A mid-winter afternoon
I am on holidays this week. So far it's been decidedly pleasant. All I am doing is staying in Sydney, because actually staying at home for a holiday is something that I haven’t done for a very long time. For the last several years every holiday I have hopped on a plane and gone to visit family. That is wonderful, but always involves taking minimal luggage, owing to the plane travel, leaving a good many ‘holiday projects’ behind, then staying in someone else’s house and fitting in with what is happening. I felt like it was time to have some days off just to enjoy being home, to get through one or two things on that ‘when I retire’ list and just have something of a ‘personal retreat’ (that’s an idea I like!). It’s extremely nice just to not have to get up in the dark in order to fit in exercise before work, to not have to get dressed in business clothes, sit in an office chair and be gone for almost ten hours a day.
The one thing I would love to do is go camping – real camping, somewhere you couldn’t be except that you’ve brought your dwelling with you and can sit around a fire at night, poking it and toasting things, and watch the stars … But that is not something I would attempt on my own any more, especially not anywhere close to Sydney. A bushwalk later maybe.
Yesterday, I went on a big excursion to the Summer Hill Anglicare warehouse, to fossick for that amazing bargain. I had only one thing in mind though, which is probably not the way to opportunity shop. I didn’t find it. So I came home and worked on formatting the next edition of the Equal But Different Journal, which is the one real “job” I have to do, so I thought I’d get that out of the way, then last night I had dinner with a wonderful family at my church and their gorgeous kids. I have had three meals at their house in fifteen days, so am feeling quite spoilt, but I love the way they live out what they believe church and fellowship is (and include me in it).
Today I took myself off to the Bather’s Pavilion at Balmoral, for no other reason than because I’d never been there before and it sounded fabulous. Earlier this morning it looked like not such a nice day, so I thought I’d leave it for another, then the sun made a re-appearance so off I went. Being there was a perfect moment. I got a little table by the window, ordered a chai latte, took out a notebook and pen and the Little Red Writing Book but then spent as much time just gazing out the window. It was so tranquil and unhurried and the sky was layering deepening shades of blue upon itself like a celestial oil canvas under an invisible hand. Here's a few pictures from the digital camera I inherited when my sister upgraded:
View from my table
Photos rarely do justice to a stormy sky and this one is no exception, but you can get the idea:
