we agree

It's sometimes just too hot to even think about chasing cats... (Celeste and Helen, she let us inside to stretch out on the cool floor later :-)

And down in the valley the poppies have gone and the fields are blue.  

Today I am grateful for cold watermelon. 

thanks Cath

Recently I seemed to have "lost the heart" for blogging. I was even considering closing the blog, and just making a better effort with the Legato blog.  Who do I blog for, after all? Surely all bloggers blog first for themselves, and then perhaps for family and friends.  This was never a business or promotional blog.

I had opened an artist's page on FB in response to requests to do so. I have hardly opened it since.  Public relations FAIL.

My Legato blog, which is important to me, is languishing after the last exhibition.

I hadn't been reading blogs I subscribe to or follow.

Emails are piling up, unanswered.

FB friends and requests are largely ignored.

Paintings remain unfinished, months down the track.

I can't blame the heat for all of that.

But in my inbox this morning was a blog by artist Cath Sheard.  It triggered something inside me.  I came to my blog to find an old post.  I felt a tiny change of current.  A positive "synaptic moment"?

Thanks Cath.

Today I am grateful for other bloggers.  

i'd have achieved heaps today...

I'd have achieved heaps today if I hadn't read until well after 3am this morning then woken again before 6am...

There's always tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be cool again :-) 

The temperature has fallen the promised 10 degrees and is better than bearable, it is really pleasant.  The air is clear.  The fires are out.  I am no longer concerned about the jungle next door going up in flames.

Today I am grateful for rain.

exhibition close to home

the fires

It seems that the fires are much earlier this year.  Here is last year's sunset.  The date was October.

Today I am grateful for cooler weather on its way.

It's now a day later. I didn't get back to finish this post, and no, the temperature has not exactly plummeted!  (And I can no longer spell... plummetted? Why can't I have a double "T"?
.

wings and butterflies

When you give your children wings they will fly.  One of mine flew today, and I so much wanted to fly too.  Or better still, to wave that magic wand and be where my four children have settled, in three different parts of the world.

But there is also a certain sanity about being home from the airport, changing the sheets on the bed, eating all the left over meat loaf, drinking the last beer from the fridge (it is well over 30 degrees out there still)... and settling down to a (well deserved?) siesta.

The world is small, aeroplanes are accessible, all is OK.

Next week a ten degree drop in temperatures is predicted, down to about 26, just in time to start teaching again.

Today I am grateful for wonderful friends.

and back again...

I was off the air for a variety of reasons, one of which was a few days without internet.  Perhaps that has cured me of FB?

What's been happening?

Art student here
Italian language student here
Family here
Christchurch earthquake escapees here
Exhibition across the road in the local "pub"
Driving people about
Meeting trains
Cooking, shopping, sweltering in high temperatures

and

Doing dishes!!!!!!!!!!!!


So this is just a quick update so you know that I am still here, and in this hot weather with fires all around us who knows how long the internet will stay?

(Today the temperature is a little more tolerable... down from almost 40 to maybe 34 degrees?)

Today I am grateful for happy outcomes. 

please forgive the lack of blogging

It's a full house and busy times...

a presto

Today I am grateful for air conditioning. 

page one...

Here is the original version of my recent article for Youth for Peace, Italia, an online publication so far available only in Italian.

You can read the Italian translation by Bruno Picozzi here at Cittadino Globale, Global Citizen.  I have added the photos that didn't make it in the publication.

While the world turns its eyes to the London Olympics wars continue unreported, scarcely breaking into the consciousness of “ordinary man”. If sport is so important, could it be a valid means to educate and advocate for peace?

Historically sport has been important to mankind. It could be argued that we have a basic desire, or need, to compete. Competition does not have to mean war and the unequal distribution of wealth and power.

The founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, born in France in 1863, believed that physical competition brought positive character traits: "Peace…could be the product only of a better world; a better world could be brought about only by better individuals; and better individuals could be developed only by the give and take, the buffeting and battering, the stress and strain of fierce competition."

The first Olympics were designed to unite a fragmented Greece. As friendships formed and democracy developed, classical Greek culture thrived. The philosophy of balance between the physical and the spiritual and moral development brought a unity that for a time was greater than political ambition and power struggles.

As political aspirations overcame the balance of physical and moral development, classical Greek society fell. The Olympics also lapsed. The Romans revived the Olympics, but added bloody spectator sports to the once peaceful and idealistic Olympic games. By 393AD the Olympic movement had been outlawed. The changed motivations and political aspirations, and the advent of Christianity cleansing all things pagan, had led to the fall of the Greek idealistic Olympic spirit and the demise of the games.

French educator Pierre de Coubertin revived the modern Olympics hoping to bring about a better world. He observed that "competing for a place on an athletic team developed qualities of character”.

The Olympic creed reminds us that ‘The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.’

Can we compete on the sports fields instead of the battle fields? Education that includes a balance of physical and moral development, embodying the Olympic ideals, will foster healthy competition and contribute to a greater peace for men.

morning music and different lighting

The abbey on Monte Cassino was lit to make the most of the gold leaf decorations this morning. The occasion was the visit and participation in the mass of the choir from Westminster Abbey. I couldn't resist sneaking a few photos even though I had gone to hear the music ...

The music was superb, the mass not too long, and the sermon optimistic. I was surprised at how many empty seats there were. Surely an event such as this deserves more support from the local congregation? 

Today I am also grateful for choir music. 

too good...

The Spanish goal keeper was just too good.

Sigh.

Ah well, as my guest said, it is very refreshing to see sports fans watching a game without getting drunk, but it would have been much more fun if they had a result to cheer about!

Today I am grateful for a pleasant walk home.