Well, life has returned to normal. Not because we moved, but because we decided against that house. It all started to look a bit dodgy and we had good advice that the owner may be preparing to put the property back on the market. So we’re cooling the house hunt for a while.
All in all, I am pleased; it is nice to focus on normal every day tasks again.
All’s well, that ends well.
Somehow I stumbled through the thicket that is twitter and found this adorable button shop on Esty – http://www.etsy.com/people/beanforest. I love so many of them. Some are sweet, or funny, or ironic. I feel like I could really enjoy talking with the mind behind these creations.
Here are the links to some of my favourites ~
Something terrible is gonna happen I’m hardcore
Icarus, I understand Don’t hug snowflakes Marco Polo
pew, pew, pew (lasers) Ping Pong I am the protagonist/antagonist
pencil them in for the ides of march and perhaps my most favourite Rarr Rarr Rarr I am the minotaur
So the big decision about the house has been made. Obviously, as a renter, it isn’t a decision on the same scale as buying a house. But all the same, when I look at all my stuff around me, I wonder what I could be thinking, by wanting to move to a smaller house. Simplifying your possessions is meant to be good for the soul, though, isn’t it? And there are many positives about the situation, and so we will proceed.
Well, we will proceed when a key can be aquired to open the door, that is. We still need to see inside, so we can double check whether we really-truly want the place.
While waiting for news about the key, we did keep looking at other houses on the ‘Net. There was one in particular that I always kept in the back of my mind; we looked it up and decided it had merit. We called, and got the a-okay to visit and so off we went to find it. We drove deep into the State forest to get there even faster. The road took us high up into the hills behind the towns we knew, and deep into old farming country. It is the sort of place where the names on the properties match the streets they are located on.
There is a wildness to the countryside up there. The earth is a Saharan Desert red, from the volcanic soil. And towering over the already tall hills, are jagged edged volcanic mountains which look as if they’ve been plucked directly from the set of a science fiction movie like Jurassic Park or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The farms along these back roads have much charm and character. We drove past rusty retired tractors, century-old cattle crushes, full dams, and a herd of gorgeous newborn calves and their mother’s. All the things you might expect from this time worn landscape.
However, while getting very close to our intended destination, and creeping along to find the right street number, I couldn’t have expected to see a fully grown male peacock in the neighbour’s drive way!
With it’s massive and majestic tail of iridescent plumage. I have never seen such a big beautiful peacock, with such a full tail. But there it was; shimmering blues and green and purples, as it stood there, a living jewel, on a dirt-track drive way, along a hidden dirt road.
After pausing just a moment, it turned away from us gracefully, as if to return to the house after its daily check of the maibox. And in an instant, we had driven on, and it was gone.
Why does the thought of moving house give me such conflicting feelings of excited anticipation and nervous trepidation? Two such jumbly-jangly feelings should not be forced to shake hands with each other and be friends.
But deciding where to live is quite a big responsibility. I mean, just imagine moving to Rome, Paris, or New York for instance. An extreme example for sure, but consider whether they would provide you with the happy dream-like existence you may have often longed for. Would you feel like you were Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely if you could?
Well, it’s something no one can fully know, unless they’ve tried it out. I think the biggest part of such an adventure, is the first internal ‘yes’. That quiet (or loud) knowing feeling that ‘Yes, I really could go there and do that’ etc. If we really said that special ‘yes’ to ourselves more often, and followed through with certainty, we might all lead the most whackiest of lives. And some people certainly do.
As for me, I won’t be moving to Paris tomorrow. But hopefully, I might be moving from the sticks, into town.. well, the edge of the edge of town, to be exact. The distance isn’t very far, but the difference could prove to be enormous!
Nothing more has happened beyond the initial decision being made. And the rest will turn out, how it will turn out. But my toes are over the edge. And I’ll feel all jittery until I know where I’ve landed.
Recently one evening, while we were driving home from town, a car approaching us repeatedly flashed its headlights. Usually that would mean we must immediately slow down because there is a crash up ahead, or a Police speed trap.
The urgency of this particular driver’s headlight flickering, made me really concerned that we were about to round the corner and be confronted by a dangerous multiple car accident.
Sure as eggs, around the bend we went, and ahead of us were three cars parked on the left hand side of the road, and a fourth on the right hand side. People were milling around the edges of the road. And at first I thought they must be exchanging insurance details, and I looked for car damage. But after slowing right down, we could see that everyone was very carefully watching a small furry grey figure walk slowly from the middle of the road, over to the relative safety of the paddock beyond the road’s edge.
It was a lone koala, small and thin, crossing the road in it’s own time, and with it’s own awkward little lumbering gait.
How precious; how special.
There are many signs along this road to warn drivers that koalas do cross this road. But in seven years of living here, this was the first time I had seen one actually attempting it. And it was a slow process – koalas aren’t designed for speed-walking, or dodging traffic. So the half dozen people who stopped to shepherd this young koala’s journey across the road, were right to take such care.
It was a rare and special event to see a koala. And so heart-warming to see a group of caring locals, unselfishly work with this rare little marsupial, to get it to safety. Because, at that time of evening, with night falling quickly, and everyone rushing to get home, it could all have turned out differently. But all was well this time.
If only we could always be so successful at keeping the small and vulnerable, safe in this busy world.
I blame Masterchef Australia for my renewed obsession with food.
Well, to be strictly honest, I was interested in food before, but now they’ve got me feeling all jazzed about breaking my how-many-dishes-can-I-make-in-one-go record. Before today it was two proper (previously unknown) out of the book dishes. But, ta-da! Today I managed to make three at once!
I made
The friands were light and yummy, the cookies chewy and morish, but the kiwi meringue pie only got a 50/50 approval rating. I am not sure if the problem was from including kiwi fruit, which made it all too sweet. Or because I used the wrong sort of flour, leaving it unable to set.
Hmm.. nevermind though as, it wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t experiment.
