When I was out the other day, after I had sat down in the civilized new-ness of the one year old addition to the village and found it too structured for my mood, I walked into the old section.
This village started in the the 1980s with a field of little villas surrounding a community facility. About half the villas remain along with the old communal areas.
So I crossed the vacant block along the concrete path. Weed central but with more flowers than the sculptural resort style gardens in the newer sections …
There’s even a lone fungal fruiting body. Further on, as I come into the streets, the vacancies and their bewildered gardens become obvious. (A pun there)
Can barely see the villas for the overgrown gardens. A riot of flowers though. More varieties of hibiscus that I’ve seen in one small area.
There are some beautiful trees and shrubs, five to ten metres tall. I can’t imagine they’ll be kept when the building program continues.
Finally, in a derelict corner I see a clump of fungi. I had been wondering whether these gardens were maintained by the establishment or cultivated by the residents themselves. The fungi speak for the latter.
Three, possibly four species I make that. What do you think, mycophiles?
On this good weathered Friday of sunny patches among increasing cloud, I open my door and see this:
…a friendly little display.
Walking to the beginning of the corridor past another unit and then the Refuse Room, turn right and then I see this …
… the elevators to the right, the fire escape at the end. (I’ve missed my favorite painting and the Easter Welcome basket on the left for a reason)
Down one floor and turning right to see a similar corridor to the one above (haha, in both senses) but at the end a door out onto the so-called podium.
I’m an old hand at podiums now, the first one I had anything to do with was in 2020 at the place where I went for respite after my hospitalisation. The only podiums I had anything to do with up to then, were back in the Netherlands in the 1950s, when the ordinary Australian English ‘stage’ was the ‘podium’.
Nowadays, the term seems to used for the first couple of floors of a large tall building. The podium surrounding Vista, the building I live in, is brand new. No moss grows in the between the stones.
Anyway, returning to my walk, once I’m outside the exit door, I see this …
… a painting I’ll be talking about in my Visual Art Project. Shifting my gaze to the right, I see this …
The Podium
Walk out, turn left and we see the stairs. I’ve been up them twice. Down them once. When I have my walker with me it’s elevators all the way.
Round the corner to the left … in the sun as you can see … is a seat. I do my old lady thing and sit down for a breather … take my final pic for this little jaunt … the view.
Decisions, decisions. Shall I let go my woodworking tools, or will still have use for them?
This is what my son calls it. When my well-structured time (writing and blog-posting) grinds to a halt, and I need to take care of big stuff that has somehow all conspired to happen in the same couple of weeks. That’s when I’m doing ‘life admin’.
So in the past week and the 2-3 weeks to come … I need to go for a Covid booster, and expect a couple of days of side effects. Have been for an eye examination, the optometrist said might as well wait with the cataract operations as you’re going to the cataract capital of Australia. Fine, I said, I’ll wait. And maybe go to the dentist.
Still on my health-jag, I recently began a comprehensive exercise program. This one has to stick. It means time-tabling … something I’m not good at … at least half an hour a day. Being the eternal night owl, for me that is in the late afternoon. Easy to run out of time. It’s taken me two weeks to complete the Week 3 activities. And not only because I run out of time.
Fatigue after chemo is big, and definitely a thing. So, some days I’m really better off communing with my lap-top rather than my milk-bottle weights doing a Strength Workout. Yesterday, I did the Warm-up and could not go on to do the Cardio Circuit. I’ll have to do that today and the Strength Workout tomorrow. That gives me a free day for my Covid shot.
I’m doing more down-sizing to prepare for moving to Cairns in a few weeks, some 2000 km up the coast, into the tropics. Down-sizing means getting rid of stuff. Making decisions about what to keep, what to let go. Books mainly. But also the tools …
The most stressful thing is organizing a place to live in up there, and wondering when to start with that? Do I really want to pay a bond (four weeks rent) and four weeks to hold it for me? I’ll be traveling with the family. They’re going beginning December. Three more weeks to get it all together.
And then there’s my house down south being sold. Rising interest rates and continual rain with its danger of flooding in that town has made this a nerve-racking time. Although the house itself hasn’t flooded, the yard shed and garage have all recently had a 30 centimeter inundation.
And finally, Lodestar has a chapter missing. Chapter 31, as a matter of fact. Kes doing the river miles. Getting infill on his tattoo, and discovering Show Town’s perfidy. I’m writing it from the notes that I have found amongst all the digital files and paperwork, in between all the other stuff going on.
Rita de Heer 