Last Day of Summer

 

Last day of February, last day of summer, last day of furiously drawing and posting and panicking. We woke up to the news of a huge earthquake in Chile. A tsunami alert was in force for the whole east coast of New Zealand. When I was a kid I was terrified of tidal waves (we didn't call them tsunamis then). For the first five years of my life we lived in a place called Plimmerton, in a little house right across the road from the sea. Behind the house was a steep hill, almost like a cliff, and for years I had dreams about frantically trying to haul myself up it, as an enormous silent wave ploughed towards the beach. 

After a strange edgy day of speculating about tsunamis, we went down to Parnell Baths to watch a bevy of swimming beauties perform in the water, and to have a swim ourselves. It was hot, it was blue and sparkly, everyone looked incredibly happy, and I thought (as I have many times this summer) how lucky we are to live in this place. It's easy to take it for granted.  It's easy to overlook the little but great things and spend far too much time moaning about the government, the end of summer (I don't believe it) and the weather. Crazy.

The End is in Sight

The end of the alphabet is approaching at Thing-a-day...a week more to go. It has been a great process but also a challenging one. It's made me so aware of the things I put myself through in order to get anything finished. What has also been great is that L has been coming in to see what I'm doing. He's never been that interested in drawing before, but he sees me doing it (suddenly) and he starts drawing himself, and copying what I'm doing, and I love the fact he's so caught up in it.

Sticky

It's sticky. It's raining. It's 99% humidity. People are saying things like: "I could use some fresh winter air and 3 feet of fresh snow right now." Meanwhile, in blogland, people on the other side of the world are wishing for the first signs of spring and for the snow to go away. You just can't win! In a few months time, we will all be wailing about the doldrums of winter.

Sticky summer rain means: 

All the beach towels are sodden and sandy.

Nothing will dry.

It's good for the tomatoes.

The cicadas and crickets are going crazy.

The word of the day is 'clammy.'

Everyone wants a swimming pool, but nobody I know has one.

My hair is a fluffy frizzy mess with bits sticking out everywhere.

Alphabet Madness

 

I've been so busy trying to stay on top of this Thing-a-day project, that everything else is piling up around my ears. It's a challenge keeping up the discipline and not drifting off, always one of my weaknesses. But we're a third of the way through, and my alphabet is taking shape, and I haven't given up yet, and I'm determined to see it through!

Barbecues

Today I bought a barbecue. I have never owned one before, and I think I was suffering from barbecue envy as chargrilled smells wafted around the neighbourhood this weekend. So I bought one off TradeMe (our version of Ebay) from a man called John. I trekked all the way out east past St Heliers, along the waterfront, to pick up my pre-loved and somewhat still greasy barbie. "He's a fine one," said John. Obviously barbecues have masculine qualities, but we should know that, as in this country men are usually to be found clustered in a gaggle around them. Instead of going home, I got fish and chips and sat on the beach, and because I didn't have L with me, there was a feeling of calm solitude about it all. Now, as soon as I work out how it goes back together, I can finally make all those marinated things on skewers and join the rest of the New Zealand population chucking them on barbies in the last few months of summer.

Image: flickr

Beach Boy

Surely it's not goodbye to the beach already? School's back and suddenly everything seems All Very Serious. No, summer's not over yet, and there are still adventures to be had and journeys to be taken and icecreams to be eaten. I'm not ready for the sight of boots and sludgy grey clothes in the shops just yet, thanks very much.

Procrastination

I am a master of procrastination. Thing-a-day starts today, which means making something. This, however, is what I managed to do first while waiting for inspiration to strike (ha).

I had a cup of tea.
Picked all the fallen lemons off the grass.
Vacuumed the bedroom floor.
Put on a load of washing. (I think I'm onto something here; in order to get the housework done, just procrastinate about doing a creative task)
Checked my emails for the fifteenth time today.
Spent 20 minutes looking for the perfect book to write down my brilliant ideas.
Cut all the competitions out of the Sunday paper.
Had another leisurely cup of tea.
Wiped the crumbs off my keyboard.
Scrubbed out my very tea-stained mug.
Made a to-do list.
Thought about cheating and using something I had made another day.
Looked for drawing paper. Couldn't find any, and spent at least five minutes staring vacantly at the place where the paper should have been.
Looked up a whole lot of other things that people have done and got sidetracked by their cleverness.

Eventually I started....the journey continues here!