Thursday 25 October 2012

Connecting on Different Levels

Still sick, but determined to be with friends tomorrow for dancing and laughing. I'll just sleep lots tonight and not drink. I haven't really drunk alcohol all year, opting instead for mineral water, but recently I've not been so good. Just this last month I haven't been good.

Next door my neighbours at the 'groove pad' are playing T. Rex and it's making me jealous! I want to go knock on their door and ask to join in. One of the great things that my mum passed on to me was freedom through dance. To turn up the music and loose yourself in it. Music is so completely connected to emotion, and for me it's a spiritual thing. Like entering a new level feeling. Throughout my life my mum and I have danced together; as a baby she would hold me in her arms. As a toddler, coming back to her after staying with my dad, one of the first things we would do was play music, dance and just laugh together. Happiness, sharing the joy, and our love.

Have you noticed that when you dance with someone completely freely you become closer? Form a sort of bond. I have a few friendships that I can say have been strengthened through dance, haha!

Some of my friends say I dance like a 'hippy', but I don't think they really know what a 'hippy' is. Hippy is just a word that a lot of people say, and I think capitalism has stereotyped what 'hippy' is. Its become a brand that people use to sell, and to conveniently segregate a set of beliefs. I just dance how my mum taught me to. With no reservations.

The times I feel most alive are when in nature or when dancing.

Now my favourite T. Rex song, which I feel is strangely perfect for this post. :D


Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Joys of a Train Station

Tonight I sit sick in bed, but the other day, on the weekend, I wandered gleefully around in the spring brilliance.

Off to meet my team-mates (friends) for the 48 hour film contest, (a project that is now done and dusted!) I walked to the station to be met with this glorious sight.


The station had come alive with flowers and greenery!



I love this contrast of the ordinary and mundane with the beautiful and overgrown poking out.



And cacti! I don't know how they got there, but they were extraordinary and covered a whole portion on the hill!


Even lavender, which the bees were getting in on, and why wouldn't they? Such a lovely plant.


Getting down with the growth.


There was just so much of it. :)


Used to have some of these in my garden growing up, such great plants to play with and make all sorts of made-up witch's potions...


There's something about palm trees. So exotic, we don't have them in Canberra (too cold!) and they still strike me with their outlandish structure.


Oh here comes the train!


Last glimpse of the spectacle.


And off I go to the city! Thank-you world for this little, blissful, pick-up.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Warm days, Cold Days, Birthdays and The moon

So, here's catching up with a few photos taken over some time. Documentation of my life, but one's that haven't made it into a post of their own!

A last minute decision to go to a dress-up birthday meant that I got dressed in 30mins and rushed out into the night (to a bowls club)! Having recently watched the 5th season of Mad Men I was a little bit sixties inspired and, although it's not that standout, I was happy with what I was able to pull together.



dress: my housemate's
boots: my mum's old boots, which she got from e-bay
necklace: made from the chain of a necklace given to me, and a bracelet given to me by my nanna, many years ago
bead bracelet: bough from a market in America (originally bought it for my cousin, but fell in love with it and got her something different)




I feel the need to point out that this is not my room and hence, not my mess. ;)




Me trying to smile and take a picture. Evidently I find it hard to multitask.


The party was fun, but took ages to get to! I'm glad I ended up going. I had some good talks and caught up with a different crowd.

The weather is, as always, unsettled. It seems that it wants to be sunny and warm one day, and then the complete opposite the next.

The mid-morning sun streaming into my room!


And making it's way into the bathroom too!



The afternoon sun calls for lazy sun beam watching on the couch.


But then! The storm clouds come...







And I guess you saw the full moon a while back, it kept me up all night.



A bright guiding light. Safe adventures to all!

Monday 15 October 2012

Seeds and Light

As is usual for most weekend mornings, I went into my flatmates room to sit on her bed and talk about, oh, nothing in particular. This is what greeted me as I looked out the window. Sun, shining through the new green leaves. I love that bright, fresh colour of new growth, it's magical! With clumps of seeds hanging all over the tree, the promise of life.



Here I was tired and wanting to be home already, but I looked up and noticed one of the things I love about living in Melbourne. It's wide (low rise) streets. You can't really see it here, but many of the buildings are actually quite lovely. The light was perfect for the mood of the street. I think places have moods, don't they?



The sky! The colours! The light!



I just like the top of this building. I love copper. It defies the idea of new always being best. As it ages and weathers it only gets more beautiful, in a different way.


When tired and grumpy, I must remember to look around. :)

Skype-ing with Friends


Us. Laughing. Brightening up my day. :)

Sunday 14 October 2012

A State of Constant Change



And there are some days that just feel down.

Like missed opportunities surround you.

Maybe you've disappointed yourself.

Maybe he didn't even notice you today.

Promising things end in nothing.

And everything is your fault.

Friday 5 October 2012

Spring Dresses, Spring Showers

Currently I am sitting in bed, listening to the tranquil pitter-patter of the rain outside.

I slept in after a late night with friends, drinking and talking - at times dancing. When I woke up my house was not as messy as I had anticipated it to be, and now I am having a slow morning. The air is cool and the light is soft. Later I think I might go to the movies and just sit and enjoy myself. :)




I've been wanting to see this ever since MIFF came to town, oh so long ago now...

. . .

Here is a photo of my first Spring dress for the season. No leggings! No cardigans! It's an exciting transition.



(I understand that this is a terrible outfit photo, but my excitement was too much! It was originally intended for my housemate, taken in her room too, who has been visiting Canberra for about a week now, but I will share it with you.)

Thursday 4 October 2012

Growing Plants On The Cheap

I'm a student, which means I have to keep a constant eye on my money. Make sure I've got enough to pay for rent/Internet/electricity/food. Anything left over I try to save because I want to travel at some point and so other nice things, things that I may want for the pleasure of it, are a rare treat. Probably not as rare as I'm making it out to be, but it always feels as if I'm having to walk away from things... maybe I just fall in love with too many things.

In general I try to reduce my purchasing anyway, always trying to be less materialistic... but I've made that into another post, it got too long and this post is about plants!

The point is, I may be a student and extra careful with my spending, but I think most people are constantly on the look out to save, and so here you have it:


How to grow plants... for (basically) nothing!

It's spring here, the time of year that people become interested in plants again. Every second catalogue is selling all sorts of marvellous things to set you off in the right direction for growing!

For a while now I've been collecting cans. Tomato cans, lentil cans, chickpea cans, you name it, but I've only been keeping the ones with interesting labels. These ones tend to cost a little more, but if your supermarket has a sale, then superb! So this is where you might spend a little money. Although, seeing as you are primarily getting food from the can I'm not even sure if I would count this as a cost. The saved cans will be used as pots for the plants.

(Yeah, what can I say? We eat a lot of beans - but such a staple to have in the cupboard for the vegetarian eater!)


I put holes in the bottom of my saved cans to allow for water to drain out. To do this I used a screw, a screw driver and a wooden spoon (in lieu of our mysterious disappearing hammer).



Ah yes, the plastic lid - to muffle the sound of the hammering into the can reverberating through the concrete.

The screw was 'hammered' into the tin can until a hole was made, and then screwed further in with the screw diver to make a bigger hole. No need to screw it all the way in (in fact don't do this as it can be difficult to get out), just to the part where the screw gets thicker.

At that point I got my soil ready, it was just dirt that was from the grounds around my apartment. I found that the richest dirt came from under the tree near where the bins are kept - as if often the case.

The plants I got from around the place; from cuttings or from the ground; from the gardens of friends, neighbours, local areas or from the small garden down the back.



There's parsley in amongst all of that! I discovered there were quite a few parsley plants that had grown through the weeds, they must have seeded off earlier plants. I like the idea of the plants growing wild, but for the sake of a pot plant close to the kitchen, dug one of them up and transported it.



Now this is a bit of a strange sight! It's a trick my dad taught me, to immerse a newly potted plant in water (the water really should go up a bit higher so that it runs over the top of the can/pot). The plant must stay in there until all of the air bubbles escape. It's a massive booster to plants, and has brought many a plant,  weakened by drought, back from the dead! Really, truly try it sometime!


So here they all are: mint, tomatoes and parsley. I moved them from their original positions (as seen in my first post) afraid that they might get knocked over. Plus here they get the morning and a little bit of afternoon sun, the best type of sun!




For a little while the outer stems of the parsley were turning yellow and dying, and I thought that maybe the parsley wouldn't make it. But then one morning, a week or so later, I came out to find...



this! A new set of leaves opening up to the world. Yay, my parsley was growing!

It has only continued to grow since, and the mint is starting to rocket up too!





So there you have it folks. Happy seasonal adventures!