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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.