Categories
Random thoughts

6/52 On shyness and thorns

For many years now, there’s been a small area in my backyard lawn which has grown a really cool plant. When you touch its dark green leaves, they curl up so you can see the purple undersides. How amazing is that! I have memories of my Mum showing it to my middle child when she was still in single digits (she’s the one who just graduated high school last year) and the two of them were leaning over it, heads bent together, stretching out their hands and gently stroking its leaves to watch it react.

Fast forward to a few evenings ago. I was walking barefoot across my lawn, playing with Kiya. Something I do extremely rarely, as there’s generally lots of twigs, leaves, and of course, the risk of snakes. But the lawn looked so inviting, and the grass so green and soft.

Until it wasn’t. Two steps was all it took before I was yelling in surprise and trying to work out how I’d stood on several bindiis in each foot when it’s not even bindii season.

Huh. That shy little plant, which curls its leaves when touched, has a MUCH darker side.

In fact, I’d venture the suggestion that it doesn’t so much curl its leaves because it’s shy, but removes its pretty face to expose its thorns! Because YOW!!! They hurt!!!

And to think that all of my dogs, year in year out, have been running across this foot-stabber, and I’d never known because I’d always worn boots!

So down I went. The several thorn wounds in each foot were throbbing, and I wasn’t careful enough getting them out and managed to prick my left thumb as well. But by the time I was thorn-free, I was also determined. No longer would this cute looking plant live in my garden. I was going to rip it out, then and there.

Easier said than done though. I often garden without gloves, and I didn’t want to waste a minute, so I started pulling at the first long stem I could find (imagine a clover plant structure… a little like a snowflake where the stems run along the ground and smaller stems branch out from there.) Now imagine that there are two thorns which jut out from the stem, approximately one centimetre apart. EVERY SINGLE centimetre!

Seriously! The only place this thing does NOT have thorns is on its roots!

But I was determined. By the time it was too dark to see, I’d pulled by about a third of the patch. By hand! I was quite proud.

In the kitchen that evening, I was relating the story to my middle child when she said, “do you mean the mimosa?”

I replied with, “I don’t know?!” as I’d never been told the name of the plant. Then, when I showed her how purple my left thumb had turned, and the cuts from thorn-skewering on my right hand, and mentioned that I could still feel the holes in my feet throbbing, she said, “I wonder if it’s poisonous?”

Huh. Turns out it is.

My feet holes were still a little ‘twingy’ the following morning, but my left thumb and thumb / index / middle finger of my right hand? Very noticeable the next day. Left thumb still purple! And when I went to get some more Mimosa out (using gloves this time, you’d be glad to hear) I had to stop because I COULDN’T GRIP AND TWIST WITH MY RIGHT HAND!!! The joints in both knuckles of my index finger would NOT move the way they needed to! Crazy or what?

They’ve calmed down now. Mostly. It’s three days later and all except the top joint on my index finger are back to normal. And that joint will hopefully regain its flexibility soon. But I now have a VERY healthy respect for that Mimosa’s defence mechanisms!

I told my mum the story yesterday. She laughed quite a bit. “Didn’t you know it had thorns?” she asked.

Well, no. I wouldn’t have let it remain alive in my backyard if I’d known!

I made the observation that she seemed to have known. “Of course!” she replied. “We used to have to weed it before and after school, back in the village,” she finished (she grew up in Malaya in the 1940s).

Huh. If only someone had told me.

So: lesson learned. Sometimes pretty things hide a defence system that is so overwhelmingly powerful it can take out your right hand for several days! Who knew?

Have a great week of learning yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
#blogjune

#BlogJune Day 23

Today was sunny, without too much wind.

It was Sunday. Church day. Meet my friends and worship God together day.

I bought a roast chicken for lunch with the kids; it was delicious.

I watched a movie and crotcheted, then Hubby and I walked Kiya together.

I was able to clear up a GoCard issue (very needed) and now I”m heading for an early night, in preparation for a big week ahead.

It’s good to be able to count blessings, isn’t it?

Have a blessed day yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
#blogjune

#BlogJune Day 19 and it’s COOOOOLLLLLDDD!

It’s just a few days to Winter Solstice, and I am SOOOOOO glad about that! The idea that the days start getting longer again is completely and utterly BRILLIANT because I find this cold weather so darn paralysing 🙁

I think I mentioned that Hubby and I bought Kiya a coat. A couple of them, actually (we’d never bought animal clothing before and had no clue what we were doing). The wrap-around, velcro-secured ‘jacket’ was a size too small, so that was an immediate donation to Mum’s 10 month old border collie Trav. The woollen-style ‘jumper’ was the correct size, but our clever gurly worked out how to get out of it… without ripping apart the ‘arms’ at the seams! So she was able to wear it for over a week before the seams came apart and it became a rag.

Fast foward to yesterday. Temperature feels like -2C with a wind chill of -957C or something. And poor Kiya with no coat. Necessitating a trip to the store, and now: a new, brown, wrap-around ‘jacket’ to match Trav’s army-green one.

And just in the nick of time. On Wednesday nights Kiya and I have a sleepever at Mum’s / Trav’s place… and check out the two of them in their snazzy coats!

(Sorry for the blurry-ness of the photos, it was dark already and we’d only just arrived and the two pups were so excited I couldn’t get them still enough!)

Still, I reckon they’re cuteness personified. And that patch of white near the bottom of Kiya’s brown coat is *not* a rip, courtesy Trav, where the stuffing is coming out. It’s actually a white, embrodiered, paw print 🙂

Here’s hoping you also get a cuteness overload today, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
#blogjune Random thoughts

#BlogJune Day 18

Back on June 7, I bought Kiya a new toy. Huge, thick. Indestructible, or so I thought.

This morning’s photo shows not only how loved it has been, but also just how wrong I was.

Sigh. Destructo-gurl for the win. Again! You’ve got to admit though, she’s a source of continual amusement 🙂

She loves it. She’s even napping with it, as I write:

(She turned her head to face me, to check out what I was doing, just as I took the photo. lol)

Have an amusing day yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune

#BlogJune Day 5

I found a waterfall today. I’ve visited this particular park in Nambour nearly every Wednesday during term time for the past year or so. Today was the first time I decided to take my dog Kiya with me while we waited for Mr15 to have his oboe lesson.

Imagjne my surprise when we discovered a waterfall at the end of the path!

Here’s hoping you too had a day of lovely surprises, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
Life Random thoughts teaching

4/52 On happiness

I’ve decided that I need to slow down; be aware of where I am and what I am doing.

You see, the other week I was told I’d be teaching a Year 7 Art class this semester. To be exact, it was to co-teach with the Art teacher… but my first reaction was to panic.

So I’ve reflected quite a bit since then, coming to grips with ‘why do I feel this way’…and I’ve realised that it’s my ‘busy-busy-busy’ mindset that I’ve developed over 49 years that’s caused it. The way. I figure: if I “cram as much as possible into life” then certain things are more valuable, time-wise, than others. In other words, I’m “too busy” to sit and draw. Or sit and paint. Or sit, even. (Even when watching TV with Hubby, I’m back to crotcheting, seeing as I now no longer have books to cover.)

I’m not sure I particularly like this about myself. If I’m rushing through life, am I even enjoying it? Hubby said once that I made roadrunner look slow. Which was funny… but in hindsight, also an indictment?

So I’ve started trying, intentionally, to be observant of my ‘moments’. Which brings me to my beetle, and my puppy.

You see, I had my beautiful bug serviced the week just gone. And it was discovered that the back pair of tyres was 7 years old. The front pair, however, was 22!

So on Tuesday just gone, I drove it back up to Cooroy to drop it off, and then collected it Thursday evening with 5 brand new tyres. And on the drive home, my 12 month old kelpie, Kiya, sat beside me.

And life was good. Driving my beautiful bug, kelpie by my side, happy and healthy and at the beginning of a long weekend (happy Australia Day, for those of you who celebrate it!) was such a pleasure! And all the more so, realising that I was ‘awake’ in that moment and knowing it for the joy that it was.

Sigh. May I be cognizant of many more… and I wish the same for you too, dear Reader!

Have a wonderful week 🙂

Categories
#Springinyourstep family anecdotes

Puppy!

Mum has a new friend. Her first ever dog. ‘Trav’ – the travelling dog 🙂

Isn’t he just adorable!

Have a lovable month yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Random thoughts

On ‘focus’

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

Categories
#AtoZchallenge Blogging challenges family anecdotes

K is for ‘kitten’

I’ve always preferred cats to dogs – or so I thought, until falling in love with my first dog when Hubby and I, newlyweds, visited a German Shepherd breeder.

I fell, hard. We bought one, and drove him home, naming him ‘Smudge’ just before he decided to vomit on my lap. (Lucky the towel he was wrapped in caught the majority of it!) At home, we introduced him to our Ragdoll kitten, ‘Rascal’, and there we were – married just a few short months, and a ‘family’ of four already!

The years passed, and pets came and went. After Rascal though, there were just dogs. Even now, we have Aksel (another German Shepherd) and Rocky (Australian Cattle Dog, and the best snake-killer you’ve ever seen…) but no cats.

And I’ve decided I miss them. So once the renovations are completed, we’ll be getting another one. I must admit – I’m looking forward to that day more than I realised!

So let’s hear it for the kitten 🙂

And have a great day, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes

Dumb move. Real dumb.

Don’t you hate it when you hear yourself saying something, and as the words leave your mouth you instantly know you’ve said the wrong thing? You mentally kick yourself for saying it, but by the time you realise what’s just happened, the damage is done. Even if you’d like to take it back, it’s impossible. No matter how hard you try! The mistake is irreversible.

That was me, just last week. I guess it *is* a funny story though…

It all started when one of my best friends invited me and my family to her place for dinner. She had thought that my girls will be entranced by the guinea pigs that she had just bought for her three kids, but they were far more taken by her fish tank. You see, we have two tanks (mine and Miss 7’s) but our tanks are nothing like hers. Compared to hers, ours appeared dull and lifeless. Hers looked like an aquatic paradise!

One of the main differences was the sheer amount of weed in her tank, that made it look so interesting, and fun to watch the fish darting around, and (apparently!) playing ‘Tiggy’ and ‘Hide and Seek’. So the following day, the kids and I visited a local pet shop.

Unfortunately, this particular pet shop had its ‘Live weed’ tank separated quite a distance from the fish tanks. In fact, it was adjacent to a large cage full of newborn kittens. And yes, you can probably tell where this story is heading. Yes, the kids came with me to look at what the ‘shop guy’ was doing. Yes, they got bored because it was just a tank of weed, and there weren’t any interesting fish to look at in said tank. Yes, they started whingeing. So yes, I *did* try to distract them by pointing out the kittens. As in, the same kittens which they had, up until that point, been *completely* and *utterly* oblivious to.

Long story short, it would seem that we now have to buy a kitten for our family. Yay…

Oh – and this is my tank, with $25 worth of weed to make it more interesting. Yes – it doesn’t go too far when it’s such a large tank! Hopefully though, it’ll grow… LOL!