When Am I Too Much For This Place?

This week’s theme for the Lens Artists Photo Challenge is Sanctuary.  I’m not sure what more can be said about this topic that I haven’t said already, so I’ve decided to re-post my earlier discussion/photos on this subject.  At that time, I said that I didn’t feel safe anywhere.  That is not quite true.  I do feel safe with my family.  Thank goodness for that because in these days of Covid and being confined to home (provided you are lucky enough to have one of those), there are many people fearful of the ones they should be able to trust the most.

WordPress (and now the Lens-Artists Challenge) has asked us to explore what it means to find your place in the world.  Where’s your safe space?  Where do you go when you need to feel inspired or cheered up?  Do you prefer the city over a small town?  I have to admit I find this an incredibly difficult challenge because I feel very ambivalent about my place in the world.  I don’t feel safe, or comforted, or any of the things that WordPress has asked us to explore.  I feel that I am possibly too much, that we are too much.  However, I am here.  I live in a wonderful place and I’m grateful for that.  The issue of whether I, and we, can live sustainably is a complex one.

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The Changing Seasons – May 2020

Canberra (Australia), May 2020 – Keeping mostly calm and Covid-wise in the national capital.

I’m joining the lovely Su from Zimmerbitch in The Changing Seasons challenge. As the weather turned cool for this last month of autumn, I have been slowing down like the season; not quite in hibernation mode yet, but needing a kick up the behind to keep moving.

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Friday Stream Of Conscience

This is not my monthly wrap-up or the Friday post that I was going to write.  Somehow my day spun out of control.  No need for concern.  Sometimes it happens.  You know how it is.  This stream of conscience (yes, I really do mean conscience) may make no sense at all to some people. Read more

The Changing Seasons – April 2020

April 2020 (Autumn in Australia) — Canberra Walks Off The Covid-19 Crisis.

Never have so many Canberrans taken to the streets.  Not to protest, but to walk.

It rained.  The sun shone.  An urban forest revived after drought; too late for some trees.  Spring migrants like the Caper White butterfly feasted on autumn weeds.  Little dumpies (Diplodium truncatum) emerged from leaf litter to greet the day and would-be pollinators.  And the people came in their hundreds to traipse over woodland and reserve, grateful for the reprieve from summer’s hell, as they waited for the virus nightmare to end. Read more

Home Art

Are you being driven to abstraction by home confinement?  What do you do if you have the concentration span of a gnat?  I have been fiddling around with photo editing and walking.  More on the walking part later, but for now, what?  Oh yes, photo editing.  Home has become a canvas for my creative endeavours.  Hope you like black and white. Read more

Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #4

Welcome to Week 4 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So check out your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

Corvid-spotting is as good a game as any at the moment.  I’m not one for house cleaning or Netflix watching during this Covid-19 killing time.  Corvid-spotting is tricky because the raven is the only corvid in my village and it has been proving rather elusive.  I confess that sometimes when I am feeling rather down, I’ve been inclined to abandon this challenge, but I know you are all counting on it (like not) so I have to keep trying.  Trying to keep living, trying to keep my spirits up, etc, etc, is the story of my life at the moment; just keep going until I can’t go on anymore.  Maybe that’s your story too? Read more

A Simple Rose

A simple poem to commemorate a beautiful rose and a month of contrasts.

A Simple Rose

in fading light
gossamer petals delight
ethereal bloom

gone on the morrow
fate and folklore entwined

rose

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Lens-Artists Weekly Challenge — Simplicity
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #36

 

Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #2

It may come as no surprise to you, ladies and gentlemen, that I am not as clever as I think I am.  Now I am in a bit of a pickle corvid-wise.  You see, I have a lot of currawong photos that I hoped to share with you for the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge, but eek, I’ve discovered after starting this challenge that currawongs are not actually corvids (of the family Corvidae).  In fact, the only corvids in Australia are the crows and ravens.  Unfortunately, I have limited raven photos.  Do you think that the powers-that-be will consider, in these dark Covid-19 times, the scouring of the city for ravens to be an essential activity?   I guess we shall find out.   I fear I might have to resort to some very bad poetry for this challenge. Read more

The Changing Seasons – February 2020

February (Australia) – another month of what Tracy does best.  Catastrophising.  Still, I’ve included a few nice photos.

After so much stress last month, it was not surprising that I seemed to have more than my fair share of illness.  I started the month with a terrible head cold and I am finishing the month the same way.  Lucky me.  Many of my fellow Canberrans have been similarly affected by the strain. Read more