April 23rd, 2011 - T

T is for tendrils. 
I chose tendrils for the 'T' post mainly because I think it is a really cool word! 
Last year for Mother's Day my daughter gave me some snow pea seedlings she bought from the local Farmer's Market. I was just at the beginning of my gardening adventures then and the gift definitely gave them a big boost. The seedlings grew very well and produced heaps of snow peas. The only problem I had was some damage on a couple of particularly windy nights. Generally though my first attempts at growing snow peas were very successful. I look forward to repeating the experience this year. 
I wrote this poem last year around the time I was driving the kids a little crazy telling them how much I loved the word 'tendrils'. 
Tendrils 
On Mother's Day with smiling anticipation and travelling on tenderness toddler snow peas arrive with love toddler snow peas holding gifts to share deep knowledge of growth tiny tendrils reaching out rich promises of possibilities and thoughts the tendrils of my own tiny pieces of me reaching out twirling and curling wrapping around significance tendrils with offers of stability as growth continues on 

April 22nd, 2011 - S

S is for small stones. 
"A small stone is a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment" - Fiona RobynI have been writing a small stone each day this year on my other blog, pausing to pick up small stones. I started by participating in the river of stones project in January and have kept going. One of the side effects of doing this type of writing has been an increased awareness and sense of connection to my own world. I plan to keep going for quite a while. For more information about this project as well as the opportunity to join in with lots of other people writing small stones in July go to www.ariverofstones.blogspot.com. 

April 21st, 2011 - R

R is for radishes. 
I picked these from the garden this afternoon. All four were planted as seeds a few weeks ago. I like to plant some radishes when I plant other seeds. They grow so quick, providing some quick home gardening results, while waiting for other plants to grow. Amazing the different sizes of these ones. 

April 19th and 20th, 2011 - P and Q

P is for Plesiosaur. 
and Play. This week Brianna and I have gone in to the city three times so Brianna could participate in some fun play activities. It was wonderful to watch children aged between 6 and 10 years old having fun with some simple team activities in Rymill Park. I have been reminded once again that entertaining children does not have to be complex or involve spending a lot of money. The children had fun in the park throwing beanbags, jumping, skipping, crawling through hoops and more. One of the activities today was throwing water balloons into a bucket. There were two teams and they raced to see who could fill their bucket first. With all the laughter and smiles it was easy to tell they were having a lot of fun. A highlight was the one balloon that didn't burst when it landed in the bucket. At the end of the session today the adults were asked to join in with the Tug of War. I think we had as much fun as the kids! 
On Monday we went to the museum and paid $6 to participate in some school holiday activities. There I was also reminded that it doesn't take a lot of money and complexity to entertain children. There were some large sand pits (actually they were full of tiny rubber pieces) with 'bones' stuck to the bottom. So many children were happy to use a paintbrush to pretend to be paleontologists and find the bones. One little boy just kept yelling out 'I found one!' with obvious excitement in his voice. Lots of children were very content to stay and dig for quite a long period of time. Another popular activity was the making of a Plesiosaur mobile. Again, not a really complex activity. It involved tracing around a stencil  on to a piece of plastic, cutting it out, punching a hole, tying it to a stick and then decorating it. Many children obviously enjoyed the activity. Some did it on their own and others enjoyed help from their parents. Lots of children also enjoyed the fossil rubbings, playdough and puzzle activities provided. It was a great way to spend an hour or so of the school holidays. 

and Q is for Quotes. 
Here's just one of my favourite quotes 

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
   ~ Angela Schwindt

April 18th, 2011 - O

O is for obstacles. I considered a few other words for the O post before deciding it definitely had to be about obstacles. 
One day in early 2009, while I was negotiating some obstacles in my life at that time, I was reading Patti Digh's blog, 37 days. She was asking people to sign up if they were interested in creating art for her upcoming book. I immediately thought I would like to give it a go but it was with bucket loads of self-doubt that I pressed send after filling in the on-line form with my details. I imagined seeing my art in a book one day but really didn't know what filling that form in that day would lead to. At the very least, I thought it would give me a positive focus whilst negotiating what seemed like huge obstacles at the time. 
It was quite a while before I received the details for submitting art for 'Creative is a Verb'. (and in the meantime I submitted art for another of Patti's books - 'Four Word Self Help' and it was accepted!). I received details from the Editorial Director for submitting art for two of the essays in the book - 'Jump Your Mask Off' and 'Listen to Tiny Fishies'. I submitted a piece for each of these. I really loved the artwork I created for 'Jump Your Mask Off' and when I got notice that my artwork had been chosen, I hoped it was that piece. 
I looked through the 'Jump Your Mask Off' chapter first when I received my copy of the book. No artwork of mine there. I was disappointed. Still excited that I had artwork in the book yet a little disappointed. Then when I looked through the list of artists I saw my name twice. Quickly I turned to the page stated and there was my artwork. Yay!!!!! 
Which brings me to the purpose of this particular post. O is for obstacles. Instead of being used in the 'Jump Your Mask Off' chapter my piece was used for a chapter titled, 'Create Life As If'. Patti Digh starts the chapter with 'Life is yearning meeting obstacle'. How fitting! I am not sure if I would have submitted art for the book at all if not for experiencing the obstacles I was experiencing. I get frustrated at times because of certain obstacles that have occurred in my life. Yet, as Patti writes, obstacles are an important part of the story. Although sometimes I feel frustration, other times I am so grateful for the obstacles as I know they have helped me to grow as a person. Obstacles can make life more interesting. After all I always did prefer the hurdles to the sprint, even though I ended up at the same point! 
And here's the artwork that exists partly because of obstacles! 

April 16th, 2011 - N

N is for NO. 

For the N post of the A to Z challenge, here's the current version of one of my poems, Saying No. 


Saying No

Listen

Listen when she says no

With her bold, blazing eyes

Stiff body and strong vocal cords

One day you may wonder

If your sweet little girl

Is really some fierce and terrible creature

You may question where her love has gone

Whether she still loves you

She does

Just listen

Listen when she says no

And if you can’t allow her wish

Let her know you heard

Too many little girls

Grow into women

Who can’t say no

Or see nothing wrong

With ‘no’ being silent

To a loved one’s ears

Glue that fails to adhere

Please listen

Listen when she says no

For when she can say ‘no’

And know that she is heard

Then her ‘yes’ will truly mean yes

And if her life requires

The punctuation of a space

There’s ‘maybe’ and ‘later’ and ‘not right now’

When she knows that ‘no’ is no

She will learn to say

What it is she really means

So listen

Listen when she says no

Six Word Saturday - April 16th, 2011

I love perusing other people's art. 

Every time I do so I think I should do it more. Today I went to an exhibition at Yankalilla, part of the Leafy Sea Dragon festival held from 15 - 24 April. There was a huge range of artworks and such variety. I enjoyed all of the colour and the different approaches. One thing I like to do is try and find pieces by the same artist. I did that quite successfully a few times today. As to be expected, there were numerous paintings, sculptures and other artworks featuring the Leafy Sea Dragon - simply delightful! 

The Leafy Sea Dragon is one of two species of sea dragon which are found in Australia's southern waters and nowhere else in the world. For more information about the festival go here. 

I loved this huge Leafy Sea Dragon sculpture at Normanville, made from corrugated iron. 

There's lots of interesting things happening as part of the festival over the next week or so. I wish I was able to get to more. I would especially like to go to some of the writing workshops, literary panels and readings happening. They look very interesting. 

April 13th, 14th and 15th, 2011 - K, L and M

K is for "Kindness" 

L is for "Letting go" 

and M is for "Maybe later" 

I have decided not to continue with the A to Z challenge in the way that I began. I started off enjoying making the alphabet cards and do quite like them but I started to lose interest and feel a bit too much pressure to do one each day. I persisted for a while but have now made the decision to stop. I may finish them later. I'm not sure at the moment. I am not sure about how I will continue to participate in the A to Z challenge. I'm still thinking about it. I think its a good thing to know when to stop. As I child I would find it difficult to discontinue a book once I started reading it. It is important though to know when to stop something. It opens up a lot more possibilities if you begin with the attitude that you don't have to continue if you don't like it. I know trying something with the attitude of 'I'll just do a little and then stop if I don't like it' has meant that I have tried some things and then liked them despite my original thinking that I wouldn't. Then I've kept going and enjoyed something I didn't think I would originally. 

I thought I would enjoy making a card each day but some days it was feeling too much like a chore. So with lots of kindness I am letting go of the approach I chose for the challenge. Maybe later I'll finish them. Maybe not. We don't always know how something we decide to try will work out. It's okay to stop if that is what you decide is best. 

Basil and the snail

A bit of fun in the form of a poem for children. The words for Three Word Wednesday this week: evident, illusion, tragic. 


Basil and the snail 


A sunny illusion - all seemed well 
At first it wasn't evident 
How it met its tragic end 
Just where the basil went 


A little bit of a search around 
My eyes followed back a silver trail 
Under a leaf the culprit found 
Poor baby basil - eaten by a snail 

April 12th, 2011 - J

Oops, had some lamination problems. I will probably re-do these later but I've done the work today so I will post them anyway. 




For this challenge I am using up some of my large paper and card supply and making and laminating a 5 x 5" card each day.