Post hubris malaise.

Surely in the handbook of psychiatry there is somewhere a description of idiots who bite off more than they can chew despite years of suffering the consequences of their actions? I would definitely be one such case.
Wednesday, a lovely train trip to Sydney with my good friend Jan (she bakes remember?) to see the biggest,  brightest wonderfullest craft show in the Southern Hemisphere (well, a little hyperbole will get you everywhere I have found). That is; a three hour trip, three hours walking around the show (maybe not the biggest, brightest etc,), three hours back and to top it off, a night out with friends!
Result? predictably, a day in bed, another day in my slippers and who knows what the morrow will bring?
I have done a couple of etegami though, another "recipe" card and a little something to send a friend.

I did have fun making the buzzy bee stamp.

Life after the open house.

Living in a home that is putatively owned by someone else is quite strange. Keeping it tidy and clean is now my job as a kind of custodian and is helping me with the "weaning off stage" so that I can  let my thoughts stray to furnishing and organizing the new space, on paper that is.
I have always maintained that houses are like overcoats, you can shrug off one and move into another that is more suitable without any qualms but with this place I am questioning my own philosophy. Is it ageing, the fact that I did move in meaning this to be my forever home after moving so many times before? It does seem that we are repeating a well worn theme, move in, make a lovely garden and then leave just as our fruit trees are fruiting, hedges hedging and shade trees shading.
This has been the longest we have lived in one place (11 years) in our married life so things are just that much more advanced and harder to leave. I console myself that I leave something to be enjoyed and hopefully nurtured by others.
We settle on our new digs tomorrow but because the current tenants have a lease until October, that is when we will move in. Amazing really when we only started to seriously look at alternatives to our home just before Anzac Day (April 25), to have things tied up so neatly, buying and selling, in only two months.
I have had time to do a little creative work as I have been a "bowls widow" this long Queen's Birthday long weekend, the Prof being absent almost the whole time gallivanting about on various bowling greens. He is a little sad this week though as his home club has closed it's doors because of a burden of debt too big to trade out of. Pity really as the club is in the park across the street from us and allowed him a celebratory (or consolatory) drink after a game without worrying about driving home. Of course this would all have become moot in October anyway and I suspect I will be chauffering  him and his mate quite a bit in future.

My first etegami is in response to a call for recipe card etegami by Debby, so a little humour seemed a good idea.

The second is in response to a call for cards celebrating the Japanese festival of Obon.

A quiet Hurrah!

There are moves afoot and barring unforseen circumstancess, the house is sold! At the one and only open house inspection our agent rounded up 26 couples from his database and of those, five made offers well over the asking price via a silent auction....we were amazed. We have signed the papers to exchange contracts and after the cooling off period allowed to the purchasers we can breathe again.
 It is said that selling a house and moving is one of the  more stressful things in life but so far, apart from the decluttering phase, this has been relatively painless. I guess it helps that we are happy and committed to the move and it is not being done under any kind of duress.
The new owners are happy too and seem to really love the oasis we have created here. The best aspect of the whole thing is that they are happy to allow us to stay in the house until October when our new place will be vacant.
Reading back over this it seems that I have used "happy" more than usual and I am happy with that!
Of course, now I am marking the time that I see each and every flower as the last time and that is a little sad but the new owners have said it is okay if I want to raid the persimmon tree next year so that is a bonus.
Time to get back to a little bit of etegami-ing and forget the constant cleaning and tidying for now!

Karma Chameleon...

Well, the die is cast, the stage is (almost) set, the Rubicon is crossed (anyone got any more cliches?); on Saturday we are having the first open inspection of our house which is now officially for sale. It is about now that I am reviewing my past lives. No, not Shirley Maclaine type past lives but the different places I have lived and how I coped with them. From farm to town to city to university campus, to farmlet, to Research Station, to suburbia and  none of these have prepared me for the big change about to happen. A small two bedroom apartment, albeit with stunning views but with no place for a single op shop trinket.
I have now officially entered the "shedding" phase of my life. After a lifetime of accumulating it is a weird headspace to be in!
The question remains, can I fit into the rarefied atmosphere of what I have in the past gleefully called "the white shoe brigade", those retirees with their nautical themed clothing (navy and white, though they never sail) or will I still be the faded Hippy in the long skirts and the dangly beads and scarves? I leave you to guess.
Which brings me to today's etegami!

Gues what I am listening to?

I am listening to; "A Feast for Crows" by George R R Martin. Having listened to the earlier books in the "Game of Thrones" series, the horror continues but the narration by Roy Dotrice is so good that the story is spellbinding. My friend described the television adaptation of the books as "a soap opera" but I don't know what kind of daytime television she is watching!
Listening while working on my etegami, there were black crows on my mind.

Or this less threatening version.

Out with the old....

yes, all of those treasures I have been holding onto for so many years, the "useful" things that never quite found their use and almost everything else we own was put out for the public to peruse at my garage sale last Saturday. What a dispiriting enterprise! Just as dispiriting as when the movers assess your belongings as "chipped, stained scratched etc". There was an apt quote by some 18th century pundit about the depression brought on by seeing your belongings in harsh sunlight on the footpath, I now know the feeling!
One thing that troubles me and it may be that some of my more "arty" friends may be able to relate to, is why I am having more trouble letting go of my huge collection of old bird's nests than I am of selling off or giving away my grandmother's good china, is there a lurking sociopath in my persona?
Despite the embarrassment of having to spruik your tawdry stuff to the hordes we did make a bit of money and lightened the load considerably. Unfortunately that was only stage one, stage two will come after the house is actually sold, that was only the decluttering phase, the getting rid of the hugely outsized furniture phase is yet to come.
Photos have been taken of our modest house which makes it appear as if it were a mansion, all prettified and uncluttered and shining clean......we are faced with the tense business of living a disciplined life until someone else can envision themselves living in a carefully staged set and then we can relax.
Consequently, painting has taken a back seat but here is an etegami I did last week.

We have now exchanged contracts on the new apartment, the cooling off period ends tomorrow and so I believe the die is cast. There is an air of unreality, as if we have set in motion a downsizing juggernaut and are about to be thrown under it's wheels! (in a good way).

That was the week that was....

exciting, nerve wracking and busy!
Busy, because I am still in the throes of decluttering, brutally tossing out things that have accumulated like debris on a beach after a major shipwreck.
I have to search back into the memory banks to figure out when I decided that two complete sets of Blue Willow china, enough to cater for 16, became necessary. In future, to hell with the environment I say, if I ever have 16 people cluttering up my new much smaller place I will use paper plates! ( hope my friends will excuse my little outburst about the environment, I will recycle the plates).
After a visit from the local "antiquarian" my cupboards are a little like Mother Hubbard's but alas my purse is not much heavier. Nevertheless, it is a relief to unburden oneself of too many things, there is a definite spring to my step as I toss yet another accumulation of shredded paper into the recycle bin.
Nerve wracking because we have made an offer on an apartment and been accepted and pending paperwork we are committed to living in a very small two bedroom apartment until the local nursing home or undertaker gets first pick! The trade off in space will, I hope be compensated for by the view from the large deck where I plan to spend every  clement moment watching the passing parade of ships and people.

This is the view, courtesy of the Real Estate agent's brochure, from the deck. Newcastle harbour is very much a working harbour and is busy with large cargo ships, tugs and on the weekend pleasure craft. The view of the wheat silos and loading facility is especially dear to the Prof's heart, he being a plant geneticist involved with the wheat industry for most of his working life.
So I am trading this,

For the above and hope I don't live to regret it!

A bit of this and a bit of that and a whole lot of mess!

A fairly long break from blogging but I have not been idle.
Itchy feet ( ?) a change in health and the need to declutter have kept me busy. Almost fifty years of married life and I am horrified by the amount of 'stuff' we have accumulated. This is notwithstanding several major moves and previous attempts at clearing out our possessions.
What is exercising my mind at the moment is how to dispose of the many non valuable but sentimental items that I have inherited. I am sure  that neither of my children will want them, certainly the grandchildren will not but they do not fit into my contemplated future. Does one bite the bullet and cast them adrift or leave it to the next generation to do that? All of these things have become quite burdensome and one feels guilty to even think of giving them away. I am constantly reminded of that awful song by the very naughty Barry Humphries,'The Night We Burnt My Mother's Things".
We are currently searching for an apartment, with a view, to compensate for the loss of the garden. Believing as I do that I am quite an adaptable person I am sure nonetheless that I will have a balcony stuffed with plants as I go through the process of grieving for the garden. The Prof is completely oblivious of his surroundings and as long as there is a cup of tea and access to sports on cable TV he will be happy. You may wonder why we are thinking of the move but I have seen too many older friends sitting in a big house as the wind whistles through the deserted bedrooms and watching it slowly deteriorate around them. Better to jump than be pushed I say!
The changes may be in the medium to longer term as we hunt for the perfect place but in the meanwhile it is sooo good to toss things out!
A couple of etegami fitted in between slashing and shredding this week.

 

The Dog is a stamp and I tried many captions but I like this one best as it suits my present mood.

The answer...

What is the question? Well it is the question that bugged the ancient Egyptians terribly, in fact they even deified a bug that rolled around a ball of dung for goodness sake!
The question is; "Where does the sun go when we can't see it?"I do strain to see the similarity of said dung and the sun but it made sense to the Egyptians I guess.
Now you can tell me the earth is round yadda yadda, but my answer is much more palatable, edible in fact. The sun sleeps in the fruits we grow and every morning a little bit stays behind!
Do you like that explanation for the wonderful colour in my latest crop of persimmons? (Don't ask me what happens in winter, some things just have to be taken on faith). I have been enjoying the crop, trying to draw it in Adobe Illustrator (#&*#) and just admiring the colour. I finally went back to my most enjoyable option and did an etegami.

The persimmon tree is in the front garden and almost every day when it is in fruit someone asks what it is. Some people don't like the slippery texture of the ripe fruit but the Chinese lady who serves us dinner every Thursday night at the local club didn't hesitate when I offered  her a share.
We have had bumper crops this year of grapes and mangoes. The grapes are the old Isabella type,which have a delicious intense musky flavour but many are put off by the hard skins and the seeds. It is funny that all of my friends, when they eat the grapes,  say "My grandma grew  these and I love the memories they bring back". My grandma grew them as well.
The mangoes have survived because I bagged the fruit (sometimes in a fairly unorthodox way by putting our odd socks on them..a funny sight but it worked) the fruit bats and fruit fly left them alone so it is mangoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner but I never tire of them.
Winter is when the citrus fruit comes in but this year is not so good for them, you win some you lose some.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Be warned before reading and take note of the subtitle of this blog "Diary of a wasted life". Ah well, the Prof assures me that most people do not rise above the mundane so I am not alone in filling my time with trivia.
A little potting up of succulents in the three pairs of superannuated Crocs I have been hoarding, naff (adjective, Brit. lacking taste or style) I know but a good way to keep something out of landfill. The inevitable etegami followed.

 It pleased me to consider myself sabotaging the natural progression of such things from factory to rubbish dump but I guess it is only a temporary reprieve.

Another project is the passel of bunnies ready to go off for Easter, they do seem to multiply like, well rabbits!