Tag: Daily Prompt

Colourful memories

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One of my favourite things when we visited St John’s Newfoundland was its colourful houses. They popped up everywhere, matching in style and blending in colour. Also known as Jelly Bean Row houses as their varied colours match those of jellybeans. It is said that the original reason the houses were painted in bright colours was because the sailors coming home from a long stretch at sea would like to look up from the harbour into the hills to look for their homes. As fog is a problem in St John’s the houses during these times the homes all bleneded together. So by painting them bright colours they could easily find their home.

I have no problem believing this as growing up I could see my home from the train. It was easy to pick out as it had a very large brick wall in front of it making it stand out from the surrounding houses. 50 years later I still look for my old house whenever I am on the train to Sydney. It’s an old habit I have no need to break even though its nearly 25 years since my mother moved out of my childhood home.

Thanks Kristian for your inspiring word today – matching.

Spoonville

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Have you ever seen or heard of something local and thought I’ve got to see that. What a clever idea! As you know most of New South Wales is currently in lockdown as we battle the latest Delta variant. So as a response to the frustrations of being in lockdown and the kids not having things to do someone came up with the concept of Spoonville.

Each Spoonville community is different. They develop a personality of their own dependent on the Spoony people that join the community. Local kids are invited to decorate wooden spoons at home and add them to the others as they get out of the house to exercise.

Spoonville rules are simple.

  • Place your Spoony person during your daily exercise
  • Make sure bits won’t blow off your Spoony person as we don’t want litter
  • Think about using natural materials in case they do fall off – maybe twigs for arms and legs
  • Make sure your Spoony person can take the rain – nail polish is good for our faces
  • Spoony people are not keen on dogs ( furry friends please stay back)
  • Come and see the Spoony people but don’t stay too long and no touching. Have fun.

I heard about our local community at Cooks Hill on the weekend and couldn’t wait until today to investigate. The only thing I knew was that they lived in Centennial Park. I was clueless as to where. Never fear I googled how to get to Centennial Park from my house and off I went. I had been there many times before but I always found it by accident and when coming home. The park is 2.2 hectares and was given to the city of Newcastle as a centenary gift in 1888. After about 15 minutes of following paths and generally exploring the area I saw them, Cooks Hill’s Spoonville. They were playing under a beautiful old Norfolk pine on the other side of the park.

As I spent time at Spoonville, I wished I had young children in my life. It would be so much fun helping them design and create their own Spoony person. I attempted to choose a favourite but each time I looked I would fine a new favourite so I gave up and decided it was all so much fun. I’ll be back to meet the new Spoony friends over the coming weeks.

Today’s post was inspired by Word Of The Day – Clueless.

Lavatree

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I love it when I find something really quirky on my travels. This lavatree marks the entrance to the sewerage treatment works at Dorrigo, New South Wales. What a memorable way to use old toilets. I also love the name.

The lavatree also serves another purpose as from memory you could easily drive past the entrance as it was a little hidden on a bend.

Some people might say only in Australia. Have you seen old toilets used in any other fun ways?

This post was inspired by Word Of The Day Challenge – Quirky Thanks Kristian.

Yarn Bombing

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Last week as I was walking around my local area I found this yarn bombing event. As I had never seen one before I was intrigued. Why? What was it all about?

For anyone like me who doesn’t know what yarn bombing is – it is a form of street art, like graffiti often connected to activism in some way. Another point of yarn bombing is to mitigate the severity of barren, cold public places.

This particular laneway I agree prior to the yarn bombing was boring, desolate and barren. I would walk down Devonshire Lane twice a week last year on my way to work and it had nothing going for it. The addition of the Deafblind Connect yarn bombing event has definitely brightened up the area. The colourful event has also brought attention to the Hunter’s Deafblind community. When I looked closely at the tree coverings I noticed many different textures especially designed for the blind to enjoy.

The event occurred during Deafblind Awareness week 21st -27th June as part of a global initiative in 22 countries across the world. What a fantastic idea to bring the community together.

Inspired by Word Of The Day Challenge – Mitigate

Wondrous Sea Jelly Spectacular

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The sight before me took my breath away. The room was filled with circular tanks of over 1000 sea jellies. I never realised that there was so much variety in them. The Sea Jelly Spectacular was taken to the next level by specially selected background music and neon lights. Together they emphasized the amazing pulsations of the jellyfish. The experience was so wondrous I still remember it with a smile nearly a decade later.

If ever you are in Hong Kong spend some time being memorized by these amazing creatures at the Sea Jelly Spectacular at Ocean Park.

Inspired by Word Of The Day – Wondrous thanks Cyranny

Ruby Tuesday #3 Cranky Rock

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I think my favourite stopover in Ruby so far was at Cranky Rock. It is a recreational reserve not far from Warialda in North Western New South Wales. The camp ground attached to the reserve is run by a caretaker who each night in the cooler months lights a big campfire and provides nibbles for the campers to enjoy as they socialise together. My husband and I loved meeting other campers, sharing stories and learning more about future travel options. Some campers were old hands and other like us were first timers. It didn’t matter. There were also chickens wandering around and if you found an egg they laid you could keep it.

Cranky Rock is made up of various giant boulders that balance on each other and make an enclosed natural phenonium. It was so peaceful my husband and I spend over an hour down in the valley before moving on to explore other parts of the bush.

We definitely plan to go back to this spot when we are out of lockdown and can travel again.

Written for todays Word Of The Day Challenge – Enclosed. Thanks.

Awesome Figures

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I love Lego. The creativity and inspiration used to design these amazing models is unbelievable. Last year in Newcastle we were lucky enough to have an exhibition by Brickman. He is one of only 14 Lego professionals in the world. This display was titled Awesome. It included 37 models, took 5000 hours to build and used over 2 million Lego bricks. Each model was an example the first, the biggest, the deadliest or special in some other way.

Each model had a story board next to it which describes the build, giving

  • The facts of the model
  • Information about the designer, how long it took to make including the number of bricks used
  • The designers notes about build it including frustrations and problems
  • And lastly, Why It Is AWESOME.

The first big model we saw was the first full size Harley Davidson motor bike. Apparently in non Covid times to public like could sit on it. Even the electricals worked. AWESOME.

This Caterpillar 797 dump truck was the largest ever build. I loved it.

I was also fascinated to see the impact of a model of a single Lego brick. Definitely Awesome. From memory it took over 6 000 bricks to make.

One of my favourite things was the attention to detail hidden in and around each model. It really brought each model to life. Having previously traveled on the Shinkansen (bullet train) we smiled at the memories it created for us.

As an added bonus Brickman hid Mr & Mrs Awesome many times throughout the exhibition asking the children to look for them and enter a competition telling him how many they found. These special Lego figures were fun to look for that encouraged a much closer look for everyone.

These copies of original movie posters looked amazing.

Cozy Time

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I like to get cozy everyday. Taking time for myself, alone with no other distractions, is something I like to do at the start of the day as well as in the evening. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have some added cozy time after work before I start my nightly routine.

For me, cozy time is sitting in my very comfortable lounge chair focusing on what I want to do. In the morning it’s thinking about my goals and planning out my day. At other times it might be reading, blogging or slowing my mind down by watching a movie on Netflix.

In the above photo you can see the love we have shared over time by the creases in her folds. She has been a dear friend for nearly 2 decades now and if she could read my mind the stories she could tell.

Sometimes it only takes 5 minutes but my cozy time is my favourite way to centre myself.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/cozy/

Relocate

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We have relocated to 14 different homes in 3 different cities during my life. On top of these moves I have  also moved back home to my mother’s 3 times with or without my family.

At first moving was daunting. But now it’s a simple process that can be broken down into steps and described as an acrostic poem.

Research the area you are to move to and get excited

Explore your options

Lock in you choices and plan your move

Organise you belongings, what will stay, go or be given away

Collect cardboard boxes and start packing

Ask for help if necessary

Transfer you belongings to your new home

Enjoy sitting in your lounge room with a glass of champagne

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/relocate/

Family Traditions

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What I love about family traditions is that they are unique. Every family, even families within families have their own traditions and there is no end to the options. Big or small to start a new tradition the only need to enjoy the experience and do it regularly. My husband and my latest tradition is to prepare breakfast on the weekend and eat it together on the front verandah, watching the world go by. The only thing missing is a newspaper but we haven’t added that to our traditions yet.

Some times of the year like Christmas and birthdays involve more traditions than others. Being part of a large extended family this means the tradition of celebrating is never far away. The hardest part is setting the date, time and place and from there on the organisation of  a party for a special occasion isn’t difficult. Everyone knows what to do and our family traditions that always involve FOOD – GLORIOUS FOOD continue.

COLOUR THEMED CHRISTMAS last year you guessed right – GREEN.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/traditional/