Travellin' Penguin

You know when you look forward to an event and it lifts the mood. The event arrives and it is such a good time. Then it is over and you look ahead once again. Nothing on the horizon? A bit of a slump happens. 

I looked forward to the photography fungi trip in the southwest. We photographed fagus and fungi and spent time with new friends. It was fun. Then it was over. Now what? 

Winter is coming. Our beautiful small state is in drought. Back to the gym. Same old, same old. Now is the time to pick up a book and get motivated again. I have a list of things to do. Edit my fungi photos. Get back to my long walks with the camera. Enjoy the drought? Not really but it does mean the temps are a bit higher and the sun is out. Good for getting out. 

Today I have pulled this book off my shelf. It isn’t really a self help book but I suppose a pep talk of a book. It is published by Flow Magazine. I like Flow magazine but they stopped publishing in English a few years ago. I understand they are now printing an English version but it doesn’t seem to be scattered around Australia. It is published in the Netherlands I believe. It is a lifestyle type of magazine with lots of stationary thrown in.

The book is called A book the takes its time:  an unhurried adventure in creative mindfulness. It has poetry;

In today’s busy world, it’s often hard to find time to devote our attention to a single task. We want to do everything! And sometimes it’s so paralysing that we end up doing nothing. (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

and fun little lists of things to do. 

• Read a book out of your regular genre
• Clear our a closet and donate
• Try a fruit you’ve not eaten before
• Mail a letter to someone using snail mail
• Start a new diary or journal. Find a tiny journal and go on a day trip and record it.

You get the gist. There are recipes. Suggestions to visit a touristy spot you’ve not visited. Write in your journal. It is really “start something and commit to 10 minutes”  just to get out of a slump.

The reason I’ve pulled it off the shelf is because I want some activities where I can take my camera. I want to document a bit of life that no one else is taking photos of. I’m kind of thinking of driving to one of the small little towns in southern Tasmania and park the car. Get out and walk with the camera. What can I find? People? Structures? Knick knacks? Decor? Animals? Who knows. 

I just know I need to get out of the slump and do something to rev up my mind and body this coming week.

Will this book kick my backside and get me out of the house?  Who knows?  It is quite corny in parts. One of the suggestions is to try a new cocktail I’ve not had. Will I go down to a waterfront restaurant, look out at the harbour and try new cocktails? No, I hardly think that would be a good idea, though it does sound fun.

Instead I will spend this sunny, warmish afternoon thumbing through this book and see what others in Scandinavia are suggesting through this publication.

 I do know I am going to see my personal trainer at the gym Monday morning at 8 am. I’m going to have her set me up on a new program with the machines I’ve not used. I always feel good after a gym session. I like the people. It can be quite social which is important. 

I have a photography excursion coming up this week at the waterfront. After dark with friends and cameras. That might get me inspired.I also have a lunch later in the week with a group of friends. I’d go to a book launch at Fullers book shop but there isn’t anything on at the moment I’m interested in. Though they are having a couple of launches that are outside of the type of books I read. Could be something. 

We’ll see how the week goes and I’ll let you know next weekend what happened.  Will it get me out of the slump I’ve been in since I got so ill? My health is good again so no reason it shouldn’t. Sometimes we just have to trust we’re doing the right thing for ourself whether we feel like it or not. 

Question:  What do you do when you’re feeling lethargic and uninspired?  I’d really like to know. Maybe you get in a reading or exercise slump or you’re just fed up with the world.  Thank you for dropping by. I like hearing from you. 

Art Work: On the creative life by Sally Mann

2025

Sally Mann is an American photographer who calls herself an artist. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and three time recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship.

She finds she gets too many questions when she says she is a photographer. She also does not want to be roped into taking photos of weddings or babies.  I could not agree with her more on this front. 

She says, “And why not? Being an artist is not such a big deal. When you get right down to it, art is a job a profession not unlike being an insurance adjuster or a sportscaster. And it’s not all that hard either. The writer Nell Zink once asserted that. You could take the winos off the sidewalk in front of a drug store and teach them to be poets in half an hour. And I had a friend who quipped that he could strap his iPhone on his cat and have a series of masterpieces by the end of the day. In a similar vein, Veronica Geng once wrote a mordant New Yorker piece in which several hostages play ‘Lifeboat’ to pass the time. Whom do you throw off:  the nun, the pregnant woman, the majorette, or the artist Helen Frankenthaler? ‘Throw off Frankenthaler,” one of them says. “What’s art anyway? Somebody making some little something.” 

So like the drowned woman, I an just somebody making some little something. Many little somethings. A lot of the time. And how many little somethings I have made over a long, long time perhaps qualifies me to write this book.” (from the Prologue)

Throughout the book she shares some of her photos, her journal entries, her little drawings and doodles. She makes lists. She does some bits of poetry. 

I am really drawn to this book and can’t wait to get into it further. How many of us do these exact little things? Photos on our phones or cameras. Journalling, sketching, making lists to get through a day.

I think I’m going to enjoy dipping into and out of this book and hopefully get some inspiration for my own photography, making lists, journalling little poems or illustrations. 

I think when the world is so crazy or we go through health or home problems we need to step back and immerse ourselves in something that is creative, calming and often just makes us laugh. My drawings always make me laugh. I’ve been told by children in the past that I am good at drawing. Just like a five year old!!

Question:  What do you do to escape the world of stress to calm yourself. Photograph? Draw? Paint? Journal? Read? Walk? I’d like to hear about it very much. 

Tasmania is in the middle of a wintery heatwave. The temperatures have been beautiful. Yesterday we hit 26 degrees (79 F) and it’s May! The last time it was this warm on this date was 100 years ago. But of course it is all about to change.

Travel:

I leave early tomorrow morning on a small group photographic excursion for a few days into the southwest of our state to the old forests. We will be photographing fungi and waterfalls.

The eastern half of the state hasn’t had much rain so can’t find fungi as usual. But the southwest has had rain and reportedly the fungi hunting is good. However it is predicted to rain in the southwest for the next three days. So we will be covered in wet weather gear.

I cover my camera in a shower cap to keep it from getting soaked although it is pretty much weather sealed I feel the need to keep as dry as possible. We will be crawling around the forest floor, inspecting old dead logs and getting our tripods straight. I am really looking forward to it.

Books:

I just finished listening a really interesting book. Non fiction. Memoir. The Uncaged Sky by Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert. Narrated by the author. Wonderful narration.

I was really engrossed by her story. She describes the whole experience so well. One of the senior guards fell in love with her and he made her life hell. There was no sexual assault but the mind games were dreadful. She would be told she was going to be released and then when in the car, driven to another prison. She wouldn’t love him back, of course, so he finally got rid of her by shipping her off. However he would still turn up. He used his position of authority in awful ways.  I learned quite a bit about Iran and there were some women guards who were nice to her. She made a few good women friends. All in all it was a very informative, interesting book and I enjoyed it. I am glad she finally got home after a couple of years. It was also interesting to hear the Australian side of things. Scott Morrison, a far right religious Christian zealot was the prime minister and pretty useless in getting her home. I was close to biting my nails by the end lf this book.

Life:

There were some other things happening. Not a lot of exercise. Having a bit of a break. And one of the friends from my senior group passed away and that has been sad. There is a memorial I will attend later next week. We will wear bright colours for her.

The pets are all fine. Ollie and Peanny enjoy chasing the postman’s motorbike from the front of the yard to the back yard. Our road passes both the front of our house and the back side as we live on a winding road. The dogs figured out if they run as fast as they can they can bark at his bike in the front yard then get him again at the back gate as he drives past it going up the road. They do the same with the Wednesday rubbish truck. A highlight of their day. 

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.

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Question of the day-

If you are a character in the last book you read what are you doing?

I just got released from an Iranian prison and am back in Sydney. Let me know what you are doing,