oNe PhOtO a DaY JaNuArY 2022:

JANUARY 1st HOW I’M STARTING 2022: Begin as you intend to continue I say. We are travelling meeting up with friends and indulging in delicious healthy meals. We began 2022 with a gratitude tradition. Last night we read aloud our reflections on the many memorable moments of the last 12 months. Now to begin 2022 with a positive mindset and to continue this ritual of gratitude and appreciation

 

JANUARY 2nd THIS IS ME: At breakfast this morning in our favourite eatery in Phnom Penh. After the most relaxing and fun filled break we head home to Kep today

 

JANUARY 3rd BREAKFAST: The last hoorah on our Xmas/New Year domestic trip for me was this fabulous smashed avocado, mango and pickled radish on toasted seed bread with a poached egg breakfast. Some minutes later we were were in a vehicle hurtling towards reality and home and are very glad to be back in Kep right now

 

JANUARY 4th SOMETHING BLUE: Well I waited all day for clear blue skies and calm blue seas and wasn’t disappointed. When we went for our afternoon swim this was the vista

 

DECEMBER 5th THIS YEAR I’LL: focus on the positives, spend more time with friends and prioritise fun

 

JANUARY 6th BEGINS WITH G: Gecko graffiti I spotted on a wall in a demolition site

JANUARY 7th WORD TO LIVE BY: I started a gratitude practice several years ago when I was going through a rough patch and it has been a saving grace. I record at least three things I’m grateful for every day with photos and write up red letter days for a gratitude envelope and read them at the end of every year. Yesterday I added my first day to the jar for 2022

BTW: The Buddha is a shot of mine I had printed to hang on our wall but just haven’t managed to put it up yet

JANUARY 8th GET IN THE PHOTO: I have spent most of the morning preparing new resources to teach shapes as monk classes start again next week. It was actually quite difficult to get in the picture and as I am fond of saying, “this is as good as it gets”

 

JANUARY 9th PLAY: Today we hiked and had a picnic lunch in the Kep National Park. I just love the play of light on the incredible tree on the walking trail and photograph it every time we visit. This was a big achievement for me as I hiked our favourite path to our pond-picnic spot and back (10.8kms). That’s the greatest distance yet, since my knee surgery 14 months ago

 

JANUARY 10th MAKES ME SMILE: This pair of twins, who are often on their bikes and playing in our yard with their cousins always make me smile

 

JANUARY 11th LUNCH: We usually only eat breakfast and dinner but this was the picnic lunch we prepared for our hike with friends in the Kep National Park on Sunday

 

JANUARY 12th I AM HERE: Monks classes started yesterday and I took this in the break. I am here every Tuesday and Thursday morning for some learning fun and shenanigans

 

JANUARY 13th HAPPY: Of all the monks we have ever taught Peron would have to be the happiest. We had 7 in class on Tuesday and arrived to most of the boys hanging over the fence awaiting our arrival this morning and a total of 13 with at least 3 new novices and several more still out on the alms walk, this morning. It’s always a happy time at the pagoda

JANUARY 14th REFLECTION: of the patched-up, old, galvanized iron, salt drying shed in the shallow waters of the salt ponds. We drove past this scene in the Tuk Tuk yesterday returning home from the monks’ class

 

JANUARY 15th HECK YES:  Mimosas in the front yard garden with our tribe. First home gathering for 2022 

 

JANUARY 16th SELF CARE: My idea of self-care is doing laps in the pool and that’s exactly where I was this afternoon

 

JANUARY 17 IN THE SKY: The latest addition to the pagoda is this column with four devotees all standing in an open lotus and giving the impression of floating in the sky when you look up at it

 

JANUARY 18th SERENITY: Today we walked home from the pagoda and stopped for a brief break and to admire this quiet, secluded, serene spot along the coast where there is a gap in the dense coverage of the mangroves, some shade and a glimpse of the sea view

 

JANUARY 19th LUCKY NUMBER: Think of a bingo call or if you happen to know it the Chinese idiom for walking! I know you can guess

(yep that would be “legs 11” and “the number 11 bus!”)

 

JANUARY 20th A PATH: Once again we returned from the pagoda via the salt fields and production is in full swing. The rain didn’t help this morning but the fields were teeming with rakers, spreaders, carters and storers. I can’t help but wonder how many times today she has walked that path to the drying shed

 

JANUARY 21st HAPPENS EVERY DAY: We eat healthy vegetarian food, which exemplifies an ‘eat a rainbow‘ philosophy and is almost always prepared with love from scratch at home. Tonight’s raw, roasted and pickled salad with feta is chilling in the fridge and I’ll make zucchini fritters to go with it when we return from our swim

JANUARY 22nd I LOVE THIS COLOUR: as anyone who knows me will already be well aware. I also have an obsession with scarves and natural fabrics

 

JANUARY 23rd PLACE: Blackburn Street; heritage listed circa 1880 row cottage. The first house I ever (jointly) owned. It’s more than a place to me it’s still home. We left Australia almost 11 years ago and this was the last photo I took a week before leaving. I have fond memories of the years we lived here and we haven’t been able to go home for over two years now…….. one day we will see it again

 

JANUARY 24th A SHAPE: These rectangular, recycled, reusable, postage packs are a great new addition to the range produced by the talented rural women at the IWA workshop here in Kep. We collected these three prototypes from the workshop yesterday and will mail them to Switzerland tomorrow. I hope they arrive in good shape and that the customer is not only satisfied but places a huge order

 

JANUARY 25th FLOWER: We see water lilies everywhere here in natural and man-made ponds and it’s on my hit list to have a second pot pond with white ones in it in the front yard

 

JANUARY 27th DINNER: My signature dish and one of my favourite dinners. Not tonight’s dinner but one I always love and have made for more than three decades

 

JANUARY 28th NATURE: Today we were out in the villages visiting friends and delivering backpacks to kindergarten children at Kep Gardens Association for IWA. In these parts nature looks a like this

 

JANUARY 29th A BOOK COVER: I mostly read on my iPad these days but love the work of this Bhutanese author and have read almost everything she has written, many several times over. This one is my favourite children’s book

 

JANUARY 30th MIRROR: “Good morning sleepy head.” Playing around with a little hand mirror before I was really awake

 

JANUARY 31st I NEED TO DO THIS: Honour the traditions and culture of places we have lived by continuing to remember and make the dishes we learned at that time. Today is the eve of Chinese New Year so we made dumplings from scratch just as members of northern Chinese communities all over the globe would be doing. Tonight, we have a Chinese banquet for dinner 

THE PROMPTS

 

 

oNe PhOtO a DaY dEcEmBeR 2021:

DECEMBER 1st STARTS WITH T: Toiletries for the little monks purchased on our shopping trip today

 

DECEMBER 2nd STAR: a small set of origami stars I bought yesterday inspired by this prompt and that their sale funds the educational needs of the group of students, who make them, through a project by Epic Arts in Kampot

 

- details of the project

DECEMBER 3rd I LOVE THIS: lotus pot pond in our front yard

DECEMBER 4th THIS IS JOY: Two of our little monks discovering how to play Jenga at the end of class time. It is an archive shot taken about a month ago when they were still learning colours

DECEMBER 5th LIGHTS: An archive shot of the lights on Thimphu Dzong

 

DECEMBER 6th SOMETHING RED: In this house that just has to be chillies

DECEMBER 7th THE WEATHER OUTSIDE: Just sunshine, perfect blue skies and a light breeze - a perfect day in the tropics especially when you spot vivid pink water lilies in a natural pond from the tuk tuk

DECEMBER 8th MAIL: It’s a bit tricky here with no service to many countries for almost two years. The last mail we received containing very sad news from Germany took almost three months to arrive and I just discovered it was actually posted on this day last year and the last postcard I wrote over a year ago which still can’t be mailed and the recipient has now sold that house anyway!! Snail mail is almost extinct in these parts!

 

DECEMBER 9th I BOUGHT THIS: bracelet: it has two capsules, one of which has sand from Kenya, where the Reteti Elephant Sancatury is located and the other is empty. I hope to fill it with sand from Mondulkiri where there are several organisations, which support local elephants. I love elephants and have visited several sanctuaries. It also happens to be orange. Yep I bought this for me and several others supporting and different environments and wildlife to gift to friends

These are the details of the project

DECEMBER 10th SOMETHING SILVER: I spotted at a friend’s house yesterday

 

DECEMBER 11th TREE: A huge tree on the shoreline at Kep Beach framing Rabbit Island in the background. We took my first long stroll since surgery there, just before sunset yesterday afternoon

 

DECEMBER 12th DECORATION: Since there isn’t much of a Xmas vibe here in Cambodia, I’m going with the gorgeous interior decorations, which I noticed yesterday. Locally made baskets, bamboo poles and wooden birds adorn the light fittings at Java Bleue in Kampot

 

DECEMBER 13th US: Standing at Kep Beach and feeling grateful for the life we have here

 

DECEMBER 14th A TREAT: This morning I made Dukkah as a treat for us and to add to a homemade Xmas hamper I’m creating

DECEMBER 15th SOMETHING GREEN: It actually looks like an impersonation of a Xmas tree but it is a piece of recycled silk sari and I use it as a wrapping cloth- aka furushiki. Today we did the final shopping run and got all the remaining ingredients to assemble a Xmas hamper so I was testing how to deliver the gift and stay true to my zero-plastic philosophy

 

DECEMBER 16th SMALL: Last time I went to wear this bracelet I discovered it is now a few small beads and several individual Carnelian crystals! I’m hoping to find some leather to rethread it or repurpose the stones and beads

DECEMBER 17th PEACE: on earth and good will to all mankind and womankind too! We begin distributing Xmas hampers, cakes, shortbread and treats today, so I made some gift tags

 

DECEMBER 18th SPARKLE: A Xmas treat about to be chilled and I’m looking forward to this sparkle in my glass on the big day

 

DECEMBER 19th I MADE THIS: Xmas cake with mostly local, tropical, dried fruit and another thirteen just like it in various sizes. Now that almost half have been distributed as gifts, we decided we should have a taste test with coffee while manning a stall in the Festive Eco Market. Verdict ….. very delicious. I think we will stick with this two-decade old tradition

 

DECEMBER 20th A GIFT: The Xmas Hamper we assembled as a gift for a couple of great friends. There is one of our Xmas cakes hidden in the eco-wrap

DECEMBER 21st CANDY CANE: Literally the only candy canes I have ever seen in Cambodia were these. I spotted them last week in a cafe when the purchaser opened the box to see what was in the gingerbread house kit she had ordered locally.  I had to go up and ask her if I could snap a pic. The things we do for PAD!

 

DECEMBER 22nd SANTA: Plenty of Santa costumes on the rack and even a beard to go but no Santa sightings here

 

DECEMBER 23rd THIS MAKES ME MERRY: in more ways than one! Nothing quite like being given a bottle of real, French champagne while sharing cocktails on spectacular sky bar with palace views! It might be deliriously joyful rather than just merry in fact

 

DECEMBER 24th PARTY FOOD: A Xmas dessert platter I made a couple of years ago! I have made exactly the same three items for a hotel in Kep this year too but I’m not there to present it so I’m not sure what it will look like on the table

 DECEMBER 25th A MOMENT: of quiet contemplation in the hotel garden courtyard revealed this tranquil scene early this morning

*This one was unexpectedly selected in the Fab Four for Facebook. In a month that was Xmas themed I certainly didn’t expect that

 

DECEMBER 26th FREE CHOICE: I love this café and shop with a mission of empowerment and inclusion. The ambience is lovely and the space restored and renovated beautifully. Today I climbed up and down these stairs for the second time since we arrived in Battambang. It is also an accomplishment for me to overcome the fear and to feel that it’s achievable after my knee surgery

 

DECEMBER 27th I DID THIS TODAY: Before the heat set in we visited Wat Samrong Knong this morning. I was particularly taken with the ancient ruins within the temple grounds and the juxtaposition of old and new temples

 

DECEMBER 28th FAVE BIT OF 2021: for me was discovering this delightful young novice, who we had taught for over three years along with three others, was going to continue his education and spiritual training in Phnom Penh. Although, we seriously miss them, it’s incredible to think that when we first met none of them had ever been to school and many had never even held a pencil. It does my soul good to know their futures are brighter

 

DECEMBER 29 A BOOK: I was gifted before Xmas and have just finished reading. I’m so glad I tossed in my bag for this trip as I accidentally forgot my iPad which was loaded up with books I also wanted to read. This is the holiday vibe and I’ve always loved reading books about places I’m travelling in at the time

 

DECEMBER 30th SOMETHING COLOURFUL: This enormous salad served to us at Ristorante Italiano in Battambang a few days ago, wins the prize for being the most colourful (eat a rainbow) salad I’ve ever eaten, that I didn’t make myself. Although I’ve taken several colourful shots today nothing compared with this

DECEMBER 31st ONE WORD FOR 2022: HOPE 

“If you only carry one thing throughout your entire life, let it be hope. Let it be hope that better things are always ahead. Let it be hope that you can get through even the toughest of times. Let it be hope that you are stronger than any challenge that comes your way. Let it be hope that you are exactly where you are meant to be right now, and that you are on the path to where you are meant to be……. Because during these times, Hope will be the very thing that carries you through.”

Nikki Banas

 

I have lost count of the number of times I have begun messages and emails and conversations with ‘I hope…’ so my one word for 2022 is hope. I made this in our hotel room today with essentials, gifts and treats- all items we have purchased on this trip. Happy New Year!

THE PROMPTS