Pearls of Wisdom

I went and heard my beautiful inspirational friend Moira Andrew talk today, and she suggested we can actually turn little ‘irritations’ that we come across in our lives daily, into ‘pearls’ – that’s in fact how pearls start out, as gritty irritations. My favourite pearls are those worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s!

Happiness

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be".
(Abraham Lincoln)

Jump for Joy

It’s the start of the working week after a long weekend, yippee! Australia is known as being the Land of Long Weekends – but we should embrace the working week ahead too. This joyful original painting by my artist sis Anne McLeay reminds me of one of my fave ads on TV at the mo is the ‘Un-worry’ series, cooking on the Barbie 5 nights a week instead of two… and all those other suggestions someone once sent around in an email eons ago, like using your best chinaware and crystal glasses every day not just on special occasions.. wearing your best silk lingerie and French perfume under your business attire to that meeting.. maybe that way we’ll embrace Monday’s and Tuesday’s like Saturday’s and Sunday’s, anyway here’s that email, an oldie but a goodie worth repeating:

"Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion.

Now I read more and clean less.

I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.

I spend more time with my family, and less at work.

I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses every day... I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it…

I don't save my special perfume for special occasions; I use it whenever I want to. The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.

Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives… And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day…

Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.

Ponderings

How can I know what I think till I see what I say? EM Forster

(photograph: Peter Hardie)

A Grain of Sand

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

This beautiful poem by William Blake epitomises the two days my partner, artist Banx, and my best friend and I just experienced at sensational Kingscliff, just over the Queensland/NSW border on the NSW coast. How ironic, that this weekend is our ‘Labour Day’ long weekend, and yet we all completely chilled, and relaxed, and I even purchased a pair of shoes from the I Love Billy range called Laziness!

The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the 8 hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest (thank you Wikipedia!) – and this weekend we figured we’d better ‘celebrate’ the rest and recreation part! Once again ‘merci’ and gratitude come to mind – only the weekend before we had attended the very moving ANZAC Day dawn service at the Eternal Flame memorial in Brisbane; saying the biggest thank you’s of our lives to those who helped make Australia a free and wonderful county to live in - to cherish every day of our lives. This weekend it’s thank you to our hard-working forefathers, who fought so valiantly for our worker’s rights, all those workplace "given's" we now take for granted that make our lives more tolerable and balanced.. but also, this weekend it is ‘merci’ for wonderful friends, grains of sand that stick between my toes as I walk along Kingscliff Beach, funny dogs on the beach chasing shadows, the beautiful sunset beach wedding I witnessed early evening under a hot pink sky (who could ask for a better start to married life!), and eggs sunny side up this morning at Salt Village as the crashing crescendo of the ocean echoed in the background… ah! Sheer bliss…eternity in an hour..
PS The stunning black and white surfer image is another by my talented Brissie photographer brother Peter Hardie, check out his website for more great surfing images Down Under!
http://www.pbase.com/pshardie/sun_n_surf
The other two we photographed at Fingal Head not far from Kingscliff, well worth a visit!

Beauty and the Beasts

Last night we watched a fascinating documentary on SBS all about the amazing, beautiful, talented Brigitte Bardot (I love the way the French pronounce her name ‘Bree-geet’). What a strong-minded, passionate woman. Hailed as a sex siren in the 50s and 60s and hounded by the paparazzi, which ultimately caused her demise, she retired from the entertainment industry in 1973 to establish herself as an animal welfare activist. Her animal refuge in Normandy now looks after horses once destined for the abattoir because their body parts are used as aphrodisiacs in Asia, stray cats, and at 75 with two walking sticks BB still travels to Canada to push her campaign against baby harp seal slaughter, and to Romania to prevent the torture of dancing bears. Her life and her experiences, her loves and losses are now etched on her face but her true beauty remains steadfast on the inside. My favourite story on last night’s doco was her ex-husband buying back his whopping diamond engagement ring at one of her auctions to establish her animal foundation. His bid set up the foundation - now that is true love and respect. Thank goodness for people like ‘BB” as she was once known. It makes me think of new pop sensation BB lookalike, Duffy’s song, ‘Mercy’. Mercy on those animals, and ‘merci’ Brigitte for your wonderful animal-saving deeds! For more information on the Brigitte Bardot Foundation see http://www.fondationbrigittebardot.fr (the site is in 36 languages!)

Bonjour, Autumn!

The 1st of May, and it’s now officially the last month of Autumn! I love the crisp Autumn mornings in Brissie, 25 degrees and sunny, how lucky are we - I remember when I lived in London for nearly 7 years and some of our summers over there never even reached these temperatures. There is just something about the change of seasons I adore, nature taking its course, reminding us that life begins and ends and begins again, not to mention being able to ‘rug’ up with hats and coats and boots and scarves…This beautiful Autumnal leaf photograph was taken by my very good friend Craig Holloway whom I knew when we lived in Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Craig now lives back in his hometown of Ballarat, Victoria and runs his photography business ArtFocus from there – his stunning photography can be seen on his website: www.artfocus.net.au or on his own blog: click66.blogspot.com

I take a morning river walk every morning around our local ‘Hood’, (the black and white pic above was taken by Banx over Easter in Abbott Street, New Farm just down the road from us here, one of our favourite streets in the neighbourhood), and each morning my reward is a cappuccino at a different café. One of my favourite cafes is ‘Bonjour Patisserie’ at 876 Brunswick Street run by Francis and Elvira. Francis is one of the most passionate people I have ever met. He starts works at midnight each evening, baking his delicious works of art fresh each day. We know, because we wake up to the delicious smells wafting through our window, talk about subliminal advertising! Ha!

Francis is a fully trained, experienced French pastry chef hailing from Paris and his artistic mouth-watering temptations are nearly all gluten free. His tiramisu dessert cake and his petit-fours are to die for, and would definitely be on my “last meal” wish list 

Julia Cameron, one of my favourite authors on creativity, says in her book ‘The Sound of Paper’ there are three things we must try to do every day to get those creative juices flowing: one is morning walks; another is journal (or blog!) writing; and another is taking ourselves out on dates/ romancing ourselves… I figure I do this most mornings!  Enjoy Autumn! Mmmm which café tomorrow morning..?