it's off, it's on

week

the weekend

Great weekend.

A photo a day

Wednesday 9 September

Tuesday 8 September
Monday 7 September
Sunday 8 September

One fine day a petal fell on me

The sun shone dull upon the ground
under the flowering trees
all lined along my park

Two by to
they run dancing
their limbs entwined

through the greenery

The sun warms the ground
fallen white petals reflect light
to the gold leaves there before.
glisten

Dark and knobbly and twisted the trunks rise together

This is my park.
this is were I've had my birthday dancing,
where I fist kissed and wanted more
where I can see the trees grow

I've seen the floods drown my park.
saturate it with the ooze of suburbia

My park is wide and green
and stretches farther than your eye can see
My park takes me

Takes me to a place of peace
of dreams, of now, of quiet.

To a place here, right here
the centre of the universe

My park, isn't a park

This place is a sound
a breath, a feather

it's a moment
held in the rings of trees

sheltering time

hitchhikers guide

tell me the meaning to life the universe and everything and I'll show you the end of the world. Too much life, too much passion, too much of too much is fun.

"You ready to take the wheel, climb on to of the bull and up out of that plane into a new life." "Sure," she says, "I'm up for it, I've been expecting this to come along. What took ya so long." "Oh nothing" life answered back, "just had to get the stars aligned right. All you have to do is take the step." Same life just new places to go ,see, experiences to grasp onto and hold in your memory. opportunities to lose or exploit. "You ready?" She's already taken the step, flying through the air with the greatest of ease. Is this it? That wasn't hard, scary to lift that foot, but once removed from earth, exhilarating. A note drifts past, 'think' the only word that adorns the small sheet, "think" she thinks, "okay," and then leaps into the future of today.

Mary Mary

Mary Mary
"I'll spit on floors
and do more drugs
burn every bill
get drunk on love
wear next to nothing
in the pouring rain
be a bad exmple
and do it all again.

"I'll be uncareful
I'll cause such scenes
and I'll never talk
of used-to-be's
Tattooo my face
I won't go grey
be a dancing queen
I'm growin old disgracefully." Chumbawamba, Tubthumping, 1996, Castleford

"Some women I talk to are so frightened of growing old. I sense their desperation. They say things like, "I"m not going to live to be old, I'm not going to live to be dependent." The message young women get from youth culture is that it's wonderful to be young and terrible to grow old. If you think about it, it's an impossible dilemma - how can you make a good start in life if you are being told at the same time how terrible the finish is? Because of ageism, many women doen't fully commit themselves to living life until they can no longer pass as young. They live their lives with one foot in life and one foot outside it. With age you resolve that, I know the value of each day and I'm living with both feet in life. I'm living much more fully... The power of the old woman is that because she's outside the system. She can attack. And I am determined to attack it. One of the ways in which I am particularly conscious of this stance is when I go down the street. People expect me to move over, which means to step on the grass or off the curb. I just woke up one day to the fact that i was moving over. I have no idea how many years I've been doing that. Now i never move over. I simply keep walking. And we hit full force, because of the other person is so sure that I am going to move over that he isn't even paying any attention and we simply ram each other. If it's a man with a woman he shows embarrassment, because he's just knocked down a five foot seventy-year-old woman and so he quickly apologises. But he's startled, he doesn't understand why I didn't mover over, he doesn't even know how I got there, where I came from. I am invisible to him despite the fact that I am on my own side of the street, simply refusing to hive him that space he assumes is his." Barbara MacDondald, from "Both feet in Life"

"It is much more a lack of fun which batters us than over-abundance and indulgence" Raoul Vaneigem

Okay, so I'm not old, just came across the album and it's contents and it brought a smile to the face and wanted to share it.

Home

Home again home again. life, love and laughter. Missed and found and lost and fragile. Emotions peaking and then tumbling down with the exhaustion of crazy hours jumbled into a cylic form that people call a day. To and fro we go. Smacking your senses sideways with its unrelenting push towards the future. What future, that one you make. The one you carve with each outward breath and motion you take. A smile. A touch. A lingering sense.

then again maybe i'm just a crazy bitch ;

my friend dave

So I have this friend, Dave's his name, drawings his game.
Dave was actually the first friend I had here in Brisbane, and even though he's moving to New Zealand he's a pretty special friend. Dave's also Mick's friend, way before he was mine. He and my Mick share a few memories and Dave being the drawing type has put together a cartoon of Mick's adult life. Recently I have been included. Here's the start: for more, follow the link.

http://www.davecharlton.org/shirty/?p=95

Walks with Maddie

This is where Maddie and I like to walk. We come home with wet feet, and a thirst for some cool water. On our perfect Queensland days it's heaven. Five minutes from home, surrounded by the motorway, shopping centres and urban sprawl. My favourite place to get away.

time flies

How is it that over two weeks have passed already!

I really only got on here so I could show you some of my latest creations. The photography isn't great, but the arrangements are pretty nice I think.

We got throughour first Mother's Day here at Surfers Paradise Flowers. It was three days of craziness and not much sleep. We got some very good compliments and had no complaints which makes it a good day in my books.

Change of subject- How sad is it that I'm already planning what to take home with me. My list is a page and a half long of exactly which underware shall take up the precious space in my bag. My biggest concern is what gear to take. I would like to not to haul any onto the plane and get new stuff at roller con, but RC is at the end of my trip and I want to skate around the 'rents home. As Julieann would say, if this is my biggest problem in life, I think i'm doing ok.

right, didn't see the time, must start packing up. later

As much as I try and make this a weekly thing it just ain't happening.

Hello all and welcome to another instalment of A Workers Cottage. Lots of new developments in life so we'll jump right in then.

First of all my freakin neck hurts. I've been given a number for a remedial therapists and now I just have to get that little thing called an appointment made. The good ole neck hurts 'cause I did a totally awesome block this past Saturday at the second bout of the second season for the Sun State Roller Girls. Sadly, although legal and thoroughly effective ;) the consequences are not what I would call good.

Ok, now that I've got that whinging out of the way we can move onto life, the universe and everything.

Summer has finally turned her golden locks away and Autumn is running up to meet us here in our little corner in Queensland. The doona has been pulled out of storage, steam is escaping out of the bathroom on chili mornings, our shag carpet lends its fuzzy warmth to our toes and I get to wear scarves again! mmmm.....love this weather. Perfect in the day and snuggly at night. Which brings me to our next topic, work, work and more work and somewhere in there is derby and family and school.

Work at the flower shop is good, slow, but still chugging in. I think it's because we've got such a holiday crowd here on the coast that people are willing to spend a bit more money on non commodities. Not that we don't need flowers in our lives, I'm just saying the majority of the population doesn't necessarily see it that way.

Work at the leagues club is good, slow, but still moving along. In times of stress what do Australians turn to, beer and gambling. period

School, school is, umm I'm off school right now. Julieann was told that back surgery would greatly improve her life so she booked the date, flirted a bit with the surgeon and wha-la two and a bit weeks ago she was under the knife. Julieann's doing good now, but in her recovery period I've been minding the shop with the help of two lovely young ladies, Vicky and Jo. Since I'm in the shop I can't be at school. so there. School's pretty good though, boring theory-very common-sense kinda stuff. The practical side of class is great, challenging and a fun opportunity to learn as much as I push myself to do so. Plus there's some pretty cool people in it.

Sorry this is getting a bit long winded, so we'll have smoko, enjoy the visual pleasantries.

The photos above are from back in 2005 when I was freshly married and eagerly awaiting my Australian temporary residency visa to be approved. My brothers and I drove to Alaska from Washington State: been thinking about home a lot lately.

That'll do for now. more soon.

Valentines

We've done it, our first Valentines day is completed and there were no casualties. All but one deliveries were made successfully.

Kevin and I were down in the workroom creating masterpieces of floral art, Maria, Julieann and Brian were up in the shop selling their socks off, and Gaven and Sue were running around the coast making deliveries.We opened the doors at 6:00am and the centre's shutters came down at 6:30pm as we shooed out the last customer.

My only real disappointment during the day is that we didn't sell more of the large balloons. We only had one blown up and I think if the rest had been, inflated we could have gotten rid of them.

On a home note, mom and dad, thanks again for the housewarming present of the huge pot, we love it. As you can see we put it too good use and it gets filled to the brim with yummy food.

let me introduce Bob

bob, say hello to everyone.

everyone, Bob.Bob is from the Wimcee family and is a new addition to the shop. He joins a couple top knot and headdress dolls that are hopping to find new homes soon.Here's the new sign for the shop. It's supposed to be a nice pastel green. It looks good but it's not right and it really isn't consistent with the image we're trying to give the world.
Everyone, say hi to Maddie. She's a bit bigger now :)

nice

new beginnings part duex

Righto

{so this is not mine, but I can now do one like it, my photo though}


so here's the shop, notice missing sign. It used to read "Kevin the Florist" the new one will read "Surfers Paradise Flowers."

{here's one of mine}

Julianne's been working non-stop on the business side of getting this venture up and running: the flower arranging side of it all is left up to me for now. Our business cards should be arriving in the next week as will new order pads, a yellow pages online listing and a big poster for display in the centre. Things are now rapidly moving now that the design and tweaking of the logo are complete. The process seemed to drag everything to a crawl. Soon the website will be up and running and we're hoping that it will really increase our business.

So, keep checking this space, http://www.surfersparadise.com.au/

Did a bit of gardening this morning. Our front yard had become a dead jungle of four foot tall marigold seed heads. Dry twigs and creeping grass had criss-crossed and swallowed up the poor old roses and herbs scattered throughout the beds. All fixed now, I think we need to get some good mulch in. We get a good breeze across the front and it saps every last drop of moisture from the soil, so some good protection is in order. Besides it'll help with weeds, right?

I'm very pleased to inform you that our: Jalapeno, Anaheim, Rainbow Chard and Mediterranean herbs fought well against the marigold onslaught and came out more healthy than could have really ever been expected.

A few weeks ago while dressing in our bedroom, I looked up and could see our back neighboors verandah. When the wind blows or when something disturbs the delicate hang of our blinds, all the world could see in. Not acceptable.

To market, to market (like I need an excuse anyways). Get this though, Mick came with me!!! shock of all shocks. Right, back to the potential peeping Tom crisis, we were at the markets in search of appropriate hedging. Found it in the form of some nice fast growing lilypillies and some acacia frimbrata (brisbane golden wattle). Hopefully the greenery will survive me long enough to provide some good privacy in a couple years.

Yes, I hear you saying "get some draps!" I will, I will, just as soon as we finish painting our bedroom and maybe get a new bed. Until then, we've got a huge blanket hanging in the window.

That's all for now folks, later skaters.