penneylaneonline

I love to listen to Quiet. I have a sense at times that he's listening right back as intently as I am to him. We're respectful toward each other, more so now, than in the beginning when we were both young and had no adult wisdom to fall back on. The years have taught us both that filling the silence between us with idle, meaningless chatter can spoil the quality of our time with each other. We would have done that rather unthinkingly in the past, chatter on I mean, with complete and utter... Sign in to see full entry.

Some books draw us back to them because some truths need more time for us to sit with them. To have us weigh and consider more carefully those things they feel need further thinking on by us. When I first read Marianne Fredriksson's "Hanna's Daughters" 18 months ago I was inexplicably moved. The story could be everywoman, though not specifically, simply in some aspects of the detail. The fabric in which the story is woven is not simply complex, but flawed in places, beautiful in others. So what... Sign in to see full entry.

There's a great deal of glee that comes with being able to puff billowing tendrils of warm air out to form the genie-like apparition we know as smoke stacks. No real smoke, just warm air meeting cold in the battle to keep an upper hand. Silliness when you think about it because they work so well together. This is childsome play of course but it's still such a fascinating amusement after all these years. And free too! Drawing in long stalagmite-length breaths that make our bodies tingle from the... Sign in to see full entry.

I'm helping my sister move house later on today. In this more reflective moment a move like this seems like a new beginning for them. A chance to spread their wings. Do you ever have that sense when you move from one place to another? Like you close the door behind you on the life you lived here to go on ahead to another that lies just over there. There is a certain wistfulness attached to a step like that. In our lifetimes, if we're lucky, we can make just one or two of these new beginnings, or... Sign in to see full entry.

Moods are funny things. Have you ever wondered why one kind comes out ahead of another at any given time, on any given day? I do, often. And it's not even like we have an option somedays. Some days are more reflective, some exuberant, others overwhelming or sad but whichever way we look at it, there's no escaping the fact that however they occur, these varying moods, we are the canvas on which they paint themselves. Some people think they don't have an artistic bone in their body but actually I... Sign in to see full entry.

What is it about being connected, to someone, something that makes it so important to our human experience? Is it need? If that's it, then, we're bound to be disappointed. Needing something too much could eventually destroy the connection. Then what? We're funny creatures, we humans. There's a door inside us all that only has one key, and the key itself is such an odd shape, a locksmith would tell you he's never seen anything like it. Why is that? Because it's unique. There isn't another one on... Sign in to see full entry.

The air outside is like freshly laundered sheets. It's crisp, clean and filled with the pungent liveliness of a winter morning. Don't you love the way your heart screams inside your chest on days like this? A 'let-me-hang-glide-off-the-side-of-this-cliff' scream because life's so good and it challenges a person to come and eat it! It feels like that today. Life. Do you take forgranted having wide open spaces to run around in, to drink in with your eyes or simply roll around in the long grass? I... Sign in to see full entry.

Grey winter days can be comforting or dreary depending on a person's internal barometer reading. Mine says comforting today. And the outlook for tomorrow is more of the same. Blackey arrived home late last night, he looked a little weary. He mentioned the flight back was bone-chilling, the chill factor contributing to his chattering teeth long after his arrival. He says he's getting too old to make the country trips these days. It's 6.35am here and Tilly and the girls are already catching up on... Sign in to see full entry.

Sometimes finding the way forward is more difficult than we imagine, particularly when we're just hitting our stride and from out of no-where the unexpected occurs. It somehow seems worse when we discover a fork in the road that isn't on the original map. I hate that, don't you? And one week it's a two-way street, and the next, someone's closed off one end with a STOP WRONG WAY, GO BACK sign and someone else again has put in speed humps to slow the traffic right down. What is it about chaos and... Sign in to see full entry.

Most times when you're growing up I can't help thinking how little we pay attention to the details in our lives as they unfold. I was thinking about Miz who was my literary mentor many years ago now. She's since passed away having accomplished for herself the title of novelist. She always told me, "you should always attempt to go out with a bang!" She was quite understated like that. I met Miz through my old school friend Sal's Granny. I have a gaping soft spot for Sal's Granny, she was a Music... Sign in to see full entry.

I love spending time with my Dad. He's over 70 years old now and he still has a delicious sense of humour, it's lip-smacking infact. I love that he's still opinionated and has his own views on life. The thing I love the most about our time together is hearing him tell me the same stories he told me the last time I was home, as if they were absolutely brand spanking new. And it's not creeping dimentia or anything like that, perhaps he thinks they're stories he hasn't told me yet. And I figure,... Sign in to see full entry.

The fog outside my window this morning is like the proverbial pea soup. It's mid-morning and its density remains thick and belly-filling. I miss Blackey, he didn't exactly fly south but he's been visiting relatives down the south coast. He seemed somewhat reticent to go and it's been a few weeks now. Lately, I half expect him to turn up in the backyard bearing gifts, but, nothing yet. Soon maybe. Music has a way of stirring the spirit in patterns that defy description. Maybe it's the attachment... Sign in to see full entry.

What is community-spirit? And when does a community know it has it? I mean, how does a community of collective individuals fit themselves into the same space while still giving themselves enough leg room to seriously contend on an issue or set of issues? And need we always assume that contention is altogether bad? Where does the community-spirit go when those contending the issue(s) can't agree which way is forward? What then? This is one of the many issues facing members of my local Bowlo... Sign in to see full entry.

There are some things like the recipe that I'm about to share with you that words can not adequately describe. So you have to bake and taste in order to truly appreciate it. Here's my Coconut Chocolate Brownie recipe. COCONUT CHOCOLATE BROWNIES INGREDIENTS 125g butter Half cup desiccated coconut Quarter cup cocoa Half cup Plain Flour 1 cup sugar Half teaspoon baking powder 2 eggs Icing sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla essence METHOD 1. Melt butter in saucepan 2. Add cocoa 3. Stir over low heat for 1-2... Sign in to see full entry.

Where do you think the strength in us all comes from? Maybe the well-spring of some quiet pool deep in our heart's forest do you think? Or bubbling up from an underground spa where no-one knows its source or beginning? I'm not sure either. What I am sure of though, is it comes to us when we need it most. Slipping its hand in ours and gently guiding us away from danger. Even the most timid among us can manage, on occasions, to summons the strength in us all to push forward from the Valley of... Sign in to see full entry.

Where do you go when pain becomes personal? I mean really personal. And not just any old pain, I mean gut-searing, heart-wrenching pain? The kind that threatens to unhinge the very thought of life or living? A moment might indeed seem such a long time. Do you crawl into the nearest and darkest emotional hole and hope that no-one comes to visit any time soon? Or maybe you take the bull by the horns and frequent some of life's more insalubrious dark or dingy places? Whichever your preferred... Sign in to see full entry.

Tilly and her all-girl choir (as I call them) were up at the crack of dawn this morning, twittering to their heart's content and blissfully unaware that the more languid human bi-ped (now unwillingly alerted to their presence) was about to throw the book at them! Noisy neighbours! Nice noise, I finally concede after an early morning lemon & ginger tea. It takes me a moment to realise it but I'm smiling. What's not to smile about? Birds singing, most natural thing in the world. I like early,... Sign in to see full entry.

My old school-friend Sal reminds me of what long time friendship means. And what's that you say? Well, here's the thing, for me it's the reference to the 'long' bit that gives you a clue. Long time for Sal on the other hand has meant long-between letters, long-between chats and long-between camping trips. She'll laugh when she reads that last bit, a light chardonnay-sounding laugh, delicate and full of the honeyed fruitiness that comes with age. She's much loved by me my friend Sal. I don't... Sign in to see full entry.

I've been reading Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" the complete and unabridged version for a day now. Usually a book like this would only take an hour but I've enjoyed the easy swagger that my mind has developed, such a swagger indeed, resembles that of the book's main character without a doubt. I like the mischief and mayhem that follow him around! Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain wrote that, "Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will... Sign in to see full entry.

"Representation as a construct for a different reality" [as spoken of by Harvey Shields in his review of Paul Hopmeier's Past Modern Madonna Exhibition] is a heady concept, yet, it crosses the line with neither fear nor trepidation as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do, to 'rejuvenate' something and still have it look like its true self I mean. And yes, while the concept is heady, it's not a new one, perhaps simply a new and recent discovery in Hopmeier's experience of life. It... Sign in to see full entry.