Project 365: Weeks 19 and 20

OK. It's the second last day of June in actuality and I am posting about the beginning of May. The wheels have sort of fallen off this photo a day gig in fairly spectacular fashion. Why? I think its a combination of the pressures of work and the overwhelming sameness of my life at this time of year! I have my standards. I could take a photo a day of the ending state of messiness that is my desk. I could capture the piles of marking or the computer screen opened to my uninteresting but overflowing email inbox, a riveting Excel spreadsheet or some esoteric stats program. I don't know how well that would go down. It wouldn't photograph well I think. I do see at least one cool thing I'd like to capture an image of each day but an application  of Murphy's law usually means I am: (a) driving and it would be dangerous to take said photo, (b) without my camera, (c) so immersed in the moment I only remember it would have been cool to photograph after it is gone (not necessarily a bad thing) or (d) I try to take the photo and it ends up a wonky blurry unidentifiable blob of pixels.

So I'll post the photos I have taken over the last few months in batches of a fortnight at a time till I catch back up.

Week 19. It was Mother's day. It was pleasant lazy hazy Sunday with  good food and good company. I even got a handmade Mother's card complete with cut out magazine pictures from my 22 year old. I also got the traditional mother's day dressing gown, and I was thrilled. There may have also been a book involved. My kids know me too well. Week 20 finished up with a spirited family outing to the local 10 pin bowling alley.

Day 127: Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! The morning chook chorus.

Day 128: It's an octagon. In a circle. And red poles! Now with added plants! And mulch.

Day 130: A random belated birthday present from my sister. I'm going to crochet this little amigurumi owl just as soon as all the marking is done for the semester. I had to resist this all day at work. Giving me a full kit including yarn and a crochet hook and the pattern at the beginning of a work day was a subtle form of torture. I keep eying it off and thinking, I could just open it up and maybe crochet just a little bit instead of this pile of boring marking. Be proud of me. I resisted.

Day 131: Sunrise. The beginning of a beautiful autumn Saturday

Day 132: Mother's lunch at The Courthouse. Good food, great ambiance and pleasant company.  Touching base with my Mum after she'd been interstate for a week and lucky enough to have the eldest daughter home from her hard work in the Big City hospital for the weekend.

Day 134: The addition of a "sculptural element" to the garden outside my office window. This is a circular ring hanging in the the middle of an ovoid spheroid. The shape of the outer sphere changes depending on the angle you view it from. Here it's looking like a ball or a globe. From different angles, it looks more egg like. This has been an impressive exercise in recycling too with both the red poles and the blue glass re-purposed for the the previous iteration of this garden space.

Day 136: A colorful cyclamen. This is in another of the garden spaces that brighten up our wing of the University. This one is almost like a giant outdoor terrarium, sandwiched between the walls of the building and giant glass windows. It is filled with flourishing tree ferns, bromealiads and a giant fossilized trunk of a tern fern that probably lived in the age of the dinosaurs dug up from one of our local open cut brown coal mines. You can see the end of this in the top right of the picture.

Day 137: Evening rush hour in the big city. Waiting at the Super Stop for the tram outside Melbourne's iconic Finder's Street Station. A day of meetings discussing the intricacies of marking 300+ literature reviews with about a dozen different markers consistently and with a tight two week turn around. Anticipating the pleasurable rush and well earned pain of a taekwondo training session with our Master. Meeting my better half and the boy for training in preparation for his impending black belt grading followed by a meal out in Chapel Street.

Day 138: Bowling shoes. Are they in fact the ugliest shoes in existence? Saturday afternoon ten pin bowling. I lost. This is not unusual. I can't bowl consistently. Its all or nothing - gutter balls or strikes. The head of the household won - also not surprising. He's the only one who does look like he knows how to bowl properly. It was a fun afternoon. Thanks to the middle daughter for making us go.

Day 139: Handmade pasta. The middle daughter making homemade lasagna from scratch to take to her friend's house as she disappears for a few day's sleepover. The lasagna was a work of art.