Author: TravellinPenguin

Another Sunday morning and I’m drinking a cup of Italian blend. I have a coffee advent calendar. I gave one to a friend of mine and each morning we exchange a text. . Toasted marshmallow, Hazelnut blend, Vanilla bean. Each day it is a different flavour. It has been a laugh to share these flavours with each other first thing in the morning.

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I have been reading a beautiful book. Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains. The print is tiny so I’m doing a read/listen to the book. The narrator is Tolga Safer and is very good.

Chat GPT summarises it as:

“Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2008–2022 is a reflective, hybrid book by Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk that blends short prose pieces with his own drawings, watercolours, and notebook pages.

Summary:
The book is a curated selection from Pamuk’s personal notebooks kept over more than a decade. Rather than a single narrative, it offers fragments—memories, observations, dreams, travel notes, literary ideas, and meditations on art, politics, love, and aging. The “distant mountains” of the title function as a metaphor for memory, longing, and the unreachable ideals that shape a writer’s inner life.

Pamuk reflects on:

• The act of writing: doubt, discipline, imagination, and the solitude of the novelist
• Time and memory: how personal and collective histories blur and resurface
• Places: especially Istanbul, but also cities and landscapes encountered through travel
• Art and seeing: how drawing and writing complement each other as ways of thinking
• Politics and identity: subtle, personal responses to censorship, nationalism, and freedom

The visual elements—sketches of faces, rooms, streets, and imagined scenes—are not illustrations of the text so much as parallel thoughts, reinforcing the sense that the reader is inside the author’s mind as it wanders.”

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It is such a beautiful book and I am going through it slowly. The journals are beautiful and there is so much to see and to think about.

One of my favourite passages is:

There is an illustration of his journal on every page.

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Other than immersing myself in this beautiful story I have been pleasantly busy.

Our senior’s group had our end of year Christmas dinner. There were 16 of us and it was a lovely meal with lots of laughs. Some of the older ladies were quite hilarious after a couple of glasses of bubbles. I was the driver so okay.😁🎄😁

My exercise went well this week with three trips to the gym. A pilates class, a Barre’ class and then my trainer putting me through my paces followed by our weekly coffee and conversation solving the world’s problems. We look forward to this each week. I never want to go to the exercise classes but feel so good when finished. It feels good to stay strong.

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Yesterday the South Hobart community had their big Christmas market at the church grounds. It was a lovely day so I hopped on the bus for the three km trip down the road and took my camera. I got a few snaps of some happy people I chatted to who allowed me to take their photos. I’ll share a couple of them below.

Permission was given by-

I told her I loved her look. She whispered to me behind her hand she bought the dress in an op (thrift) shop and she hoped it would be ok. It is a lovely dress.

Many things to look at.

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Tasmania had some scary fires last week and that is always the worry of summer weather that we are beginning to get off and on.

Sixteen homes were destroyed up the east coast of the state. The winds were high as well as the temperatures. Each day of high winds bring a bit of nervousness to Australians during summer weather. But the communities sure pull together and help everyone. It always seems it takes a disaster for people to be kind to each other and interact. People are funny that way.

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But enough of that. I hope everyone is staying sane during the Christmas rush. I for one am happy when it’s over. It has become such a commercial event and so many now will not enjoy all the hype we see in the shops and the media. We will have a quiet day with a good book and a bit of lovely food. But we don’t go all out. Our tree is small on the kitchen table and the ones who enjoy it most seems to be the cats. Something different in the house for them. It is also near a big window that has birds outdoors in the bushes. 

I am looking forward to a new year and I will leave it at that. New books for book group. New activities for photography. A couple are scheduled. One photographing birds in a large lagoon. A forest full of fungi. Walking on some new trails I’ve not been on before. More exercise.

❤️ Make time for calmness during the Christmas season. ❤️

Last night our Fullers book store reading groups met at Hadley’s hotel and met the people in the other reading groups. There are 150 people in the reading groups. They are designated into various groups that meet both in the mornings or in the evenings. The group I’m in meets on the second Wed evening of the month. We pay $10.00 per reading group meeting and that includes a 10% discount on the book if bought from the shop. This is the first year that has happened. It used to be free but we all understand the amount of work that goes into organising 150 people into groups.

People tend to stay in the same group year after year and get to know each other. One person facilitates the various groups.

The thing I like best in the groups is that people read the books and we have really interesting discussions about them. I have been in too many groups where discussion dissolves into what we did today, the problems at home, and on and on and on. Many times people wouldn’t the book. That really annoys me. Even if people work and don’t always get quite to the end they still come and participate in the discussions as much as they can. There are 15 in each group and because of various reasons we always get at least 12. 

More Bookish News-

Tasmania is not regarded as highly as it should be by various publishers. Getting 150 copies of any book requires good relationships with them. A couple of publishers have been dropped as they are too unreliable. It is a good marketing tool for a book shop and we all know how important it is to keep independent shops open.

We met in a beautiful old tea room area of the Hadley;s Orient Hotel est 1834. I’ll try and find a photo of it. We were invited to get a drink at the bar and then find our seats.

We were all waiting to find out what the books for 2026 would be. We also completed a poll of deciding what the top 3 books of 2025 were for all the people in the groups. The top three books (from memory) were- 3—was a tie between Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca and sorry, I can’t remember. 2 was Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood and number 1 was Dusk by Robbie Arnott. Other books I remember were The Names by Florence Knapp in 6th place and in tenth and last place was The Season by Helen Garner. That surprised me and yet I can understand it. I just like her so much I thought it would score higher but I guess I’m biased.

The books for 2026 announced-

Feb:  Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

March:  My Heart at Evening by Konrad Muller

April:  The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

May:  The True True Story of Raja The Gullible (And His Mother) by  

          Rabbi Alameddine

June:  Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

July:  A Little Trickery by Rosanna Pike

August: A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr

The rest of the year will be announced at a later date. 

We had input in an end of year survey of what types of books we are interested in being chosen. We usually have award winners, translated fiction, Tasmanian, Australian and a classic. 

I guess that fills you in on how we go with our reading groups. 

Did anything else happen of significance this week? 

Nope, not much. I went to my pilates class on Monday. I went for a very long walk into the city on Tuesday and got my nails done. Beautiful smoky green colour for Christmas.

On Wednesday I went into the Spa and had a swim and sat in the sauna and chatted to two other older women as we sweated together. It is a small spa. They do beauty things (which I haven’t experienced, ) massages, etc and have a lovely small pool with a waterfall to splash around in. No children allowed which is heavenly. They have a steam room and a sauna and two very new jacuzzis they were trying to bring down a stairway to the underground area where this place is. Last I heard it was stuck in an elevator shaft. 

Thursday I went to a health appt that wires you up and down for an overnight sleep study. I’m trying to get better sleep so I’m not so fatigued during the day. Might need a cPap machine. Don’t have the report yet. But I had to remove polish from two nails as my finger was needed for the oxygen saturation thingy.

Thursday nights we had big fires around the state. Last I heard 16 buildings up the east coast were damaged or lost. The mountain behind our home was closed to visitors as another fire was out of control on the back side of it. We’re on the front side of it. We had 30 degree temps C and gale force winds that were frightening. I was so glad once a cold front moved in over night and all but one of the fires was controlled. Air personnel could not be used because of the high winds. Just scary.

Friday I went into town, enjoyed the weather sitting outdoors having a coffee and a piece of lemon cake. I also went back to the nail place and had the green polish put back on. The girl laughed and didn’t charge me. People can be good.

Today (Saturday) I came up with a new way to do my daily diary I’d like to keep up next year. I create a page and then just write down little snippets of what I did. I’ll show you the photo. I love using magazines, sticker books, different coloured inks, etc. I tend to choose a picture from a sticker book without looking and then build a page around it. Just 30 minutes of complete relaxation and getting creative. 

(Things I did. Worked in front yard. Filled the bird baths. Cleaned the succulent plants. Had an egg sandwich. Folded laundry. Put some rocks in the tumbler- second stage. Found a currawong feather.)

Well, this has gone on long enough. If you’re still here, I appreciate it and hope your weekend has a few lovely events in it. 

Tell us one thing you did this weekend.

Ollie loves the front garden.

We are having the first big day that is above 20 degrees C (68 F) and it feels so good. I think people here are really over the cold winds and rain that have been around for months. 

I’m hoping the mood lifts now we have a bit of sun and heat. I have been trying to catch up on various things around the house and sort out what I want to look forward to next year.  A new year is so much a clean slate and I am ready for this bedraggled 2025 to come to a close.

I’m looking forward to a more adventurous Penguin in my posts. I am looking forward to reading some different books. I do love my travel writing books and that won’t change but I feel I need some more energy in my book selections.  No doubt when our 2026 book group begins I’ll perk up. 

We are having an end of year book group wrap up tomorrow and that should give some inspiration with the first couple of books chosen for the new year.

The photographer uses a macro lens, a light and a diffuser to take photos of insects and other tiny objects.

I want to do some different types of photography. One of the projects is more black and white photography. More minimalistic photos and begin in earnest with some macro photography. I have a flash coming for my camera and a diffuser.

I want to photograph insects. My dream photo would be a close up photo of a very tiny, colourful jumping spider. Such as the one pictured below. The quest would be first and foremost to dig around in leaf litter and find one. Then to get it to pose. One must attach a diffuser onto their camera with the light so that it is lit up without much glare. I might start with tiny flowers or ants and then see if I can get moving insects. Bees are fun but you need to be quick.

Stock photos below, not mine.

These spiders are teeny, tiny and hard to find.

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As far as reading goes I try to get one good book read a week. Compared to a lot of bloggers that isn’t much but that doesn’t matter. I read a lot of magazines, especially about photography as well as watching instructional you tube videos on the same topic. I am happy with one decent book. Of course if it is a short book I can fit more in but that is an achievable goal.

Another priority is to get out more, walking with the dogs. I have two dogs who are a bit over weight. You know what they say about owners looking like their dogs or vice versa. Well we definitely have that going on here. My poor body seizes up if I don’t walk a lot so I need to seriously look at that side of life. I will remain committed to the gym. Hopefully three times a week but a commitment of two times is good as long as I exercise doing something else on other days.

I also want to be more consistent with my journal writing and my creative journaling. I enjoy all of the above mentioned events but I find a lethargy that slips in and a lack of motivation at times. 

I guess the main priority is working through the haze and get motivated. Sometimes it just so easy to plop down in front of the tv with a big bowl of ice cream, a cat on the lap and watch a good British crime series. 

I’m hoping to get through 2026 without a bunch of medical appointments and feeling good both physically and mentally. 

On that note I’m wiping the slate clean early and getting started on my plans. I am usually impatient in December to get through the long holidays and get started on things other than the crazy Christmas season. 

So for today I am just going to attend a medical appointment. Getting wired up for a sleep study happening tonight. I think my poor sleep contributes greatly to my fatigue levels so we must do something about that. Waking up feeling refreshed would be a good start. But I’m at the age where I won’t mention body parts in my conversation so moving on again. 

MISCELLANEOUS

I finished The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. More on that later.

Also Pickles had her 3rd birthday yesterday. We are so lucky to have inherited her. We just love her.

I’ll be back soon with more information about activities, local travel, reading information and other Hobartian activities.

It is good to get these goals written down so I can look at it all and begin to get organised for another year. You just have to shake your head, laugh a lot and keep moving. I hope everyone has a good weekend coming up.

So much to look forward to…