One PhOtO a DaY JuLy 2025

JULY 1st CURRENTLY LOVING: The new, locally made, linen bedsheets and light fittings we deployed for the first time today. I love fresh bed linen and new and sprayed with lemongrass oil is even better 

JULY 2nd MY NAME: written by a generous and dear friend, who not only gifted me this book by a favourite author but also wrote this lovely dedication

JULY 3rd SOMETHING OLD: This is an original wood block print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, I bought in Hiroshima Japan when we lived there.  It was the cover of a children’s story book dated 1891 

JULY 4th NEIGHBOURHOOD: The view from our back balcony moments before the monsoon showers commenced. This is our neighbourhood and a community of diverse but cohesive and accepting people 

* selected for the notable nine 

JULY 5th SIMPLE: Possibly one of the simplest forms of transport, the cyclo, is a part of the identity of Phnom Penh. This is also a fabulously simple solution to the mobility issues arising from the relatively new introduction of pedestrian street on Saturday and Sunday nights here. We pondered how those unable to walk the ten blocks for which it extends along the riverside and the two blocks back that no vehicle can access, would be able to participate. The simple solution is let the cyclos in 

JULY 6th FAVE CORNER: This magnificent, heritage building houses UNESCO in Phnom Penh and stands on the corner of Royal Palace Park diagonally opposite the palace. It is such a beautifully restored building, which is only open to the public one day a year and I have availed of that opportunity twice now. I often go out of my way to pass the spot and admire it 

JULY 7th BEHIND THE SCENES: In the alley entrance way to our apartment this scene is an everyday occurrence. We call this guy Mr Rice and he cooks up those large pots of rice on charcoal burners three at a time and then delivers them on the back of his motor scooter to many of the street vendors in our neighbourhood. He returns with empty pots after every delivery and starts the process all over again for 8-10 hours a day. For him, like many other families who sell street food in this community, including the woman in the background,  it’s a way of life. He always has a smile and a greeting when we pass by and ensures residents, motor scooters and deliveries have the access they need

JULY 8th A LIST: of blessings for Chinese New Year which I wrote and translated so our dinner guest on that occasion could each select a red envelope with not money but a blessing for the year ahead in it 

JULY 9th THANKFUL FOR THIS: frequent flier friend, who comes to visit often and is always such good fun. Welcome back Barry

JULY 10th MY BAG: is an authentic artwork by Ruth Napaljarri and depicts the Green Budgerigar Dreaming of central Australia. She belongs to the Warlukurlangu Artists group and receives royalties from the sales. It was a birthday gift and has become an absolute favourite shopping tote 

JULY 11th CURRENT VIEW: We just checked into our accomodation on M’Pai. Third time staying here and the view is a big part of the attraction. Even in the monsoon season this place is peaceful, calm and quiet

JULY 12th A QUIET MOMENT: under the old pier at low tide this morning but in reality island life in the monsoon is mostly a collection of quiet and quieter moments and that’s why we came 

JULY 13th CONTRAST: Rocks and sand, black and white, land and water- plenty of contrast and a stunning empty beach to enjoy 

JULY 14th A TOUCH OF BLUE: The best coffee on the island came with a touch of blue when I ordered latte

* unbelievably this one was selected for the Fab Four on Facebook 

JULY 15th WHERE I SIT: on the terrace for almost every meal. This was just before consuming breakfast this morning. In every season and often at other times too it is the coolest and most comfortable place, to say nothing of being the only dining table we have

JULY 16th PEEKING THROUGH: After a monsoon downpour the sun was peeking through the clouds in the still dark sky  

JULY 17th SOMETHING CIRCULAR: The circular inset in the wall of our apartment inspired the purchase of the giant steamer tray and then it provided a cool backdrop and easy hanging for some very special art we purchased from a dear friend who is an artist in Bhutan

JULY 18th FROM ABOVE: The city of Phnom Penh taken from our favourite sky bar  

JULY 19th SOMETHING FOUND: This artisanal syrup is something I often purchased when we lived in Kep and when we visited a month ago I saw it again but didn’t buy any and instantly regretted it. Today we returned to Kep and it was my first purchase. Mocktail mix for Arid August perhaps …. 

JULY 20th WORN: The weather worn platform that used to be a picnic spot in the mangroves but these days I think it might be a bit of a danger zone

JULY 22nd MIRROR: Playing around with the wall of hexagonal mirrors in a favourite hotel after a head shave and haircut yesterday in Kampot 

JULY 23rd IN THIS MOMENT: After table tennis and swimming I’m enjoying a Khmer frozen coffee and chill time 

JULY 24th  SOMETHING I BOUGHT: for my snail mail project - lots of postcards and greeting cards. I’m currently on an anti consumerism bent so purchases of clothes, household items and non consumables are out, until the end of the year. We shall see if I last the distance. Just my way of stepping outside the rat race for a while. I do enjoy setting myself these challenges to keep me living in the present more mindfully 

*this shot was selected for the Fab Four on Instagram 

JULY 25th UNEXPECTED COLOUR: I spotted these bamboo shoots in the local market. Although when bamboo is growing there are several combinations of colours and stripes, I’ve never seen cooked bamboo shoots that weren’t all yellow before 

July 26th MADE ME LAUGH: The individual in one of the the guard houses,  which are supposedly there to protect the occupants of the Royal Palace, soundly sleeping as we strolled by in the middle of the day. To be fair I don’t think it is actually one of the guards just someone availing of some shade and in need of rest  

JULY 27th HIDDEN GEM: I frequently lament the lack of live theatre here and yet just around the corner from where we live I spotted this live venue I have never noticed or seen advertised before now! It’s the hidden gem I need to investigate and support soon 

JULY 28th CHASING LIGHT: All day today it has been overcast and grey which means much cooler so I’m not complaining, but I was literally chasing the light for a glimpse of the sun on our evening stroll 

JULY 29th FLAT LAY: Every day the market vendors, who squat behind their produce in stalls and out in the open create flat lays that are their advertising. Today this one caught my eye when I decided to go looking for a flat lay instead of designing one for this prompt

JULY 30th FOLDED: Everything that makes its way into the cupboard that serves as linen press is folded to fit the space available

JULY 31st SHADOWS: When we were in Battambang about a month ago we saw a performance by Phare Circus called Rouge. It opened with this scrim and shadows depicting the horrors of the Pol Pot era in Cambodia. Of their many performances I have seen, this was the most unsophisticated but also most powerful

PROMPTS

Random thoughts and pondering….

 I was flattered to hear on the subway in New York, in a random conversation with a lawyer, quick to identify as such and therefore immediately making me wary, that she thought I was “idealistic”. Actually we both were. 

Only later did the flattery take hold! Smooth talker. That was 2017 and before we actually retired in Cambodia but that was the plan we had been discussing. 

Oh how things change. 

Now, I have lost that idealism, nurtured over decades of commitment and passion and replaced it instead with realism. It’s gone forever but I’m not sorry. 

I want to be here because here we actually get to live. It can be exhilarating. 

Right here and right now, we need to live in the present. We can walk our own path and are still able to make our own decisions, face the challenges of daily existence, maybe even make a small difference in the lives of those around us and revel in the right to make our own choices about how we personally behave and live everyday - without the feeling of being regulated out of a lifestyle, we often experience at home. 

Poor decisions, outright mistakes, accidents, dishonesty and distrust aside, living in the present and taking nothing for granted is still my choice. Most days are slow, simple and satisfying. Living with gratitude and making choices not leaving things to chance is a source of joy. 

I don’t want to slot whatever time might be left into whatever space and conditions are available. I want to believe it’s still possible to bring about positive change and act in a way that exemplifies that belief. 

Right now, the global situation is bleak with the heartbreak of the climate disaster manifesting and the war mongering and authoritarian takeover of whole nations increasing exponentially thereby worryingly confirming that this kind of power play is successful. It therefore seems to encourage ever more nations to attempt a bid for dominance over neighbours. Where is the voice of reason, capacity for negotiation and peace brokering I was always inclined to side with hiding? How can we as individuals stand up and start to bring into being the multicultural, moral and compassionate world we can be part of? Small, consistent and steadfastly repeated acts of resistance and rebellion are all that comes to my mind. 

While the world moves backwards, stands still or ignores the physical, social, emotional and mental disasters that are unfolding, and the genocides in progress, it looks to me like aggression is the easier option and compassion has been lost. 

No wonder there are days when I feel completely at odds! However, I’m still grateful to be right here, right now. To know that for the greater proportion of my time I feel comfortable in my own skin, living according to my own principals and also caring while facing the current realities no matter how they unfold, brings a level of calm and comfort. 

This poem I recently read inspired me to write the above piece. Please feel free to add your own opinions and responses. Finally please let me stress avoid abuse and advertising. This is not the space for it and recently it has accelerated. 

“Make peace with all the women
you once were.

lay flowers 
at their feet.

offer them incense
and honey 
and forgiveness.

honor them
and give them
your silence.

listen.

bless them
and let them be.

for they are the bones 
of the temple
you sit in now.

for they are 
the rivers
of wisdom
leading you toward
the sea.” 

~ Emory Hall
 i have been a thousand different women

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