Where have I been...???

Ok so the blogging has slowed down a bit.   I haven't lost interest nor have I run out of things to say - heaven forbid.  I have just been a tad busy painting things around the house.  By the time I come in to sit I am a bit tired.  Since I have rheumatoid arthritis I have limited stores of endurance these days and having held a paint brush for several hours the jarring clacking of typing is  mildly unpleasant.

Anyway, so much happens every day that I sometimes wonder why anyone would care about MY DAY when theirs is just as busy and just as full of interesting things to talk about.


I also have stopped listing something that made me happy each day - not because things weren't making me happy, but there were too many to choose from.  So it was either stop that or fill pages up.  I stopped.  But having got the idea from Lucy's blog I became more aware and now it is almost part of my daily routine.  The other person who inspired me to look around me and see what I had was Kim.

Kim's avid photography of trees and clouds and her ability to see images in them was inspiring.  Check out that tree she has in her blog page- who in the world would have seen that tree and seen a dancer in the trunk.  Not me, that's for sure.  I don't do what she does but I do now walk around the garden with my  camera taking pictures of my flowers and other plants.  When I look at them in close up I am amazed daily at the intricate beauty of the smallest flower.  And as I review the same plants over days and weeks I see the wonder of nature changing the seasons reflected in those plants.  The red barked and bare Japanese Maple is now awash in delicate greenery.   The citruses are now flushing with the pale green of new growth and the burgeoning cream of new blossoms slowly erupting.   Never before have I observed these things in a slow motion of daily observation.  In the past I would be lucky to get out there once a week or even every few weeks.  At those times I would suddenly see that all the trees had blossomed, but I would not have seen it coming.  It is very satisfying and somehow calming.


Look at this little bromeliad - the flowers are tiny (the size of a trimmed fingernail)  but look at the colours...amazing...

or this metrosideros thomasii I have growing in a pot on the patio...

or this gorgeous fuschia - one of 8 varieties I have ...

or my orchid...

How can any one NOT be happy in the midst of all this loveliness.... I ask you?