One PhOtO a DaY JuNe 2025

 JUNE 1st THE MESS I’M IGNORING: The unfortunate truth about coastal regions in developing countries 

Second choice 

 

JUNE 2nd I FORGOT I OWNED THIS: tiny, Japanese, ceramic frog you keep in your purse or wallet. The Japanese believe if it’s in your purse it will never be empty. I realized I no longer had mine years ago and then when we were in Adelaide early this year I found it in a wallet I had left in storage with money in it!! Lucky me. Now it’s back in the purse I use everyday  

* the phone tool is for scale 

JUNE 3rd ACCIDENTAL ART: When an oil spot on the asphalt is turned into art by the monsoon rain. We saw hundreds of these colour spectrum splashes today 

JUNE 4th SHOULDN’T BE HERE: One of these shouldn’t be here. They are a “bungchu” or traditional Bhutanese food container. They are brand new and meant to be a matching pair which snap together to make a carrier and can be used separately as plates to eat from. It wasn’t until we reached home that I realised these two were different patterns. I guess there is therefore the opposite pair in the handicraft market in Thimphu still now 

JUNE 5th SOMETHING IN MY JUNK DRAWER: I don’t actually have a junk drawer but anything without a home usually ends up in a basket or in this drawer where I found a fabric dye I must have bought 5 years ago for a project I have long forgotten. Does it  have an expiry date I wonder? 

JUNE 6th THE LAUNDRY I IGNORED: firstly because the limited line space on the balcony was already full of sheets and towels and then because of the torrential monsoon rains 

JUNE 7th SOCK THAT LOST ITS PARTNER: I can honestly say that it’s never happened to me. I have only pairs and so instead this is the sock box that lives in the wardrobe as I almost never wear socks here in the tropics anyway 

JUNE 8th SOMETHING SUSS: Nothing would tempt me to enter a restaurant with this sitting in plain view on the footpath out the front. What do they use it for? Why would you want to advertise that as an ingredient? Very suss 

JUNE 9th WHERE MY KEYS SHOULD BE: I have two very different sets of keys. These for our cottage in Australia and those I use daily here. This is a case of where my key should be! These live in this bag with various items required in Australia but the last time I went the key to our storage unit which has always been with this set had mysteriously evaporated. We changed the lock but I still wonder where it went 

JUNE 10th RANDOM FRIDGE ITEM: An “atsara”magnet from Bhutan on the fridge door, holding entrance tickets a few favourite places we have been in recent times.  Atsaras are not just jesters; they are storytellers, master of ceremonies, and play a crucial role in both entertaining the crowd and encouraging spiritual reflection at Tshechu 

JUNE 11th WHAT’S IN MY POCKET?: If I actually have a pocket, it’s usually just my phone but that’s what I take photos with so only my hand. And why is it that women’s clothes so rarely have pockets anyway? 

JUNE 12th MAKES NO SENSE: This is apparently Eurler’s formula. It makes no sense to me. Although it was carefully explained in the riveting book (“The Housekeeper and the Professor” by Yoko Ogawa) I borrowed this morning and just finished, as usual all things mathematical seem beyond me 

JUNE 13th OOPSIE DAISY: This is now the third attempt at growing a rosemary in the tropics- one purchased as a plant grown locally and two from cuttings from different sources. I guess it’s just not a goer for our little balcony garden. At least the three varieties of basil, spring onions, chillies and Indian borage thrive. Count your blessings

JUNE 14th AN OBJECT OUT OF PLACE: This beautiful property had absolute Mekong River frontage for decades, so the pontoon was in regular use, but now that land reclamation has created an artificial island, the pontoon is redundant and the remaining strip of river is becoming overgrown with water hyacinths without the river flow and boating activities. The price of development ….. 

JUNE 15th FOUND IT LIKE THIS: We started a little micro-greens garden just four days ago and I found it looking like this fist thing this morning 

JUNE 16th BAD HAIR DAY: for me it means drag it all off my face and tie it back 

JUNE 17th A SNACK I DIDN'T SHARE: A homemade muesli cookie made by me yesterday and this one was devoured with coffee after a cleaning frenzy this morning

JUNE 18th SMELLS WEIRD: to me at least. Plenty of people love durian and it’s quite expensive even here but it’s is an undeniably weird smell. So much so that in many Asian countries there are restrictions about carrying it on public transport or consuming it in hotel rooms! I’ve never tried it myself, due to the smell when it’s cut open: hence the one I photographed

*the evidence at a bus station

JUNE 19th A PLANT THAT'S TRYING: These little snake plants or mother-in-laws tongues, which ever name you know them by, are battling fully immersed in water to reach the light. We already have so many but given that they are the number one filters of pollutants in the air, I continue to propagate more and find little niches for them or gift them to friends

JUNE 20th WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING: is reinstating the dining table, chairs, spirit house and terrace garden now that the new, veranda roof has been installed but given that it’s early evening and it has taken all day we are going out to dinner and leaving that task until tomorrow

* this one was selected for the Notable Nine on Facebook 

JUNE 21st A PET JUDGING ME: Not actually a pet but a stairwell cat that is alway unimpressed with people in its proximity. I call him Mr Evil Eye 

JUNE 22nd TOO MANY MUGS: Not sure why we have this many mugs but as someone disinclined to waste anything, I seem to be a hopeless hoarder in pursuit of second uses for all manner of things. I also derive incredible pleasure from finding an odd new purposes for said objects

JUNE 23rd A FRIDGE MAGNET: The one and only interesting fridge magnet in our house has already been posted this month so the rest are purely practical to display the responses to my snail mail project and other images I find interesting. This one I found and it is the street from which we enter our apartment in the year that I was born so it lives permanent in the display while others come and go

JUNE 24th THE WEIRDEST THING IN MY HOUSE: Coke! I drink it once a decade or less and only when I don’t feel well. So that’s how today panned out 

JUNE 25th A MASTERPIECE (SARCASM): I was stumped by this prompt but then walked by this as we often do. As a sculpture this is hideous and given that this gorgeous building has quite recently been renovated after years of standing in near decrepitude, I simple cannot understand why it wasn’t the first thing demolished 

JUNE 26th UNREAD BOOKS THAT DESERVE BETTER: This is a bookshop in Battambang where we arrived this morning. I think I have stepped into it every one of the now eight times I have been here and usually there are no customers. Today there was. But not one person was interested in this shelf and when I yet again perused the titles neither was I. Perhaps some of them had been there since my first visit in 2013

JUNE 27th WHO PUT THIS HERE?: Why it’s there I get. The fruit is often foraged from the street trees but I’ve never seen it bagged for protection except on private properties until today

JUNE 28th CHAOTIC CORNER: We never fail to attend a Phare Circus performance when in Battambang and tonight’s very somber but incredibly moving show was a demanding physical portrayal of the most chaotic corner of Khmer history. “Rouge” derived from the the Pol Pot era of the Khmer Rouge was a visual and percussive assault of the senses encapsulating that dark, chaotic past

JUNE 29th MY MOOD IN OBJECT FORM: I choose a cocktail. It’s Ian’s birthday and I’ve been feeling celebratory all day 

JUNE 30th WHAT'S THIS EVEN FOR?: in our house it’s a wall decoration but I actually do know…..

The Yi minority women of Yunnan province in China use them to protect their backs, when they carry heavy baskets of herbs, medicinal plants, wild food and seeds foraged from the mountains

PROMPTS

……… raised in the 1960s in suburbia

 “When I think of my childhood it’s like a broken wine bottle smashed on the floor. The memories are shards of glass, all messed up. It’s impossible to know what fits where.” 

Flesh Wounds 
Richard Glover 

This rings true of my memories of childhood, except that we never had an actual bottle of wine in our house ever, that I can recall. Flagons of Hock for the occasional tipple of the aunts: my mother’s sisters and pseudo aunts from pre-marriage days.  Hock lime and lemon was the guilty pleasure, for all except mom that is, but bottle of wine, no. I also recall stealing from said flagon in adolescence and so regretting the experience. 

The earlier quote brought to mind so many childhood moments, I felt obliged to list possible contenders for examples. Not that I will elaborated upon them all. 

Perhaps my earliest memory was long before the sleep-out was built and this was before we had a brother, but I do recall having a golliwog, never mind how politically incorrect that became, with eyes that glowed in the dark. I would wake convinced it was staring at me and then stare wide eyed at the ceiling myself afraid to look at it, not daring to rouse the rest of the household. 

I have an astoundingly clear memory of taking the local train to Nana Riddle’s house. Mum dolled up in heels, a pencil skirt, 1940’s style, maroon, woolen, cape jacket looking movie star elegant, with a pusher in the baggage compartment. Its wheels locked and it was stationary while we children attempted to remain upright clutching it as we were unable to reach either the rail or straps, to which my mother clung for the ride to Bowden-Brompton, where the adjacent playground was far more enticing that the prospect of an afternoon at Nana’s house. As for if it was a younger sister or brother in that pusher, I have no idea. 

Around the same era, we children were sleeping in the dining room while the sleep-out was built. It quickly became referred to as the girls room and was the perfect solution to four children in a two bedroom house. Was that when I began to loathe the colour green? 

It was definitely the scene of terrified nights when pseudo aunty Eunice was babysitting and scary tales of Marmaduke were told immediately before enforced bedtime, and just to reinforce the idea, noises and sounds, not all of them natural, accompanied the dark that ensued. “Marmaduke wiiiiill get youuuuu…” Could this be when I started not sleeping well or did the spider nightmares do that later?  

A canvas wading pool in the yard also comes to mind, along with darting in and out of the sprinkler on the front or back lawn as a cheap and safe way to escape the sweltering summers with out aircon. 

When we finally acquired a black and white TV, I do not actually remember myself but have had imprinted on my memory by the constant retelling of my parents, that I was far more interested in converting the huge cardboard box, in which it was delivered into a cubby house, than I was in sitting cross legged on the floor inches from the screen. 

Eventually, there were programmes I was infatuated with, however, and constant demands to sit further back or we’d go blind definitely punctuated our viewing time. I also recall that the TV was sometimes moved to face out from the front door so we and the children of neighbours yet to acquire TVs could all watch sitting together on the front porch or it was moved to the doorway of the kitchen so that we could watch the news while eating tea. 

That same gang of TV viewing children were the playmates, with whom we socialized daily. We all learned to ride bicycles in our driveway and then practised riding around and around our front lawn before graduating to the street. We played street cricket, enacted games of war, utilized the slippery dip, swing set and seesaw in our backyard and staged musical productions for our own entertainment performing and playing in various homes and yards. 

Every single individual had an enormous fear of Mr Franklin, aka Frankenstein, because he would loudly admonish us from his front door or if we dared to approach his house, the door would spring open and out came a little red book, in which he wrote the date, the name of the child and the violation which had occurred, or at least he made an elaborate show of appearing to. Any ball that landed on his property could never be reclaimed. 

It was around this time I also discovered that our post WWII street had housing designs of only about 12 different varieties, which repeated along the entire length. I can recall returning home astonished that the house, to which I had been invited, was exactly like our own in layout down to the trees in the back yard. In our case it was one peach small and stunted, one apricot huge and hogging all available light and one mandarin, which almost never produced any fruit. Maybe, that was because we did use it as a landing target when jumping off the top of the stairs on the slippery dip with tea towels tied around our necks, pretending to be Superman. My mother, with customary disinterest, elaborated that yes the Tun’s house was the same as the Hallion’s and the Jame’s identical to someone else’s place, as though that was completely obvious. 

Those backyard trees were sheer brilliance. Neighbours swapped lemons, plums, almonds, nectarines, oranges and gossip as well as the jams, jellies, chutneys and pickles produced from their bountiful crops. Unfortunately, many of those yards have now been carved up and redeveloped as soulless units and blocks where there is no back or front yard and instead a sense of isolation not community. Why don’t housing estates today adopt such practical, community-building design features I wonder? 

Well, inspired by that quote from a book that is now long finished, I seem to have recalled a number of fragmented anecdotes that exemplify, at least to me,  jumbled, disjointed recollections of a childhood that doesn’t coherently hold together as a single time period.  This evidence proves the author’s original statement holds true for many of us raised in the 1960s in suburbia.  I’ll stop my rambling still contemplating the very long list of further evidence, I have not fleshed out at this point, but may yet return to at a later date. 

My mind has moved on to yet another quote, from the same author and title, and that too is well worth pondering. 

“It seemed like we’d been told the meaning of life: to give out more good than you’d received. Or, to put it in the negative, to pass on less shit than you’d suffered.”

One PhOtO a DaY MaY 2025

 MAY 1st MY FAVOURITE MUG: is this well-used, stained, crazed one that depicts a typical scene at a wat exactly as it often looks here in Cambodia. And starting each day with coffee in bed is just one of the benefits of retirement. I need morning coffee before I can function

MAY 2nd SOMETHING SOFT: Right now it’s mangosteen season here and the markets are currently flooded with them. They have a very hard outer skin but the fruit itself is very soft and delicious

MAY 3rd WEEKEND VIBE: Raspberry Mojito to celebrate the political victory and the end of ‘Voldemort’

MAY 4th FROM WHERE I STAND: this vibrant new wall mural is a welcome addition to the local neigbourhood

MAY 5th A SNACK: This local snack of dried fruit and vegetables has minimum salt and no sugar and packs a flavourful punch. It’s my most recent obsession and yesterday’s purchase has guava, sweet corn and yam added to the usual okra, carrot, pumpkin, jackfruit, banana, purple and orange sweet potato and melon. Eat a rainbow. It’s healthy and delicious 

MAY 6th SKY: We are now seeing the dramatic skies of the approach of the monsoon, but not much rain yet  

MAY 7th SOMETHING HANDMADE: This key ring was handmade by a Masai woman and happened to be one of the few things I bought during our brief stint working in Tanzania 

MAY 8th FRESH: We get mangos all year round here but at the moment there is a real glut of fresh local mangos and we have been given so many we can’t consume them all. This week I gifted some to neighbours but most of them have also been given plenty, so I have made a mango cake and muffins. This morning I diced two huge ones to put in the freezer and still we have three huge mangos in the fruit basket. Chutney might be next

MAY 9th BOOK: This is the book that was at the top of my wish list when we arrived in Australia. I resisted starting it until a few days ago and now it’s almost over but thanks to my new library app I have downloaded another of hers. I am currently alternating between physical and digital library books and ploughing my way through some long longed for titles

 MAY 10th IN BLOOM: Sweet bay magnolia is in bloom right now and the scent is divine

MAY 11th A MOMENT OF JOY: was visiting Wat Phnom for Visak Bochea Day, which is today. It celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and nirvana of Buddha. This temple has exquisite, muted, original wall murals depicting Buddha’s life 

MAY 12th FAVOURITE COLOUR: Feeling a bit poorly today and haven’t ventured outdoors so I had to dive into the crockery cupboard for a sunburst of orange

MAY 13th REFECTION: of the building, plants, trees and statues in the pond of a hotel lobby with fabulous ambience

MAY 14th WHAT’S IN MY BAG: everything I need for a session at the Sports Centre and an after swim lunch with time to write some snail mail

 

MAY 15th WATER: Our riverside walk was cut short today because when the thunder began to rumble, the rain seemed to be imminent. Our regular walking for wellbeing along the waterfront route

MAY 16th ON THE GROUND: An archive shot from our time in Adelaide, when I noticed this on the ground walking in the city. That library book is a bit overdue

MAY 17th MORNING LIGHT: This season of intense heat and sunshine with late afternoon high winds means first thing most mornings all these tiny flowers lie on the terrace. One of my morning rituals is to collect the fallen flowers and place them in front of the Buddha in the spirit house

MAY 18th ON THE TABLE: homemade Japanese fusion meal on the table on the terrace- my dinner contribution a couple of nights ago

MAY 19th MY SHOES TODAY: My all terrain sandals recently purchased in Adelaide have become my go to shoes. I no longer have to wear sports shoes all the time and can still cover the kilometres we usually walk on a regular basis. They don’t even look too bad either- well not yet. Win win win 

MAY 20th SOMETHING LOUD: Vehicles like these still ply the streets of our neighbour advertising, campaigning and making public announcements; not that I saw one today. This one is decommissioned and an artist installation in a courtyard near home

May 21st YELLOW: a collection of the local, fresh, yellow offerings at the market this morning; mangoes, corn, yellow passionfruit, bamboo shoots, yellow capsicums, egg noodles and in the middle some tiny yellow flowers from a plant resembling peas and it attracts thousands of tiny local yellow and black striped bees- not sure what it’s called but it’s an essential in the local soup dishes

MAY 22nd SOMETHING TINY: This tiny charm comes from Daibutsu - the Giant Buddha in Kamakura, Japan. I always buy one of these little charms with a bell when we visit Japanese temples and I rediscovered this one recently. Unfortunately the string to attach it wore through but today’s simple craft project was to make another so I can return it to my handbag. I would never have remembered where it came from but the elevated platform of the geta has the name stamped into it in both Japanese and English despite the whole thing being only the size of the first joint in my little finger. Japanese attention to detail always amazes me 

*the finished project

MAY 23rd STARTS WITH T: A takeaway - homemade with love but about to be taken away! Right now it’s on the kitchen bench but its going to a gathering of neighbours, in my hands in just a few minutes

MAY 24th DOORWAY: The former Levi factory has a huge variety of spaces and facilities including recreational, creative, workspace share, display, gallery, studio, retail, cinema and eatery offerings but it always seems no more than a handful are occupied or even open at any time. Today I was glad that this one seems about to open up

MAY 25th CALM: I’m prone to anxiety and worry and always trying to combat it. Our choices of uncluttered decor and minimalism aims to create a calm, tranquil, relaxing space

MAY 26th IN MY HAND: I’ve got the whole world in my hand

*this one was selected for the Fab Four on Instagram. Yay yay yay

MAY 27th SOMETHING SQUARE: This coaster with indigenous artist Barbara Weir’s “sunrise of my mother’s country” design was my gift to me in Australia. It matches my water bottle and is used daily. Made in Australia by Uptopia with royalties paid to the artist, it ticks all the boxes and yes I bought several mostly as gifts and all different designs

MAY 28th MY HAPPY PLACE: At the pool - any pool will do so long as it’s possible to do laps  

MAY 29th MESSY: I am not a clean freak but I am a tidy up person. I’ve been accused of being too organized and OCD before but I choose to see it as being mindful. This is the breakfast “messy”. I love yoghurt and fruit for breakfast but it creates more volume in waste than the edible portion often, especially when it all has to be cut up just as small to go in the city composter that lives on our balcony! Messy but worth it

MAY 30th FROM THE CAR: I hope a railcar will do as it’s as close as we will get today. I would usually say train carriage but given the prompt it didn’t sound right. We have walked, ridden our bikes, taken a tuk tuk and been in the train today and there won’t be any more vehicles required now so a view from the car (train) window just before reaching our destination -Kep

MAY 31st SOMETHING BLUE: my favourite kind of blue is a swimming pool and this one is the best - full of memories and connection to place and people

PROMPTS