Category: Random

Fee Writes

Ask This Question

What if you only had one year left? Have you ever thought about this?

I read this in an email I subscribe to

“Treat this question like a journaling prompt, answer it uninterrupted in a quiet, screen-free space, and it just might change your life, as it has mine: ‘If I had just one year left to live in good health, what would I do and who would I be?”

Now, surprisingly, I’m not big on journaling. I will do it periodically when I need to pick something, meaning that I’ll make a list of pros and cons. Or, I might use it if I have a problem to solve. But I’m not one for free-flowing my thoughts. Which, I know, seems odd because I’m a writer. I prefer rambling a blog post instead!

Getting back to the task at hand.

I took the time and did journal. I found a suitable notepad, turned on the ‘nothing’ music – you know the type, the mediation music of peaceful lake, sunrise, autumn forest or mystic temple. I’m not into dolphin or whale music.

I started with a sigh.
I don’t know what to write.
I have good health – I am pretty much who I like being, and I’m working on what I want to do.
Other things such as travel to see my girls are out of my control.

So the journaling didn’t amount to much; instead, I thought I’d write a rambling blog post.

This question is an important one if you are in a state of soul agitation. And what I mean by that is when you’re not happy with the way your life is, you want changes. Then this question is definitely one to consider.

I generally put it another way

“What do you want for you?”

Taking everyone else out of the equation, what is it that you want for yourself? Once you’ve figured that out, and believe me, it’s an incredibly tough question for most people; then you can start adding people back into the mix. Not surprisingly, they will come in differently!

Now, it’s not to say that my life is perfect, far from it. I am in a continual state of learning and developing, but after all the years I’ve been on this planet, I am grateful for where I am and look forward to continuing the journey.

Just don’t ask me to keep a journal.

The email I subscribe to is free at you can subscribe here: Dense Discovery It comes in once a week and is filled with all sorts of odd things that I find incredibly interesting. The author is Kia Brach, A young German now living in Australia.

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Fee Writes

Random

Get Out The Paint

Have you ever painted a fence? This was the first time for me. Wow – what a difference it is to painting walls in a house!

Funny how you can NOT notice something for some time, then suddenly it becomes very apparent. After the first lockdown, I came home one afternoon and actually ‘saw’ the landlord’s fence had been painted black. It looked amazing.

Let me explain. The landlord (and he’s one of the good ones) lives in the house in front of mine. During the first lockdown, for something to do, he had painted his fence. This was the part that ran along the backside of his home. He even painted the letterbox and his front door to match.

From then on, whenever I drove into my driveway, I felt the envy fairy on my shoulder as I looked at the somewhat dilapidated fence on my side, especially around my home, and wished it was painted as well.

I did ask him why he didn’t complete all of the fences, and his response was:

“Once I finished this side, I was over it.”

Now, I can relate; it was a lot of fence to paint especially doing it on his own.

But the envy fairy persisted. Finally, over a wine with the girls, we discussed my front yard in depth. It was a unanimous decision that the fence, especially around my part of the house, needed to be painted black.

Now the landlord wasn’t going to do the actual painting; however, he was all in favour of providing the paint if I took care of the manual labour.

No problem. I first approached my best buddy and her husband. Yes, they were on board. Next, I asked the Improv troupe that I’m part of, Honest Liars, and said that all volunteers would be gratefully received. Mind you, I did have a wee bribe of food and beer to sweeten the deal.

The date was set. Sunday from 10 am onwards.

The gods did not favour that day and declared it would rain. So a quick change of plans to the Saturday was in order and, thankfully, there would still be some ‘painters’ turning up.

The whole event did begin a couple of days prior. Best buddy’s husband arrived, and we started the rather mammoth task of prepping the fence. Within a couple of hours, the main part (closest to the house) was sparkling clean.

The next day best buddy arrived, and that cleaned fence was painted.

Saturday morning, the sun shone bright, a gentle breeze wafted through, and I set up the water jug (with lemon slices), the paint, brushes, rollers and drop-sheets ready for company.

Right on cue, the first friend arrived, brush in hand and overalls on, followed soon after by several more. I was touched that I was loved this much that people would give up their Saturday to paint a fence.

And so it began.

Painting the fence — Even in the corners and behind the bushes.

By 1 pm, all were sitting outside eating and drinking and admiring the finished work.

Did I mention that the pergola had been painted as well? No? Well, it was, and the effect tied everything together. Needless to say, the landlord is delighted with the result.

There are a few more things to do with the outside décor to get it into the party-worthy mode, but once it’s finished, all painters will be invited back to celebrate friendship and helping hands.

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Fee Writes

Random

The Colouring Book Phase

Are colouring books still a thing? And how did or do you treat this particular trend?

Cleaning out a bookshelf the other day, I came across a colouring book that my darling daughter had given me. It is a sweet little book called “Mindfulness colouring”, and not only does it have some beautiful pictures, but it also has some highly thoughtful quotes.

Surprisingly enough, I’ve never used it. Why is that surprising when I’m a creative bunny? Because I don’t have the patience to sit and colour something.

It got me thinking about whether this colouring gig was just a phase or if it really did have merit.

Oddly enough, my patience also wears thin with sewing, even though I’m pretty good at it. I can knit and crochet – hey, I’m a product of my generation! – and, again, unless I’m knitting small stuff like dishcloths, I can get majorly agitated (to put it mildly) if I make a mistake. However, I can sit for hours and do a jigsaw and, back in the day when my easel was up, I could stand for hours and paint with my pastels or acrylics. Go figure!

I get the whole thing about the colouring books being a meditative exercise, and I’m sure they have their place in bringing calm to those who need it.

Onto Google I went, well not Google but DuckDuckGo, which, by the way, is an excellent search engine who doesn’t follow you around with ads or store your search history or your personal info.

Enough of the unsolicited testimonial – back to colouring books.

There they were, under the search “colour books for adults”, dozens and dozens of websites offering everything from where to buy or download actual books through to colouring apps. I have now concluded that the colouring in for adults is still going strong.

But does it help? A further search showed me that indeed it does. Just like my jigsaw puzzles, colouring helps to:

Put your brain into a meditative state.
Relieve stress and anxiety.
Removes negative thoughts.
Mindfulness is achieved through focus.
Unplugging from technology and stimulating creativity.

So, will I be taking up the pencils and crazy images to colour? Nope, probably not, but I will keep the sweet little book for another day. Instead, I’ll start a jigsaw, or maybe knit another dishcloth… where is the wool?

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Fee Writes

Laugh! | Random

3 More Bizarre Facts

I get a kick out of ferreting out the weird and wonderful, so I hope you enjoy them.

The last time I posted some bizarre facts, post: My top 3 Bits of Useless Information, it appears you ate them up. Obviously not literally, that’s an impossibility, but you did seem to enjoy them according to the analysing data I have at my fingertips.

So I’m intrigued to see if this lot piques your interest as well. Today’s topic is birth control. Feel free to share.

1. In Egyptian days, when Pharaohs ruled and pyramids were built, crocodile poop was used as contraception. I kid you not.

It appears that amorous women would use the dung as pessaries. Yup, they’d insert the stuff and, because it is slightly alkaline, it worked a bit like modern-day spermicides. Mind you, just how they got the dung in the first place is thought-provoking, as well as wondering if it had to be fresh or could it be old. What about the smell? Surely that would turn off the suitor, and that would be the contraception? I’ll leave it to you to ponder.

2. The Greeks were also a bit loopy. Now they did have some very effective plant-based contraception, but they had some weird ones also, like, sneezing. The ancient Greek physician Soranus recommended that to prevent pregnancy, the woman, after having sex, should squat and sneeze. My curious mind wonders how the sneeze would happen. Perhaps they had a form of snuff in which to bring on the sneeze. Of course, this method didn’t work, which probably pissed off a few women and wouldn’t have given Soranus a good name!

3. In medieval Europe, this one would have to be the most bizarre. These Europeans believed that hanging weasel testicles around the woman’s neck during sex would stop pregnancy. Again, my mind is flying in all directions. I’m going to assume the weasel wasn’t attached. But it also begs the question, “did they have to be fresh, or did the woman have these testicles in the bedside drawer?” All I can say is, “Eweeee!”

These weren’t the only ‘charms’ that had magical powers. Donkey poop, a mule’s uterus, or a specific bone from a black cat’s body were also used.

So there you have it, my 3 bizarre facts that should brighten your day.

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Fee Writes

Random

Little Act of Kindness

My parents used to tell me that you could count your true friends on the fingers of one hand. True friends not only are fun, but they are there for you when needed.

I’ve talked about friendship before somewhere in this blog… ah, found it! …. Lost My Phone when I enlisted the help of a dear friend to go searching under cars in a public car park!

And I still get a real buzz when a friend steps out and goes beyond to give me something I was not expecting.

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to tell a friend of mine that I really should go and buy an edge trimmer to tidy up all the messy edges I have around my garden.

She told me to hold off for a moment as they had one, but now they have no edges to trim; my friend wasn’t sure if it had been given away or not – she would ask hubby.

A few days later, I was talking to her and asked about the said machine. Sadly, no, it was no longer in their possession. Never mind, I thought, I’ll get one when the stores re-open after lockdown.

Then one sunny, but windy day while I was happily creating a new recipe in the kitchen, I looked up to see the hubby, as mentioned above, arrive at the door.

By the look of his attire, I guessed this was not a social call as he was in old clothes and was carrying a leaf-blower of all things. A very quick hello, and he told me he had a fellow ‘gardener’ with an edge trimmer, and they were going to sort out my tangled mess of grass and weeds.

Machines roared, and before I had finished my epic cooking creation, both the front and back yards were in pristine condition.

A quick ‘cheerio’ from the lads, and they were gone leaving me quite emotional and forever grateful for generous friends who took time out of their day to make a person extremely happy.

Life blows you kisses when you least expect it!

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Category: Random

Ask This Question

What if you only had one year left? Have you ever thought about this?

Get Out The Paint

Have you ever painted a fence? This was the first time for me. Wow – what a difference it is to painting walls in a house!

The Colouring Book Phase

Are colouring books still a thing? And how did or do you treat this particular trend?

3 More Bizarre Facts

I get a kick out of ferreting out the weird and wonderful, so I hope you enjoy them.

Little Act of Kindness

My parents used to tell me that you could count your true friends on the fingers of one hand. True friends not only are fun, but they are there for you when needed.

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