Earlier this week, my Instagram feed was full of pictures of snow-covered landscapes, both country and city. Apparently, it had snowed in Britain while I was sleeping.
I follow many IG accounts based in Britain, mainly to see photos of beautiful gardens and the work of craftspeople I admire. You know how it is on IG, you find one account that inspires you and, after clicking on links, you discover you have followed many more. So many beautiful photos.
In most of those places, snow is part of the climate. It happens in winter most years and residents are geared to living with it. But this week, there was a sense of awe; the first snow of the season inspired wonder. People rushed to record their snowy scenes as if they had never seen snow before. I was entranced by their enthusiasm.
Our human imaginations have always been captured by natural phenomena. Every time we see occurrences in the sky – a blood moon, a comet, planets aligning – we gaze in amazement. We marvel when volcanoes send out cascading magma and plumes of smoke. Earthquakes and tsunamis also remind us of the power of the natural world.
If there’s one thing these events show us, it’s that the natural world will continue on, long after we humans have disappeared from the earth.
This is what is helping me keep a sense of perspective – impermanence. It’s all too easy to get locked into arguments and conflicts which, in the long term, reveal themselves as trivial. Being tolerant of the differences between people helps avoid this.
Quilts
During the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sorting through my unfinished quilts and making progress on them. I finished my Trip Around the World quilt (it needed binding) and wrote about it here. I’m currently adding borders to a small quilt after procrastinating for years (I will hand quilt this one).
It’s a great feeling, seeing these quilt ideas that have been in my head for years come to fruition. There are still plenty of other projects waiting for attention but I like moving from quilt to quilt so I can work on things that are at different stages. It should also result in a batch being finished at a similar time!
Gardens
I wrote here about garden diaries. Do you record the changes in your garden? My task for the rest of the month is to update my online diary so that it’s current to start a new year. There are a few areas in my garden that need more attention than others, so that’s on my list, too.
Writing and books
Writing – oh, I’ve done so much writing recently. Well, planning for writing really. The structure for a memoir of sorts is coming together and I can see now how it will all hang together. More on that later.
I haven’t been reading so many books lately so won’t meet the goal I set on Goodreads for this year but that doesn’t concern me since it was an arbitrary number anyway. I did finish and review The Game is a Footnote, though.
The State Library has an interesting project at present. It’s called The Diary Files and collects vignettes from the everyday lives of the people of NSW and beyond. Interesting! Read about it here.
