"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

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  • List # 10: Five Simple Household Items That Make Life Better

    List # 10: Five Simple Household Items That Make Life Better

    I’m not a person who is into things, but sometimes you find something that is so much better than the crappy thing you’ve been using for years, that you have to acknowledge it. Here are five things from our house that make my life easier. 2. My Microplane. This makes it so easy to get…

  • Good Things Friday

    Good Things Friday

    Have I mentioned before that I was inspired by Elisabeth identifying her “Happy Things Friday” posts as a “Sabbath practice” to regard these posts as my own Sabbath practice? Wirzba’s emphasis on delight in his book Living the Sabbath prompted me once again to think about these posts in the context of Sabbath living, leading…

  • Good Things Friday

    Good Things Friday

    This week, I had a laze around and eat weekend at Noosa, with lots of good food and good views. G had a solid run in the Noosa half-marathon in preparation for the Gold Coast Marathon in July. He’s nursing an Achilles injury, and we’re hoping it holds up until then so he can get…

  • This or That

    This or That

    A little post loosely inspired by “there are two types of people” memes. I tend towards the right side, although I have never actually run out of petrol. This caused a bit of angst to my eldest when we shared a car, and she hopped in the car, and the fuel was less than one-third…

  • List #7: Places I’ve Lived

    I have never lived outside Melbourne. We currently live the furthest I ever have from where I was born which was the William Angliss Hospital in Ferntree Gully—31 km away. Here’s the list in order of all the places I’ve lived Have you lived in lots of different houses? Do you still live near where…

  • In the Garden October 2023

    Now it’s Spring everything is taking off in the garden. When I planted it last year I chose a mainly purple, yellow and white flowering scheme. The long-purple flags went in after they would have flowered so this is the first time I’ve been able to enjoy their flowering. They tend to flower in one…

  • In the Garden August 2023

    I pottered around the garden today and marvelled at how much more pleasant it is to garden in mild weather. Even though it is still officially winter here we are having a spring weather day so at least for today I didn’t come back into the house with freezing hands. I even had lunch outside…

  • In the Garden July 2023

    The garden is growing pretty slowly at the moment with the cooler weather, although my peas are a bit wild. The cages keep getting blown crooked in the wind. It’s hard to see from here, but they are varieties that have beautiful pink and purple flowers. I’ve harvested a small bowl of veggies each week…

  • In the Garden April 2023

    The garden continues to grow well. Some of the lilly pillys are only about 30cm off the top of the fence. The pond area, which was partially dug up by our dog this month, looks to be surviving. The plants that I had to dig out of the pile of dirt survived, and it looks…

  • Bi-Yearly Wardrobe Check-Up Part 2

    My four drawers contain: This is my drawer of sports clothes. I usually run four times and do a session of gym and pilates a week. My running-specific bottoms all have decent-sized pockets to carry my phone and fuelling on longer runs Hanging on a hook in our hallway: Running cap The next drawer down…