Author: Rita de Heer

Writing is what I do. What I think about. What I meditate on. What I dream up. Listen to. Imagine. Sometimes I sleep. Sometimes I eat. And I walk. Pull out environmental weeds. There are a thousand more things I do, though writing comes into a fair few of those things too.

Life: Over-extended!

‘Over-extended’ sums up my state of being pretty accurately when I realized I was hardly doing anything I really enjoyed, but started to feel harried! This time last week I had two blogs and a Substack to populate with interesting posts. I’d signed up to receive a dozen newsletters to read through the week. And that all is not counting my presence on FB.

And lol, I was expecting to be able to continue gardening, mending, painting, and Lego construction. And keep up with real-life socializing, medical appointments and dream journaling. I even thought I could write three long stories at the same time! Tch tch tch. Truly over-extended. But don’t worry, this blog is a stayer. Lodestar is a stayer. MELD, second part of the Monster-Moored series, is being prepped for a structural edit. Earth Fall, a prequel of the Monster-Moored series, that I started to serialize on Substack, is stalled.

Because I’ve been pruning. The Substack account? Is gone. Three quarters of the newsletters? Unsubscribed. Half a dozen FB groups? Unfollowed.

Last Sunday I decided to learn a new Lego technique at least every week. Not necessarily anything to do with Lego storying projects, which will continue once the stream of visitors I’ve been having dries up. Visitors mean that my Lego-ing table, aka the dining table, must be empty for dining on.

Some of my visitors were here a couple of weeks ago for the ‘Three Sisters’ weekend I hosted at my place when I had both my sisters to stay. We try to do this every year though we live all over the country.

Some of my visitors are here for the cataract operations I’m booked in for, when I need an in-house carer to stay for the night after the op. Two eyes equals two cataract operations needing two in-house carers a month apart, first one of my sisters, then my son. It’ll be a relief to get my eyes working together again. At the moment, I’m doing all my reading with the now-good eye and a magnifying glass as my old specs don’t work anymore.

The new Lego-technique in that small bunch of Lego flowers up above, concerns the stamens in the orange California poppy. Four tiny stamens, each made with two of the elements that I had no ideas on how to use. I have another dozen of these mysteries in my collection.

But going back to that feeling of being over-extended, and not being able to do anything well. Feeling harried by the amount of reading. Feeling my creativity nose-diving. I’ve hardly done any painting lately. An installment for Lodestar was taking months to write instead of a couple of weeks. I haven’t knitted at all this winter. And sitting down with a good novel ? Fell by the wayside.

So here’s to trimming, pruning, and cutting back! Organizing life to be able to live and enjoy it!

How and what have you trimmed recently? Apart from your finger and toenails. 🙂

Lego: Future Projects

Image from https://www.integratesustainability.com.au

One of my future ambitions is to one day, using Lego, construct an Australian bilby, near its burrow with the Currawinya Bilby Enclosure Fence in the background.

A good few years ago now, I was involved in raising funds to build that enclosure. Seeing the ABC’s feature on it a couple of years ago, it seemed to me a good subject for a future Earth Day celebratory build, or alternatively to celebrate National Bilby Day, which I just now discovered is a thing. September 8th, if you’re interested.

But my bilby build will have to be for next year, or thereabouts. A lot to learn in the meantime.

In preparation, I’ve started to learn how to do some animal builds, of which this little bird (one of a pair) is one. [Lego set 40522] Nice plump body, I thought. I can learn something from that, maybe adapt it to become a bilby body? Or maybe not.

In this case I am quite taken with the way the curvy bits are shaped, and internally how all those shiny bits are attached. Also the little wings are quite moveable and can be angled as liked.

People in the know will see that the base/terraforming is not complete, and Pretty is just perched on it. No way can my ‘weak old fingers’ clip together the turn-table thingy that the two little birds sit on. That will have to wait for a visitor.

[One thing good to see is how well the scenery backdrop works, this is part of the eventual town diorama]

Link to feature: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-25/wild-bilbies-found-outside-currawinya-fence/100628724

About Blogging

This is where WordPress began!

The Blogging Software Dilemma

Just tripped over the above post while searching for a more wholesome, easier to use theme for Reet’s Brick Town. It blows me away the stuff still to be found, here and there, despite that so much is being fenced off behind paywalls and in personal domains.

I remember the beginning of the internet, when it was the wild west, when everything was free … a sort of common ground where anything could be borrowed, referenced and returned by dint of letting it go.