Loops and knots.
Thanks Marieke Hardy for making me question my blog and my need to document this trip in pictures, words, thoughts and stories.
This morning I sat down and loaded some photos onto my blog. I was going to show and tell you the story of the surfing lessons at Bunker Bunker, the 61 meter tree climb in Pemberton and one of the most magnificent beaches I have ever seen at Green's Point.
While the pictures were loading I sat down and read a couple of pages of Marieke's book You'll be sorry when I'm dead . In the bit I was reading she was talking about traveling with her parents and then later partners and how she documented all her trips in scrap books. On page 99 I found this '...Amanda Palmer once bemoaned, "It's a tragedy that my reaction to seeing something interesting is turning away to grab my camera. The first thought is that it will be meaningless if I don't share it. Those are frightening moments."'
Touche!
I'm not sure if I am as desperate to share the moments as I am to capture them though. I have a great and powerful need to have a record of everything on this trip. Every detail great and small. The places, the landmarks, the friends, caravan life, what we've eaten, what I've read and made, how we've felt and how it's changed and changing...
I have thousands and thousands of photos from this trip sitting in iphoto. I guess my blog and instagram help me organise and categorise and put them in a context. Words with pictures. Order.
Would I still blog if no one were reading? I don't know.
Would you?
While I'm in the middle of this thought process and wondering about the living in the moment versus the capturing of the living in the moment I think I'll leave this morning's half written blog in drafts. We surfed and climbed and swam. It happened and I took photos of it happening. It exists.
Right now, this moment in time is different though. It's an ordinary moment not necessarily worthy of photos or documenting but a moment of our trip.
Yesterday we left Albany and were on our way to Esperance when we had caravan tyre issues and had to turn back.
Yesterday at the caravan park institution that is the jumping pillow, (an enormous piece of rubber filled with air - kind of like a cross between a trampoline and a jumping castle), there was an incident that ended in a dislocated elbow and a trip to Albany accident and emergency. There were lots of tears, there were x-rays, there was a great doctor and a quick readjust and a sling.
Today we are nursing Miss Pepper, our patient and taking it very easy. Today we are hoping that when the mechanic arrives he will laugh at the simplicity of our caravan tyre problem and fix it and we'll be on our way tomorrow.
The girls are watching Beauty and the Beast in the caravan.
We are drinking lots of tea.
Enjoying the serenity.
And I'm crocheting circles in squares.
Hooking around and around, adding to the pile and enjoying this pattern that I now know so well and can let my fingers do the work while my mind drifts and tries to answer questions and in the process comes up with more.
I'm being a good girl and darning in some ends as I go.
And I'm thinking about the smells and sounds and stories of the south west captured in their loops and knots.
That's what's going on right now. Our moment. It is not a spectacular moment but a moment none the less. And you know what? I'm kinda glad I have this blog to capture it in its unspectacularness.
So how about you? Do you always have your camera on hand just in case? Do you live to capture the moments? Does something mean more to you if its shared? What have you been making?
I wonder.
I'm going to check back on my little patient and then get back to my squares.
Happy travels my friends. xx