Author: TravellinPenguin

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

************. ************. ************

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.

************. ************. ************

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…

I feel like this weekend begins a new winter chapter in Tasmania. We’ve had some glorious days then another cold front moves in but this is normal. Not long now until spring.

Daffodils are rising, the wattle tree blooms have us all sneezing and I’m hearing a lot about getting the seed potatoes ready for planting.

It is also time to shed a bit of weight and get the camera out and post up some new photos.

It is time to connect to people I haven’t seen in awhile. I am looking forward to sitting outdoors again while having my lunch or coffee.

This week I had long conversations with three beautiful friends I’ve not seen for awhile. Yet on Wednesday there was a wake at a pub for another. That turned into a bittersweet time as I met and spent time with her two sisters and her niece. I helped a bit the next day to help clean out things in the house. A sad process. Donate? Skip it? Give it away? Auction? A Vinnies truck (thrift shop) turned up for bigger donations. Then the sisters and I and another neighbour sat around in the half empty lounge room telling me their stories of the past and the history of our neighbourhood. The house has been here for a very long time. I learned so much and it was lovely watching them laugh at the memories.

On top of all of this I had my book group evening where we discussed Robbie Arnott’s book Dusk. A beautiful Australian tale.

On Tuesday evening I got to one of my photo club meetings where we shared a lot of photos on the big screen and talked of what we loved and what we’d change in the editing process of the photos. We also had a speaker who shared his landscape and seascapes photography and a lively discussion ensued.

However on Friday we not only celebrated Ollie’s sixth birthday we celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary We went out to a very favourite restaurant. We shared a bottle of local Tasmanian wine and a gorgeous meal with yummy dessert. We amaze ourselves that we are still here. Life seems so much more settled as we age.

Now it is the weekend and we are very tired and just enjoying a bit of reading, social media, journalling and I have started repurposing a backyard area because I Am. Going. To. Plant. Potatoes‼️😳‼️

Something I’ve not done before but as an old time American farmer might say, “I just have a hankerin’ to plant a dern tater.”

Thats the week!

Now I’ll go dig up some photos to illustrate this ‘dern’ post.

Have a lovely week and if you feel so inclined tell me something fun you did that gave you a little buzz of happiness or a small giggle.

See you next week!

The Blurb

One summer evening in the town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.

The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which our lives are changed by the most unexpected of people. When Hai takes a job at a diner to support himself and Grazina, his fellow workers become the family he didn’t expect to find. United by desperation and circumstance, and existing on the fringes of society, together they bear witness to each other’s survival.

************. ************. ************

Eighty year old Grazina is such a character and the stories she tells of her past when her dementia kicks in are both touching and hilarious. Hai is a beautiful young man but has a secret from his mother that prevents him going home so he lives with Grazina. He works in a diner with more people who live on the edges of society, each with their own story. I love this book.

What’s happened this week? Well, my neighbour’s sister and her daughter arrived in Hobart to arrange everything for D’s funeral, which is private.

We had them over later in the week for afternoon tea and heard some wonderful stories of their family and some South Hobart history. They also knew the people who built the house we live in. We heard all about them. We are only the second occupants of this house and have been here since 1989. So that was fun.

There is a wake in our local pub for D next week. It will be a small gathering but I am happy there will be something. Then the sisters fly back to Victoria and that is that. Life may get back to normal though who knows what that means.

On the other hand look who ventured out of her room, got over her gate and visited me while I sat in my reading chair and read. I was so surprised to see Pickles. She is now ok with our cats. To my surprise, Eddie and Grizzy pretty much ignore her. Our little girl dog, Peanut (Peanny) is very caring towards Pickles. Ollie wants to play so he is still on a leash around her. Even more so he wants to play with Pickles’s toy mice. He is a Jack Russell after all.

MORE BOOKISH INFO

On another note my friend and I went to the Fullers launch by Adam Ouston and Richard Flanagan who have launched the first literary publisher in the history of Tasmania called Evercreech. They want to publish new authors not only in Tasmania but from anywhere they find good books and authors. It is all very exciting.

The book launched was Konrad Muller’s ‘My Heart at Evening’, the first book published by new Tasmanian literary publisher, Evercreech Editions. Konrad will be in-conversation with Geordie Williamson, and Adam was there to say a few words about Evercreech. Set on Tasmania’s remote northwest coast in the early 19th century, My Heart at Evening recreates the final days of colonial surveyor, artist and amateur botanist Henry Hellyer, whose 1832 suicide left many questions unanswered. The story is told by several perspectives and I understand it is quite a mystery.

Fullers was packed with more than 80 people, standing room only and it was a wonderful evening.

PHOTOGRAPHY?

Cousin Eddie makes a good prop.

Yes, I’ll be kicking it off again in another week or so. I have a street photography project book that has 124 pages of assignments of what to look for when going out with a camera. I’m going to get the random generator out and see what it chooses for me to do. I’ll be sure to share the photo with you as I go. I may mix it up with some landscape photography here and there as we all know too much of any one thing gets stale. Some examples from SNAP! are:

Zoom In

Follow the Light

Go where noone else goes

Immerse yourself in the daily routine

It should be fun and interesting as some of the topics are quite difficult to look for and find, then get a photo that actually comes out!

The first one I’m starting with, not this week but next is No 33- Zoom Out! It reads Step back! Open up a wider perspective by moving the attention from the details to the whole. This one should be a good start as it;s not too hard.

That’s it now until the next time. Have a good week.