Time to let go

Written for One Single Impression. 


Time to let go 


It was an accidental break 
following much daily use 


Submerged in warm soapy water 
with hardly any pressure applied 
A sudden break 


The mug 
a part of the daily routine 
no more 


Sometimes we learn
from a break to routine 
A comfort has been outgrown 
Memories still remain 

Addition to post (6:30pm): I wrote this poem this morning. I could rewrite it now with a couple of small changes. Mug to Sugar Bowl. Submerged in warm soapy water to Knocked off the kitchen bench. Boo Hoo. 

Dollhouse dreaming

I wrote this poem for Three Word Wednesday. The words for this week: Dainty, Haunting, Tantalize. 

Dollhouse dreaming

‘You have a right to feel safe’

She didn’t feel safe 

The words of the teacher

just seemed to tantalize

Stiffly she sat

Hands in lap

Back straight

Eyes to the front

Biting the inside of her lip

Tongue smoothing over a growing sore

Eyes blinking wetness away

‘You have a right to feel safe’

She didn't hear the words that followed

Images kept haunting her

Pieces of memory

like a movie playing in her mind

Children laughing, pointing, pushing

Playground play

She flicked the channel

At home

Alone

Safety in her bedroom

and a wooden dollhouse

Chubby fingers wrapped around a dainty figure

A figure painted by her father

A dress matching her own

favourite

A figure complete

with a tiny red bow in its hair

just like hers 

‘Stop’

was her single word

as she banged the figure down

Her other hand making

the other children listen

apologise

offer to be her friend

‘You have a right to feel safe’

The teacher’s voice boomed

through her thoughts

She wanted to believe

She wanted

to be the big school girl

those adults always spoke about

Green sheep fun!

Yesterday I tried out a green sheep activity with some toddlers. It was great fun! Here's a picture of my green sheep. 

I read 'Where is the green sheep?' by Mem Fox to the group. Attention was a little lacking (they were very young!) for the reading of the story but afterwards they all seemed to enjoy sticking the green wool onto their sheep. The template I used is available here. 


This is an activity I would definitely like to do again. Which is lucky as I have a good supply of green wool as well as wool I am yet to clean and dye. 

A big thank you to my friend, Casandra, for the supply of the wool. I asked her about dying cotton wool for this activity and she asked if I would like some real wool. Yes please! She had a really great supply. Some of it was quite dirty and full of prickles. I quite enjoyed cleaning it and working out how to dye it. I used dishwashing detergent in warm water to clean it. To dye it I used food colouring in hot water with a bit of vinegar (apple cider vinegar as that was the only vinegar I had in the house!) then zapped it in the microwave for a few seconds. 

Sunday Scribblings - March 6th, 2011

I have wondered all day what to post for this week's Sunday Scribblings prompt: Raw. Then it came suddenly this afternoon when my daughter called out "Mum". 

------

'Mum', came the call from the lounge room. I sensed the urgency in her voice. 

'What is it? What is it?' I called back as I moved somewhat wearily from the bedroom where I was trying to get a few minutes rest. 

She greeted me with a new, slightly different smile and a flat hand, proudly presenting a tiny white tooth. 

'Wow! Your tooth came out'.

'Yeah'. 

Promptly she pulled her lip down to expose the red, raw gum surrounding a tiny speck of white. 

'And the new one is coming through already. It was time'. 

'Yeah'. 

Tissue dabbing and tooth placed in a cup of water and the latest wobbly tooth saga is over. It is once again possible to crunch into a raw apple. A small pleasure she has missed of late. 

Card making fun

I enjoyed making a card today for one of Alysha's friends. It has been a while since I made a card and I enjoyed being immersed in the process. I stuck to a purple and blue theme on Alysha's suggestion. The photo is not a fantastic representation. It was difficult to photograph the gold ribbon and the purple plastic. 

Brianna made one too when she got home from school. 

Two months worth of small stones

I have completed two months worth of writing a small stone (a short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment - Fiona Robyn) each day. I am feeling rather proud that I haven't missed a day yet. Some days have been a lot easier than others. A couple of days I have just sat in front of the computer wondering what on earth I should write about or how I should word it. Other days they have just come easily. Today is one of the abundant days. I wrote about the squash flower that opened for the first time today. See today's small stone here. I could just have easily written about the gorgeous moth I spotted just as I was getting in to the car. 

or the crow that seemed to be determined to be louder than the people noise just outside the shopping centre. I am sure that this way of writing is influencing how observant I am. Whether I choose to write about the small moments or not I am noticing them a lot more. There is a lot of joy in that. Polishing the small stones in order to communicate the moment I noticed is great writing practice too. I am quite sure that I will use some of my small stones later as a starting point for some longer pieces. Another idea I have had is to use them as writing prompts in the future. 


I am going to keep writing a small stone each day and am eagerly waiting for July when there will be another small stone writing challenge as there was in January. 

To read my small stones go to www.pausingforsmallstones.blogspot.com. To read more about writing small stones and the river of stones project coordinated by Fiona and Kaspa go to www.ariverofstones.blogspot.com. 


In more exciting news there is going to be a small stones book. One of my stones will be in the book. It is the one I wrote on January 24. You can read it here. 

Sunday Scribblings - February 27th 2011

The prompt for this weeks Sunday Scribblings is "fire", inspired by the quote "Remember you are not here to play it safe. You are here to start fires." - Sera Beak. 


This weeks post is different from previous weeks in which I have posted a poem. The prompt "fire" has sparked a memory which I have decided to write about. As I started to think about what to write I thought it did not really relate to the quote very much but it seemed to weave itself in as I thought more and began writing. 


Fire and trust 


In 1995 I spent my first year as a teacher at Fregon which is an Aboriginal community on the Pitjantjatjara Lands towards the top of South Australia. It is very isolated (although not as much as some other communities) being about 1300kms from Adelaide including a 2 hour drive on a dirt road. 


For me one of the highlights of the year (and there were many) was an overnight trip with the school as well as a class of students, teachers and parents visiting from Victor Harbour. My brand new swag was thrown into the trailer along with the many others. Everyone piled into four wheel drives for the short drive to ... somewhere. It was in the middle of nowhere and I really had no idea exactly where I was. It really struck me at the time how dependant I was on the Anangu people who took us there. I was very aware that left there on my own there was absolutely no chance of me surviving. 


Soon after we arrived I watched two small children light a fire. I was amazed at the skill and care taken by the two six year olds. It was not something that I was used to watching and allowing children of that age to do. I did have the trust however that those children knew what they were doing and the adults knew that they were capable and would not have allowed them to if they were not. 


It was a great day, sitting around the fire, watching children play and joining in at times. Lots of great memories. That evening we were settling down to sleep when we heard music and got up to investigate. Children had been painted and we watched an impromptu performance. How special to watch traditional dancing in such a remote place. It is an experience I will never forget. 


When we finally got back to our swags for another attempt at sleeping, there was a man setting fire to a tree nearby. He told us there were wild camels around and the fire would keep them away. The fire quickly spread to the surrounding trees and I was really quite scared. There was quite a lot of discussion between us teachers. Would it be better to be trampled by camels or burnt by fire? It was necessary to trust that these people would keep us safe. That they knew what they were doing. It did take me quite a while to get to sleep and I had quite an eye on the fire. Finally I got a little sleep and awoke safely to smoldering fire nearby. 


Thinking about this experience has got me thinking about trust. I have always been quite an independent person, placing quite a lot of trust in myself but not so much in others. My ability to trust others was further eroded when as a young adult I made the choice to place my trust in someone who I have since found out did not deserve it at all. There are times though when it is necessary to trust others. Sometimes we need to rely on others to keep us safe. We don't always know the answers. Likewise sometimes others may need to rely on us to keep them safe. I will continue to ponder these issues. Keeping safe may involve the lighting of fires, both literally or perhaps metaphorically. Really being alive rather than just existing may require some fire. 


What I have written seems almost in opposition to the quote but inspired by it all the same. I have really enjoyed this Sunday Scribblings prompt. 

Magic Harvest

This afternoon I went to the premiere screening of Magic Harvest at the Don Hopgood theatre at Noarlunga. I was very glad to get in to see it as I had not gotten around to booking even though I knew I wanted to see it.

Inspired by Lolo Houbein and her book One Magic Square, the Magic Harvest project ran over a growing season last year. Community participants, many with little gardening knowledge, learnt about growing their own vegetables and grew their own at home. They participated in workshops to share knowledge and resources and enjoyed a celebratory feast at the end of the season. Participants also agreed to pass on their newfound knowledge about growing and cooking to others. The documentary movie, Magic Harvest, was made to document the project from its beginnings to the end feast.

I first heard about the Magic Harvest project at the Sustainable Living Expo last year. I thought it sounded like a great idea. I had heard about and seen Lolo Houbein's book at Adelaide Writers' week early last year. After the expo I was very lucky to get hold of a copy through the library. Reading it was in part what inspired me to actually give gardening a go. I would still love to get my own copy sometime.

I enjoyed the movie this afternoon. There were some pangs of sadness and jealousy as I wish that I was involved in something like this. Thinking about it more afterwards I think my feelings are not so much about the project itself as that I would like to share meals with others more often. Something I have thought and felt for a while and probably something it is worth working on and trying to organise somehow. In a way I feel like I have had my own little magic harvest project. I haven't participated in workshops with others but I have shared my experiences of gardening in various ways. I have been surprised to find out about other's gardens when I have mentioned my own. I have had many conversations that would not have occurred had I not taken those initial steps of planting some seeds/ seedlings. I have shared gardening tools, advice , ideas and successes with friends. It was a great feeling to give away some of the vegies I grew myself. I often enjoy a short walk to the garden to see how things are going and any visitors usually get a tour of the garden.

Everyone who went to the screening today was given a seedling to take home so they could have some "magic" of their own. I have planted the silverbeet seedling into the garden.

The February garden update

I just realised that tomorrow is the last day of February and I am yet to post the February garden update. So here it is. 


The gardening has been going along at a steady rate. The highlight would have to be the sweet cherry tomatoes eaten straight off the vine. Yum. Yum. They are slowing off now and the plants are looking rather dry. 


One of the celery plants is growing well. The other two are not looking so healthy. 


I have also picked a few red chillies too. I haven't tried them myself yet but the teenagers who tested them said they were quite hot. 


Looking very healthy at the moment are the zucchini and squash plants I planted from seed a few weeks ago. 


This afternoon I got a free silverbeet seedling and have planted that in the garden. More about that in the next post. 

The healthy celery plant

Some remaining cherry tomatoes

One of the chillies

Healthy zucchini and squash plants

The first zucchini

A seedling just planted

worm juice anyone?

A while ago my worm farm seemed to be going really well and I had a fairly constant supply of worm juice. I had been wondering why I wasn't getting very much at all the last couple of weeks and decided to investigate further this morning. I discovered that the tap at the bottom of the worm farm had been turned off. I thought it was on but when I turned it the liquid suddenly gushed out. 


So now I have an oversupply of worm juice. I have used some on my garden and have given some away but still have heaps. So if you want some and can pick it up let me know!