House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende
Some people like to take notes, to keep diaries and journals. I am one of those people. I guess blogging is merely a modern (and public) form of ones diary, journal or notebook. (Except you can add pictures, videos, links and more!!) A record of daily life and interests relevant at that time. Just when I think I'm not really going to continue with this blog I read something and get inspired to do it again.....
I read this recently on brain pickings ..... (I love brain pickings!)
"Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember? How much of it actually happened? Did any of it? Why do I keep a notebook at all? It is easy to deceive oneself on all those scores. The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss."
- Joan Didion on Keeping a notebook (from Brain Pickings)
I am not sure if I am an anxious malcontent nor do i have a presentiment of loss , but I do think taking notes is a 'peculiarly compulsive one'. I have had journals, diaries and notebooks nearly my whole life - since I could write anyway. My mum always takes notes too - maybe it is inherited. To me it has got to do with thinking, ordering my thoughts, reflecting on life, philosophizing and remembering and recording ' important matters and trivialities'.
Here is an event I never got round to recording and with my slightly dodgy computer skills at least I will have these photos safe here. It is the crazy hail storm of last year. See I have already forgotten even what month it was in - maybe Nov/Oct.
We were just observing that very morning how glorious the jacaranda trees were looking, so we took a photo.... lucky for by that evening not a flower was left!!
It really was the most crazy storm I have been in, very exciting, so much hail and such large hail stones. The noise on the tin roof was deafening.
After it finished it became very misty and freezing cold. It looked beautiful and we were all a bit excited running around looking at it all.
Here are the jacaranda trees again. No more lovely purple flowers!
Massive bean bag sized collections of hail were all through the garden. They stayed their for a day or two.
We collected quite a bit of hail and put it in the freezer. We ended up using them to make our drinks cool over the coming summer months. Unfortunately the hail did smash all the developing oranges and mandarins.... so we won't have many this winter. Anyway it was an exciting event of nature , one I was glad to be a part of.
