Wednesday, July 25, 2018

compost


Out the back door,
 down the steps, through the hedge, 
behind the shed
Is a pile.
A mucky messy pile.
The scraps of life.
Fragile, broken eggshells, 
squished up, used up peels and pips and dregs. 
Refuse tossed from the kitchen.

Compost
.



All simmering and shrinking imperceptibly into a small pile of delectable new soil.
The hidden ingredient is time.
God’s work takes time too.
He takes the mucky mess, the fragile, broken pieces and uses it all to work things out for good.



God makes all things new in His time

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

a glimpse into our travels


We went to Europe!
We really did.
A great big geography excursion with our youngest two children.
World schooling. History, art, architecture…lessons for real life!
It's weeks since our return to “normal".
The buzz of adventure has faded to a gentle hum.
Our hearts and horizons have expanded.
While we did visit London, Paris and Rome, we really did not enjoy the main tourist attractions so much.
Our favourite experiences were meandering around the back roads, exploring the countryside on bicycles and wandering cobbled streets in little villages.
Visitors, not tourists.



The highlight was meeting local people.
Travelling can be quite lonely coming in as an outsider.
We flit across the surface of a new country for a brief overview. The best times were connecting with local people and experiencing everyday life in a different culture.
An elderly gentleman hanging out his washing in a little stone courtyard. 
He wore a beret. So natural. So French.
An elderly lady hanging out her washing in a tiny garden with a gorgeous clump of dark red peonies blooming their pretty heads off in amongst the unmown grass and weeds.
Italian farmers bouncing along the steep ploughed fields on tractors with tracks.
Italian farmhands pruning gnarly old olive trees.
Bicycle riders bearing baguettes in their baskets after morning shopping.



Being a tourist sounds exhausting! Our experience wasn't about always doing something whiz bang.
The simplicity was being there. Waking up in a cottage in the Italian or French countryside. 
Listening to people talking in a foreign language. Shopping for unusual groceries, sipping coffee on a sidewalk café, watching the people around us living their daily lives.
It was marvelous.
I hope you might enjoy a glimpse into some special memories from our travels.
























A blue kettle kind of day


Our kettle broke. Our lovely red kettle.
A mini catastrophe.

Teatime is a hub of our family culture and we don’t live near town. Visitors were coming any minute.
Instead of scurrying off to buy a new one, I remembered we had a kettle we hadn’t christened.

A beautiful blue enamel kettle.



I’d been longing to take it camping for steaming mugs of tea in the bush.
We often stress and scramble when we could choose to be more resourceful.
The blue kettle has stayed and actually makes a pretty picture in the kitchen.
It turns an ordinary routine into a moment of beauty. 
I feel cheerful just looking at it.
It is also very sketchable.
I sketched it one morning last week. 
Something I want to make more time for. 
To just do instead of making excuses.
To capture the simple beauty of an ordinary moment.



                         What is it you keep jotting down on your                      want-to-make-time-for list?
What do you keep writing and just not getting to?
It is really satisfying to actually do. that. thing. 
It can be so simple.
To go for a walk. To read aloud to my children.
To sketch something.
To tidy that hideous cupboard.
Today I did and felt quite pleased with myself.
It also gave momentum.
Once that was behind me, I felt liberated to keep going with another tough task.
Or keep sketching!