Bits and Bobs

I was really struggling this morning - the world is a pretty awful place at the moment with a succession of natural disasters causing so much suffering in many places and, even worse than that, there are so many people displaced by war or suffering at the hands of their fellow humans - so I was tempted to have a bit of a whinge about how terrible everything is.

But then several things turned up from various sources that gave me joy and I realised that for all the war mongering and humanity's inability to treat the desperate with kindness there is still good in the world.

Here are some tired American Samoan firefighters singing as they come to the end of their shift. It's a beautiful a cappella rendition of a hymn but I don't think you need to be affiliated to any religion to appreciate this.

Then there's this video of Migaloo, one of only a handful of white humpback whales and for many years believed to be the only one in existence. Migaloo migrates along the east coast of Australia every year and you can find out more here. Let's hope the laws enacted every year to protect him and any other white whales in Australian waters will be enough for him to enjoy a long and happy life.

Now for something more along the lines of 'how on earth do they do that' with the Russian Berezka dance troupe performing one of their famous 'floating' dances. I for one am more than happy not pry and just enjoy the illusion but I can see why people are fascinated and want to know the secret.

Commitment

to at least try to do NaNoWriMo this year. I'm still struggling with life - Pisces is still unwell but he is improving slowly and while I'm better than I was I'm by no means back to my usual self either - so when you add in frustration levels that are chanting continuously about how much I should have done and haven't it's more than a little bit of a challenge to even be considering something this big. On the other hand if I just sit here and wallow in my miseries I'll never make any progress.

So I have a plan which is not necessarily to aim at achieving great things during November - like finishing a novel for instance - but instead to write something every day. I'll be aiming at 1,000 words and as long as they are creative I'll be happy. If I find my rhythm and my creativity blossoms I'll be very happy but I'll be satisfied as long as I just get that many words written every day.

I'mm posting this here so I have something to keep me accountable. How successful I will be I have no idea but I'm making the commitment and that's a start.

Edited because I forgot to put in the link to NaNoWriMo.

Spring Time

We might be in the middle of Spring at the moment - and Spring weather is as unpredictable here as anywhere else - but it's getting downright confusing with night time temperatures ranging from as low as 8-10°C then up to 17°C the next night then being followed by daytime maxima which can be as low as 20° C one day or into in the low thirties the next. I've been wanting to wash my winter clothes ready to put away but no sooner do I decide that it would be a good day to tackle it than the rain sets in and temperatures plummet again.

Ah well, it's not going to matter in the grand scheme of things I guess but it's meant the wardrobe purge I wanted to start has been on hold for a few weeks. It's hot already today, though, and I'm home alone - Pisces is in hospital for a minor procedure - so I think it's time I overcame my inertia and at least begin sorting. I mightn't be able to get everything organised but I can make a start. Actually I already have and the clothesline is full of things that I can do without even if the temperature drops dramatically again.

I confess to finding it difficult to part with things sometimes - and that would be clothes I'm talking about although Pisces might think books are more of a problem although they don't count, do they. In particular I'm thinking about those items of clothing that haven't been worn for a year or so but which are still too good to end up in the rubbish or recycling but are too far gone to be suitable to send to the charity shop and, which if I'm honest, I know I'll probably never wear again. It goes against the grain to throw them in the rubbish bin so there they sit taking up space in my cupboards and my life. I'm going to have to make some hard decisions and do what I tell the resident hoarder to do. Which is? Be ruthless. If it hasn't been worn in a year - unless it's a special purpose outfit that gets used infrequently, it's wearing out or no longer fits send it off to a new home or dump it.

It's easier said than done, of course, but I have no desire to live in a house that is slowly filling up with unused clutter so I will get on with it. Wish me luck.

We Haz Frogs

As you may or may not remember I have a cat. Now Mr Puss is 'special' and not only because he has a potentially life threatening health condition which means he get rather spoiled. Having had a very scary beginning to his life, he is inordinately afraid of everything and everyone except Pisces and me. Because of this he's always been an inside cat. We have a large house and he's never shown any interest in braving the outside world being more than happy to just follow me around. He occasionally pokes his head out but that's it. We've had other inside cats and they've all been happy to walk on a lead but not this boy. He wouldn't even accept a harness when he was a kitten.

To help make up for his lack of outdoor activity I keep cat grass in the house, something he goes into a frenzy of delight over. I grow it in two long water well pots that I rotate in and out of the house. Water well pots as you may know have a place for water in the base which wicks up to keep the plant wet and are filled through a hole in the side. I don't usually use this on the cat grass pots because I don't want to bring undesirables like slugs and slaters into the house, so I keep the hole taped over - but when I went out to bring the new pot in the other day the tape had come off.

This hole in this particular pot is quite small - about 3.5 cms across - and I don't know why but after I picked it up I decided I should tip out the car grass to make sure all was well. Since these pots are rather weighty when I went to put it back down it landed rather heavily. Out of the hole popped a large brown motorbike frog (Litoria moorei is its proper name and it gets its common name from the call of the male which really does sound like a motorbike changing gear). It was so large in fact that I have no idea how it got inside in the first place. It sat a few moments staring at me before it was followed by a tiny - and very pretty - green and cream juvenile about 2.5 cms in length. The big fellow took off and disappeared but we had to relocate the little one to the frog pond since it froze there on the hot concrete and I had visions of it dying where it was.

Since then I've found another similar little froggy among my seedlings and these are unlikely to be the last because I noticed yesterday there were at least half a dozen large tadpoles already with legs as well as scores of tinier legless ones of every size you could think of in the frog pond. Most of these will not survive for long but while it may be sad, it's probably a good thing given that just about every potential frog dwelling place in our yard is already occupied - something Pisces doesn't always remember so that startled yells as he lifts something are getting pretty much standard around here.

She Has a Point

Jo, of Jo on Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate, commented here the other day that perhaps I should change my profile to gardener instead of writer. I can see why. My posts lately have been more gardening than anything else. I seemed to have lost my writing mojo with my illness. No matter how I tried my creativity had fled and all I managed to do was to struggle through each day and - if I was lucky - fiddle around a little in the garden. I'm not sure if growing food counts as creativity but it should. You're making something out of soil, water and seeds after all.

Not that I haven't always gardened, of course. I mentioned once before how I was gifted with my own garden when I was nine and in one way or another I've gardened ever since. The thing about gardening is that it's restful on one level - pulling weeds is hardly mind stretching, just methodical and repetitive for instance - but needs careful thought on another, especially if like me you like to grow at least some of your own food. You have to plan to make sure you have a regular supply of crops coming in or you will end up hungry.

In this it's very similar to writing or any other creative activity. Even for a pantser like me you have to have some idea of where your story is heading - so planning - and there's a lot of time spent on the repetitive task of just getting words on the page. Finally, though, you get to pull it all together and that's the harvest of the finally completed and edited story.

The thing is I wasn't able to do any of this. I started blogging more regularly in the hope that it might help but I had not one creative thought in me and I had just about resigned myself to just messing around with plants forever - until yesterday that is when an idea suddenly sprang into life. It's been percolating all day and for the first time in over a year I feel that wonderful rush of wanting to get words down of the page. Whether this will develop into anything worthwhile I have no idea but for now I'm heading to Ulysses (the writing program I was using before this hiatus) and I'm going to see what happens. Wish me luck.

I've Been Gardening Again

In the aftermath of the storm - and with the arrival of some lovely warm, sunny Spring days - I decided it was time to plant at least some of the summer veggies. It was Pisces' fault because I had mentioned I needed some potting mix and as we were passing by our local garden centre on Friday he suggested we pick it up and have a coffee at their very pleasant cafe - Waldecks in Stirling if you're interested. Naturally enough I then wandered off to look at the seedlings - well, what else would I do with temptation mere steps away - and stocked up.

We came home with tomatoes - lots of tomatoes because I found some heritage ones I wanted to try and I'm none to sure of how successful they'll be, capsicums, more sweet corn, zucchinis, a couple of different kinds of basil, spring onions and two different cucumbers to add to what I planted last week. Over the weekend I planted all except the onions because I wanted to make sure the aphid problem really had finished first. Now, apart from the onions, all I need for this first planting are pumpkins - they will fill up any vacant spaces and some more beans, bok choy and lettuce although I will be doing staggered follow up plantings of most all the way through the season.

All this planting and warm weather means I've had to hand water daily. That's very time consuming so this morning I decided it was finally time to get out the sprinklers. At least that was the plan.

I went out early - Puss thinks I should wake up at daybreak to dispense food and clean litter trays and luckily my body clock works that way, too, so we're both waking up at about 6:00 AM these days - and the first sprinkler would not connect with the hose. Dammit. The second wouldn't either. nor the third. Things were getting desperate when I finally found one that did. It was only a temporary solution though because the veggie patch is an awkward shape and to get an even coverage without wasteful overlaps I need all four sprinklers.

Pisces was awake by then - and extremely grumpy  - but he worked his garden fittings magic and finally we got the two most important sprinklers working. Why sprinklers that clicked into place on the hose perfectly at the end of Autumn no longer work I have no idea - but I've now handed it all over to himself to play with. I'm just hoping he'll have managed to resolve it by Saturday, which, if it doesn't rain first, will be the next time I need them.