penneylaneonline

Our little Bowlo is finding its feet. I thought you might like to know that. The new Board has been in place now for 10 weeks, it has worked tirelessly to put the insides to the business. It’s been a huge effort from everyone. And even more interestingly, has been evidencing the strengths of the parts combined to strengthen the whole. It’s like a tapestry. Threads interwoven. And the thing about that process is that the threads while individually sewn, go on to form something more beautiful than... Sign in to see full entry.

A cross the State where I live here in NSW, bushfires continue to burn. It’s been a month now. It’s always an anxious time for people living near or within reach of such menacing devastation. I worry for them and about them and I keep them at the front of my thoughts. The wind outside in the backyard has whipped itself up into a rock concert frenzy and it occurs to me that though colourful in literary description there is a much harsher reality when it comes to the real life situation. Faced... Sign in to see full entry.

There’s a dragon flying into the wind right in front of the window where I’m writing. The energy it must be expending to do that makes me tired watching. It got me thinking about how often I’ve flown into a head wind and seemingly felt like I was going nowhere, no time soon. It felt disheartening at times. The problem with that latter approach to thinking however is that sometimes we’ve actually travelled further along than we know, it just feels like we’re standing still. I noticed that the... Sign in to see full entry.

I appear to have chocolate crackles on the brain. Everywhere I look my brain manages to creature the illusion that makes those certain things look like chocolate crackles in disguise! Impossible? No really, it’s true! This must be how the Cookie Monster feels ALL the time! It must drive him to complete and utter distraction. Take an ordinary everyday thing like a pile of gravel. With enough imagination that commonplace heap of stones has in my context, the look if not texture, of chocolate... Sign in to see full entry.

We seem to be losing the art of how to listen. Maybe we began losing it when we became enamoured with all things video. Maybe video is killing the radio show! I was thinking back to a time recently when as a kid I listened to Children’s Radio from 7am-9am on a Sunday morning. It was such an eagerly awaited day and time. Why? Well, there were my childhood favourite stories like ‘Sparky and the Talking Train’ written by Alan Livingston (who also adapted “Little Toot”), Dr Seuss’ Gerald Mc Boing... Sign in to see full entry.

Call me simple but most of the time I don’t get pettiness. It looks like a waste of energy to me and it’s so projective. I’ve often wondered what’s in it for the person that behaves like that and I’m left rather nonplus as to the reason why they’d pursue that line of behaviour for so long and for so little return. I think pettiness is like a malaise; it clouds our thoughts and from time to time, there are some among us who allow such thoughts to invoke a deluge of torrential rain that often... Sign in to see full entry.

The weather like so much else about our lives can be so unpredictable. Personally, I have rather a love-hate relationship with unpredictability. I hate the ‘not knowing’ characteristic of it because I’m so inquisitive. I like knowing and that my friends is both a problem and quite different from a propensity to want control of everything about your life. Bottom line I suppose is that I’m just nosy for life. I like poking around in it. I have a mate, Burmo, he’s always got his nose in something... Sign in to see full entry.

Do you remember when you were growing up those moments when you felt left out from a peer group or even among particular friends within your own group of friends. This isn’t a sense of ‘belonging’ incognito. No, it’s something quite different though I’d concede related in some way, just don’t ask me how. The thing about being ‘left out’ is it sucks big time because of the worth that we attach to its importance. Which importance? Well, the one where we are the centre of the universe! It even... Sign in to see full entry.

Belonging has a way of sending us into a tail-spin that no other sense or effect on who we are has than anything I’ve been thinking about lately. I’ve often wondered about that. Why its bark is equal in all parts to its bite. Why, it [belonging] has the capacity to alienate us from reality in much the same way that loneliness can and does. When I wonder about ‘belonging’ I often wonder why it’s so important and I realise that it goes to knowing and feeling we have a place and significance in the... Sign in to see full entry.

Molly is having a lovely time in the backyard. I love watching her raise her nose to the air and follow unseen whiffs of cat-loving delight. It makes you think how little we human bi-peds use senses other than the obvious to take in the full range of our surrounds. Or how often is more to the point. It’s blustery outside, Himself (the Macadamia Nut) tree is having possibly his worst bad hair day since I moved to the ‘sham. The wind is like a wet tea towel flicked at his back in jest or... Sign in to see full entry.

I was thinking that it’s impossible for time to stand still as we hope it will. It’s like a momentary hope on our part to want that, but in all honesty it’s never going to happen. No. Time (as we know it) is destined and determined to continue marching to it’s own drum beat and we, for our part must fall into step with it or alternatively opt out. But to where? I took in an exhibition recently of Peter Lik’s work. Lik is an Australian Landscape Photographer. I loved his bold work with its bold... Sign in to see full entry.

My niece and nephew both came out of surgery yesterday evening. The liver transplant went well but these next 72 hours will be critical. My heart was in my mouth all the while and yet it is still early days. They will both spend Christmas in hospital and Tracy will celebrate her 21 st birthday in ICU. Life. It can sure hand you some curve balls. But the courage of this darling niece and nephew, well, it’s to be admired. My prayers have wings to you both. I’m reminded that this isn’t the first... Sign in to see full entry.

Today marked the start of a new beginning for me. Today I got Molly, a black domestic short-haired cat. She has a quieter disposition than Banjo, not that he was loud particularly. He was a typical boy and as boisterous as they come. When he first arrived home, he was out of the cat carrier, looking around. He was quite nosy actually. I loved that about him. He made himself at home very quickly. Molly on the other hand has had to contend with two major incidences in her life today. Firstly, she... Sign in to see full entry.

My niece Tracy is in Auckland (NZ) Intensive Care Unit. She’s twenty years old. A couple of weeks ago she went to see her doctor because she’d been feeling unwell. After blood work she was admitted to hospital, on a ward initially, but now in its Intensive Care Unit. It turns out her unwellness stemmed from the fact her liver had begun to shut down. She’s awaiting a liver transplant now. How does that happen you and I might wonder. I don’t know. I know about a lot of other things, but I don’t... Sign in to see full entry.

Revenge is a strange creature; it’s a supposedly mythical green-eyed monster. I say supposedly because I’ve known some proponents of it and let me tell you, there’s nothing half-measured about the way that they execute this settling of the scores. To coin some aussie-grown wisdom, “it ain’t pretty!” The act of revenge is actually over-rated in my opinion. I mean to say, does the avenger feel better (well, momentarily I suspect) but better over the long term? I suspect not. Why? Because it goes... Sign in to see full entry.

To my way of thinking, traditions/rituals define an important social component of our lives that I think is fast becoming lost in the Western world and I find that sad actually. I feel they’ve been shelved because of the adverse attention that’s been given to them from a historical context rather than on their own merits in a person’s life. I feel that political correctness in almost all areas of our lives and society is beginning to achieve a sanitation of all things colourful to the point of... Sign in to see full entry.

hump It’s day. The day where we look forward to the coming of the weekend. To be honest, it’s still a stretch when you view it realistically. I mean, there are still three working days left in the week before we can put our feet up. What’s with that? Why couldn’t Thursday be the hump day? I mean it’s closer to the weekend wouldn’t you say? By citing Thursday as the Hump Day, the inference of course is that, the expectation is much greater because it really is closer to the onset of the weekend.... Sign in to see full entry.

I noticed the other day that the Hibiscus cutting in the backyard was sprouting leaves. It’s a beautiful thing that. The quietness of the act yet the abiding sense of the continuing lifecycle. The Jacaranda tree has carpeted the ground at the front gate with a luxurious, soft deep purple pile. It makes me feel like lying down on it and rolling around on it the way you would any new carpet. Leaving a butterfly wings impression in it seems definitely on the cards. I noticed that the neighbour’s... Sign in to see full entry.

Sometimes we never see the bend in the road (particularly when it’s dark) until we’re on it. “Modern roads feature a convex transverse profile known as superelevation or a camber This camber is designed to allow water to drain away from the road to its edges. Water is then carried away by gutters to drains placed at intervals. Some roads don't have gutters and water simply drains away to a naturally porous verge, or into ditches. Modern roads employ cambers in the bend of the road to help car... Sign in to see full entry.

The interesting thing about meeting and talking to relatives you’ve never met before is that you learn something more about your broader family than you otherwise would have by simply reading a name on a family tree. What do you learn? Well, you learn that there are more ‘family’ stories than you could poke a stick at much less hear about on bush telegraph that has strange but interesting twists. I like those ones. The ones that lead you up the garden path. They make you work harder to get the... Sign in to see full entry.