"...you start to dance like it's all you got to live for..."

November is halfway gone already- apparently all my plans to keep myself really busy while alone on the island have worked.

I spent a week out on Maria.  I joined the group that works on "eradicating canary broom" which is a weed there, and has "escaped" into the bush.

As seen above...I also made it into the group (exclusive by the fact that one needs a ride from the only vehicles on the island...which means taking time from a field ranger) that hunted for sea spurge.

We found many bones, but only a few of the sea spurge.

I am often asked how I can take being alone for periods of time, and sometimes this question is less about that and more about having a 'long-distance' relationship.  Often this is about not letting ones imagination write out a negative script.  But, this week with the suicide bombers who gunned down the audience at a E.O.D.M. show in Paris, but a club and a band that I know, personally- well- I find my control tested- severely.

I have a two-day first aid certification course this week.  The Australians LOVE a certificate course.  I really do like to 'know' things- so this course makes sense, but I am a bit wary of the fact that the commitment is two full days.

I finished re-painting the living room, and the adjoining wall.  Now, that I have finished I can't believe I lived with the awful color that the room was.  That room was the last I painted when we moved in.  I had a bit of shock when I realized I couldn't get custom colors- something that was so easily done in Seattle. When I finally got to the last room, I just adjusted the colors from primary to a bit deeper, but I still disliked how the room looked.

But all is better now.

Today I have tasks to keep me busy, and the next hurdle is how I keep thinking about how the weather is perfect for laying out at the beach...when I should be bringing up the Christmas decorations...

I have lost my Southern Hemisphere savvy by christmasing in Sweden.

 

 

"...Your life is so lonely like a child without a toy. -Then a miracle-a boy..."

I survived through more pouring rain and navigating the bus system from my home to town.  I have been feeling my age through the current prices of things.  $4 to ride bus one way?  $2.55 to post a Christmas card?

My first taxable income in 1983 was $2.45 an hour, student wage.  I still have pay slips.  This fact makes me feel as if I have truly lived through the start of a new century.  

I went into a couple of churches between bus stops.  I think it is strange that in a foreign city I will almost always go into a church, but I forget to at home.

Although in Seattle I did make a point of it, but in Seattle there were author readings and symphony performances that you could attend.  I have never seen anything listed in Hobart to go too. 

I tried to put up our Christmas decorations while Zok was on tour, but I only managed the mantle piece and putting up wreath of bells on our front door.

As usual, the weather at this time of year is very unstable, pouring rain one day, cloudy and 70 degrees the next.  It truly turns to summer after Christmas or even the New Year.  But, the sun rises around 5 a.m. and sets about 9 p.m. which leaves little room for Christmas lights and decorations.

I always feel as if I am putting up lights in the middle of summertime like some lonely, lost person who has no one to tell her that it is not Christmas yet.

Plus of course the garden is going crazy with all the rain- so where I should be is out in the garden which again is not in my mind, associated with Christmas.