penneylaneonline

The weather has been playing tricks on us again. It’s cast a grey blanket over things like a slow dirge. Ever notice how people seem to be caught as if in slow-mo on a grey day? Grey days certainly have an odd effect on people. Or maybe just me! Grey days make me feel sluggish; make me feel like I’m dragging my feet. I have a conversation with myself that goes something like this, “so what’s the go? Why the long face?” The fly in the ointment is I’m just horsing around, that’s why the long face!... Sign in to see full entry.

The strangest thing happened to me today. By some serendipitous stroke of cosmic interference I was phoning my neighbour Marie and somehow managed to key into my mobile phone a bunch of totally incorrect numbers. The result was, I ended up reaching another Marie whom I had been at school with 19 years ago. It was absolutely incredible to say the least! And more than that, she was living in another State, in the same country. When I told her my name the voice on the other end of the phone asked... Sign in to see full entry.

There are times in our lives when we have to play hard ball against some fairly strong opposition of our own natural inclinations. I’m talking about confrontation. If I could, I’d avoid it like the plague. I say that, but I’ve never actually walked away from the frontline when push comes to shove. What invariably happens to me is, I’m brought face-to-face with a situation and the rather more pragmatic side of my nature kicks in to deal with it in the most efficient and effective way it knows... Sign in to see full entry.

There’s something about being surrounded by art that resuscitates my soul. I can’t put my finger on whether it’s the high concentration of ideas or energy or kindredness or all that and more that makes me feel that way but what I know, is the effect is always the same. I feel alive. Colour is an extremely heady sensation for me. I love it. I love the energy of it. And best of all I’m besotted with the emotion that energy evokes in the depths of my being. Life calling to life. And despite what I... Sign in to see full entry.

I like the timelessness of thought, how being able to set down in just about any time, place and or dimension is entirely permissible because thought allows us to do that. It’s kind of cool isn’t it? It’s interesting too to consider just how people around us do that as well, particularly when you think of some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Good thinking changes an atmosphere, an environment and an attitude. I’ve always wondered how it did that. For instance, where does an atmosphere, an... Sign in to see full entry.

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love for love, it would be utterly scorned" - from Song of Songs. Here in these lines are the rich example of "biblical wisdom literature" and in these words are wisdom's description of an amorous... Sign in to see full entry.

Sometimes making sense of everything can give you a headache, wouldn't you agree? So here's the thing, why do we feel we have to have an explanation for everything? Whatever happened to the delight of wonderment? My friend Lucas, his old flatmate Bec and I pondered this very thing over dinner the other night. Okay, so that was Friday night, I'm a slow thinker, my reflective reflexes are still yawning from another late night/early morning. Nevertheless, it's a valid question. Why do some of us... Sign in to see full entry.

Have you ever been travelling so much that you wake up the next morning wondering where on earth you are? I mean you remember the bit where you understand that you've been travelling for what feels like an eternity. It's just that when you open your eyes some mornings you're just not immediately sure what city you're in. I have. It's particularly disorientating. Over time and a Pink Elephant (gin, lemonade & bitters) I developed a way of reminding myself exactly where I was the next morning by... Sign in to see full entry.

It’s eerie here in the backyard today, no birds twittering, and no insects making insect-noises. It makes things feel not quite right somehow! Unnatural even. I noticed the fig tree along Brighton Street where I walk has been fruiting furiously. Such serious fruiting reminds me that Christmas must be just around the corner. And butterflies. There seems to have been a profuse explosion of them this year. Particularly, the large black ones with spots on them that have taken to dancing on the wind... Sign in to see full entry.

I often wonder where wisdom goes to when she’s had the door shut in her face. Don’t you? I mean where would you expect her to go? More importantly, why wouldn’t anyone simply invite her in, arms opened wide? Well, I heard a story on the grapevine the other day. I heard wisdom likes to dress up in disguise and wander among the crowds, exploring cobbled pathways off the beaten track, popping unannounced into small establishments without the slightest hint of any hue and cry. She’s renowned for it.... Sign in to see full entry.

Leading by example can be a brave call in life, particularly when situations make you feel like your back's against the wall. Those same 'situations ' will hang you out to dry emotionally if you let them or haven't conditioned yourself mentally to weather the storms when they come. The conditioner I'm talking about here is discipline. Being a leader and having the sense of being a leader (in my opinion) are different. The thing that makes one different from the other lies in the fact that one is... Sign in to see full entry.

The Tibouchina bush outside my front door is such an elegant front-of-house director of people inside that she deserves great tips from everyone that enters. Her neatly coiffered purple locks make you think not even an errant gust of wind would dare dislodge a single petal on her head. She's gracious and lovely to boot. I've known and met people like that throughout my life, my family friend Kathleen is like that. Wonderfully gracious. I'm not sure she realises it, but it's like a halo round her... Sign in to see full entry.

It's a lovely day outside, cool but comfortable. Funny what you end up thinking about when a blue sky is on the books! We used to have a family tradition when I was growing up whereby when Sunday came around we all bundled into the car and went for a Sunday drive. And as inevitably happens among siblings, there were a 101 ways to inflict pain on the others quietly, with great and practised stealth! I believe it's called 'original sin' because I do actually love my siblings these days. For... Sign in to see full entry.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Felix yesterday, she's all of 3 foot something, 7 years old, chatty and immediately likeable. I needed to get my head out into the open air so I decided that I would spend some time doing some much needed gardening around the Bowlo. Gardening is great for thinking, it's one of those effortless non-thinking acts that actually aids the real work of thinking at a much deeper level if you know what I mean. Felix, as it happens knows no such bounds when it comes to... Sign in to see full entry.

Have you ever noticed that when taking stock of where you are in your life how disturbingly pre-occupied with the mundane you become? It happens. You know, how you begin cleaning out wardrobes you’ve left unkempt for months or even distractedly stacking magazines one on top of the other again and again and again. What is this? A nervous reaction to a bad batch of penicillin? It’s funny (mysterious rather than hilarious) how this happens. Maybe it’s a procrastinator’s tic! Hamlet’s disease from... Sign in to see full entry.

I never imagined (being so long in the tooth) that I would acquire the skill of “pulling a beer” so late in my life! But I will be. I’ll be sitting my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) Certificate soon so that I can do some shifts at my local Bowlo soon. I have to smile, I mean who’d have thought, certainly not me. There’s got to be something said for adventure. Something profound, yet when faced with the prospect of standing on its threshold I’m left speechless. I’m dumbfounded, dumbstruck... Sign in to see full entry.

Rustic covers a multitude of descriptions, like old farmhouses in Tuscany, food that’s been prepared with little or no fuss, usually it just means you need to take things as you find them. In contrast, gourmet means all things swish and supposedly tasty. I say ‘supposedly’ because sometimes I think things bundled under this banner is simply an excuse for a cook with little or no imagination to serve up to the eating (paying) public something less than satisfying. Apologies to real chefs but... Sign in to see full entry.

You’ve gotta laugh at the idiosyncrasies that you pick up over time. Or maybe you simply have to wonder at your inability to say no to extra baggage! Here’s the thing, no matter how fantastic looking your luggage looks, leather trim and all, it’s still luggage afterall! I have this thing about crumbs under foot. They drive me crazy! And while I’m not a neat freak (because tidy will suffice) I positively couldn’t stand to either feel or hear them crunch under my feet. I love vacuums for that very... Sign in to see full entry.

The mother sulphur-crested cockatoo that moved into the Date Palm tree over the back fence sounds frustrated. She’s screeching like a banshee. It’s near dinner time and she displays all the frenetic behaviours of a mother about to pull her feathers out if just one more child whinges that they’re hungry! She and her babies have brought a new sound to the neighbourhood, an up-tempo urban screech that can rattle your nerves if it’s been a long day. You can hear the strain in her voice some days.... Sign in to see full entry.

The most surprising thing about gangly and sometimes fragile-looking woody twigs is that when their time comes they can sometimes turn from ugly duckling so to speak to elegant and delicate swans of the plant world. m This is what has happened to the tree in the pot outside my front door. It grew up into an 'Indian Summer Crepe Myrtle' - Lagerstroemia indica x L.fauriei Hopi. On closer inspection they have such a lovely symmetry, delicate like I said. It might be easy to imagine that they're so... Sign in to see full entry.