oNe PhOtO a DaY nOvEmBeR 2021:

NOVEMBER 1st WHITE: The last flower on the Cuban Ginger in our garden

NOVEMBER 2nd BLACK: a natural, charcoal-dyed, aromatic candle in the guest bedroom

 

NOVEMBER 3rd GREEN: The small, green, lotus pod which remains in our pot pond now the petals of the flower have all been scattered in the wind

 

NOVEMBER 4th RED: the detail of the carving in the back of a beautiful, antique, Chinese, red, wooden chair

*This one was selected for the fab Four on Instagram

NOVEMBER 5th ORANGE: I prepared this little orange pumpkin for a frittata to take on our picnic tomorrow

 

NOVEMBER 6th BLUE: the recycled blue bag that we use to buy bread when we go to Kampot, which we did today enroute to our picnic spot at Toek Chhu. Say no to plastic. Be the change you wish to see in the world

 

NOVEMBER 7th YELLOW: I just spotted this yellow school sign near our house and think that it is perhaps new as schools have only just reopened here

 

NOVEMBER 8th PURPLE: Geisha Girl flower in the garden

 

NOVEMBER 9th AQUA: as the monsoon season draws to an end and the heat intensifies, nothing is more appealing than swimming in this aqua blue water

 

NOVEMBER 10th PINK: Delicious pink drinks made from dragon fruit and green coconut water were our after-swim refreshment today

NOVEMBER 11th GREY: In Tibet it’s a stupa, in Thailand it’s a chedi and in Bhutan it’s a chorten but I’m not sure what it’s called in Cambodia but it’s definitely grey

 

NOVEMBER 12th BROWN: Oatmeal, banana, raisins, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips and coconut cookies straight out of the oven ….. maybe it will inspire another picnic this weekend

 

NOVEMBER 13th POP OF COLOUR: A small prayer wheel from Bhutan that I spin everyday

 

NOVEMBER 14th STRIPES: These are the horizontal and vertical stripes on flags that say Buddhism all across South East Asia. These two were given to me by our little monks when we had just started teaching them. They hang in our house on the altar

 

NOVEMBER 15th FLORAL: The beautiful, floral pattern on this fine, bone China mug takes having tea in the garden to a whole new level

 

NOVEMBER 16th ONE COLOUR: The green view of trees, mangroves, rice and palms from the pagoda this morning before our class began

NOVEMBER 17th TWO COLOURS: Aqua and orange is my favourite two colour combination and these are my flippers or fins which I use in the pool to strengthen my knee, even though I don’t actually do my laps with them on

 

 

NOVEMBER 18th PATTERN: I liked this filigree leaf pattern so much I pasted it on the lid of this box which was also repurposed from the original soap packaging. Now what treasure will I store in it?

 

NOVEMBER 19th BLACK AND WHITE: A Buddha from the street of stone masons in Phnom Penh taken when we were there a month ago

 

NOVEMBER 20th RAINBOW: The little monks have now learnt the names of colours. This week we will do some rainbow colouring to reinforce their recognition and have some fun

 

NOVEMBER 21st ON MY HEAD: is a Panama hat we bought in Peru - not sure why that doesn’t make it a Peruvian hat but … that’s the monthly selfie and although I haven’t felt much like smiling lately at least this prompt made me try

 

NOVEMBER 22nd ON MY FEET: I always admire these original tiles, which remain in many of the restored buildings here and often photograph my feet on them but mostly my cheap, well-worn and comfy sandals are on my feet ……  There is one notable exception in this collage and they would be my only half way presentable closed toed shoes on my feet on what I think are the most stunning of all these tile designs

 

NOVEMBER 23rd MY FAVE COLOUR: is no secret! My fave colour and my fave sunset shot ever! Taken on Xmas Day in Oz many, many years ago. I’m just a lot distracted at the moment

 

NOVEMBER 24th MATCHING: Hopefully the removal of the hardware in my left knee will mean that soon I will have matching knees again, but right now the scenario is matching this time a year ago when all this started. Yay for the beginning of the final stage of healing

 

NOVEMBER 25th NATURAL: palm shadows and feet on the front porch

NOVEMBER 26th DARK: See you on the dark side of the moon….

NOVEMBER 27th LIGHT: That magical low tide, early morning light over the bay

 

NOVEMBER 28th PASTEL: One pastel pink lotus bud in the pot pond 

 NOVEMBER 29 BRIGHT: This newly- painted, bright relief is on a wall at the entrance to an incomplete stupa compound near the pagoda

NOVEMBER 30th GOLD: a line-up of gold Buddhas from the pagoda 

This one was selected for the fabbers grid on Facebook 

 

THE PROMPTS

 

 I think this is the first month in over four years that the little monks didn't appear in any of the images! 

Quite a few archive shots this month but given I had a procedure and haven't left the house for a week, I think that's OK. Actually I anticipated this turn of events and tried to take as many of the later prompts as I could earlier in the month so I could use them when it wasn't possible to get out and about.

oNe PhOtO a DaY sEpTeMbEr 2021:

 

SEPTEMBER 1st WHAT I’M READING: “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath. I actually can’t believe I’ve lived this long and never read it before, especially as I distinctly remember buying it many, many years ago

SEPTEMBER 2nd TASTY: One of my favourite dinners is a build your own Buddha Bowl with a base of cold soba noodles and a coconut peanut sauce

 

SEPTEMBER 3rd I USE THIS DAILY: Insect repellent incense sticks are an absolute must where we live

 

SEPTEMBER 4th FAVE JEWELLERY: These handwoven rattan bangles are currently my favourite piece of jewellery and my most recent jewellery purchase created by rural women in Cambodia

 

SEPTEMBER 5th FREE CHOICE: The sunset vista taken last night in Kep

 

SEPTEMBER 6th BEST PART OF MY DAY: was definitely taking a late afternoon stroll along the strip of coast we frequently ride

 

SEPTEMBER 7th MAILBOX: One of the only two mailboxes I have ever seen in Kep. Since there is absolutely no delivery of mail and in many cases no actual mail coming in or going out, it seems the postal service is about to become extinct. There has been no service to or from Australia for over eighteen months now! It’s high cost international parcel delivery companies or go without

 

SEPTEMBER 8th 4 O’CLOCK: on the cuckoo clock in the entrance to the home we are currently house sitting on our staycation in Kep

SEPTEMBER 9th BEGINS WITH M: Monsoon me- dripping wet after our bike ride to the market this morning

 

SEPTEMPER 10th WHAT I’M WATCHING: Having never owned a television in my life and only signing up to Netflix a couple of months ago, (thanks pandemic) there are a lot of choices available but this is the current viewing

SEPTEMBER 11th HOW I FEEL TODAY: Productive and useful! We are preparing a dinner to deliver to friends who are participating in a working bee. This is our contribution to the cause. Dinner for 10-12 is shaping up and the house smells so I enticingly delicious

SEPTEMBER 12th THIS IS USEFUL: a collapsible coffee banet- for all your coffee needs while travelling. Before discovering this the awkward plastic cone, I used to carry always found a way to dig into me from my backpack

 

SEPTEMBER 13th ON MY WALL: We are actually house sitting at the moment so it’s not my wall but it is my favourite zone in this magnificent house, even though the frames are not straight and I have resisted the urge to straighten them

 

SEPTEMBER 14th HAPPY: to be home again and we got there under our own steam too!! Intrepid cyclists return

 

SEPTEMBER 15th A PET: We don’t have a pet so this is an archive shot from when we first started teaching the little monks of Kep back in 2017. Gam is one of only two of our original class who is still with us and he befriends every cat and dog in the pagoda treating each with love and care and often feeding them with his own food

 

SEPTEMBER 16th BEGINS WITH E: This cute, little, made in Cambodia elephant, I bought as a baby gift, begins with E

SEPTEMBER 17th PLANT: A couple of cuttings from the garden that I am trying to strike to re-pot

*Amazed to say that this shot was selected by admin for the ‘Fab Four’ on the day it was posted! 

SEPTEMBER 18th MESS: I’m a great one for decluttering the house but that unfortunately means there is a mess lurking somewhere out of sight! This is the “lost souls’ drawer” where all homeless items go but where you don’t dare go searching for anything for fear you will be lost forever in the “I wondered where that went” discoveries

 

SEPTEMBER 19th CHAIR: or is it a bench? A stopping point on our bike ride yesterday. Just wondering, why it doesn’t actually face the view though

 

SEPTEMBER 20th I BELIEVE: 

“Like a lotus flower we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world” 

And this quote and prompt were the inspiration I needed to buy the lotus flowers I spotted at the market this morning

SEPTEMBER 21 A PILE: of homemade potato chips served with mayonnaise of course. What could be more tempting than that

SEPTEMBER 22nd HOBBY: My two longest standing hobbies are cycling and photography but the last time I attempted to take a photo of myself while riding my bike I fell and almost broke my wrist! So, I’m not trying that again. Instead this is an archive shot taken by Ian almost ten years ago in Myanmar. One of those times when I was so distracted by what I was seeing, I didn’t use the camera despite it being in my hands. Only my passion for teaching exceeds my passion for photography and I’m watching a class taught by monks in a village temple school

 

SEPTEMBER 23rd MIRROR: playing around with a compact mirror and a black and white filter - this month’s selfie done!

 

SEPTEMBER 24th SAD: This is an archive shot that I went searching for as it is what came immediately to mind. Meet Sophie daughter of one of the workers at the school we volunteered at in Tanzania. She was always such a happy child, despite spending all day in a high school with her working mother but something happened on this particular day and she was screaming and sobbing, until she saw my white face and that stunned and silenced her

SEPTEMBER 25th ROWS: of golden devotee statues line the entrance to the pagoda where we teach the little monks of Kep

SEPTEMBER 26th BEHIND ME: Living in Cambodia means it’s hard to go past this selfie with the iconic Angkor Wat behind me for this prompt

 

SEPTEMBER 27th PORTRAIT: We visited the pagoda today and the last remaining boy from our original class was the first to see us, speak to us and proudly show us he is vaccinated. Hooray! We can now commence classes in mid-October with some completely new novices, several who have had a smattering of classes over the past five months and one consistent attendee for almost four years. Red letter day for us and the little monks of Kep

*Delighted to say that this shot was selected by admin for the ‘Fab Four’ on the day it was posted – woohoo second selection for this month!

SEPTEMBER 28th LANDSCAPE: The view from the giant Buddha platform at the pagoda yesterday. Does anyone else think the cloud formation looks like a Buddha head??

 

SEPTEMBER 29th MY DESK: Long story warning … I’ve never had a desk except in schools, so this is an archive shot of my last desk in the last school in which I taught in 2016. It is also the youngest grade level I ever taught - class VI! They were all waiting for their mid-term exam and overall term results and crowded around my desk. I have never been a fan of the exam system but I do love the joy in this photo. Of course, they are the few that stood a chance of being highly successfully. They are poring over my marks book with a keen eye for detail and hoping for mathematical errors in their favour - not unlikely in my case. The girl in the centre has just discovered she won that coveted first position by only a few percentage points over the girl pointing at her nose!! The boys are losing interest fast now the race is won

 

SEPTEMBER 30th ACHIEVEMENT: Today’s achievements have all been decidedly domestic- roasted whole cauliflower with parmesan, honey and balsamic roasted veggies, oatmeal, raisins, seeds, fresh coconut, banana and chocolate chip cookies and a makeover for some coasters

THE PROMPTS

 

A few records set this month with:

*2 shots selected for the Fab Four

*5 pictures of me in one month 

* 5 archive shots I do try to take them on the day so I blame the pandemic 

* the same monk and our favourite appearing twice in one blog