Oddities and Beauties to Cheer the Day

It’s a bright nearly -summer morning . Today I don’t feel bright or summery. Feels like one of those days when one needs to go back to bed and get out again , the other side !

Warnings are slight , but unmistakable : I tripped over a leg rope in the corridor first thing returning from beach swim ( which WAS bright and near summery and a joy); I walked into a table; I nearly tripped on our steep stairs while rushing down unthinking and immediately stumbled over the cushion lying randomly on the floor. Really slight warnings . Díaz was woken from his short doze because I had to open the door to a workman, then I couldn’t find the car keys so he could move the car.

Outside to start on a walk with the now winging Díaz, I am expiring in a woolly sweater on a 20 degree day and no breeze . Forgotten sun cream for both of us and he’s going red already. And not nodding off because he’s too hot, so my coffee is not imminent.

After this catalogue of minor mishaps, we reach a small street on the way to the coffee shop. How can I continue in disgruntlement as we slowly make our way down this colourful street with its very individual streetscape .

Right on the corner is a long, striped, wooden bench tied to the back of a vehicle.The colours are like a golden-rainbow sun: medley of yellow, orange and faint darker lines etched into the wood. It is wood, but I can’t make out what kind.

.

A carved wooden bench , being moved or about to be placed in a garden or street ?

This is just a beginning .Bright totem like structures stand in many front yards or on verges.

And this house with objects d’art hanging from verandah

But this is not all. There are some quite odd objects alongside. Of course odd/ beautiful depends on your own aesthetic and I thought these art works odd and interesting, juxtaposed alongside spring flowers and budding trees .

How wonderful is this day. In the space of half an hour my spirits have lifted and Díaz has fallen asleep so am right for a quiet coffee. We have reached the end of the street . I peer into someone’s backyard through a wrought iron gate: a nearly magic garden. Díaz dreams on.

The almost magic garden
Díaz Dreaming

Gone Baby. And I’m going to the gym.

I’ve always loved the title Gone Girl , Gillian Flyn’s popular crime thriller of 2012. But this baby hasn’t gone in the same way, he hasn’t disappeared . Just gone home with his dad and his brother, I can get back into my baby gone life until next stay.

Right now off to have a coffee quietly and get my head into gear, away from babies and bottles and squishy food. Just look around at the evidence that

DÍAZ WAS HERE

Bits of food all over the kitchen . On the window the washed bottles which contained the expressed milk he grudgingly swallows, while biting the teat. Still at least there’s that.

No the hand sanitiser just happens to be there

His toys are still around . As well as the paraphernalia of babies. Like some daggy version of ancient stones they nevertheless cast a spell over this room, waiting to be held, played with, placed onto a baby body part or tossed into the bin ( yes, disposable nappies, I have just discovered so called “Eco-disposable Nappies”. So maybe red bin to green bin ? )

Aah, he’s gone. The cat can settle back into a chair comfortably, not being chased away from a baby or annoyed by strange sounds.

Sleep well Jack , you might even move to the baby seat now

And I’d better go to the gym before I start clearing up. No more excuses. Baby is gone , and I sort of miss him.

Gone baby. So I’m off to the gym

PS This last image is to get your attention and a few “ likes” on my blog Sambasue21.Blog. I know my legs are bandy ,

Op Shops Revisited -and a Bit More

Here I am again

I sound annoyed, but the annoyance is directed at myself. Despite my intellect, despite my awareness, I am hooked. How attractive still are the racks of clothes. How appealing is the neatly arranged, matching furniture that will just fit a corner in my house. It is still bouncy and unfaded ( unlike the furniture in our house with the cats and wear and tear of being shifted constantly or left out in the rain). Great colour. I have thankfully fallen out of love with trinkets, photo frames, beautiful old glasses. I am falling out of love with scarves and earrings, only because I think my mode of dress is changing as I age/ mature!

Today, despite my banning myself from these places, I found myself back in my favourite Op Shop. I guess that is some progress as I selected the place, rather than walking from one opportunity to the other in a street that is full of opportunity for me , and for many other OSAs ( it’s a new diagnosis on the DSM scale )

I have already written about the Op Shop phenomenon, when shops were reopened post Covid ( see In Praise of Opportunity Shops 17/5/20). However there is always more to write. I have noted the time wasting opportunities, economic and waste reduction benefits of Opportunity Shops. There is more to add two years on.Here is a bit of a winge from me.

Two years after that WA Covid peak, Op Shops are participants in the cost of living rise. Despite the fact that all is donated, prices have risen considerably. Alongside a cleaning up operation. This is rather similar to the addition on plates of burgers and chips of a carefully arranged leaf or two of lettuce with maybe a squeeze of a strange tasting, differently coloured mayonnaise. Worth 50c, but you pay double. As the “ retro”and “ high end” fashion sections grow, the racks and displays have become increasingly full of any clothing that vaguely fits those descriptors. Even Cotton On has joined the high end so that in some shops you pay more for the second hand item . I’m sorry, for the Pre- loved or ‘New’ fashion.

To this cynic it feels as if the good old honest Op Shops have joined the let’s call a rose by another name club. With vegan burgers, green everything, protein bars, healthy sweets, losing weight by some magic expensive formula that does not involve sweat or exercise, pretend meat, numerous vitamins .The list is endless

And here I am today in a new area, in an Op Shop I have not visited for a while. This one is different. Oh well.

Yep need to stay just a tiny bit weird

Oh the Thinks you can Think Walking with a Pusher along Back Paths.

Yes walking slowly with a pusher. Having had a cup of coffee, baby asleep and heading home . Maybe he wakes up , maybe he doesn’t . Either way you’ve got time to kill because there’s still 3 hours till his mum arrives, and you might as well enjoy the walk, the sun, and thoughts.

Ooh Coffee, on Stirling Highway, North Fremantle, is now my favourite coffee place . The reason for this is quite clear to pusher- pushing people: lots of space outside, quick service and several newspapers. Oh yes, and clientele I don’t know so they are either fully occupied in keeping pushers moving as they drink coffee while holding on to dogs, or carefully avoiding any interaction with a person clearly engrossed in a baby. For me the additional item is their vegan burgers, tasty chic peas and avocado in toasted bagel. Díaz will eat this ( one of the few food items he’ll eat as he prefers breast ) so, despite the chilli, I can finger feed him the less spicy pieces and eat myself. That’s if he’s awake and I can’t read the newspaper. He eats the newspaper.

This morning he is perfect , eating bits of burger between smiling at everyone. I am even able to check some of the West . Always a disappointing experience but a long term habit. I now only read free Wests, in cafes .

But Díaz is displaying low level annoyance: throwing his rattle to the floor, arching his back a little and making that growling sound.

So I replace him in the pusher, he smiles again and we start back home. We turn left towards the railway line and then into the end of Pearse Street which stretches alongside the railway to the Leighton station .

The small park in Pearse
Mushrooms and cycle path and spring

Such a pretty path I have walked down so many times . The prettiness is framed by the industrial presence; train line and various bits, graffiti,building work, wire fences and signs. Ahead is the entry to the station and the Leighton beach complex . Depending on the vantage point of your phone shot , interesting combinations of shape and colour.

And as I reach Leighton train station, he’s had enough of the pusher. So we hurry home. I’ve had my bit of thinking for now .

Thank you Dr Seuss .

Spring is here. A pinch and a punch.

So let’s step out and greet those sunny days with a spring in our steps ( ha not a very good pun!). Well I’m getting up early again just as dawn breaks and heading to the beach. But after a plunge a few days ago, am not rushing into very very cold water.

However it’s a date tomorrow at 6.20 am. Me and the sea .

The garden, neglected for a while, is taking off. I have just managed to pull out some nasturtiums before they smother any plant not strong enough to resist their deceptively pretty flowering stems, gradually wrapping themselves around whatever they can reach.

I have been watching the olive tree for weeks and yesterday morning it seemed like the leaves have budded overnight. The morning sun was streaming through its still naked branches and pushing its way through the tree canopies in the front garden.The cactus leaning against a tree trunk has reached the lower branches.

Spring is here