Ree-flections
The words are made of molasses at the moment. Is there a cause? A solution? Time is probably my big one. Thinking time, too little writing time, too much overthinking time. I’m not good at writing in tiny patches, but, as LittleOne says (lessons from school), “you get what you get, you don’t get upset.” So patches and swatches it is.
I’ve removed my social media apps from the home screen of my phone. I now need to do more finger-swipes to reach the apps, which theoretically means I’m less likely to go to the trouble of navigating to them. I’m not missing the apps much, but I’m not sure if it’s bought me more time or not. But I am missing my photoshop express app – even though it’s still on the home screen. Its performance seems to have degraded significantly. Not sure if it’s anything to do with the Adobe Terms of Service brouhaha. Either way, it’s a real shame because the photoshop express app was a fun way to play with filters and push my photos and photos of drawings into new creations. And now, pffff. Silver lining: More patches of time for the words.
I doodled this tree. You are the first outside audience to see it 🙂 Apparently, da Vinci had observed that the combined thickness of tree branches at different heights will equal the thickness of the trunk. Or something along those lines. More importantly, it’s been an unexpectedly helpful guide to doodling a tree and branches – and getting the proportions semi-decent.
We’ve had a little lizard wintering in our kitchen. I see it grooving around occasionally and am hopeful that it’s actually grown bigger, in spite of our cold winter evenings. I surprised it on the kitchen bench one night when I woke up way too early.
We have one deciduous tree up here in the garden in Brisbane. Well, it’s actually the neighbour’s tree, but it gives us shade, leaves and birds, so I’m happy to claim it. Its leaves are falling at a rapid rate and the surrounding garden is carpeted beautifully in yellow, green and tea-coloured leaves. It’s very pretty, but it’s giving me so many pangs because last year’s leaves were the winter carpet on which my Indi-pup and I spent her last night on earth.
LittleOne did a superb koala drawing. It is “an ordinary koala with super-powers”. Everyone needs a spirit animal like this.
I took this photo during a local lake walk. I liked the half-and-half composition and shared it on BlueSky. When I next checked into the app, the pic had racheted up over 100 likes, which is stratospheric by my standards. Bewildering too.
I hope my words find you well in your world, and I hope you enjoy this issue.
Writing & Creativity Cool Finds
Here’s a fun collection of book dedications where authors said what they really felt.
I grew up with Ladybird books in the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, I learnt to read with their ‘Peter and Jane’ and ‘Read it yourself’ series. The illustrations in all the Ladybird books are exquisite, and I have a very soft spot for them. Some of mine have survived to adulthood and I’m now sharing my battered copies with my LittleOne.
Want to see a tiny piece of animation on a wee crafty thing you have to build yourself? It’s the Mini-Mutoscope. A mini-whatty-what? It’s a tiny screen-less animation. As retro, analogue and as opposite to digital as you can get. And spare a giggle at the irony of reading about it through a screen.
Speaking of retro and screens, if you’d like to try a version of google without ads and other clogging guff, it apparently still exists. This is the not-safe-for-work (NSFW) link and this is the safe-for-work (SFW) one. They’re both exactly the same; the NSFW one just has a descriptor you might not want to have on public display in your workplace. Here’s the background story for the whole concept.
A random read: The Story of Mutton, the Indigenous Wool Dog. Did you know there used to be a breed of dog which had a kind of wool fur? The Indigenous Coast Salish peoples on the Pacific Northwest bred and sheared the dogs and wove the shared wool into blankets. The breed doesn’t exist any more, but DNA and Indigenous oral storytelling are working to re-connect the present to the past.
A new book read: Tea and Sympathetic Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts. A delightfully whimsical novella set in the Teacup Isles – an alternate regency-era land of misses, manners, the marriage mart, mixed in with magic, tea, a spellcracker, and more tea. To give you an idea of the sly humour, there’s a Duke of Storm (get it? Storm in a Teacup! It took me several minutes to make this delightfully sneaky connection – which is most shameful!)
Something I created
The Cherry Blossoms and the Milky-Green Lake
…
Another breath of invisible wind lifted a sweep of the pink cherry blossom petals through the air. They twirled around to land on the milk-green waters and a handful rained gently around Olivia.
“You have until the petals reach the shore to make your decision,” said the Night Messenger.
Without really realising what she was doing, Olivia sat down. She breathed in and then she breathed out, and watched the tiny pink petals slowly drift, one by one, towards the shoreline.
Against the dark-blue sky, the moon was a deity of calm and the black clouds sat quietly as their stars shone.
The wind blew around Olivia’s face, but no more of the pink petals drifted towards the water.
Olivia breathed.
…
You can read the full story and back story here.*
*Possible tissue warning.
Thank you
Du fond du coeur, thanks for reading x
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Find my scattered self online: My Dodo Au Gogo blog | My BlueSky | my website.
Ree-Imagined Worlds 
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