Winter light

Winter seems unwilling to knock on our doors with any conviction this year and while I know that this might not be the best for us, I have loved the balmy warmth of this different sun and its rays which have a gentleness about them. Then a slight chill settles into the evening, when teas are slowly sipped in the shimmering light and soups take centre stage in the dark that descends abruptly.So today's blog is about some of that light and the images around it. 

Watering the garden - such a simple and sublime task and suddenly golden rays appear from the neighbour's as the light of the afternoon fights for a space to enter. 

Then an unexpected visitor - or at least one not so frequently seen on the back deck, coming to  say hi. A kookaburra  shaded against the light but distinct in its outline and its call. 

A reminder to stop for a while, put away those phones, take in the bird calls, as I write the kookaburras in the trees nearby are having a larf, the bats are dotting the twilight sky, and the time has come to rest, while the world folds gently into itself.

Stella in grey cable knit

Those of you who know me will appreciate that I have felt keenly the absence of a dog in my life. However this is not the time for another and so I resort to borrowing the neighbours' dogs to take for walks and patting some I find out and about.

Just this weekend though I had an additional joy. Stella came to stay for one night as her humans were heading off to a party. She came with her bed and blanket and her pyjamas. I kid you not. Her bowl and her dinner and breakfast, all prepared. So I was left with the easy part of remembering what it was like to have a dog in the house. Well it brought me right back to the ground. They remind you that life is not about you - but mostly about them- somehow they are experts at getting us to care enormously about their welfare and their comfort, hence the jammies and the treats and I am sure much else besides. She jumped onto my bed and I found myself reliving the moments when my much larger dog Tara would do the same, and so as not to disturb this blissfully snoring dog I end up on the edge of the bed, practically falling out of it. 

They are there to remind us of what a "no agendas" in life is all about. Yes, no hidden aims, no point scoring, just simple true companionship and love- of the very best kind. Pure and simple and without criticism or fanfare, one that celebrates you just the way you are. I guess we celebrate them back and that is where the grounding comes in. As we set off it is no longer about just me and my petty problems. We make time for taking this all important walk, heading out into the sunshine with them, letting loose in both our body and our thoughts, but knowing we are never alone in that time.We both come back the stronger and the happier for it. We both will eat our dinners with relish!

We had fun and I tried to be a good human -they are good to us so why shouldn't we be ? Their ability to kick start our caring quotient is unparalleled. If they could write this up as a some kind of a business model for the 21st Century they would be laughing all the way to the pet food store.

Robbed I was ...

Yes, I was talking about sharing  in my previous blog and how important it is to make sure there is enough to go round for everyone but in this case I am feeling robbed everyone, robbed.
A couple of months back I walked into my back garden and proudly took a picture of my first bunch of bananas. Here it is in all its glory.

I went to Europe and came back and eagerly skipped down to check the bunch and whether they were ripe enough to cut and this is what I found:

If you look carefully at the top is one small banana still hanging in there - but where are the rest ?? I was devastated that none were left for me and my mind goes to the possums and the bats feasting furiously in my absence. I picked my one and only green banana and kept it lovingly in the fruit bowl till today. It has ripened and was right for eating and I have never tasted a more delicious, sweet but firm finger banana. Oh the pain, the pain. It was over in two mouthfuls but I must not grumble, I must not grumble. Sharing as one little Ozzie boy said ( he must have been all of four) is caring! 

BAT ART- Orange is the New Black

I was walking in the garden, looking at the expertly peeled mandarin skins lying on the ground and then the black marks by the pool. Then I laughed heartily all by myself - first signs of madness perhaps-or profound jet lag- it struck me that this was the bats' version of Orange is the new Black. The bats, or flying foxes as they are called are currently having their very own Mandarin Festival where they gorge on the fruit from our tree at night and then poop on the tiles. Here was one upside down fella who opened his eyes just as I took the photo. 

It made me think of an art work in Ralph's Garage by Richard Bell that I had recently seen going on a guided ART walk in West End. The artist's work introduced thoughts about indigenous people, dispossession, humans and animals and the pressures on the land. All we can do is share. That is only fair.  Bats enjoy mandarins as much as I do. At times, you surprise even yourself at what things "poop" into your head.

Cyprus' Destiny and those weird working dinners.

The importance of this moment for Cyprus cannot be underestimated. Finally after stops and starts  from last year, there is a Conference taking place in Crans Montana, in Switzerland in which Greece, Turkey and the UK are alongside the Greek and Turkish Cypriot negotiating teams trying to solve an intractable problem that has lasted for more than 43 years. As a Cypriot I know that so many people are hanging on every press conference, reportage and event that takes place. The proposals put forward by Turkey, the disappointment expressed by President Anastasiades on important issues concerning guarantees and security, the appearance or not of Junker who is busy elsewhere, and the injection of energy and freshness that Antonio Guterres, please call me Antonio, has added to the mix. 

My question is naive in as much as it is genuine. There are working lunches and dinners, there are short meetings, Boris was there for the opening dinner, then replaced by someone else from the foreign office.  Junker said he was busy but could pop in. Kotzias likes being there and presumably also enjoys the food. I simply cannot see how any work is done, how any progress can be made in these half hearted working bouffes. How can you achieve anything constructive slurping your soup or eating your brioche, how can you have notes of relevance and points of agreement there tucked underneath your napkin. How can you agree or disagree anything critical sipping on wine other than that is a vintage year? So far we have had all too many of these events and then ANOTHER committee formed to look at how settlement will unfold. My wicked temptation would be to say no one eats until the deal is done - and then lets see how fast they would get to a thoroughly digestible outcome.