Lost and found

One of the saddest sights in the world is watching someone put up posters of their lost pet. As I sat in my car waiting at the traffic lights yesterday, I watched as a man on a bicycle stopped at the intersection and stuck his lost dog poster up on a post. It looked like every other lost dog poster – printed out on A4 paper with the obligatory cute photo of poochie/turbo/fang. Only those cute photos are often so close up that you can’t quite tell what type of dog they are. Or the poor dog has red eye from the camera flash, so that your initial reaction is, ‘I hope I don’t run into that devil dog.’

I couldn’t help but feel the futility of the man’s little poster and as I glimpsed his face, he looked so forlorn and seemed to be on the verge of tears that my heart broke just a little bit.

Maybe he’ll find his dog. It happens. His lost poster may match up with someone’s found poster and he and his beloved dog will be reunited.

If only we could put up lost posters for other things we lose and have them returned to us - like friends, youth and the ability to backflip off a swing without breaking a limb.

The little things

Oh yeah, it's March, the month of noticing the little things.

The first pancake

Have you ever noticed that the first pancake of the batch tastes the best, even if it’s slightly misshapen, lumpy and odd? Some people don’t like the first pancake and throw it away. But I wish every pancake could be the first pancake. First pancakes are the best.

What I learned today...

When it’s hot, I want to draw pineapples.

Create or die

I’ve seen it before. I mean, it did come out in 2007, but I have to express my love for the movie Eagle vs Shark. Directed by Taika Waititi and starring Jermaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) and Loren Horsley, Eagle vs Shark captures something about relationships that we stop noticing as we become adults. I’m talking about when there was plenty of time to just hang out with each other, when we accepted idiosyncrasies readily and when we were unafraid to express our likes, dislikes and needs in plain and simple words.

Do you remember being a kid and having a friend come over for a visit? Do you remember showing off your prized possessions as a way of sharing yourself, proudly describing the origins, meaning or purpose of treasured objects? Well, when Jarrod shows Lily his unusual handmade candles and states, ‘I guess I’ve gotta keep creating or I’ll just die’, Lily is genuinely impressed. And so am I. You said it, Jarrod. You said it.

Slow down and listen

I could only get am radio. In my first car, that is. Music was a big deal to me back then and so, am radio troubled me. To me, it was out-dated, old and irrelevant. Out of sheer desperation I tried station after station. I listened to announcers who paused for way-too-long-between-sentences. I laughed as listeners rang up for talkback, giving their opinions on young people today in stern and cautionary voices.

As I slowly opened my ears, a strange thing happened. The more I listened, the more I fell in love with this slow paced world of am radio with its prepaid funeral package ads and community announcements for senior citizens. But it was the music that changed me. It had an innocence. The melodies and harmonies were more complex than I initially thought and the lyrics told a story that were sweet, sad, poignant and meaningful. The strange juxtaposition of a cheery melody against tales of losing a loved one to another just made my heart soar.

So the other day, years after my conversion to am radio I heard an announcer say this quote by someone unknown. ‘If you don’t stand for something, you could fall for anything.’ See what I mean, you can learn a lot from slowing down and taking your time to listen.

A job for the Queensland bottle tree

It happened. It really happened. It rained and rained. The wind was terrible. People were trapped, clasping onto whatever they could to stay afloat, above the water and safe. Awful, awful, awful. My thoughts go out to the families who have lost loved ones. If only this Queensland bottle tree could soak up and store some of that water and make it easier for everyone affected by the Queensland floods. I hope that sunny days reach you very soon.

Being a seed

Here are some seeds gathered whilst I went on a little walk recently. They were just hanging from their tree, very cleverly catching the sunlight as I passed. If I was going to be a seed, this is the seed I'd like to be. I’d travel nicely, fluttering from the tree on the breeze like a helicopter. Exhilarated, I’d duck and weave through grasses, tall branches and over rooftops until I landed sleekly on some soft, warm soil to begin my life as a tiny but determined tree.

Floating islands

Wouldn’t it be nice, to travel around the world on a whim so that you always had a different view? Sometimes being in the one place for too long can be a bit dull really. Whilst it’s good to put down roots, imagine being able to take your roots with you wherever you go. That’s exactly what these floating islands do. To satisfy their adventurous urges, floating islands are formed out of oxygen rich mud which vegetation can happily grow in. Often the plant roots grow right through the island and dangle underneath in the water. Sure, they may only travel around the pond, but when you’re an island and the pond is your world, the other side must seem pretty exciting.

Turning over a new leaf

Do you think it's possible, really, for a person to change? I've known people in their 90's who have told me that they still feel like the same person they were when they were 17. As for myself, I still like drawing and writing just as much as I did when I was a child. Cheesy, sentimental music can still bring tears to my eyes just like the first time I watched the movie 'Beaches' and left the cinema sobbing. And I have never, ever been able to tolerate the taste of caraway seeds. Yuck.

But even if some things about us always stay the same, there are other things we have choices about so that we can make changes. Just like this ornamental Manchurian pear tree leaf who chose to buck convention and wear stripes of different colours instead of the usual green. It’s still the same leaf, just with a fresh new style.

For the time being, I'm starting small. I'm taking my cues from nature. I may always shy away from caraway seeds, but I can try on some new stripes.

Party like it's 1999

When Prince suggested that we all party like it's the end of the millennium, I don't think he meant, 'go to bed at 10pm.' But that's how I party now that I'm a sleep deprived parent. Sleep is where it's at, sleep is the word, yep, sleep is my thing. So when New Years' Day began, I was refreshed and had the energy to write my resolution list for 2013. Now where did I put my parrot, and my eye patch, and my buried treasure...

Sandpipers

Quick, quick, over here.

OK, I’m coming.

Faster.

I said, I’m coming.

Move your legs super fast like me, so they look blurred.

Like this?

Yeah, that’s it. It will really freak those people out.

Are they looking?

Yeah. Keep going. That kid said he wants to pat us.

Well that’s not going to happen.

Ha, ha, ha. That’s right. We’re Sandpipers

Santa’s energy snack

This year at our house, this is what Santa will be eating. It’s all of our favourite foods. I’m sure he’ll share the apples with the reindeer, apparently he’s good that way.

Happy Christmas everyone!

The great Christmas windows debacle, 2012

Dear Bourke Street mall,

Today was a bit silly really, wasn’t it? Did you have to be that noisy, chaotic and crowded?

           

You probably think it’s OK to have a queue 500 people deep to see the Myer Christmas windows, but I don’t think that’s cool. And maybe for future reference, buskers might need to be spaced a bit further apart than 3 metres. I can still hear the violinist, the drummer and the guitarist playing their separate tunes all at once bouncing around in my head.

I wanted to show my son the Christmas window display and he missed out. I’m not feeling very merry or Christmassy now.  My nerves are shot.

So here is a drawing of a little Christmas apple tree with a pretzel on top to calm us both down.

Sincerely,

Jenni

(Ahhh, I feel better now. It's time to get in the spirit and share some Christmas cheer. I was especially impressed with Abbey Hendrickson's Christmas tree on Aesthetic Outburst. Her little tree collection is also something so very sweet and calming to have a look at if you've got a touch of Christmas madness!)

Hello Summer

Hello summer. You’re here. I forgot about your arrival. I was distracted with other things like the permafrost melting, sea levels rising and trying to find parking spots at the shops at Christmas time. Despite my worries, I’m ready for lazy days in hammocks and warm nights dreaming of palm trees and coconuts. I’ve made a start on the lemonade icy poles and soon I’ll be walking along beaches with impossibly white sand and turquoise waters. Thanks for the pineapples, and mangoes, ooh, and blueberries. Thank you especially for the blueberries…

Rabbit sisters

Once upon a time there were two sisters. One was, let’s say, nine and the other was seven. One day they went to a festival where they went on big trampolines. Because they were strapped into harnesses they were able to jump higher than they’d ever jumped before. It was like they were flying. Now and again, the girls would jump and spin around, upside down, squealing and shrieking. They were so excited that it was hard to tell if they were having fun or if they were terrified.

After their turns on the trampolines were over, the two sisters ran quickly towards each other.

‘Oh my god, that was the best fun I have ever had in my life! I loved it so much!’ said the older sister, breathlessly.

The younger sister spat out her words, ‘That was awful, I hated it. I don’t even know why you liked it so much.’

Without hesitation, the nine year old told her sister, ‘The reason I loved it so much was that I was doing it with you, and I love doing things with you. I thought maybe we could go and do it together again?’

‘I’m never doing it again, you can do it yourself.’ The younger sister was adamant.

So the sisters walked off together, away from the trampolines. Soon enough they were distracted by a ride down the big slide, which the older sister found boring and a turn on the dodgem cars which the younger sister thought was too noisy and jarring. Neither sister could agree on an activity.

When they found the baby farm animals, they went into the enclosure and each sat and held a lovely quiet rabbit.

‘I love this.’ The seven year old was beaming.

‘I love this too,’ said her sister.

They giggled, together.

Hair

Ok, here’s the thing. I’m vain about my hair. Which wouldn’t seem obvious really because I only get my hair cut about two or three times a year. It not like I look in the mirror constantly. It’s just that I like to know that my haircut is OK, then I don’t think about it. I don’t check it, I just leave it be. That’s why when I find a hairdresser I trust, I stick with them.

I’ve always been this way. As a very young girl, I remember taking over my ponytail duties because my mum just didn’t quite get it right. As an eight year old, I curled my long straight hair for a special event and my aunt was surprised that I felt the need to do it. When I was ten, my mum took me to her avant-garde hairdresser who gave me a cool asymmetrical style which I grew to hate as soon as the girls at school said it looked like a mistake.

In my early teens, I had a perm and was so distraught at the frizzy result that I ran shrieking down the hallway at home. When washing it several times didn’t dull the unwanted curls, I had it cut as short as I could. In my late teens, I shunned haircuts, growing my hair as long as I could, dyeing it a glossy black and adding coloured streaks to the front, just to be different, like everyone else.

By the time I was at uni, I was sick of my hair vanity and one late night at a friend’s house, with great drama, I chopped my long ponytail clean off at the hair band. The result was a surprisingly slick concave bob. After this I cut my own hair for a while. You can get away with it at art school. Then came dreadlocks, then the dreadlocks were cut off into a pixie cut, then years of various short hair styles, long again then short again…

Phew, it feels good to admit my hair vanity. And I know there are more important things in life to worry about. I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I suspect that we all have our funny little ways with our hair. Whether our hair is long, short, spiky, smooth, coloured, natural, curly, frizzy or shaved, I guess it’s all about having hair that makes us feel like us.

The Woodpecker

Sometimes it kinda feels like this, all day long. You know, peck, peck, peck peck, peck. My friend made the comparison over a cup of tea and I laughed when she said that she felt like a tree some days with three little woodpecker birds pecking at her. Yep, I know what she means.

Thankfully there are all the other times where our children amaze us with how absolutely exquisite they are and make us laugh at unexpected moments with the funny things they do. It makes the woodpecker days more bearable.

What if?

What if it rained cats and dogs and your socks got all wet,

Would you keep one to love as your very own pet?

What ifs are everywhere, go on, look all around,

Then give your inside thoughts an outside sound!