Taking new photographs has been a challenge this winter. I haven’t been out and about with the camera much and sometimes I get tired of taking photographs of things around the house. So I decided that for this week’s challenge I would take at least one new photo to share each day.
Friday: one of my potted daffodils.
Friday: Daffodil
Saturday: I call these my surprise bulbs. Every year I replant the bulbs in my pots by the garden shed when they die off. I’m never sure if they will grow so when they do it’s a nice surprise. These are last year’s bulbs.
Sunday: Nope, sorry no picture. I was busy pruning the roses for the best part of the day as it was sunny. When I decided to pack it in it rained.
Monday: I was tidying up the school textbooks at the Op Shop and took a photo for our Facebook page. A lot of local parents homeschool and I created the shelf to help them find materials.
Tuesday: I spent an hour or two cleaning dolls, some of my own and some for the Op Shop. This is one who is going back to the shop. She is a Disney Princess, probably Belle.
What would be your solution to the over-population of the earth? Earth has finite resources and humanity seems to be breeding themselves to extinction. Some countries have tried restricting the number of children a couple or a person can have, with little success. So what other viable options are there for reducing the number of people?
I don’t agree with restricting the number of children a person can have. It did not work very well for China. I do think that people should practice birth control and consider whether they can support a family. Honestly, I think in this day and age having six or more children is impractical for many people. In older times child mortality rates were higher and contraception not available so it was natural to have large families.
Birth control on its own is not going to solve the problem though. We need to be more mindful of using the resources we have and yes maybe we do need to start thinking about the space program again. One day this poor old Earth will wear out and we will need somewhere to go although knowing us we’ll probably want someone else’s planet rather than find our own.
Okay, the rest will be ‘recycled’ questions. I got a Sunshine Blogger Award recently and I thought some of the questions on that post were kinda nifty. So “recycle”!
What’s invisible but you wish people could see?
If we really do have auras it would be interesting if we could see them. It would certainly help with determining people’s moods.
What’s the most ridiculous fact you know?
I know a lot of facts, many ridiculous but I don’t have instant recall so I’ll pass on this one.
What are the unwritten rules of where you work? If you don’t work (retired or unemployed) what are the unwritten rules you live your life by?
At the Op Shop where I volunteer several days a week, the unwritten rule is that you never refuse to accept a donation. Our little shop is not run by a national charity, it’s run by local people for local people and we rely on their donations so we don’t want them to think we don’t value what they bring or that we have too much of an item. If they stopped bringing things we’d have nothing to sell.
How do you feel about putting pineapple on pizza?
I don’t have a problem with it.
Toilet paper, over or under?
I worked in a hotel where we were required to put it over with corners folded to form a point. I still do over but don’t do the fold unless there is a house inspection and I’m feeling fussy.
What’s the best type of cheese?
There is no best type of cheese, except maybe cheese you don’t have to pay for. Everyone likes different types of cheese or if they are lactose intolerant no cheese at all.
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.
Winter Wattle
I’m very partial to yellow flowers. Here are some more.
yellow flowers in springtime.Rose and buds, the same bushJonquils 2019
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.
photo from Flickr use Porcupiny
In one sentence sum up the Internet.
The internet may be both the best and the worst thing ever invented.
Photo: Elias Schwerdtfeger Flickr 2014
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.
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.
These were once Sydney’s oldest moving stairs. They are wooden and were only replaced in the last year or so. I think this was at Town Hall Station but I can’t remember for sure now.
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?
Tributes left for Wayne “Mouse” Perry, a homeless man who was murdered near this spot.
Although you don’t hear it as much now the expression “Fair Dinkum” is one that most older Aussies know, even transplanted ones like me. Well, I have been here more than fifty years now.
Crocodile Dundee photo Miller Hats, Flickr
Every country has its own slang words and expressions and often we use them without thinking how strange they probably sound to people from other parts of the world. My understanding of “dinkum” is that it means something is the real deal, for example, Crocodile Dundee was meant to represent a dinkum Aussie bloke.
An Aussie would say “Fair dinkum” to reinforce that what he/she was telling you was the truth or by changing the inflection use it as a question. “Fair dinkum?” (Is that true?”)
A long time ago I read a book called “They’re a Weird Mob”. It’s the story of an Italian journalist who is sent to Australia to write articles for an Italian magazine about Australia. Nino, the protagonist, thinks he speaks very good English but when he arrives in Sydney he finds he can hardly understand a word anyone is saying to him. Taking a job as a builders labourer he makes friends and gradually learns to think and speak like an Aussie. The author was, in fact, an Australian by the name of John O’Grady who wrote it in 1957. The book was made into a movie in 1966. Here’s a scene. Of course, it looks very dated now.
While I don’t entirely agree with O’Grady that migrants should forget their own culture and embrace that of their new home I did like the book very much. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts Naomi and I worked with many Europeans who came to Australia around the time that the book was written. I believe that our culture has benefited from them bringing some of theirs with them. It’s why we have a wine industry, restaurants serving food from all around the world and colourful fairs and festivals to enjoy. Those people’s children who were born in Australia and their grandchildren are as Australian as any of us.
I think that movies, television and social media have homogenised our language. Young people in Britain, Australia and the USA use more of the same words and expressions. Only the accents differ. I can’t help feeling that’s a little sad because I rather like “strine”.
