Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A letter from Jeanima: 8/24/12


[click for big]

Text:
Dear Miss Holly,

Jeanima is pleased to write you this letter. She's greeting you in the name of the Savior Jesus. She lets you know that she and her family are fine. Her school activities are going well; she succeeded and she got promoted to grade 6. She thanks you a lot for the letter. She's pleased to hear from you. Jeanima is thanking you for the birthday gift. She bought a hen with it. She lets you know that at this moment, they are planting trees in her neighborhood.

She asks you whether you like horses. She asks you to pray for her to that God can change her life. She lets you know that she's praying God to always keep you in good health. She wishes you a good summer vacation 2012.
As always, if you have ever helped pay her sponsorship fees, consider it addressed to you.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Yallingup

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A day trip "down south," as they call it. I have never seen such perfect clear water in real life before. The waves were too rough for real swimming, but what a sparkling day.

"Paradise is all around..."

Friday, November 16, 2012

Late sunlight

I am taking a break from my point-and-shoot 365 for a little while. I haven't been wanting to pick up that camera as often lately — it has been feeling like an interruption to what it documents.

I took my journal down to the beach this evening before dinner. I wrote about spitefulness. My impulse to spite, should you be interested, is strong and strange, but there are only three or four people who bring it out in me.

The waves were cold and very bright in the lowering sun. In the pauses, when I looked up at the sand and the water and the birds and my feet and tapped my pen to consider, I kept thinking, You will remember this so fondly once it is out of reach. That has been a saving question for me to ask myself before — Will I remember this fondly? Then savor it while it's here. Will there be anything to remember? If not, do something differently.

By this time next month, I'll be back in California and the sun will suddenly be setting before five rather than after seven. Strange! I feel invigorated and ready for December and the coming year.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Gratitudes + things that are making me happy

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• blossoming jacaranda trees

• nice bus drivers

• rainy mornings

• feeling the happy kind of tired after a run

• the anxiety workbook I am working through (here)

• beautiful autumn photos from northern-hemisphere bloggers

• phone calls from my Sydney sister

• two of my good friends finding good jobs

• the smell of my new face wash

• listening closely to what I need

• sitting by the sea

• shooting with a borrowed AE-1

• driving south by starlight and headlights, with Shannon and her kids and her case of energy drinks

• seeing a wallaby in the wild

• a sense of peace and release

Monday, November 12, 2012

Breathing

When I step outside here, I hear the wind, the waves breaking a few backyard fences away, and the stand of big gum trees up the road blowing in the wind. That's all.

The air is warm. Dry.

It's the kind of free space I wrote about in January.

That might be the thing I love most about Australia, and Western Australia in particular. Even in the middle of the cities, somehow you can always sense the vastness of this land. The mostly-emptiness (though "empty" is a tricky word) — the spaciousness on the horizon. Standing at the edge of the Indian Ocean, I look up and down the coast and feel such relief knowing that unlike in California, there is an end to the houses, and it is never far. Breathing is so easy here, in this expanse.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Recipe: Sun River Banana Bread

I have no picture of this, but it is my favorite banana bread ever. It's dense, not crumbly or oily, and has just the right amount of sweetness, with a nice lightly crusted top.
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2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup mashed fully ripened bananas
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Blend in banana pulp. Add baking powder, soda, and salt. Alternate adding the flour and yogurt. Pour into a well-greased and floured loaf pan. Bake on the center rack for about one hour. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Makes one loaf.


Adapted from the Sunset Cook Book of Favorite Recipes (1973).

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Walsh Bay, Sydney

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Just a short walk back under the southern end of the Harbour Bridge and then you're back at Circular Quay, looking at the ferry terminal and the CBD and the Opera House.
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Read in October 2012

Titles link to the pertinent Goodreads page — feel free to add me as a friend.

1. Singer from the Sea, by Sheri S. Tepper

2. Antigone, by Sophocles

3. A House Like a Lotus, by Madeleine L'Engle

4. Fog Magic, by Julia L. Sauer