I love that quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It’s Day 31 of Bloganuray!!!
Today’s prompt: Where is the best place to watch the sunset near you?
Oh wow it is the end of January and therefore, the end of Bloganuary. It’s been a great reminder that I can actually write every day if I put my mind to it. Thank you WordPress for the challenge. I have also found new and interesting blogs to follow, met some cool people, discovered new books to add to my (already very long) reading list and picked up a few great tips on blogging. Let’s not forget that I wrote my first poem as well! This has really being a good month!
Now for the prompt. Well, as it turns out, the back of my home faces south west so I often get to witness the sun’s last hoorah for the day.
A winter sunset from our complex’s car parkA summer sunset form the car park.
I know that you cannot actually see the where the sun went down in the winter pic but you can get a sense of it. I have only just noticed how the position of the sun differs between the seasons in these pics. I tried to capture the sun’s position in the east on the solstice days last year but I wasn’t very successful. My son’s school is near the sea which is in the east for us. I think this year I need to find a good spot where I can capture the sun in summer especially as the difference in position is quite huge.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by to read my blog this month. Thank to all who took the time to comment as well. I hope to “bump into you” on WordPress again in the near future so don’t be a stranger đ Bye for now.
Well unless you are procrastinging an admin task, then housework is so inviting. Wouldn’t you agree? Well…that leads me to the prompt for bloganuary Day 12.
Today’s Prompt: What chores do you find the most challenging to do?
I have to admit that every chore is challenging when I think about getting started but once I get going, I actually enjoy what I am doing. Chores like ironing and washing dishes can actually be meditative. I sometimes also listen to music, a podcast or an audiobook while I am busy.
I find cooking and baking very engaging. Following that recipe, expecting it to come out the same everytime, and then finding that it seldom does, always boggles my brain. I swear I do the exact same thing every time but sometimes my food/cake is too dry or doesn’t have enough salt or too moist for example. Does the same thing happen to you? How does it happen????
As a general rule, actually writing down targets/goals and OKR’s is a good reason to pull out all my procrastination tools. I will happily clean, declutter, iron and spit and polish any surface to avoid this type of chore. I call it a chore because it is not fun but it is necessary. I know what I want to achieve but articulating it on paper means actually getting specific and realistic about it and I want to achieve everything like yesterday! đ€ŠđœââïžOnce I am done though, I feel so accomplished! I feel like an actual professional đ.
So yes, any repititive task that I need to do tends to be challenging however, once I get going I always end up asking myself “What took you so long!”. Do you have specific chores that you find challenging even once you get started or are you more like me? Hate it until you start. Let me know in the comments.
Bye bye for now. I’ll leave you with this quote by A.A. Milne. It’s sums up my home and desk đ€
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
Today’s prompt: How far back in your family tree can you go?
I was so surprised that this was today’s prompt as, out of the blue, my son and my nephew both asked for access to our family tree this afternoon. Our Family tree was therefore top of mind for me anyway today. How cool is that!
We are very fortunate in that my Dad has spent the last few years delving into the history of our family, especially on his dad’s side as this is name we carry. Thus far he has gone as far back as the early 1700’s. On my mum’s side, we can trace my grandfather’s family back to the 1800’s as far as I know but we don’t know really know anything about my grandmother’s family.
We are of mixed race. On my dad’s side it is English and Zulu and on my mum’s side it is English and St Helenic. Somehere in the St Helenic line is Asian ancestory as the boys in particular in my grandfather’s family have Asian features. My mum inherited those feautues as well and passed those genes on to us as well. It is has far easier to trace the English bloodline than it has been the Zulu line. As far as I know, no records exist for the Zulu bloodline. I assume my mum’s mum still has family in St Helena as I went onto the website one day and I say a picture of a lady standing at her back door that looked so much like her. When I looked at the caption I was pleasantly surprised to see that she had the surname as my gran so it’s highly likely she is family.
As most of our knowledge is about my dad’s side of the family, I can only really speak to that. I must admit that it has been empowering to learn that we descend from ship owners on the one hand and a strong, courageous woman on the other. Unfortunately all my grandparents had passed by the time I was 10 and I never knew my dad’s dad as he passed when my dad was 16. My dad’s mum is the only one I got to hear stories from. She would have us help her fold laundry on rainy days and entertain us with stories of her school days. She was one of the first 23 students that attended the school where she grew up in the early 1900’s so it was all very novel to them.
The pics below were taken at the home of my Great great grandfather which, up until recently, was a snapshot of their life in the early 1900’s. It is also surrounded by a nature reserve so it is extremely peaceful. I have loved walking through the grounds. We’ve had to side step the zebras and, if we wanted to see the buck that roamed the grounds, we had to remain very still as they were very skittish. It’s also the location that I chose for our family portrait last year.
Coedmore castle. Photographer: Author
Posing with the Zebras. Photographer: Author
Understanding their history with Grandpa. Photographer: MFenner Photography
We inherit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted. Each of us contains within this inheritance of soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.
Edward Sellner
I could go on and on about our family tree but i will stop here. I think it is so importnat and very empowering to know where we come from. We don’t realise that we all carry great bloodlines if we go back far enough.
Thank you for taking this walk through our family history with me. I hope you have enjoyed it. Bye for now.
Grounded African 