there are over 150 big things.

The latest big thing I visited was the Big UGG Boots at Mortel’s Sheepskin Factory at Thornton in the Hunter Valley. They are the world’s biggest UGG Boots weighing 600 kilos each. They were designed to be 13 x women’s size 8 UGG boot. Mortel’s have been making UGG boots in Australia since 1958. I can’t believe that they made the concrete look so soft and comfortable just like Australian UGG boots.

The Japanese also love our UGG boots. So when our Japanese family visited last year, we surprised them with a visit to the Big UGG Boots. They loved them. Communication was interesting but the ladies in the gift shop did a great job of explaining that sheepskin changes shape so the shoe sizes that they needed to purchase varied. Overall the visit was an excellent experience for everyone.

Attached to the gift shop is the sheepskin museum. It explains the history of Mortel’s as well as showing how UGG boots are made. My favourite was being able to shear a sheep.

If you are ever in the area the Big UGG Boots are worth a visit.

Coffee Catch-Up #24

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If we were having coffee I would tell you that I can’t believe that it is over 2 years since our last catch-up. Where did that time go? It seems like only yesterday but so much has happened.

Today would have been my late father’s birthday. Next week will be the 1st anniversary of his death. This time last year was a weird mix of sorrow and celebration as we all wanted him to become an octogenarian. And he did. He was 80 for 5 days. Tonight my family is celebrating his life with a Bob party in his honour, like we did every year for his birthday.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my son recently got married again. His original wedding was in Japan in April 2018, and last month he and his wife held their Australian wedding to celebrate with friends and family here. It was beach styled, overlooking beautiful Merewether Beach. Like the Japanese and Australian cultures, both weddings were different but amazing. and blended together, made a complete celebration of their love.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my husband and I have been designing extensions to our house that we are now waiting on permission to build. We have never designed anything before and after nearly 18 months of tweaking we are happy with how it has come together.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that during a 6 month period in 2018 we moved ourselves out of our Sydney home, our daughter to live on campus in country NSW and set-up a new home for my son on his return from Japan, prior to his wife arriving a few months later.

If we were having coffee I would ask you whats been happening in your world. Let me know in the comments.