Travellin' Penguin

My favourite quote from Groucho Marx.

 

Another week is almost finished, and I thought I’d get in an early weekend to post a couple of things up here.

 WEATHER:

It has been incredibly cold with hard rain that is even colder. I crawled out of bed this morning just before 7:00 am. I wanted to get out of the house by 8:30 to get to the gym. The light was just breaking. I got up earlier so I could grab a coffee and read the paper before leaving and touch base with a couple of emails.

 After the training my lovely trainer and I went and had hot coffees in town. Real coffee tastes so good on a wet, cold day. We always take on the world and have such interesting conversations. I just love her. A wonderful trainer who inspires and a great friend. A good start to the day though I would not have believed that at 7.

 Monday was the same weather but no coffee before or after the gym right away. So what to do? Drive a couple blocks through town and stop in front of Fullers book shop and pick up a book I ordered. Then sit in their café with an oat milk cappuccino and a heated pear Danish. The place was hopping as everyone had the same idea.

 LIFE IN HOBART:

I chatted to Tim, the owner, and he told me the funniest story. He said he has a brother who has never been a reader. This brother decided he was going to start reading and he was going to start with the great classics. So he got on the AI app, Chat GPT and asked for a copy of a classic book (don’t know which one) written as though James Patterson had written it. We both had a very good laugh at that.

Nothing against James Patterson. After all if you’re at the beach or a log cabin in snow, one can enjoy very fast paced, entertaining crime novels and nothing wrong with that at all. But Plato? Socrates?  I still find it funny.

 I BOOKS:

I picked up a lovely book from Fullers. Dog Songs by Mary Oliver. I read a short blurb about it somewhere and I like her as an author so decided to track it down. Fullers ordered it for me and it came in. What a lovely little poetry book about dogs with beautiful black and white line illustrations.

I have always loved illustrations of animals by Cecil Aldin whose pictures I loved growing up. Beautiful English fireside illustrations of Scotty Terriers,Westies or sporting dogs. Just love them.

 Another book I am almost finished with is another trail hiking book. I think this will be the last one for awhile as I’m all hiked out. Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home by Heather “Anish” Anderson.

It is the story of a millennial woman who wants to beat the record of hiking from the Mexican border to the Canadian border in America on the 2600 mile Pacific Crest Trail in the fastest amount of time. The trail is a difficult one with high elevations, quite a few rattle snakes through the southwest deserts, mountain lions, bears and one or two leery men.

I have been quite worried for her as she has to hike 50 miles a day for two months to break the record. She comes very close to killing herself a couple of times. Hiking through the deserts in June, running out of water. Hallucinations, fainting. Hiking through the night, running into mountain lions. Throwing her arms above her head, screaming at them to chase them away. Crossing very rapid rivers without hiking poles.  I think she is nuts but I am following her anyway. Nothing against hiking but I think a bit of research and preparedness goes a long way. Though she had completed that walk in previous years and had done some other large walks on the east coast of America. Anyway, I’ll finish this up and move onto Lolly Willows by Sylvia Townsend Warner but more on that later.

 That’s all the Wednesday news I have for you today. I’m off to the Fern Tree tavern tonight at the base of Mt Wellington/Kunanyi for a quick meet up with some friends then staying for a photography talk. Should be a pleasant evening.

 Until later…..be well….be kind. . .

What a laugh. Kempton is a small town about one hour north of where I live in a very rural area. There is one main road that goes through the town and it is quite long.

We had to meet at a tourist distillery that is in the town. It is a beautiful old sandstone building with very comfy leather lounge chairs in a beautiful room with whisky barrels and wood.

Six of us attended. I might add the temperature when I arrived at 10 am was 0 degrees C (32 F) and quite misty and foggy. 

Once gathered we went into the distillery, sat in the comfy chairs and ordered coffees. Their heat was lovely.

There was a whisky tasting in the next room that they create. They also sell various types of gin. Lots of different flavours.  I don’t drink much so I wasn’t drawn to it but the bottles were lovely with the amber liquid in it.

We then ventured outdoors where the sun had burned off the fog and the temperature was getting up to about 10 C. 50 F. We were well dressed so it all felt fine. Great weather for long walks and fingerless gloves kept us pretty warm. We needed our fingers to operate our cameras.

I laughed that the organizer called it Street Photography as there was no one in sight on the long road.  We did finally catch up with a couple of dog walkers.

We concentrated on some sheep, ponies and old cottages and then found some miscellaneous things to photograph. I will scatter a few of our photos throughout this post.

We then all drove to a local café up the road and had some lunch.  On the way home I stopped at a lovely bakehouse and picked up a delicious apple/apricot pie.  It was so good I wished I bought two. I didn’t think to take a photo but I should have.

Japanese proverb

It’s still winter here but the solstice has passed and the days are getting longer. Being so far south we start getting very dark and dreary around 4:30 pm. Did I mention cold?

This was a pretty quiet week with not much on so I just focused on wellness meaning I did not fall off the reformer at Pilates class. I have always had such good balance but now when standing on that moving carriage while doing squats I use the balance pole. It’s important to know your limits whether liking it or not.

I finished up the book The Force of Nature, about the three women walking the John Muir Trail in the North American rockies. It was an interesting read but not as good as the next bit of travel writing I am listening to.

My way-My way- a Camino memo by film director Bill Bennett. Bill Bennett was born in England and raised in Brisbane, Queensland. He started university as a medical student but ended up working as a journalist for Australian Broadcasting . He then moved into the film industry as a film director, producer and screen writer. He has won awards from the Aus Film Institute but I am not familiar with any of his films.

He is 59 yrs old and had wanted to walk the Camino trail in Spain for years but finally bit the bullet. He couldn’t say why but the story of his travels focuses on his thoughts of changing his competitive nature, anger, rudeness and a general bombastic nature. He doesn’t present as a very man to get along with due to his string ego and arrogant manner. He does come face to face with these traits and refers to himself as Bill (his arrogant self) or Camino Bill where he behaves in a milder, more gentle and generous behaviour. He wants to use this experience to change and he often sits in the backs of churches along the way to reflect on this entire experience and what it means to him.

I have read a few books about the Camino pilgrimage. Many of them dive into the history or the terrain almost completely. This book is enjoyable to me because he is excellent at describing people and sharing their stories. He loves talking to people. He loves stories. His wife accuses him of interrogating people but he can’t help himself as he really wants to know the stories of those he meets. He does mention the churches, the food and the climate and terrain but the main focus of his trip is the people.

I am listening to this on audible. I enjoy books on audible that are told in the first person. However the narrator is a woman and I didn’t check that when I downloaded the book. I thought it would feel like it was a woman doing the walk instead of the man. But that hasn’t happened. I have a very clear image of Bill being male and the narration has not bothered me at all. I hardly notice it. I will finish this in no time as I am really enjoying it.

I didn’t do any photography this week but I did spend time editing photos and studying videos and written work on street photography. I’ll post a couple of photos I edited.

This coming week will be much busier. I have my annual MS appt with my neurologist but that is a walk in-walk out appt. He says hello, checks my balance and hand strength and wishes me well for another year. I am fortunate my MS has always been quite benign.

I have a photo club meeting and an excursion to a small country town north of here to take photos. I’ll do a separate photography post on that.

I have Adam’s book club at Fullers mid week to discuss The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch. Looking forward to that. Then later in the week is an Agatha Christie play at our Playhouse theatre with a couple of friends. Should be fun. Sets are always good for her stories.

That about wraps up the week. I have been thinking about the books I read and rather than writing plots and thoughts of a book I have finished in my book journal, I have started to think of the image, a picture that represents the book. If your book was to be illustrated what would the photos be?

For The Sea The Sea I see a photo in my mind of the rocks and the angry waves upon them. I also see the living room of the old house as though a set from a play. In My Way- My Way I see Bill Bennett limping down a dirt trail with fields on either side of him. A clear sky overhead. Another image is of him sitting in the cafe having his Coke Zero with four glasses of ice as the Spanish only seem to put two cubes in each glass and he wants as much ice as he can get.

Question for today: What is the image in your head of the current book you are reading or have just read? What is the first photo that comes to mind? Think what is your first illustration that comes to mind?