Glorious piece. I love the metaphor of our footprints in the sand only to be washed away. How do we leave our mark? I think it’s in the life we live. Our love is an energy that will continue even after we are gone.
Thanks so much Ms. Writer. I think mindfulness is a work in progress for most of us when the world is in such a state. But moments count, as you say and thank you for your blessings. To you, by return and I look forward to your posts in the NY.
Yes Prue, this is such a good piece. Life is shorter and much less rigid and important than we think. As someone prone to anxiety I completely agree worrying about what might happen can be debilitating. I’m not a resolution kind of gal but this year I’m adopting this from the Guardian as my guide.
Borders are the best, Beth. We had a beautiful dear Border on the farm. His name was Spot because he had a perfect spot in the middle of his forehead and he was SUCH a gentleman, such. worker and so kind. So if you're the female manifestation of that, go you!
They say owners are like their dogs and that worries me 'cos I have my feisty Jackie - yap yap. Obsessive, loud, HUGE attitude! Is that what I'm like really? Yikes. Happy NY!
That's why you and I clicked, Kate. I've had panic disorder for a long time and still have bouts of anxiety. Follow Mindfulness CBT religiously and have learned to live with it all and to enjoy the short life we have in this world.
LOVE that link. Think I might be the 'Walkieeeeees!' kind of gal!
Loved this one Prue. The metaphor of footsteps vanishing in the sand: perfect. Your photos of your beaches charm me no end; I think you have found one of the perfect spots to live. I also very much enjoy hearing about the rhythm of your sheep ranch and how it works. You have mentioned this before, about how your family blends land people with sea people and I guess that resonates well with me, because I love the juxtaposition of the two. Thanks for giving us glimpses of your life in such a generous and unfluffy way. Simple, mindful, real life. Cheers to more of that in 2024.❤️
You've made my day, Sabrina. I love being called 'unfluffy'. 'Specially as I am always searching for big words!
Being mindful is a constant for me, or more particularly, reminding myself to be mindful. I get caught up often in the extranea to my detriment - do you think we all do?
PS: About to put some pics of today's work on the farm on Instagram. It will give you more of an idea of what we do. Love and best.
I find it SO hard not to get caught up! But then I remember the solution is just to put those people and ideas to one side and fill up my days with the ideas and people who aren't chasing the next new thing. Then the world is a much better place. I so enjoyed the photos - Thanks! .
Those isolated beaches look so restorative, Prue. I'm glad you know the way there! Years ago, our friend Luther pressed his enormous hands into wet cement, followed by our two little girls. It was such a beautiful juxtaposition and one of the few times I've appreciated having something "set in stone," so to speak. For everything else, being flexible and fluid is the best approach and one I have spent most of my adult life still NOT perfecting. But, I try. I try! Thank you for this reminder and for pointing us toward what matters most in 2024. Cheers, friend!
Funny, isn't it, but it's taken me 72 years to go with the flow and even then, I often try to 'bend the river'.
I just said to Sabrina that mindfulness has to be a constant in my life. I have always tended to react to extranea. Again, 72 years to learn that life is so lovely if we're fortunate enough to be able to stand back, look and breathe.
It’s taken me 55 yrs Prue, and I’m still very much a learner. But bringing myself back over and over and over again is the only way I can manage to notice all the good and lovely that is right here in front me. Gosh I wish I wasn’t such a slow learner.
Kate, I follow David Michie on Substack and his writings have taught me such a lot about mindfulness and meditation. He is a committed Buddhist and has so much to give. I think we're all beginners from this life into the next and the next. We can all hang together - just think of the depths of life that we are learning to see, compared to many others...
Dec 30, 2023·edited Dec 30, 2023Liked by prue batten
Such a delight of a post, Prue! Those beach pictures - ahhhh, the sunbeams - and descriptions of your walks are just wonderful. I love what you've said about your footprints.
I had to Google 'lucerne' - it's what I know as alfalfa.
I've never read any Jilly Cooper - perhaps I should! It was announced yesterday that she's been 'gonged' with a Damehood in the NY Honours.
Happy New Year! January 1st will be dawning in your part of the world way sooner than up here - I shall be thinking of you at 1pm tomorrow afternoon - for that will be your midnight!
Edited - with regrettable tardiness - to say this: thank you so very much for linking to me! That's so kind of you. 😘
NY Eve here, and I've spent it with husband at the farm doing chores (will load pics onto Instagram if you want to see - it's a public account. Probably unwise to BE public but I try to drive traffic to my brand). Walked through the windrows of lucerne. It smelled and look beautiful until Jack, who's cutting it for us, spotted a very aggressive tiger snake moving from the uncut lucerne to the windrows. I'm phobic about snakes and particularly with the Jack Russell and snakes, so I had a cold shiver over my body.
Re Jilly Cooper - I saw she had a gong yesterday via Gyles Brandreth - can just imagine her amongst the fab coven of Dench, Smith, Lumley et al. What a hoot!
Truth re NY? I hate the night. I hate the fireworks because my ldog goes out of his tree and I end up driving where he can't hear the explosions. Last year, I nearly ran over a terrified golden retriever. I tried to load it into my car to keep it safe but it was in a state of utter blind panic and was almost savage with fear. People forget to lock up their pets and many go missing and end up kilometres away from their homes if not run over.
I do think fireworks should be outlawed now and those wonderful drone displays installed. But that's just my opinion.
Talk soon, Rebecca - may you and Jim have a good evening!
Burnie had a drone display last night. We went to see the early showing and it was pretty good. I also thought of all the children with sensory issues who could now enjoy the experience. I did kind of hope there would be 150 people moving around on the ground like synchronised swimmers controlling the drones 🤣
Oh gosh, I sooo envy you with the drones. I think they're a wonder of technology. I really think if Burnie Council is so forward-thinking, why can't Hobart City Council?
The sensory issue is huge, I think. If fireworks drive animals into paroxysms of fear, it follows naturally that they would do the same for anyone with a sensory issue.
Since I lost my right-side balance a few years ago, strobing lights and loud noise become issues for me as my brain seeks to compensate. We went to Cirque de Soleil one year and I had tor return to the car at interval and slept until the show ended!
Burnie wasn’t forward thinking, the fireworks fell thru at the 11 hour and the drone display was all they could get at short notice. I hope they get positive feedback and continue it.
So much wisdom here, Prue! I love your idea to have things in mind you hope to accomplish, but not stressing if you don’t get to them. I’m s-l-o-w-l-y learning that’s the best way to have a contented life!
Glorious piece. I love the metaphor of our footprints in the sand only to be washed away. How do we leave our mark? I think it’s in the life we live. Our love is an energy that will continue even after we are gone.
Happy New Year! 🎊🎈🎆
Beautifully said, CK. All happiness to you too.
Cheers to the new year! May we all learn how to truly live in the moment and make the moments count. Blessings to you and yours.
Thanks so much Ms. Writer. I think mindfulness is a work in progress for most of us when the world is in such a state. But moments count, as you say and thank you for your blessings. To you, by return and I look forward to your posts in the NY.
Yes Prue, this is such a good piece. Life is shorter and much less rigid and important than we think. As someone prone to anxiety I completely agree worrying about what might happen can be debilitating. I’m not a resolution kind of gal but this year I’m adopting this from the Guardian as my guide.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2023/dec/30/in-2024-lets-not-overthink-it-lets-be-more-like-dogs
Wishing you a year with no nasty surprises, lots of deserted beach walks and family memory making moments.
I've always thought I was part border collie. I think this comic confirms it! What a beauty. The perfect way to live.
Borders are the best, Beth. We had a beautiful dear Border on the farm. His name was Spot because he had a perfect spot in the middle of his forehead and he was SUCH a gentleman, such. worker and so kind. So if you're the female manifestation of that, go you!
They say owners are like their dogs and that worries me 'cos I have my feisty Jackie - yap yap. Obsessive, loud, HUGE attitude! Is that what I'm like really? Yikes. Happy NY!
Hahaha! Love it! (Some people are SO like their dogs!!) Happy New Year to you too dear Prue.
That's why you and I clicked, Kate. I've had panic disorder for a long time and still have bouts of anxiety. Follow Mindfulness CBT religiously and have learned to live with it all and to enjoy the short life we have in this world.
LOVE that link. Think I might be the 'Walkieeeeees!' kind of gal!
Cheers, my friend.
A perfect filler for these days between Christmas and the New Year. Those beaches look heavenly!!
Hoping that 2024 treats you (and all of us) well. Sending heaps of hugs and best wishes dear Prue.
See above to you, Beth!
Loved this one Prue. The metaphor of footsteps vanishing in the sand: perfect. Your photos of your beaches charm me no end; I think you have found one of the perfect spots to live. I also very much enjoy hearing about the rhythm of your sheep ranch and how it works. You have mentioned this before, about how your family blends land people with sea people and I guess that resonates well with me, because I love the juxtaposition of the two. Thanks for giving us glimpses of your life in such a generous and unfluffy way. Simple, mindful, real life. Cheers to more of that in 2024.❤️
You've made my day, Sabrina. I love being called 'unfluffy'. 'Specially as I am always searching for big words!
Being mindful is a constant for me, or more particularly, reminding myself to be mindful. I get caught up often in the extranea to my detriment - do you think we all do?
PS: About to put some pics of today's work on the farm on Instagram. It will give you more of an idea of what we do. Love and best.
I find it SO hard not to get caught up! But then I remember the solution is just to put those people and ideas to one side and fill up my days with the ideas and people who aren't chasing the next new thing. Then the world is a much better place. I so enjoyed the photos - Thanks! .
Ohhh I must find you next time I’m in insta,
Those isolated beaches look so restorative, Prue. I'm glad you know the way there! Years ago, our friend Luther pressed his enormous hands into wet cement, followed by our two little girls. It was such a beautiful juxtaposition and one of the few times I've appreciated having something "set in stone," so to speak. For everything else, being flexible and fluid is the best approach and one I have spent most of my adult life still NOT perfecting. But, I try. I try! Thank you for this reminder and for pointing us toward what matters most in 2024. Cheers, friend!
Funny, isn't it, but it's taken me 72 years to go with the flow and even then, I often try to 'bend the river'.
I just said to Sabrina that mindfulness has to be a constant in my life. I have always tended to react to extranea. Again, 72 years to learn that life is so lovely if we're fortunate enough to be able to stand back, look and breathe.
Can't wait to talk 'next year', Elizabeth. XXXX
It’s taken me 55 yrs Prue, and I’m still very much a learner. But bringing myself back over and over and over again is the only way I can manage to notice all the good and lovely that is right here in front me. Gosh I wish I wasn’t such a slow learner.
Kate, I follow David Michie on Substack and his writings have taught me such a lot about mindfulness and meditation. He is a committed Buddhist and has so much to give. I think we're all beginners from this life into the next and the next. We can all hang together - just think of the depths of life that we are learning to see, compared to many others...
Thanks I shall have a look at his writing
Such a delight of a post, Prue! Those beach pictures - ahhhh, the sunbeams - and descriptions of your walks are just wonderful. I love what you've said about your footprints.
I had to Google 'lucerne' - it's what I know as alfalfa.
I've never read any Jilly Cooper - perhaps I should! It was announced yesterday that she's been 'gonged' with a Damehood in the NY Honours.
Happy New Year! January 1st will be dawning in your part of the world way sooner than up here - I shall be thinking of you at 1pm tomorrow afternoon - for that will be your midnight!
Edited - with regrettable tardiness - to say this: thank you so very much for linking to me! That's so kind of you. 😘
NY Eve here, and I've spent it with husband at the farm doing chores (will load pics onto Instagram if you want to see - it's a public account. Probably unwise to BE public but I try to drive traffic to my brand). Walked through the windrows of lucerne. It smelled and look beautiful until Jack, who's cutting it for us, spotted a very aggressive tiger snake moving from the uncut lucerne to the windrows. I'm phobic about snakes and particularly with the Jack Russell and snakes, so I had a cold shiver over my body.
Re Jilly Cooper - I saw she had a gong yesterday via Gyles Brandreth - can just imagine her amongst the fab coven of Dench, Smith, Lumley et al. What a hoot!
Truth re NY? I hate the night. I hate the fireworks because my ldog goes out of his tree and I end up driving where he can't hear the explosions. Last year, I nearly ran over a terrified golden retriever. I tried to load it into my car to keep it safe but it was in a state of utter blind panic and was almost savage with fear. People forget to lock up their pets and many go missing and end up kilometres away from their homes if not run over.
I do think fireworks should be outlawed now and those wonderful drone displays installed. But that's just my opinion.
Talk soon, Rebecca - may you and Jim have a good evening!
Burnie had a drone display last night. We went to see the early showing and it was pretty good. I also thought of all the children with sensory issues who could now enjoy the experience. I did kind of hope there would be 150 people moving around on the ground like synchronised swimmers controlling the drones 🤣
Oh gosh, I sooo envy you with the drones. I think they're a wonder of technology. I really think if Burnie Council is so forward-thinking, why can't Hobart City Council?
The sensory issue is huge, I think. If fireworks drive animals into paroxysms of fear, it follows naturally that they would do the same for anyone with a sensory issue.
Since I lost my right-side balance a few years ago, strobing lights and loud noise become issues for me as my brain seeks to compensate. We went to Cirque de Soleil one year and I had tor return to the car at interval and slept until the show ended!
Burnie wasn’t forward thinking, the fireworks fell thru at the 11 hour and the drone display was all they could get at short notice. I hope they get positive feedback and continue it.
Absolutely!
I love this Post and so glad to connect with you! I look forward to reading along. Thank you for the mention as well. :)
Thank you, Julie. It's great to have you here.
It's great to be here. :)
I so enjoyed this, Prue. It helped me feel in touch with you and myself. That's the best sort of turn of the year philosophy.
So much wisdom here, Prue! I love your idea to have things in mind you hope to accomplish, but not stressing if you don’t get to them. I’m s-l-o-w-l-y learning that’s the best way to have a contented life!
You go, girl. I'm behind you.
PS: Thank you for saying there is wisdom in my words - that's something I can hold very dear, I tell you!