Noosa Holiday fantastic place to walk , relax and play

My husband  Graham  recently returned from a two week holiday in Noosa, Queensland, Australia. 
We have been there ten times now. 



Are you a passive relaxer?
Graham relaxing  reading Luminaries By Eleanor Catton  on the balcony of South Pacific accommodation in Noosa

Or an active relaxer?

Janet relaxing, writing haiku in response of a book of 108 haiku collected by another author.
 Great exercise.
 Get a haiku book and write responses.
Brilliant way to be mindful and relax.

Why go to the same place you might ask? 
 Doesn't it become boring? 

Berries on a giant tree with ibises in it. I doing know whether these berries are poisonous, couldn't quite identify the tree. beautiful yellow, red and orange.

The answer lies in the trees. 
They are never boring. 
I have an ongoing love affair with trees. 
I love breathing in their freshness.

 You just have to come to our place to visit my studio for art and mosaic lessons to realise  this. 

In Noosa and in the surrounding areas; people are greenies and there are bird-filled trees everywhere. 

 Three kookaburras came to the pool in front of our apartment, diving for insects most days, quite camera shy though.

 The council not allow jarring, commercial signage to ruin the presentation of their town.
 They don't believe in tall, high-rise buildings and they have a strong regard for the importance of protecting their wild life.
 There is no graffiti to be seen anywhere and very little litter.

People who own a restaurant up the Noosa river in  Tewantin this guy and others ( including giant pelicans)  fish every day, how cute is that?


Many of the shops have Queen Palms in front of them and most of the accommodation is surrounded by succulents and tropical foliage.
It is an area of such eucalyptus smelling purity, that it always makes me feel  like recommending to our council in Rotorua to plant more trees everywhere and ban bright yellow and ugly signage.

 Botannical Gardens Brisbane, didn't have enough time to see it all must go back.

 This is an ornate old glasshouse with tropical vegetation and a giant pond containing fish in it.

Noosa and the (surrounding districts), people are art and literary appreciators.
They are upbeat, friendly and polite with beautiful manners.  

The  shopkeepers are always helpful and warm without  being intrusive.

Everyone seems to be smiling.
 I believe it has something to do with the sunshine and vitamin D.  
I often have conversations with complete strangers about how they feel about living in Noosa and all of them delight in it. 

In Queensland they have lots of small, intimate, yet modern libraries and great bookshops with books you never see in New Zealand. 
 One of my favourites is in Maleny. 

Sometimes I take off by myself and read uplifting magazines and write poetry and short stories in their libraries. 
Sometimes I listen in to people's conversations and record them for dialogue in my short stories. 

The strawberries, tangelos and passion fruit are pops of supreme pungency. 
Everything tastes intense in Noosa.  
The tropical flowers are bursts likefireworks

 I keep saying to Graham as we go walking among the lushness that  I just love, love, love, this place. 
We are so lucky to be here together. 
This is paradise.

 How important do I think holidays and rests are? 
Vital.

Resting tis as important as deep breathing, exercising,  thinking positive thoughts, working towards goals, following your passion, staying in the moment, making art and writing and showing appreciation to people who help you; like surgeons. 
Hugs and touches are important as well. 
You never know when a kind word or gesture will make someones day go more smoothly.

 Graham and I, since his prostate cancer diagnosis, (three years ago),  eat a  fairly consistently healthy diet, filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, restricted red meat, chicken, fish, including tinned salmon and fresh snapper and gluten free bread.

 We try to eat as little sugar as possible. 
I cook most, (varied Nationalities, including French, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Greek and English) meals from scratch using fresh seasonal produce, some of which is home grown in our organic garden.

I often make him soup to come home to for lunch, filled with chicken and fresh veges and herbs. 
I love to look after him with nourishing food because he is very precious to me.

 We also eat nuts and lots of garlic, ginger and turmeric. 

 Does this all help with prostate cancer? 

I don't know but psychologically, physically and emotionally it makes us feel better.

We always stay in accommodation in Noosa where I  can cook   because  I can control what goes into our food which includes a reduction in salt.  
This year we stayed in the South Pacific Resort. 
It was reasonably priced and had a great kitchen with a large comfortable bed and free Wi-Fi.

There are blessings amid challenging situations.

This year we took vitamin B before we went, and during our holiday
This was to ward off the mosquito's and midges. 



Was this helpful?
Not really or hard to say. 
There were plenty buzzing around and avoiding my skin  during the day but some sneaked in and pierced my  rump, legs, face and eyelids during the night. 
No mosquito screens on the windows of this four star accommodation which I thought was unusual. 
For a brief moment I had a miniature anxiety attack that they could have been bed bugs, but they weren't.


 We stayed away from the dreaded mangroves at dawn and dusk but we were still attacked and this was despite piling on the Bushman's repellent. 
This is the only drawback  I can see with Noosa.  
They seem to be getting worse every year but maybe I'm just getting older and my skin more tender and succulent. 

Midges and mosquito's.
It's difficult to feel grateful for them and the itching afterward is as intense as their strawberries. 
 The itching almost could drive you mad.
 Graham says don't scratch. 
He has way more self control than me. 

But I must say that the amount of bites we were gifted this year was way less than the preceding years where we were totally blown up from the knees to the toes. 

Do not whatever you do go walking among the mangroves without repellent at dawn or dusk.
 Total torture. 

So on this note I'm going. 
 I'm busy because I am writing and publishing a book of haiku and illustrations. 
 I want to have it finished before  I go to Auckland for the  NZ Society of authors NATIONAL WRITERS FORUM on 21st to 24th September.
 As usual I am working towards honours photographs for the Rotorua Camera Club.   

Life is so enjoyable when it's balanced. 
  If  you haven't taken a break in a while, you could maybe think about it because resting is as important as working :) 


 I  hope you enjoyed  some of the writing and photos in this post.

Humour and laughing is excellent for health. 



I do like it so much when surgeons use it because it lightens your mood and brightens your day like Queensland sunshine and strawberries. 

Creative Quotes of the day
A surgeon is surrounded by people who are sick, discouraged, afraid,  dying - but also courageous, loving, wise, compassionate and alive. Bernie Siegel


Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon. Maya Angelou

Mindfulness, poetry, haiku, photography for when life is challenging

Water reflection at Kuirau Park, Rotorua

Most people have

challenges

in  life.

Ups and downs.

when things don't flow

                                       Water reflection 2 at  Kuirau Park Rotorua

Your favourite pet or person

may disappear any time

Nobody is immune

To the tide of the moon

                   Exotic Imports, Hinemoa Street Rotorua

Some people are

broken needles

on scratched records.

Offloading 

moans  to empaths

who absorb them

like pieces of 

newsprint 

in the rain.

               Exotic Imports Hinemoa Street Rotorua

 Women are encouraged

in self help- books

to make friends with

others so they can

confide in them when things

go south.

Which is OK to a point.

But not helpful if it goes

on too long


Exotic Imports Rotorua
Why not encourage

women to set up talking groups

where it's compulsory

to celebrate snippets of joy-

with or about each other,

devoid of envy, gossip

or competition?

Exotic Imports, Hinemoa Street,  Rotorua

Consulting

a professional counsellor,

(if the spiral is still going down), 

is not shameful.

It's being strong-

Would you blush

to visit a surgeon
 if you had a brain tumour?

Or a vet if your cat was too

far gone ?

Gary Keen RIP, Rotorua


Ways to cope include

meditating with a 

recording of a hypnotists 

melodious voice-

Cuddling on the couch 

with your cat, kids

or significant other

Walking in nature and 

talking to birds

They understand more 

than you realise
  

 Fantail Lake Okareka, Rotorua


TED Talks and pod casts 

can lead to a-ha moments of hope.

Switching off  TV, social media

and silencing your phone can

lead to moments of peace.

Listening to classical

music all evening long can lead to

moments of wonder

Japanese Garden Tree Trust Rotorua

Candle lit, home made

dinners around

your table 

even if you are alone

is fine.

There is dancing in candle light

  Japanese garden Tree Trust, Rotorua crossed with Exotic Imports Light

Lavender incense

for relaxation.

A singing bowl with

a high pitched ring.

Banging it like a gong

throughout rooms;

moves energy along,

making space

for joy and song

Japanese garden Tree Trust Rotorua


Writing every day

two pages of anything

even if it's tripe

is a good place to release

worries and can sometimes

move you to tears that heal







Words and thoughts are better

out on the page,

than swirling around

in your brain like pots of

alphabet soup.






Going alone to favourite cafes

 with a good cup

of coffee and occasionally

a savoury muffin,

to write and read

are sanity saviours



If you are an over-thinker,
 over-drinker or over-spender-
writing and doodling can be
a way of  holding hands
 with your
guardian angels and dreams

 Children's picture books
 and magazines in public libraries
 are favoured places to linger.
The air feels lighter
there

The Library in Rotorua
 is so improved,
it could be on another planet.

Security guards
 and helpful
staff on every floor
make you feel
safe and mellow.
No more swearing
lurkers, stealing bags 
and setting
fires to toilets.

 I wonder where
those souls have been 
moved along to-
I hope it's kind and warm

If you are in a mood for travel,
Libraries at Papamoa, Whakatane
 Wellington and Warkworth
are worth visits too.
 Places of peace and power


 Probably  most libraries
on the planet are
worth dropping
into-
 being mini-worlds of
community and calm


Sitting in specialists' 
waiting rooms can be
spaces for viewing  magazines, 
original art,
 creating drawings in your visual diary
and writing

There are silver linings and bullets if
  you can glean them.
Although it is easier to
think this way when
you are not the actual
one afflicted

 Moments of joy
 don't just
float towards you effortlessly
 on a perfumed cushion 
 unless you
are in the initial
throes of dopamine love

 Commitment to  present
  contentment takes practise 
and courage
If you try just
a fraction of these methods
for a

full month of moons,
 things may improve
 because I know from personal
proof that

Everyone has challenges in life.
Ups and downs.
Times when things don't flow



 Email Janet@jkeen.net

See how you go
if you decide to use any of these methods
-drop me a line 

              Mirror Exotic Imports Hinemoa Street Rotorua

Parting famous poem of the day for your enjoyment
 

Kindness

             Kindness glides about my house.
Dame Kindness, she is so nice!
The blue and red jewels of her rings smoke
In the windows, the mirrors
Are filling with smiles.

What is so real as the cry of a child?
A rabbit's cry may be wilder
But it has no soul.
Sugar can cure everything, so Kindness says.
Sugar is a necessary fluid,

Its crystals a little poultice.
O kindness, kindness
Sweetly picking up pieces!
My Japanese silks, desperate butterflies,
May be pinned any minute, anesthetized.

And here you come, with a cup of tea
Wreathed in steam.
The blood jet is poetry,
There is no stopping it.
You hand me two children, two roses.  

Sylvia Plath

Parting famous  haiku for you to reflect on and write your own in response to if you feel like it

don't hit the fly-
he prays with his hands
and with his feet

Issa Kobayashi


My response to this is

don't spray the bee-
she makes honey with her hands
and with her feet
 Janet Keen

haiku exercises for you to try

    
   
White Island Bay of Plenty NZ

The journey of arriving at the haiku you think is the one, at least for now.


 leaving white island 
 steam clouds gather
wind whistles goodbye

white Island
 steam clouds wave
 a lonely goodbye

fair well White Island
 steam clouds follow
waving goodbye

waving to White Island
steam clouds 
follow

 wave to the island 
all alone now
steam clouds leave too

leaving white lsland
sulphur smell on his jacket
yellow rock in my pocket

leaving white island 
the smell of sulphur 
in his white hair

If you keep on looking at the same photo and quick fire haiku to go with it; you climb into the haiku that you really admire.
 At least for that sesson and at least until you go back to edit it. 
It's like with a painting. 
I always paint a series of four.
The first one can look stilted until you relax into the process 
 This is because you need to  allow yourself  to transport yourself into a meditative state.   
It takes a while to relax and let the magic materialise. 

Now you have a go.....

Exercise one.
Take a photo that you like, preferably of  your own.
Set your timer for  five minutes.
Put on some classical or uplifting, relaxing  music
See how many quick-fire haiku you can create.
Don't think too hard.
Just let the words flow.
Don't worry about the five seven five rule.
 Just write three lines. 
Each haiku building off the other.
Don't worry how good, bad, literary or otherwise they are; just do it.
 Do six photos, (one photo and 6 haiku per day if you are running short of time). 
But if you do have time and you can spare it do 6 in a row. 
Have a go
They will begin to flow

You will slip into the  magical, universal slipstream that many  professional writers talk about when at literary (Readers and Writers) festivals.  Other writers who interview them nod their heads in agreement. 


"The poem lept off the page and wrote itself". 
"The book flowed and wrote itself, I was just the conduit or channel." 
I've heard this said by so many writers that I believe it.  
But you need to keep on writing. 
It also happens with painting and mosaic making. 
The haiku will begin to write themselves. 
If you have a blog; post it 
Again  I repeat, don't worry that its not good enough.
Just do it.

At the end of this exercise you will have a small collection of haiku.
At the very least 36 more than when you started.


  Janet sitting on a giant mosaic sculpture in South Australia

giant mosaic sitting
 footprints lead to feet
 all those busy hands

    all those busy hands
    to make a mosaic
    sitting in the landscape


  part of the landscape
   a giant mosaic footprint
   all those aching hands

   part of the landscape
   footprints in the sand
  giant mosaic sitting


sitting on the landscape
aching  mosaic hands
footprints on the sand

 mosaic bits and pieces
busy aching hands
footprints on the land

Once you have written them pick out the one you like best and save it for entering into a competition or as part of your book.

 Remember to read lots of other people's haiku
Walk in nature and take lots of photos. 
Play classical music while you write or music that uplifts you. 

Good luck. If you've used this method which I have invented, and which I run classes about in my studio; drop me a line with your haiku. 

 email : Janet@jkeen.net and I'll include it in  future blogposts about haiku :) 


Parting Poem
William Carlos Williams 1883-1963

This is just to say

I have eaten
the plums 
that were in 
the icebox

and which
you were probably 
saving 
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet and so cold

Pleasure, what is it and how important is it? Photo essay with quotes, from famous people and photos taken by Janet Keen

 Ohiwa,  Flying Man with Seagulls NZ

Become slower in your journey through life. 
Practise meditation
Visit the sea, mountains, lakes and forests
Give yourself permission to read at least one novel a month for pleasure.
 Wayne Dyer.

  Wisteria Curtains, Kuirau Park Rotorua, NZ

Gratitude is an overflow of  pleasure filling your soul
Rahel Farooq

 Rust on the Bedford,  Bennydale, King Country NZ

Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure and express your pleasure strongly
Pierre Bonnard

   Cloud Wisps, Rotorua, NZ

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with the truth

Samuel Johnson

   Boat Reflections, Tauranga Marina NZ

That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense is derived from the contemplation of the beautiful.
Edgar Allen Poe

Mast Reflections at dusk Tauranga Harbour, NZ

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. 
Dale Carnegie

MacLaren Falls, Tauranga NZ


People who are not satisfied with  a little are satisfied with nothing. Epicurus

 White Island, NZ


 In the end it doesn't matter how many breaths you take, but how many moments took your breath away.
 Shing Xiong

 Flight  Over Tauranga  Marina  NZ


 How easy is it to find pleasure in a harried world? The answer is every day if you have a mind for it.

 Reflections of Flight over Tauranga Harbour, NZ

They that seldom take pleasure, give pleasure 
 Maxims

 More Reflections Tauranga Boat Harbour, NZ

Pleasure is the physical manifestation of Joy 
Cherie Carter Scott.

Modified reflections Boat Harbour Tauranga NZ

The greatest pleasure of life is love. 
Euripides 

 Frost Ngongotaha Mountain, Rotorua

Of all the seasons winter is the most conducive to the great art of dormancy. A special pleasure in itself that is too often neglected under-valued or looked down upon.
Michael Leunig 



There is an arid pleasure.

 There is an arid pleasure
As different from joy
As frost is different from dew
 Like element they are 

Yet one rejoices flowers
And one the flowers abhor
The finest honey curdled
Is worthless to the bee. 

Emily Dickensen