July: gutters and art.

It's the 12 August, a Monday night, I'm in a motel in Leeton, and I think I MUST take the chance now to blog July or it wont happen. I already can't remember any significant thoughts. I had a quick glance and my photo. I wont post pictures of the dead bugs in my skylight before I cleaned it (which has improved my baths a lot, not looking at a bug cemetery), or the tip of my finger I almost cut off trying to cut pumpkin, or the samples of different gutter mesh I've recorded. That pretty much sums up the first half of July. I had a lot of baths, I cooked a lot of soup, and I got obsessed with keeping leaves out of my gutters.

I also got obsessed with how to clean the cement grout of my indoor tiles. The whole back living area. I've done small test patches. I've recently decided to commit to a long handled scrubber and do it myself manually.

As mentioned, I was bathing for relaxation. I also had permission to take a flex day every 2 weeks to destress. And decided I'm in too much in a stuffy rut, obsessing about floors and gutters and working in my dumpy office while other people have interesting lives, and I need to get out and about more. So one day I had a flex I decided to do a long walk. I considered walking to Morpeth, but the weather was unpredictably rainy, so I went over to newcastle and walked on the breakwall and around the foreshore to the ocean pool where I bought a scollop for lunch.

Then I had a brainwave, I was in town on a weekday! So the violin shop was open! And I bought a cello stand and a music stand.

The housemate bedroom is now the cello room, all properly set up. My previous arrangement was the small spare room, cello lying on floor or bed, and music propped on my easel.

On another flex, mum and I went to the picture framers to frame some little bird things, and there was new dogs!

I finally went to a school working bee where we have church, and I taped these stairs for painting. I remember on that day I also went for a walk in the morning with Fi, which is a new thing we've started doing on Saturday mornings sometimes, and visited mum and dad, which I'm doing more regularly now mum is sick. I've decided that feeling in a rut is a good reason to be around people more whatever the reason. The temptation is to go "I'm exhausted from all this stress I need to rest" but actually I think its better for me to rest around people, walking and jillian and cups of tea with mum and dad. Better for my mood and nicer all round. I no longer have Netflix anyway, since Coralie moved out. So anyway here are the church working bee stairs which I didn't really enjoy doing but it was good to turn up and help.

In the school holidays some home group gals went out for dinner at one of the fanciest restaurants in Maitland, which specialises in native ingredients. This tasty chocolate mousse has fancy native berries and things in it, and came in a spectacular cloche of mist.

Another church social thing was a Mafia night that I went along to with mostly younger people. I had a great time, though I wouldn't play it regularly, its too stressful. It might be interesting to do Mafia as a game with work people.

Speaking of work, au revoir office buddy Kate. We had a farewell lunch before she moved to Brisbane. I painted a card.

But don't worry, I saw Kate again soon!

I've had a few chances to get out of the office and brush up on my photography skills, one was taking photos of fences around the farm, and the other was a pasture field day at Singleton. I got some really good photos on the DSLR, this is just on my phone but you can see it was farmers and tractors and stuff. And windy.

I offered to get a short haircut with mum, because the chemo is thinning her hair, but she opted to keep her length, so I went for a long overdue bob. There was a new french bulldog puppy! Weird but delightful.

I bought the perfect vase for my youngest sisters 30th.

I also added 2 nice terracotta pots to my garden from Facebook Marketplace, the best shop ever. One will have my mulberry tree, the other might be a blueberry bush.

I don't see my middle sister as much as I should, so we had lunch at Greenhills. It was a busy day, buying the perfect vase and the 2 pots and other efficient shopping errands before walking to lunch and back, and then I remember being really tired. I sometimes get exhausted when I push myself now.

Probably the highlight of the month was going to Brisbane for the sisters 30th. I flew on a Thursday night, she picked me up and showed me her new unit. She went to work leaving me her bus card and instructions on how to get to the city (to see the locations of Harrow! However, she has a north facing balcony and a good collection of books so I stayed home until noon. I didn't take any nice pictures unfortunately. Just this one to show how close the shops and restaurants are.

So I got on a bus to the city and got off just before going over the river where it said Southbank on my phone map, and low and behold I saw a billboard for a Margaret Olly exhibition. The art gallery area is a bit like Canberra though, you are in front of a giant concrete box but where is the door, oh that's the museum not the art gallery, the map says the art gallery is somewhere in this block, Ok just have to walk around the outside until I find a door. I first found the art gallery cafe, where I had a nice sandwich and kept reading the book (an Emily Rodda YA fantasy trilogy), then I spotted the GOMA in the distance.

It was fabulous, there was a Ben Quilty exhibition that I skimmed through and really liked. 

And then I went to the Margaret Olly space, and I was unexpectedly overcome with emotion. I have no idea why, but the sort of reaction I expect to have for Monet and have never had, hit me when I walked in, and eventually I cried a bit. I don't have a particular love of M.O., I just remember her name and art from school. Every exhibition like this makes me want to paint more, that's a part of it. A longing to be like her. I also liked her gloomy cluttery interiors which were somehow bright and alive. Such a contrast to the all pervading scandi style where everything is light and pale. And I could see that she really loved what she painted. She painted her favourite flowers over and over and over. She painted the flowers, and also the wall behind the flowers with her beloved art pieces and nick nacks, and behind that, around the corner, a family member at work on everyday things. Layers of everyday beauty and art and life.

I still really want to paint some walls in my house dark green now. I wish I had high ceilings to make it work.

It was lovely to see Kate! We walked Waffle.

And we had dinner with my aunt and uncle.

This is family cryptic crossword time. I don't get into it myself but I like that others do.

Then we saw Heathers, the musical.

On Saturday, back to the balcony and the reading. Then the 30th in the park by the river!

An excellent game of finska to mix family and work and church friends.

I couldn't get a good photo on my phone, but I love how these fig trees have leaves in big clumps like grapes or wisteria.

On Sunday, we went to Sojurn, Hs church, which was small but great. Would repurchase if I lived in Brisbane. We had lunch at this cafe that does sausages and hash browns, then I flew home.

I've been slowing life down in the mornings and having fancy egg on sourdough type breakfasts with a cup of tea, sitting in the sun and savouring the tea and the sunshine before work.

I'll probably go into it more in August blog, but I have decided not to stress about anything for the rest of the year. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I am really practicing this, because I can feel the stress under the surface ready to pour out again when triggered. So I am consciously turning my thoughts away from the things of tomorrow, where pre-planning turns into anxiety, and giving a moment to God in prayer and putting tomorrow back in his hands. Today was a day I did a lot of stressful things (driving to Sydney airport for example) and the week ahead is one that I have been dreading and just want it to be over, but I have been letting go of it. It could be a lovely week! I'm just going to turn up prepared, and see what happens, and enjoy that I am somewhere different.

I was worried I wouldn't have anything to write, so late after July, but its always worth reflecting.