Dodo Au Go-Go

 I've known about the book, Sidewalk Flowers , for years now. I still don't have a copy but it's never left my wishlist. It's one of those wordless, illustration-based books where I admire the idea, the illustrations, the creativity and the message. The main way I know of the book's message is via excerpts from the very excellent The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings ), which you can find  here . It's a message that's been haunting me a little bit lately. One I need to keep learning and ree-learning. On the one hand, I've written several different posts about trying to appreciate the small things in life and to enjoy being in the moment. But on the other hand... let's put it this way. I've been developing a sneaking sympathy for the pre-occupied adult in the story. You see, I usually take my LittleOne and my Indi-Girl on what we call a "pram walk" everyday. With LittleOne in the pram and Indi on the leash, we take a brisk-ish walk ar...

The purpose of this petite post is pics of pretty purple petals.  Well, purple flowers actually. But why start with accuracy when there's a chance for alliteration😁 The inspiration for this post came from the very lovely and generous Maria Carvalho on Twitter (who was also the amazing and stalwart co-editor of my Five Senses anthology ). She responded to a couple of purple flower photos I posted, cheerfully asking how many amazing purple flowers were there in my part of the world.  Not many, I replied back. I was wrong. As is the way of things, I immediately went on to notice several more purple/lavender/mauve flowers in the world around me.  So I decided to do a purple flower photo essay.  (Please note though, that I'm the opposite of a botanist and have no idea what (m)any of these flowers are called!) Jacaranda  A kind of wisteria (I think) I've been told these ones are called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow- to reflect how they glide ...

I've been making a concerted attempt to blog more regularly of late. For a number of reasons. Which, if I think about it, are probably interconnected.  For one thing, I'm trying to write more. And write faster. I'm a pretty slow writer. It dates back to the difficult relationship I developed with writing when doing my PhD thesis. Academic writing is very different to regular writing. It's very structured, you're using other people's ideas to contextualise, discuss and explore your own concepts, and it's a formal space for expressing yourself. It doesn't really allow a space for including yourself in your words - or at least, I couldn't figure out how to get there. Instead, I got into the habit of writing in a passive voice. It was an easy way to keep myself removed from the topic, which also had the bonus of being an easy way to boost my word count. Fiction and creative non-fiction became the antithesis (pun accidental but cel...