IN THE SUMMER OF ‘09

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Foto. They contemplate ambling through the Summertime of ‘09. Lizzy’s nose is burned and peeling and her eyes stare white balled from a black face. In Centro at Tweed -  they asked her – So you like sarongs eh ? We have sarongs – and buckles for $2. Mad O’Brian was much affected by the attention to his mother.  Lizzy will include some images of the Mad O’Brians at some stage. In the Meantime – lets Gif Off.

	MAD O’BRIAN – XMAS 2008 “Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle” Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher and Theologian, 1813-1855)
	A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it. They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone. Aesop 620-560 BC, Greek Fabulist
	A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home. Chinese Proverb A mere friend will agree with you, but a real friend will argue. Russian Proverb
	What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my period of grace. — Ellen Goodman
	Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 1749-1832, German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist

SWIMMING IN JANUARY PART 2

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Foto. They contemplate  Summer Holidays, Beach, Sun and Sand and SWIMMING. Lizzy tried to think about swimming in the last post but drifted into BEACHES. This Summer has been filled blissfully with SWIMMING. This summer Lizzy saw a little lass swim for the first time. I AM A MERMAID- said she. Lizzy is a SWIMMER – not distances and she always feared she would be asked one day to do as Grace Darling did and brave fierce waters to rescue sailors from a sinking boat or swim across shark infested waters. 60 years later she simply SWIMS. Noone has as yet asked her to swim for 24 hours from a sinking ship to reach a wave battered shore upon which she would likely perish at the last moment. She simply swims and prefers swimming with the children to swimming with dolphins. She saw a small girl try to ride a unicorn in a pool this summer. Last Summer, she swam at New Year in a large pool on top of The Hill on full moon. This year, He finally let sun shine on his skinny legs and now he might be able to swim.

	The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. Woodrow Wilson
	“I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think about me, not me about them.” Amanda Beard Olympian
	Swimming is not a sport. Swimming is a way to keep from drowning. That’s just common sense! George Carlin
	My Mom said she learned how to swim when someone took her out in the lake and threw her off the boat. I said, “Mom, they weren’t trying to teach you how to swim.” Paula Poundstone quotes (American Comic, b.1959)
	It is easy to swim, when another holds up your head.  (Danish)
	“To understand water is to understand the cosmos, the marvels of nature, and life itself.” - Masaru Emoto in “The Hidden Messages in Water” - Northwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 4
	“Well, my swimming pool problems are solved. I just found myself miles and miles of open lanes.” “What is that smell?” “That’s East River.” “You’re swimming in the East River? The most heavily trafficked, overly contaminated waterway on the eastern seaboard?” “Technically, Norfolk has more gross tonnage.” “How could you swim in that water?” “I saw a couple other guys out there.” “Swimming?” “Well… floating. They weren’t moving much, but they were out there.” - Kramer and Jerry Seinfeld, in “The Nap”

A TRUE SUMMER HOLIDAY

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Foto. They contemplate  Summer Holidays, Beach, Sun and Sand.
	“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J.R.R. Tolkien, author of ‘Lord of the Rings’ (1892-1973)
	An onion can make people cry but there’s never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.
Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ We are not now that strength which in old days Moved the earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. — from Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson	To Summer by William Blake. O thou who passest thro’ our valleys in Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer, Oft pitched’st here thy goldent tent, and oft Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair. Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car Rode o’er the deep of heaven; beside our springs Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream: Our valleys love the Summer in his pride. Our bards are fam’d who strike the silver wire: Our youth are bolder than the southern swains: Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance: We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy, Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven, Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.
	Trees like to have kids climb on them, but trees are much bigger than we are, and much more forgiving. Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider
	It is good to know the truth, but it is better to speak of palm trees. ~ an Arab Proverb
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.  ~John Lubbock	In the Good Old Summertime There’s a time in each year that we always hold dear, the good old summer time; With the birds and the treeses and sweet-scented breezes, In the good old summer time. When your day’s work is over then you are in clover, And life is one beautiful rhyme, No trouble annoying each one is enjoying, The good old summer time. In the good old summertime, in the good old summertime. Strolling through the shady lanes with my baby mine. You hold her hand, and she holds yours, and that’s a very good sign. She will be your tootsie wootsie, in the good old summertime. song by George Evans and Ren Shields

FLOWERS AND OTHER PLANT LIFE

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Foto. They contemplate  Flowers because sometimes that’s a fine way to start a New Year.

	Don’t wear perfume in the garden – unless you want to be pollinated by bees.  ~Anne Raver
	MAY SARTON A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.
	None can have a healthy love for flowers unless he loves the wild ones. -   Forbes Watson
	HENRY DAVID THOREAU. Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigour and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.
	A fool does not see the same trees a wise man sees. -   Rick Hilles

2009 BEGINS FOR LIZZY FOREAL

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Foto. They contemplate life in TWEED HEADS. Skyscrapers – well highrises anyways and DEVELOPMENT. Progress – some might call it. Lizzy Foreal don’t call it Progress. Lizzy prefers the KALANG PROGRESS ASSOCIATION.

	When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?  ~Chuck Palahniuk
	Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation. Oscar Wilde
	The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.  ~Marcus Aurelius
	“In the final analysis there is no solution to man’s progress but the day’s honest work, the day’s honest decisions, the day’s generous utterances and the day’s good deed.” –Clare Booth Luce (1903-1987), American editor, playwright and social activist
	Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long. Ogden Nash
	HENRY DAVID THOREAU: If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
	I do my thing and you do yours. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, then it is beautiful. If not, it can’t be helped. Frederick Perls

WINTER IN THE SPIRIT

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate WINTER as things look darker and darker.

” You promised you’d be here whenever it snows”.

The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, the horse never. – Yiddish Proverb

The New Remorse

The sin was mine; I did not understand.
So now is music prisoned in her cave,
Save where some ebbing desultory wave
Frets with its restless whirls this meagre strand.
And in the withered hollow of this land
Hath Summer dug herself so deep a grave,
That hardly can the leaden willow crave
One silver blossom from keen Winter’s hand.

On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence.
John Keats

O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb’d Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.
William Cowper 

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. -Anne Bradstreet

A certain Gentleman having espoused a noble and virtuous wife, caused her to wear for her Impresa a Snail closed in here shell, as she remaineth all the winter, to defend her from the cold, with this posy, Proprio alitur succo: to signify that she should satisfie herself with the love of her own husband, even as the snail is nourished with her own moisture

 

a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.
- Adrienne Cook

 

 

WINTER IN THE VALLEY

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate WINTER in the Valley. This unemployed WINTER. Their second winter. A winter on the border with Queensland which means its NOT COLD. Nevertheless Winter it is. The Mad O”Brians are up in the Armidale Winter and Kati B and IMM are back in the country for their first Kalang Winter in a long long time. IT IS WINTER.

 

Silent Woods Silent woods where are Your voices of springtime now Taunts brass iced winterDorothy (Alves) Holmes

 

 “Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories”
  [Author Unknown]

©6/15/08Terry Sutherland

The Flower Garden

 

Sweetly lingers the lilac

It has married with the wild rose

A perfume made in heaven

Pleasing the winter starved nose

DISCOURAGED LATE IN THE AUTUMN AFTERNOON

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate DISCOURAGEMENT. The heart taken right out of a person with the Sun Setting in an Anicent sky and the Cottage empty of Earthly youth. A carton of beer in the kitchen. We don’t do that. We take good care of one another. So they say – but sometimes the Discouragement creeps into the Soul unbidden with Acedia. There are, at times, Autumn Afternoons in other places than the Month of May. Even in the Southern Hemisphere.

“The most essential factor is persistence — the determination never to 
allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement
that must inevitably come.”
-   James Whitcomb Riley

Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become 
anxious over the outcome of a goal.  Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement 
and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which 
eventually leads to success.
-   Brian Adams

Elbert Green Hubbard: When on the brink of complete discouragement, success is discerning that… the line between failure and success is so fine that often a single extra effort is all that is needed to bring victory out of defeat.

 

Discouragement is simply the despair
of wounded self-love
- Francois de Fenelon

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.
 ~Dale Carnegie

After praying, we must look to God in anticipation of what He’ll do. The Lord moved the king’s heart to show favor toward Nehemiah. The king provided him with soldiers and supplies for rebuilding Jerusalem. Nehemiah accepted the help and moved forward.

God will move hearts and send people to help us in discouraging times. Will you look to the Lord and accept the assistance He sends?

        

Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it at the bud.

author of this creativity quotations by Alex Osborn

 

 

The Lord responded compassionately, “My friend, when I asked you to
serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against
the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I
mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed.
But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled,
your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and
your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown
much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you
haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to
exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend,
will now move the rock.”

 

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN AUTUMN

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate AUTUMN. In Armidale, they say it is very cold. Way up North perhaps its hot. Here on the Tweed, its the best time of the year. Well – perhaps. It is autumn. It lacks the Leaves turning and falling -but it is so lovely. MUTED. It is MUTED. Might speak later to Kati B in Kalang and see how cold she is. That Valley gets cold and they don’t have a wood fire. Nor does Armidale . Armidale has the big gas heater. There’s a cold and enraged heart up there on the Heights as well. And in Cameron’s Pocket this Sunday in Autumn is a TENT SPENT day with STICKY GRASS PUDDING on the main stage.

Here on The Hill, Classic Abc is on. The day passes into evening and she dreams of small girls and long walks. YOU ARE SOFT, NANA – says Madeline. SO ARE YOU MADELINE- thinks NANA.

AUTUMN BRINGS ITS OWN MELLOWNESS IN AN EREMITIC SEPARATED WORLD. A MOMENT’S PARALYSIS OF DECIDING.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir

 

Action must be taken at the first signs of disruption or decay, otherwise disaster will follow as ice-bound water follows brief autumn frosts.
– I Ching

 

 Spring comes with flowers, autumn with the moon, summer with the breeze, winter with snow. When idle concerns don’t fill your thoughts, that’s your best season.
Wu-Men

from the site http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/resources/buddhist_quotes.html

When the days become longer and there is more sunshine, the grass becomes fresh and, consequently, we feel very happy. On the other hand, in autumn, one leaf falls down and another leaf falls down. The beautiful plants become as if dead and we do not feel very happy. Why? I think it is because deep down our human nature likes construction, and does not like destruction. Naturally, every action which is destructive is against human nature. Constructiveness is the human way. Therefore, I think that in terms of basic human feeling, violence is not good. Non-violence is the only way.

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
~John Bailey, “Autumn,” a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com

_______________________

Have you ever been out for a late autumn walk in the closing part
of the afternoon, and suddenly looked up to realize that the leaves
have practically all gone? And the sun has set and the day gone before
you knew it — and with that a cold wind blows across the landscape?
That’s retirement.

— Stephen Leacock

Order of Things 

 

Man, see how the immutable
Law of nature affects all things.
Consider the season of autumn
When leaves turn orange, yellow,
Or brown – their time is up!
Winds are sent whirl 

and whip them down
And Mother Nature watches 
As they make fluttering dance 
Until they detach 

from the residing stalks
Spiraling twirling 

and sliding in the air
Till they carpet the earth
Forming an exquisite beauty 

of mosaic hues 
Trees once clothed are left bare
Waiting to be re-clothed 

with green and glossy ones
By the spring god.

 

By Augustine C. Ohanwe 

 

 

WINTER

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate WINTER.  Wintermoon they call it. WHY ?  There’s no moon this year while its on and May isn’t winter anyways. Especially up there in the North. Winter now – well Lloyd from the BUSHRANGERS in Armidale tells me he has had 2 wood fires burning for more than 6 weeks. Thats WINTER even in AUTUMN. HE speaks of WOLLONGONG winters and Kati B is out in Kalang for her first Valley Winter in years NOT that its WINTER YET. NOT at all. SHE – well she last had a southern winter in 1971 and promised herself not to do that again and so far – she hasn’t. Tumbarumba and Canberra were her two cold ones. NOw she does sub tropical WINTERS – except inside of herself where she has known some of the bleak Siberias of which Martin used to speak in Bondi. Then again – IT IS NOT WINTER. So lets consider them. Perhaps the Findhorn and the Sutherland Shire. Mebbe the trip to Arimdale. WINTER IS ELSEWHERE.

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you…. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.  ~Ruth Stout

 

 “Ahh, the wide almond groves in full white flower
Stunning in the morning sun.
Old naked Winter in his garb of grays and browns has run.
Forsythia blooms come and go in the blink of a yellow Eye,
Then, suddenly, mysteriously, Green erupts; and we sigh.”
-   Michael P. Garofalo,

( LOOK FOR THIS NAME . HE DOES SOME GREAT STUFF)

Go to the winter woods: listen there, look, watch, and 
“the dead months” will give you a subtler secret than 
any you have yet found in the forest. 
-   Fiona Macleod, Where the Forest Murmurs

One kind word can warm three winter months.
- Japanese Proverb

In the depths of winter I finally learned
there was in me an invincible summer.

by Albert Camus

A silence already filled with noises,
A canvas on which emerges
A chorus of smiles, a winter morning.
 
(John Ashbery (b. 1927), U.S. poet, critic. “Some Trees.”)  

Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.
Elizabeth Bowen