Two Geese A Layin’

PHOTOGRAPHY

No it’s not Christmas time yet but our photo club had a great day out yesterday on a Scavenger Hunt in Richmond, Tasmania.  Richmond is a small, historical town about 45 minutes from Hobart. We met at the local bakery at ten am for a group coffee. I passed out the pens (I bought a pile of them at the tip shop for a dollar) and the paper listing the 20 items we were to photograph.

Everyone had 90 minutes to photograph as many of the items as they could. The day was a bit overcast but a fairly warm 18 degrees C (is about 64 F). It felt almost tropical.

It was a good way to end the week.

Here is a selection of the photo items.

Blossoms or flowers

Six in a row

An old shed

Two birds together. In this case, two geese a laying

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READING

Now, some other people I have been spending time with are the Trask and Hamilton families. Cyrus Track is a stern patriarch and father of Adam and Charles. Adam is a gentle, idealistic son who becomes a central character. He is so naive in his life. It is often quite annoying.

The awful character I’ve been around is Cathy Ames also known as Kate. What a wicked woman she is. And to top it off she is married to Adam who just can’t see what she is like. 

By now, most of you probably know what book I’m spending time with this week. It is John Steinbeck’s book East of Eden. I listen to it at night while I junk journal or do a puzzle. The narration is good. (Narrator is Simon Manyonda).

Adam’s friends, the Hamiltons are lovely people. He is a warm hearted Irish immigrant farmer. But his wife Eliza is a strict religious person and I have enjoyed seeing how she deals with Kate.

East of Eden is a retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel. It is a blockbuster of a book and surprisingly I have not read it. When I was in my twenties, living in Michigan and going to Central Michigan University in Mt Pleasant I read most of Steinbeck’s books. However for some reason I did not cover this one. 

I love Steinbeck but I must say, having read Grapes of Wrath three times in my life, I still think that is his masterpiece.

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MORE PHOTOGRAPHY

Now for another photography trick- last week I mentioned I had a street photography project book and I was supposed to go out and find a randomly picked assignment in this book. The theme was Zoom Out. It is quite easy to do with both phone and camera. You approach an area you like and take a wide angle photo of it. It can have lots of little things in the photo but overall you are covering it all. 

I went into the city last week and sat outdoors at a favourite restaurant. I needed time alone and some people watching time. I ordered a tomato, cheese and pineapple toasted sandwich and a chocolate milkshake. I love their milkshakes as they use the big old time stainless steel (aluminium?) containers and it easily gives me two or three glasses of milkshake. The kind we used to get as young people at the drug store counter in Michigan in the 50s and 60s. As a ten year old, my mother used to think I was too skinny and she’d give me my 35 cents to go and have a milkshake almost daily after school. I think she really just wanted us kids out of the house. We’re talking 1959 or 1960. I never complained and happily sat at the counter with my milkshake. It had malt in it which is even better.

MORE NEWS- SOMETHING EXTRA

I am going to introduce another feature to my posts.

It is going to be called- ‘From My Shelf’ where I feature a book from my shelf because of its interest, uniqueness, love, or just because I like it a lot. These are the books that are huge or tiny, the ones we don’t read cover to cover. The ones with great photos or they may be older. I’ll start that either as part of this weekly blog post or on it’s own. If anyone has a preference or idea, let me know in the comments. 

COMING UP

Forward planning for this coming week?  I must focus on exercise. I am promising to get to the pilates class, the barre’ class and the personal trainer this coming week.

I will also listen to more of East of Eden so I can finish it and move on to another book. Though I never race through books just to finish.

AT THE HOUSE

On the pet front all the guys are doing well. Cousin Eddie continues to eat and eat but as he is older he never puts on weight. He is the one we worry about but he eats and is happy and under veterinarian supervision.

Ollie and Peanut (Peanny) spend more time outdoors as the weather has been quite spring like.

Pickles is walking around the house more and more. She explores it a lot while we sleep but she came face to face with our little maternal Peanny this morning and did not bat an eye. Penny does not chase her as Ollie might.

I will check on my rock tumbler too as I found a few stones that might polish up and I won a box of petrified wood at auction and I’m going to see what that does in my Australian geographic tumbler. I’ll let you know as it is a slow process. 

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

I hope everyone has a good week and does something they love with one of their interests. I have many interests and I feel if you like doing something you need to make time to do it. 

Let me know what one of your interests is that you wish you could make more time for. All the best.

Bye for now…