Monday 26 September 2016

Spring 2016.


Making: the soil rich and the garden grow! After the wild success that was the front step garden in 2015, this year I've gone bigger and better and have extended my green thumbs into actual garden beds. There's sweet snow peas, cornflowers, ranunculus, an array of herbs, freesias and daffies and tiny tommy toe tomato seedlings. And rhubarb! Ah so much gardening bliss. 



Cooking: a crumble to take to a friend's place tonight.
Drinking: flat whites, water and wine.
Reading: anything and everything about Japan in preparation for an upcoming trip.
Wanting: to stop wanting so much and to be satisfied with what I have already. 



Looking: out my bedroom window to the beautiful Mountain. 

Playing: indoor soccer and scrabble.
Liking: the lengthening days and the golden afternoon light.
Considering: what will happen over the next few years.



Watching: two of my nearest and dearest become wonderful parents to the sweetest little boy I know.
Hoping: for lots of energy to get me through the next few weeks of 5 day working weeks (insert eurgh face).
Wearing: lots of linen, new blue jeans and my birkis.
Noticing: the blossoms being replaced by new spring growth and Dusky's tummy hair growing slowly back.



Thinking: about how lucky I am.
Buying: too many new clothes online.
Getting: tanned and fit. Well, trying to. 

Listening: to Safia, The Shins, Solange and Gang of Youths.
Feeling: pretty bloody great.



Dee x. 

Sunday 21 August 2016

Collins Cap

After starting full time nursing work in April, I was finding myself so worn out by the working week that my days off were mostly spent sleeping and/or drinking coffee. I barely had the energy to be social, let alone find the urge to go bush walking.
But lately, things have changed. I've adjusted to the working lifestyle and have started to make the most of my weekends and days off by doing day walks close to home or by heading out to explore this beautiful state. It's been a wonderful respite from the bright, sterile world of the hospital and it's getting me super psyched for the summer ahead. 

Last Tuesday, after four days off (one spent celebrating my graduation, two spent recovering from said celebration) and with a weather forecast for 19 degrees and sun, I made plans to walk to Collins Cap via Myrtle Creek, a small summit north west of Mt Wellington. 

I drove twenty odd minutes to the car park (follow the signs from Berridale) and hit the trail which for the first 500m is a wide, well maintained fire trail that slowly climbs to a picnic shelter and toilet, where the foot track starts. This section of the trail is beautifully diverse. You start surrounded by paddocks and brightly blooming silver wattles and as you climb closer to the creek line, you find yourself surrounded by century old eucalyptus, towering sassafras and of course, the area's namesake, myrtle beech. 

As soon as you leave the fire trail behind, the track narrows and climbs steeply through wet stands of manferns. Soon enough, a small platform is reached, giving good views of Myrtle Creek Falls, a worthwhile walk in itself (it takes about 15 minutes to get to this point). I continued on, crossing the creek multiple times before leaving it to my left and climbing higher still, out of the wet eucalypt forest and into thick stands of Richea dracophylla, baurea and alpine yellow gums. At this point, the trees are thinning, allowing the sun to shine through and giving views to the summits around, namely Collins Bonnet to the south. In no time at all, the track enters a section of regrowth forest and a minute later, the East-West fire trail is crossed. At this point, the track has climbed 340m in altitude. 
Collins Bonnet.
With 180m still to climb, the track changes again. The muddy clay track of the fire trail quickly hardens to one strewn with small dolerite boulders. As the boulders grow in size, the eucalypts fade out and baurea, pineapple grass and hakea dominate. The views continue to broaden as you climb and soon you reach a long traverse under the summit ridge. At the north west extent of the ridge is the small peaked summit complete with a head high cairn. I found myself on the summit 1h10m after starting and spent about 30m on the summit, enjoying the beautiful views, the springlike sunshine and the company of two wedge-tailed eagles. 

One of two wedge-tailed eagles soaring above the summit. 

A skyline of mountain ranges and me!

The walk back takes the same route though there are other options to make the walk a circuit. I ran most the way home in about 40 minutes.

Dee x.




Monday 13 June 2016

Things I love (June 2016).


sunny days. japanese maples. cat snuggles. mountain tops. boys who smell nice. hot sauce. rain. roses the colour of sunsets. sunsets. hash browns. glowsticks.





Dee x.

Sunday 8 May 2016

08 May 2016

Cooking: a bean stew for lunches through the working week.
Perfecting: the perfect brownie recipe. It's gotta be equal parts fudgy, crunchy and chewy. Any suggestions?
Drinking: plain old H2O.
Reading: I'm recharging my kindle as we speak so hopefully something enthralling in the near future. 
Wanting: a coffee grinder but the purchase seems oh so excessive.
Looking: through the lounge room window and into the boughs of a bronzing Japanese maple.
Playing: Daughter. Her voice is so beautiful.

Loving: my little friend, Dusky the cat. He brings me endless joy and keeps me warm at night. What a little legend.
Watching: the new Game of Thrones season and Keeping Australia Alive.
Hoping: that my freesias didn't sprout too early and will still provide me with beautifully perfumed blooms come winter.
Needing: very little. Wanting very much.
Wearing: colourful clothes to make up for the grey old day outside. 


Noticing: my body and my mind adjusting to life as a working RN.
Thinking: about the past (always) and how it influences the future.
Buying: a fortnightly vegie box from local farmers
Getting: fitter and stronger with every hockey game I play. So glad to be back.
Liking: way too many cats on Instagram.
Feeling: like things are looking up. 



Monday 25 April 2016

Mountain Dreamer.

The Invitation.

It doesn't interest me,
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me,
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk looking like a fool,
for love,
for your dream,
for the adventure of being alive.

- Oriah Mountain Dreamer.


Wednesday 16 March 2016

Shopping Sadness Vol. 1

Late last week, I was walking home from the supermarket and all of a sudden, without any conscious thought processes involved, found myself browsing the racks of Country Road*. I found about a gazillion beautiful things to try on, all of which were reduced. Feeling like the professional shopper that I am, I waltzed into the fitting room, stripped off my clothes and got to business.

After about ten minutes of trying on the clothes and waging an internal warfare inside my own head, I left the fitting room feeling defeated. The lovely shop assistant took the clothes out of my hands and asked me 'Is there anything in particular that you were after?', before I could stop myself I blurted 'Oh, just a different body'.

The girl's face deflated to look pretty similar to my own as we shared a sincere moment between two young women who both hate their bodies. IT WAS SO FREAKING SAD. I went home and cried. The end.


Dee x.

* This phenomenon happens almost every time I go to the supermarket.

Wednesday 2 March 2016

February.

The Bay of Fires.

The predawn light.
The cool breath of the darkening sky. 
The squeak of the finest sand and the glare of the brightest beaches. 
The stifling heat of the late afternoon sun. 
The whistle of the kettle in the early morning quiet.
The blackened soles of my feet. 
The constant wash of the swirling sea. 





Thursday 4 February 2016

Plans.

I just charged up an old iPod and relived my early teens by listening to the amazing album, Plans by Death Cab for Cutie. It is such timeless, beautiful and melancholy music. It truly makes my heart hurt and yearn and sing and cry all at once.

Have a listen. It's on iTunes, Spotify and probably Youtube too.


Other things of note: 

Met with my Honours supervisor yesterday and we have some exciting ideas for my research project. Now I'm reading up on statistics and it's scary as hell. 

Dusky is setting in like a dream.

Got my hair cut. I doubt that you could really even tell but I can. The mullety bit has gone.

Still haven't started studying for my exam on Tuesday.

Bye now!
Dee x.

Sunday 31 January 2016

Sleepy Sundays.

Introducing Dusky.


Dusky likes hiding from me and giving me heart attacks, headbutting my phone when I am not giving him my full attention, camouflaging with the couch, purring, eating, sleeping, sitting on the thermarest under my bed, playing with mr fish.






P.S I grew tomatoes! I've picked 40 of the little buggers since the crop started to ripen! They are so delicious and sweet. When I planted Terry I worked out that I had spent about $20 on the plant, pot, potting mix, manure etc so I remember thinking that I'd be stoked if I got the equivalent of four punnets of cherry toms out of him. Well, not only has Terry provided me with ample fruit, he brings me so much joy simply because a) I grew him b) he is green. Win win win win.


Dee x.





Monday 11 January 2016

Summer in Sandy Bay, Tasmania

It's my first summer at Osborne Street and it's been a ripper so far. The glorious sun streams in our windows at all hours of the day and I'm almost certain that the windows aren't glazed so I can lie on the couch with my morning coffee and tan and then do the same with a cold beer in my hand on my bed.



The front step is a bit of an afternoon sun trap and it's also my garden! I think I'm inherently lazy and so I fear that anything grown in the actual garden (e.g. not directly outside my front door) would get neglected and die.


However, what I am growing is going for glory; I have two types of parsley, mint, thyme, chillies who were munched by a caterpillar and infested with aphids but I think I have won the battle after giving them a good spray with some tomato leaf juice, some delightfully fragrant sweet peas and TOMATOES! Oh my sweet Terry (the tomato), you have done me proud. After many sleepless nights of wind and a few frosty mornings, Terry has come through with the goods- SO MANY TOMATOES! Now, let the January sun ripen them so I can throw them into my mouth.



Garden dreams for the future: daffodils in pots, sweet smelling daphne and something to eat over winter (any ideas?).

The other highlights of Sandy Bay life include access to numerous scrumpable fruit trees, a resident pademelon who hangs out in my garden, friendly neighbours who grow beautiful roses and give them to me as I am walking home.

Even more excitingly, the love of my life (Dusky, the burmese kitten) is arriving in just over a fortnight. Be prepared for vol I- infinity of Dusky updates and instagram spam in the near future.

Dee x.

Sunday 3 January 2016

2016.

Here's a little list of goals for 2016. Let's hope that publishing it keeps me accountable.

  1. Write something down every day. Thoughts, goals, events, a song lyric, whatever. 

  2. Start a fabulous Honours project. Graduating with First Class Honours is on the 2017 list!

  3. Run 400km over the year. I know that doesn't sound like much but it'll be a hell of a lot more than I did in 2015! I'm going to log on my runs on MapMyRun and keep tabs on my progress that way. 

  4. Shop local. Specifically, aim to buy as little from the big supermarkets as I can (especially fresh produce). My frequent shopper card tells me that last year, I spent around $2800 at Woolworths; I hope to halve this in 2016. 

Wishing you all the very best for 2016. I hope it brings you everything you want and need and more!

Dee x.

Shades of hydrangea in my garden.