This week has seen much lower temperatures and grey skies and I’m loving it! So much easier to get out and about. Being up in the mountains often means gorgeous misty mornings, but not every morning… so here’s a timelapse that I shot on a clearer day.
On Friday I took a trip to lovely leafy Leura – a really pretty town and one that reminds me a lot of Greytown, with its quaint old buildings, fancy homewares shops and lots of impressive trees. People are friendly here, and I had more nice chats as I wandered about. There was an antique jewellery store that made my heart sing – so much amazing workmanship! If I had a hundred fingers and a hundred thousand dollars I’d have walked out with every ring!
Friday night was fab, with two friends from my London days coming to stay. We had dinner and endless chats, it was so lovely to catch up with them again and was a great reminder to make the effort to stay in touch with people. Since I’ve left Instagram I’ve noticed I’m feeling far less connected to my friends and acquaintances; but in many ways it was a false sense of connection as I mostly didn’t really know what was going on in people’s lives. People don’t post updates like they used to – and fair enough, as none of those social media companies treat our data with anything but exploitative disregard for our privacy.
Also, I realise now that I was assuming that posting things meant everyone in my life knew what was happening with me, which isn’t true at all, and also cuts out all the people I know who aren’t on the socials. Most of my family aren’t on any social media (which I think is great) but that will make keeping them updated a bit difficult – hence this blog! I’m feeling really excited to write it, and take photos for it, so I’m looking forward to having it as a creative outlet for myself as much as anything. Hopefully Regan will write posts here too.
And with all of that in mind I’ve decided not to post photos of friends and family on here – I want to respect their privacy; and now that we have heightened knowledge of issues around consent and so on, I think it’s the safest and best option.
Saturday morning was great, with Penny and Sim staying for a leisurely brunch and a sit in the spa. We took the dogs for a walk, and we were a bit sad and droopy after they left – it was just so fab having them here!
More friend-based excitement on Sunday, with a trip to hang with Brad from “Stirring Stuff” while he was carving and selling wooden spoons at an artisans craft market in north Sydney. Our friend Paul picked me up from a station on the Blue Mountains train line (after having to walk around the whole station to find me, bless him – my phone is playing up). These are two fab lads I met at Spoonjam, the sadly missed spoon carving festival that used to be held here in Oz.
I’m going to immediately break my own rule about not having pictures of people as I’ll include a pic here with Brad in the background, but I’m promoting his business so I reckon it’s ok! He makes beautiful spoons and runs courses around NSW to teach carving. You’ll find him on Etsy and Instagram.
Today I knew I owed the dogs an adventure so we went on a bush walk a little further up the Great Western Highway. I chose Horseshoe Falls – sadly we didn’t see any falls (or any horseshoes), but we sort of heard a fall along the way. It was peaceful and beautiful and there were some wonderful plants. I had to keep reminding myself to look out for snakes and other creatures, but we didn’t see anything like that at all.
Can you see Olive in the picture? She’s pretty hard to spot in the bush!
Today my thoughts are really starting to turn to home, it’s been a long time to be away and I’m missing Regan and Lulu heaps. Regan and I have done so many solo trips – it’s easier to not have to find a pet sitter, and it means we can do the things that really interest us (like spoon carving festivals lol) that the other might not want to do. But I’m SUPER looking forward to The Big Trip where Regan and I get to travel together again for the first time in ages!
One more week then I’ll be back home, and then the main prep will begin 🙂
The Wayfaring Path 
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