Tuesday 28 January 2014

Day 28 - The Deep Roar of the Ocean


The break of waves on farther shores that thought can find.

The silent thunders of the deep.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Saturday 25 January 2014

Day 25 - If


I read - and loved - this poem long before I had a son. Now it resonates with me even more. 

'If' by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Thursday 16 January 2014

Day 16 - Lovebird


My eldest daughter sewed me a bird today. She knows I am doing a photo-a-day blog and wanted me to take a photo of it and make it the photo of the day. There was never any question...
A gift made with patience and love. It should be shared.

Monday 13 January 2014

Day 13 - Backyard Cricket


You would think that days of forty degree temperatures (and above) would put you off.
Nup.
Five years-old and cricket-mad.

Monday 6 January 2014

Day 6 - Desperation Cat


What do you do when you've been flat-out all day and lacking inspiration? Break out the photo-a-day Desperation Cat*.

*Not to be confused with Desperation Dog.

Friday 3 January 2014

Day 3 - Second-hand Books


A mix of titles I bought from a second-hand shop in a tiny Wheatbelt town. There is something about pre-loved books, with their hand-written front page dedications, and the alternate stories in the underlined passages and notes scrawled in the margins...