The Gentleman
Posted on January 2, 2017 Leave a Comment
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1.a chivalrous, courteous, or honourable man.Although I am quite capable of getting my bike out of the garage by myself, that chivalrous man keeps doing it for me…His kind favours in my direction. A little love gift each time we go riding together.His considerate behaviour has not gone unnoticed.#Grateful for this gentleman who constantly looks for ways to make my life more pleasant. It’s not about the path our lives take but, rather, the tone in which it is walked that makes the difference.
Not Quite Super Woman Enough
Posted on December 30, 2016 Leave a Comment
A friend had told me that she had done it. I had always wondered but now decided to give it a go.
The day was set.
Family organized…or, at least, warned.
And now that I had committed it was growing…at an alarming rate, which actually means that alarm bells were beginning to ring in my head that there was no way I could accomplish all that was on that fast-growing list.
Prioritize, that’s what I would do, and just do the best I could.
Well, it didn’t take very long for me to realise that I had underestimated the entire job and there was NO WAY I could even do the top priorities which is when that adorable son said he volunteered all the kids to help, including himself.
Of course,a family project always has my darling dearest at the helm steering my ideas away from their natural implosion…(They might be great ideas but I am not always known for practicality or logic…that’s where we make such a fantastic team 🙂 )
Cars, couches and carpets… and all in eight hours with machine returned.
They worked liked Trojans on their holiday. Furniture moved throughout the house. Vacuuming inside. Vacuuming outside. Carpets all shampooed. Furniture moved back. Washing cars. All upholstery cleaned. Detailing done. Couches all cleaned and smelling like … not daisies exactly, but, very fragrant cleaner. And then, as a grande finale, the boys even cooked dinner.
I looked around the table so grateful for them all. Grateful that they had made a near disaster into a successful day filled with laughter and good will. (They have learnt well from their Daddy who is brilliant at this.) Grateful for all their extra muscles and smiles when I berated myself for not being quite Super Woman Enough.Grateful for a very clean house, but, most of all, grateful to be a part of this AWESOME family!
Peas in a Pod
Posted on December 29, 2016 Leave a Comment
Summer evenings spent watering the garden and enjoying a pod of peas (Okay…a few).
It’s a joy that spells warm summer days and sunshine.
#Grateful
Coming Up Roses
Posted on December 23, 2016 3 Comments
I’ve fallen off the bandwagon just a tad with my grateful drawings… not that you don’t already know that 😛 I’ve still been making my daily lists of things I am grateful for but haven’t been putting the time into the drawing side…could claim too many other things but we all have a choice every day on how to spend our 24 hours, don’t we?!
So, today, I am choosing to draw. And the winner by a mile is the new buds on the rose my darling dearest bought me as an early Christmas present. The first flush had already finished and I had been hoping and watching for just a one or two for our Christmas bbq outside … the joys of a summer Christmas 🙂
So, when I spotted these beauties I was grateful. Coming up roses so to speak.
#grateful
What If…
Posted on November 10, 2016 Leave a Comment
‘Let’s go out Plein Air painting’, he said.
He was gently coercing me past my fears.
What if I couldn’t do it justice?
What if it just didn’t work?
What if I was a fraud and couldn’t paint this scenery in all it’s majesty? What if…? What if…? What if…?I’ve heard the talks on not expecting perfection from myself. Giving myself room to be human. But sometimes the fear sneaks up and overtakes me. I find myself unable to move out of the paralysis that comes in it’s wake. This was one of those times.
My Darling Dearest recognized the signs.
Continually moving me forward in his firm but quiet way he had the gear in the car and a thermos of hot tea to comfort against the cold. We ventured out.
‘What’s the worst that can happen?’, he asked gently.
How many times has he done this for me over the years? I’ve definitely lost count. Ah, but how grateful I am for this gift of reframing that he offers me.
Wondering around until I found a spot that inspired. Him lugging all my gear up the hill onto the railway tracks and then sauntering off as I began to commit paint to canvas. I was soon lost in the wonder of creating, and my Darling Dearest?… asleep on a pile of gravel warmed by the high Alpine sun. His mission accomplished 🙂
#Grateful
Canterbury Plains
Posted on November 8, 2016 Leave a Comment
What a fun night!
Fire roaring keeping our faces all rosy pink even after we derobed our hats, scarfs, jackets, etc., at the door.
Pete’s fabulous baking to nibble on between strokes.
Arthur’s Pass Alpine Motel were wonderful hosts.
Fi had everyone laughing and feeling welcome.
Chatter flowing freely.
Enthusiasm abounding as they all tried something new…everyone keen.
It was a real pleasure to run a ‘painting with palette knife’ workshop for the residents of Arthur’s Pass. Using a scene passed on the Canterbury Plains as we came on up, these intrepid locals gave it their all producing some great pieces. Whether real first-timers or accomplished watercolour and pastel artists there was a real willingness to learn something new.
#Grateful for this opportunity …enjoyed immensely our time amongst you all 🙂
Shifting Suns
Posted on September 15, 2016 Leave a Comment
Our many years living close to the Equator had taught us new sun patterns. Gone were the longer sunrise and twilight zones. It all happens in a matter of minutes up there catching many visitors out as they linger on thinking they still have time before nightfall.
But, already three years back in our beloved New Zealand, and we are once again back in the flow of longer evenings. So, when we got to Arthur’s Pass it was a bit of a shock the first morning that the daylight came so sheepishly 6:00am, …7:00am,…8:00am,… 9:00am, …10:00am, …10:30…then WHAM! over the top of the mountain peaks surrounding the pass and it was ‘all on like donkey-Kong’…(a phrase used often by my five ’90’s kids, so excuse the lingo in my text. 🙂 )
The layers of jackets, thermals, scarves and hats, were fast discarded as the sun beamed down hard and fast. We enjoyed trouser legs up and tee-shirts donned in the warmth.
BUT…
Beware the 4:00pm hour!
Making the most of a beautiful day and having stopped to sketch the local Chalet, I was one minute looking at my subject in bright sunshine, the next looking up from applying some paint and my subject was now totally in shadow. I tried to finish as best I could from memory while kicking myself for not having taken a reference photo at the start.And the next I was adding to the remonstrating with myself for not having brought my jacket with me. Without the sun the temperature was plummeting fast and additional warmth was required again.
Lessons learnt, though at least I can look forward to tomorrow morning’s sleep in..the silver lining on this shifting sun.
#grateful
Another Time and Place
Posted on September 12, 2016 Leave a Comment
Finally, we were here. The place of our destination.
The opportunity had been given to come and be the ‘Artist in Residence’ at the Alpine Motel Arthur’s Pass, and we had grabbed it with both hands.My darling dearest had suggested he take time off from his work and we make a holiday/road trip for two (ie. no children and animals, just Darby & Joan) What an offer!
For a couple of months we have planned our route and counted down the days. Now, at last, we were here. I needed to get to work and earn my keep. Instructions from Pete Neale had us out wandering the village and taking in the sights.
So much history in such a quaint place. It was fascinating reading signs and getting a feel for the place. Although the town is very tiny with only 30 residents, the buildings are mainly historical and thus protected. Many of them had me feeling like I had been caught in a time-warp and the Cobb & Co wagon was going to coming through the town at any moment bringing with it another group of hardy souls. I take my hat off to all the men and women who did this trip in or on the wagon now housed in the Arthur’s Pass National Park Information Centre. The thought of 14 people (the maximum number of passengers) crammed in and hanging on as a team of snorting horses careered you round mountain passes with steep gorges, snowstorms and across fast-flowing rivers is absolutely mind blowing. Such courage!
For today we got to walk and wonder. To admire the crooked chimneys and corrugated iron walls that protected from the elements. To walk back along the river edge and be thankful we didn’t have to shower and wash our clothes in that mountain stream. ‘How soft!’, you say? We turned towards our cosy cabin…thankful that we live in this time.
#grateful
Lake Lyndon
Posted on September 9, 2016 Leave a Comment
Snowmen abounding on the sides of the road and in paddocks. Cars stopped as families take a break from driving and create their own version of the much-loved figure. Sticks for arms, stones or carrots for noses, beautiful round heads some having toppled off already, And a very big sign in a paddock saying “Big bull is angry. Grumpy Farmer is angrier. Do not trespass.” His message still lost on some snow-hungry travelers who happily risked all to climb the fence and find larger stocks of snow for building.
Heading into the Southern Alps we came across a frozen fairyland lake with lots of parked cars, snow-ball fights ensuing and kids tobogganing.
“Oh, please stop here,” I asked.
He kindly pulled off although refusing to get out himself as he was anxious about getting stuck in snow and not being able to get out. I hurried down the frozen road as best as one can when all is slippery with ice, carefully placing my feet.
Leaving the laughing families behind I was keen to get down to Lake Lyndon frozen in front of us. Before me stretched shades and tints of just one colour. Even the sky joined in the colour scheme with it’s thick cloud layer hiding that clear blue mountain sky from the scene.
As I left the dangerous looking Matagouri and walked down into the tussock grasses I was rewarded with a flock of birds rising out of the snow and flying further down to the lake’s edge. Settling back down into their camouflaged hiding spots I moved forward, camera at the ready. Up they flew dotting the otherwise clear view of the lake. Again and again we repeated the dance until the tussock grass gave way to the lake shore.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Happily recording the wonder of this entry into the Southern Alps.
Aware that my darling dearest was waiting patiently for me in the car I put down the lens and, for a moment, focused my own lenses on the scene before me. Breathing in the beauty. Thanking Him for the opportunity to see such wonder.
I turned and began the journey back.
#grateful
Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Posted on September 8, 2016 Leave a Comment
“Here! Here!,” I cried.
As he pulled the car over I was frantically pulling out the big lens and trying to attach it, not wanting to miss a one. (Not that I needed any more as I have so many photos from our visit to Cape Palliser. But those were little babies and these much older.
Lining the rocky Kaikoura coastline were literally hundreds of seals all enjoying this sunny winter’s day. Big daddy bulls seeing who could roar the loudest, mama cows soaking up the sun quietly among the rocks, and baby pups now so much bigger than we had seen them just a few months ago. All sporting a luscious thick coating of blubber under their fur.
I could have stayed there for ever, watching this one, taking photos, watching another, and another. They are such posers, playing to the camera, and almost begging you to take photos from both sides and then again from their best angle. They know how to work it!
Today, I learnt from ‘Seal Facts’ that this group on the beach was called a colony of seals yet as soon as they go into the water they become a raft of seals. I guess they do kind of look like a raft when they are all out playing in the water together, but for now they are most definitely colonizing this beach and I had fallen prey to all those big soft eyes.
On this trip I had wanted to spend time with the seals here but had already asked for soft falling snow and Keas so didn’t want to push my luck. He had said He wanted to show me His glory. He was definitely doing that here. His promises are signed, sealed and delivered! 🙂
I LOVE seals!!!!
#grateful for this stop.
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Lynda Symons Artistry 