A Big Kid Now

2 Comments

Posted on January 30, 2013

Most Australian students start the school year this week. Miss O is now included in that number.

Good luck with school this week, this year, this life. Study hard. Do your very best. What you put in now, will be repaid later in your life. You might not see the point of it all (I didn’t!) but trust me, it’s all important. Be nice to your friends, respectful to your hard-working teachers, and be kind to your mother and father. Now off you go and have an adventure. Education. No one can ever take it away from you.

Acknowledgment: Thank you, Patty for the wise words.

Australia Day

5 Comments

Posted on January 26, 2013

Firstly, I would like to say to my overseas readers that although this post is directed to local readers, I do hope you will read it and perhaps gain a small appreciation of Australia and its people.

Today, January 26th is Australia Day. It is the official national day of our country and is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet which landed at Sydney Cove in 1788.

I am not going to indulge in a debate but suffice to say that there is much angst about the relevance of the day. The selection of the date does not acknowledge the long, proud history of the indigenous people who had lived here for many thousands of years and were displaced by the ‘marauding hordes’.

The occasion is marked by citizenship ceremonies and other official events but for many it is an opportunity to celebrate summer and our outdoor lifestyle rather than any particular allegiance to our nation.

In the light of the extreme weather being endured around the country over the past couple of months perhaps it is time to stop and really think about the words of the iconic poem penned by Dorothea Mackellar. The second verse is the most well-known and oft quoted but to read and absorb the words of the entire poem really sums up how I feel about my home. What better day than Australia Day to stop and remind ourselves of what it means to be Australian?

You can listen to the poem being read by the author in this video and the full text of the poem is below.

My Country by Dorothea Mackellar – 1885-1968, written in 1904

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

This is another video titled “Celebration of a Nation” which was released for the Bicentenary in 1988. It is a 15 minute potted history of the first 200 years of non-indigenous settlement and contains some interesting insights.

I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Why Simplify?

8 Comments

Posted on January 16, 2013

Everywhere I have turned in the past week there seem to be messages about simplifying your life. Some of it has been on other blogs as well as robust discussions both online and in real life. I am not sure whether it is the start of the new year, the planets aligning or just coincidence.

As part of the process of acknowledging that simplicity is at least part of my core values I have changed the byline of this blog to “A simple, sustainable life”.

This post from Sho-Me Simplicity is well worth reading. It is quite long but take your time and try to really understand the points she makes. It is not just possessions that clutter our lives. It can be too many commitments as discussed here at Living Simplyfree or people whose very presence drains your energy and vitality.

Perhaps the final word should come from my mother, who would say “stop the world, I want to get off” when everything got too much. I do not know the origin of this comment but I think it sums up how many people are feeling at the moment.

Social Media – Splendid or Scourge

4 Comments

Posted on January 11, 2013

Social media is essentially a phenomenon of the 21st century. It may be Facebook, Twitter, a forum relating to your special interest or the millions of blogs, just like this one that are out there in cyberspace. There are very few people who do not have same interaction with their cyber ‘friends’.

Patty Beecham has eloquently captured the essence of the type of conundrum which confronts many social media users at times. Here is a short article which was published in the ‘Courier Mail’ (Brisbane newspaper) today. Yes, I am friends with Patty on Facebook and I know her in real life also.

These various forms of communication and interaction via the internet have grown exponentially over the past 15 years and taken on a life of their own. There are no etiquette guides on how to deal with the plethora of situations you may face as a result of involvement in social media. Maybe it is time to ‘write’ your own book of do’s and don’t’s for social media use to get you thinking about how you might deal with some of the challenging situations that could arise. Think about the ‘what if’s?’

If you look at the right-hand side of this blog, you will see that I have 140 ‘followers’ of my ramblings. There are some of my closest friends and family and others whom I feel I know through their thoughtful and supportive comments. Some religiously read every new post that I publish, others drop in occasionally and still more have probably forgotten that they even hit the button to follow. I am not too hung up about how many followers I have or who they may be.

I have a Facebook account which I use to publish my blog posts, play Scrabble and keep in touch with a few friends. At the other end of the scale I know of people who collect Facebook ‘friends’ like trophies. Some have over 1,200 friends and personally know perhaps 100 or so.

Social media certainly has its place if used wisely. The internet was the initial contact with some of my best friends. I am very grateful because it is unlikely that our paths would ever have crossed, otherwise.

Please click on the link in the second paragraph and have a read. I would love to hear what you think. There is also an opportunity to comment at the bottom of the article. I sure Patty would be interested in your feedback.

A Rare Review

Project 333 – A New Dress For Christmas

4 Comments

Posted on January 3, 2013

Do you remember the excitement of getting a new dress for Christmas or your birthday? It was really exciting because it was a rare occurrence. Now it is relatively cheap and easy to buy a new outfit whenever you please and I feel that this detracts from the excitement. Is it the fact that we are trying to recreate that excitement that sends people back to the shops to buy more and more clothes and shoes?

Actually, I did not get a new dress for Christmas, in fact I did not receive any gifts of clothing nor did I buy any clothes during the Christmas season. This is the only dress I currently own. It is about 3 years old and I wear it at least once a week for about 8 months of the year.

I did not feel any need to rush out and buy something new for a special occasion. I have enough clothes at the moment to cover my needs which are the same as they were a few months ago. I did make this skirt before Christmas and wore it to a Christmas lunch with my work colleagues as well as on Christmas Day with my family.

One of my sewing projects is to make a new lining for a skirt so that I can wear the skirt to a wedding in March. The wedding is in Canberra so it could be quite cool so I want to make a jacket, probably black velvet and my sister has offered to lend me her black pashmina as well.

Although I am not strictly participating in Project 333 at the moment, I am constantly reviewing the clothes I own and deciding what may be the next thing to go and whether or not it needs to be replaced. Even though we still have the hottest part of the summer ahead of us, I am already considering what I will need for winter. I have lost weight in the last 6 months and I am managing to continue to wear most of my existing clothes but one of the first casualties was the one pair of grey trousers which I wore to work. I had been wearing them for several seasons and they were looking a little past their prime. I sent them to the op shop when I discovered that I could pull them down over my hips without undoing the fly. I must admit that they were always a little on the large side.

Shopping is definitely not a pastime for me but I will have to make a concerted effort to find some nice fitting trousers. I would like 2 pairs, perhaps a charcoal grey and a lighter grey.

I like good quality clothes that are a flattering cut and colour for me but I do not feel the need to have a bulging wardrobe. I am getting closer to my goal of only having items that I wear regularly and being able to mix and match most, if not all of the pieces.

If you haven’t heard of Project 333 then here might be the place to start. You can also check out some of my earlier posts on the subject by typing 333 into the search function on the right-hand side of the page.

Do you have any hints or suggestions for minimising the contents of your wardrobe?

A Year in Review

1 Comment

Posted on December 30, 2012

Here we are, almost at the end of another year and as usual I try to take time to think about what I have done and my plans for the new year.

I was looking back at some of my posts from around 12 moths ago and although I have achieved a lot this year, some of my lofty ideals did not come to fruition. You can check out my goals here. The photo project was an epic failure but everything else (and much besides was done).

The organising for Christmas also fell by the wayside but it was all achieved before 25th December. My goal is to do better in 2013.

The important thing when you find that the achievement did not measure up to the goal you set is to simply pick yourself up, dust off and try again. That is what I love about a new year – it is a clean slate.

I have my 2013 diary and have resolved to use it properly this year instead of cluttering my brain with 1001 things I have to remember. An Excel spreadsheet is set up to record our spending so that we can see where the money goes. The emails are sorted/deleted/archived/actioned/unsubscribed as required and I will keep this up-to-date each week.

Our holiday in March is planned and booked.

How was your 2012? What do you plan to achieve or do differently next year?

How Green Was My Christmas?

4 Comments

Posted on December 27, 2012

Well, Christmas is over for another year and I hope it was a good one for you and your families.

One of my goals was to reduce our overall environmental impact from the festivities so it is probably time to review what I did and whether it made a difference.

Cards – I only sent 11 Christmas cards by post this year. This is a significant reduction over the years. There was a time when I posted between 50 and 60 cards each year. I sent ecards and emails with our family newsletter. These are generally well-received, save time and money for me, reduce clutter for the recipient. I will continue to do this.

Gift-wrapping – this year I made fabric gift bags to use which seems to have been successful in making a significant reduction in the amount of wrapping paper which ended up in the recycling bin. There was still some from gifts we received but that may change in time, who knows? Perhaps I will make some for Belle to use next year as well.

Gifts – I made a few hand-made gifts and also a couple of experience gifts and some Oxfam Unwrapped gifts which seemed to please the recipients. I need to plan my handmade items a bit further in advance next year. I received a couple of practical and requested gifts so I was very happy. A bathmat, colander, air mattress, gluten-free sauce and dressing and a Kathmandu voucher as well as a promise of dinner when we are next in Melbourne. We do not want to be overwhelmed by ‘stuff’ and my family understand that. Yay!!

Food – we made a conscious effort not to over-cater and were mostly successful. I have fruit cake leftover as well as a little smoked salmon and some cold, grilled chicken. All of this will be stored appropriately and used to avoid any waste. We had a special meal with close family but did not over-indulge. Next year I would like to try to be more organised with my garden and be able to use more home-grown produce.

I am pretty happy with our achievements and will continue to work on improving each year.

I would love to hear about your celebrations – what worked and what didn’t?

A Green Christmas – Gift Bags

5 Comments

Posted on December 17, 2012

We celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts while still trying to remain true to a reasonably simple, low-consumption lifestyle. It can be be so easy to get swept up in the hype.

This year I am doing my bit for the environment by shunning the wrapping paper and choosing to make reuseable cloth bags from Christmas fabric which I bought in the sales last year.

Here are a couple of gifts already packaged.

I have made a range of sizes in a few different fabrics.