It’s a lovely feeling when it’s done! But my current marking is still firmly in the ‘present’ tense, so when it comes to writing this blogpost I’m rather time-poor, I’m afraid.
So here’s a photo Mum found the other week – me when I was 5, in Bristol, England – for you to smile at:
and I’ll see you next week, dear Reader!
Yes, that’s right. The 2024 school year starts back tomorrow. It’s been a wonderful holiday… not the least of it due to family gaming time.
Decades ago now, Hubby was an addicted gamer, to the extent that I was a ‘computer widow’. Since I couldn’t beat him, I joined him, and once multiplayer games became a thing (yes, I did mention ‘decades’, didn’t I) we had some pretty amazing sessions, some of which bordered on the truly epic.
Fast forward to sometime in 2021, I introduced our son to Caesar II and the Age of Empires franchise. Fast forward again to the 2023 / 2024 summer holidays: we had our own Mum-Dad-two-teenagers slaughterfest on AoEIV (Anniversary Edition) where it was me getting slaughtered, Hubby barely hanging on, and our daughter (who’d only just started playing two days earlier) just narrowly being beaten by our reigning champion son. Hours and hours and hours of fun was had! And humbling experiences too, I must admit, for me, as well as Hubby…
Seeing my little computer villagers building castles got me inspired to also spend some time re-reading one of my favourite trilogies: The Heaven Tree series, written by Edith Pargeter (who also wrote as Ellis Peters, of the Bather Cadfael series). The protagonist is a master mason who dedicates his life (literally… he gets killed as soon as its done) to building of a castle on the English border with Wales. It’s a magnificent story, and the writing style is sublime 🙂
And then, to bring it all ‘into the real world’ as it were, this showed up in my Facebook feed:
What a simply stunning piece of architecture! Isn’t it inspiring that someone had the courage to design such magnificence – let alone the bravery of the people who built it (and maybe even, who lived there!)
Anyway, I just wanted to share these thoughts with you, some reflection time, just prior to heading into the chaos of this school year.
Happy first week back of school, dear Reader!
I can’t remember if I’ve blogged about my chainsaw before, but I was looking at it just now (I’m out gardening aka clearing scrub) and realised it’s probably the tool I love best.
Apart from my phone, of course, which I’m blogging on as I sit here looking at my chainsaw.
Because it’s just so incredibly handy (the Stihl chainsaw, that is. Not the phone – although that is too!) And easy to use. And lightweight. And no matter how roughly I treat it (oil? What oil?) it still works.
I love it!
Here’s hoping you have a love-ful day as well, dear Reader!
My house is surrounded by trees. I love it! But sometimes it can be a little dangerous. When the tree which is closest to your house dies and then falls over, for example. Which is exactly what happened last week.
Fortunately, we had an angel at my place when it fell. No, we have no human witness to this fact, but I’m convinced of this fact nevertheless. The tree, you see, hit the ground.
As in, just the ground. Not the house, not the large green water tank nor the small one behind it, not the clothes line behind the tanks, not even the garden! There was one angle and one angle only at which this tree could fall and not hit anything – and this angle is EXACTLY where the tree fell.
It hit the ground in the best possible place. And our dogs and birds got to enjoy the show (and weren’t hit either!)
So, THANK YOU Lord for the angel who was at my house… and have an incident-free day yourself, dear Reader!
Check out my boy! I’ve taken to running with him in the mornings, down to my writing spot. Here he’s intently waiting for a bird to fly low enough to be caught… willing him down with that stare, he hopes.
Unsurprisingly, the bird didn’t succumb. Not for lack of trying on my dog’s part though 🙂
Have a ‘focused’ week yourself, dear Reader!
KRidwyn
I’d been saddened over the last couple of years at noticing human encroachment (ie litter and worse) at my favourite writing spot. I’d even given up going there… for months.
Imagine my surprise when this greeted me the other day:
Evidence of humanity’s more disgusting habits: gone!
I like it when things go well.
Have a beautiful week yourself, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
Winter has definitely arrived in my little neck-of-the-woods… and if you couldn’t tell by the cold and by my warm fireplace in use Every. Single. Evening, you can tell by the spectacular colours I get to witness each morning!
Here’s wishing you a beauty-filled week yourself, dear Reader!
-KRidwyn
The year of the photo. Because I’m pretty bad at them, and I figure if I’m taking one each week for this blog, I’ll have incentive to improve?
And to start, on this final afternoon of 2018 while I’m waiting for Hubby to return from helping our neighbour so we can keep watching Season 5 of ‘The 100’… I’m posting a photo of my front garden as it currently looks. It’s the part of the property I’ve been working on these last few months. It’s getting there, if I do say so myself. You should have seen it before I started! Although you couldn’t have, because I didn’t take a photo of it… and here we are, back at the main topic again. Cool, huh?
So here’s the photo:
And have a great week, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
I like my bed. My bedroom, my ensuite, my kitchen, my laundry, my lounge room, my garden. I miss them when I’m away.
Having said that though, I like not having to cook, and clean. I like the time away from ‘normal’, ‘everyday’ responsibilities, and the gratitude that I feel towards my home comforts when I’ve been away for long enough.
Take these past couple of months, for instance. I spent a week in Sydney/Canberra, on camp with my Year 7 and 8 cohorts. I returned late Friday night, spent Saturday washing and packing, then left very early Sunday morning for another week away, this time with family and friends camping on Fraser Island.
This last weekend was another work-related one: Friday afternoon through to Sunday evening down in Brisbane with six Middle Schoolers who were invited to the State finals from our regional Opti-MINDS challenge. Fast forward a few weekends and I’ll be away again, with Hubby this time, down the Gold Coast.
I enjoy my time away.
But I really, really, REALLY like my own bed. I think I mentioned that?
Have a great week, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
Phew! What a term! Glad it’s over.
and I’m ecstatic that this just so happens to be my view right now…
[and it’s only just now I remembered I hadn’t posted the photo yet… whoops!]
Have a wonderful week yourself, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn