Snapshot Sunday: Signs of Spring
A Photo A Week: Yellow
Mellow Yellows
This is the perfect time for yellows. My daffodils are all in full bloom. I do love daffodils, the big King Alfreds are my favourites but I have other varieties too.
As it is still winter here we also have wattle in bloom. A bus driver I used to know used to say “When you see the wattle you’ll see the snow.” I always think of that in August and sure enough, although we’ve not had low-level snow this month we have had falls on the mountains.
I’m very partial to yellow flowers. Here are some more.
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trees
As Lovely As A Tree
I think that I shall never see
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
A poem lovely as a tree.
I haven’t managed to join in any of Cee’s Challenges for a couple of weeks. I never seem to be ready with a post in time but this week I am determined even if it has to be photos from the archives like this one of my beloved apple tree.
Oak Trees on the Parliament House lawns. 
Oak trees growing on the Parliament Lawns, Hobart 
An autumn evening – Murray Street, Hobart. 
Seen through the bus window. 
Autumn colours in New Norfolk 
I took this in a park in New Norfolk 
Poplar trees near my house.
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RDP: Grass
The Grass is Greener
One of the things I like most about living in Tasmania is that I can have a green lawn. I used to live in South Australia and as if the hot, dry, grass killing summers were not bad enough, our house was built on a block composed basically of limestone. After several tries, we gave up trying to grow a lawn and had bark chips, pavers and ground cover plants.
My lawn is not one of those beautiful smooth lawns like a bowling green or a golf course but it is grass. Personally, I like the daisies mixed in with the grass. They remind me of my childhood in England making daisy chains with mum.
What would sportsmen do without grass? As I write this I’m watching cricket on television from Lords Cricket Ground in London. The state of the grass is a big deal in cricket. Will the wicket be bouncy, flat or two-paced? Will the outfield be fast or wet and slippery? In the tennis world, everyone talks about the grass courts at Wimbledon, another iconic British sporting arena. All codes of football are played on grass that often turns to mud in winter. It’s a lot less painful to play football on grass but I know of a team who plays on a gravel surface in Queenstown, Tasmania
I think it is important that every city has green space. Those quiet places you can go to enjoy a bit of nature amongst the concrete and steel. Especially if you are not fortunate enough to have a garden of your own.
Of course, if all else fails you could always buy some astroturf and have fake grass.
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Share Your World 2019: 12 August
QUESTIONS:
What makes you laugh?
When Naomi and I get together we laugh about all sorts of things, quite a few of them you just had to be there for and even then you’d have to be us to see the humour. Quite often her laughing will set me off as well. Pets are very funny too, the things they do often make me laugh. There are a lot of movies and TV shows that make me smile but once in a while, one comes along that really makes me laugh out loud. I always laughed at “The Muppet Show” for instance. I have favourite books that make me laugh out loud too. Gerald Durrell writing about his family in books like “My Family and Other Animals, The Picnic and “Fillets of Plaice” (even the name makes me laugh), Betty MacDonald writing about hers in “The Egg and I” and especially “Anybody Can Do Anything”. Really old books but still funny I think.
What’s the world coming to? (Credit to Mel of Crushed Caramel…)
I don’t know but something a lot less funny than being demolished by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspatial bypass.
In one sentence sum up the Internet.
The internet may be both the best and the worst thing ever invented.
If over time you replace parts on a car, at what point does it stop being the same car you bought? How many parts do you need to replace to make it a new car?
This is “Grandfather’s Axe” for a new generation. My answer is that it will never be a new car because unless you replaced all the parts at once there will still be older parts. Is it the same car? Well, the folks at the DMV think so, don’t they?
Gratitude is an attitude. Yea or nay? Explain your viewpoint, please!
Yes, I think it is. You can choose to be grateful for what you have even if it’s not much or you can choose not to. When I say gratitude I guess I mean appreciation. I often say in these posts that I’m grateful for my home, my family and friends, pets, nature etc. I focus on those things because I think it better for me to focus on what’s good in my life than what is bad. Now in my case, there is more good than bad so it’s not so hard but I could focus on not having my husband anymore, a job or a decent income. I choose not to. I’d just be making myself unhappy. I imagine that if you are living in a slum or a detention centre it’s a lot harder to find anything to be grateful for but maybe even more necessary for your mental well-being.
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RDP: Fear
Fear
Like most of us, I have fears that may seem irrational to others. I have a fear of falling that prevents me from doing things like changing lightbulbs, getting on to escalators without panicking and going up or down a steep flight of steps. As I have grown older it has become worse. I can’t even ride on the top deck of a bus now because I’m afraid of going down steep steps backwards.
Things like going to the doctor or to visit a government department also make me feel fearful but in a different way. I feel like there is a big stone in my chest. I do what I have to do but really I just want to run away.
I am lucky though that I don’t have to experience the fears that many people have to face every day. The fear of being hungry, of having nowhere to sleep at night. I do think about this one a lot because I know that it can happen to anyone. A bit of bad luck, illness or debt and suddenly you are out on the street.
Imagine what that would feel like, losing your home. Suddenly all you have in the world is what you can carry with you. The night is coming and you don’t have enough money to rent even the cheapest room for the night. How do you sleep out in the open? How will you keep warm? How will you prevent your stuff from being stolen if you do manage to sleep? How do you protect your family when there is nowhere to go? How do you live with that fear every day maybe for years?
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In Steam
Tasmanian Government Railways locomotive C22 in steam at the Tasmanian Transport Museum.
