10 Things to Tell You #7

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#7 – A RECENT DISCOVERY I CAN’T HELP TALKING ABOUT… we went on a wee getaway to New Plymouth on the weekend (but made it home in time to see B win an award at the referee’s dinner. I won that parenting time trial). The local i-site is at the museum, Puke Ariki, and they had a new exhibit due to open the following weekend.

But in typical ‘Naki fashion, they finished the job early so we got to see the National Geographic Top 50 Photographs. Walking down the stairs into the exhibition hall, the first thing I saw was a massive (I’m talking like 4 A0) copy of the Afghan girl. You know the one – the striking eyes.

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There’s captions and a video to tell you more about each shot. I totally recommend this exhibit, so if it’s within a drive of your home, GO. We’re going again when it’s in Hamilton later this year – it’s moving back overseas in 2019.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/traveling-exhibitions/50-greatest-photographs/

10 Things to Tell You #6

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#6 – A DEFINING MOMENT IN MY LIFE WAS WHEN…we moved to Auckland. My parents had separated by this stage and there were no adults around to share the load. I learnt to help my mother get my brothers off to school/day care, and by 14 I was pretty much fully in charge of their day-to-day life. No wonder 30 years on I’m getting tired of being responsible for others…

10 Things to Tell You #4

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#4 – I AM STRANGELY GOOD AT…growing weeds, if you ask Si. Pulling random facts out at pub quiz, if you ask a friend. I am not very good at remembering jokes so I’ll always have a giggle, even if it’s fourth child pulling out the same knock, knock joke.

10 Things to Tell You #3

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#3 – A THING THAT CHANGED MY WORLD VIEW WAS…I don’t know that I’ve ever held a different view on the world than I do now. I guess (mostly, there are always exceptions) that we down here in NZ are practical, welcoming, generous people who know that we are strategically unimportant on the world stage, but generally strive to leave the place better than we found it. Various events around the world make me shudder, but there is evil everywhere and that’s why it’s important to just BE KIND to one another, and to ourselves.

10 Things to Tell You #2

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#2 – SOMEONE WHO HAS INFLUENCED ME IS…my partner’s mother, Carol, and earlier on, my besties mum, Alison. Both are strong, upright, loving Christian women. Unfortunately my biological mother has some issues, and my stepmother a few more, so it wasn’t until I was 22 & became serious with Si that I learnt how to parent unconditionally. I do struggle (teens!!!) but as yet, I’ve never chased one with a carving knife…

10 Things to Tell You #1

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine over on Instagram & on her blog, https://www.10thingstotellyou.com/about/ I do listen to Laura & Meg’s podcast “Sorta Awesome Show” every now and again (usually in my summer as I potter about outside) & her solo-ish podcast, The Smartest Person in the Room is fascinating. I’m following these prompts on the blog as a) I can schedule and b) I think this is a really cool idea. Play along!

#1 – I GREW UP…my earliest memories are a combination of gardening with Gran at their home in Fantail Grove, Upper Hutt; feeding baby lambs at the farm in Lumsden and playing at the house we moved to in Otumoetai, Tauranga, when I was around 3 ½. I lived in Tauranga until I was nine, when my mother accepted a job offer at Greenlane Hospital in Auckland. I’ve lived in Auckland almost continually since, and all over the city.

WIP Wednesday #227

Posted in cross stitch, family, goals, grateful, Journal, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, photos, Project Life, stitch from stash, stitching patterns by

Hey everyone! I’m half-way thru my week of solo parenting and am pleased to report no casualties as yet. Not even a ding on the ute – as Si took my car away, I’m driving his brute to & fro, mostly work. I have done a heap of “one little things” around the house and spent a good portion of Sunday working on building a personal album – July-now is completed. There is a small volume of personal writing which is hidden from initial view and that’s just the way I want it. Mase is likely to pick it up from my side table to look at the pictures (I need to wean him from this habit) but he does know not to pull the tabs.

Reading wise, I ended up returning Mythos. It just wasn’t right for me. Instead I’m re-reading (as not much effort is required) the Chesapeake Shores series by Sherryl Woods (try these Elizabeth!) and listening to the 47th (??!!) In Death book, Leverage.

20180911_212120.jpgAnd stitching – some progress on the Peridots during work breaks, a wee bit on Fairy Idyll as I wait for Bran’s physio appointments, and I FOUND THE BOTTOM OF THE DESIGN in Persephone. That’s a huge finish motivator – altho I note that there’s about 3 days stitching the hem, plus 3-4 days on the confetti heavy flower trail that’s on the left plus another 3 days on the beading, but I will finish this month even if I get distracted by something else.

(Audio)Book Review – Circe by Madeline M Miller

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circeBLURB: In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child–not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power–the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.

 

MY THOUGHTS: After listening to only a portion of this title, it was easy to see why it was a recommendation on multiple book lists (NYT, Publisher’s Weekly, Boston Globe etc). It’s lyrical, engrossing, and suspenseful (even tho I’ve read the Iliad and roughly remember what happened). For me, the most interesting portions of the book were after the fall of Troy, when Circe’s isolation is removed by various turns and I wasn’t ready for the story to end.

I’ll be buying The Song of Achilles once I’m over this book coma as frankly, Stephen Fry’s Mythos isn’t doing much for me so far.

AUTHOR SITE: http://madelinemiller.com/circe/

WIP Wednesday #226

Posted in cross stitch, family, grateful, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, photos, stitch from stash by

Hey everyone! If you’re on my IG, you’ll know why I’m late posting. And if you’re not – well. My week has been pretty hard. I was grumpy as (actually, read that as GRUMPY – bold, in italics, 72pt etc), Then I woke Tuesday with a migraine. Ugh. Then Mase came home from school very, very hot and short of breath – turns out he has a chest infection so is at home, on antibiotics. Poor kid. My verse of the week is quite accurate. Thanks for the heads up, Lord.

But before that we had a good weekend. Father’s Day for us – the card is from Lou, who made Dad one of his fav dinners/desserts as her gift; Zac & Mase “brought” Si a Lego Technics yacht and Mase so sweetly kept his major present a secret all week – he asked me to take them to the Bridgeway cinema at Northcote to see the Spitfire movie. I am so proud of his thoughtfulness & if you’re into military or aviation history, this documentary has a five star review from Mase. We also found a small, almost private beach below the cinema & plan to explore by kayak in the summer.

As for me, I finished the round robin! Apart from a gift or treasure on the Queen’s outstretched hands, I’m done. Yippee! So happy with the way this turned out, frames and all. I think I need to pull out the one I’m not happy with from 2015/16 and add frames to that, and see if it makes a difference. I suspect it will.

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