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December Writing Challenge/ Prompts:

https://patchworkmomma.wordpress.com/manifest20-prompts/

  1. Choose one word which you would like to embody during 2020 as a sort of theme for the year. How would you like to see this word manifest in your life?
  2. Who inspired you in 2019? Why? What gifts did they give you? How will you carry these forward in 2020?
  3. What made you feel joyful in 2019? What steps can you take to create more joyful moments in the coming year?
  4. What goals did you accomplish in 2019 that you’re proud of? How will your achievement continue to benefit you or others in the future?
  5. What musical discovery did you make this year? Share a memory involving music or tell us what artist or song would feature on the soundtrack of your life for 2019?
  6. What surprised you in 2019

 

Today I want to write about Nr.  6!

So, what surprised me in 2019?

Did it surprise me that Greta Thunberg continued to get so much media attention? She is a very determined young woman, only sixteen, but she stuck it out, did not hesitate to live by her principles. To find supporters that made it possible for her to travel for instance by boat to the Americas and back again. Well, this was quite an achievement!

Yes, in a way it did surprise me that Greta was able to get such an enormous support!

I want to keep it brief. So I only want to mention, that I find it surprising that so many people these days are able to live into their eighties or nineties. I would be surprised, if Peter and I were able to make it to the nineties! Somehow, I cannot quite imagine it. I am surprised about every year that we are still alive.

Just recently I was surprised that independent Senator Jacqui Lambie voted with the government to repeal the medevac bill. It does not seem to make sense, not at all.

Here is an interesting link to an article about the repeal bill:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-05/medevac-repeal-bill-scott-morrison-new-zealand-png-nauru/11765456

Australia is at present in the grip of enormous draught as well as disastrous bushfires with soaring temperatures and extremely strong winds. The government says, this is quite normal for Australia. A lot of people here want to talk about it why there is so much climate change, but the government says there is no need to talk about it or to do something about it. Am I surprised that our government acts this way? No, not at all. The Australian voters voted the present government in. It surprised me at the time. And I’ll be still more surprised, should they be voted in again at the next election.

 

 

 

 

 

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December Writing Challenge: Join #Manifest20

https://patchworkmomma.wordpress.com/2019/11/30/december-writing-challenge-join-manifest20/

On November 30, 2019 Robin – Patchworkmomma- wrote:

“How would you like to manifest your dreams this coming year? Join me in a month of reflection. Throughout December I will post daily writing prompts on the #Manifest20 page accessed from my blog menu at the top of my site. The idea is to reflect about the previous year and set intentions for 2020. It’s the start of a new decade after all! Anything is possible.

This idea is not a new one. Ten years ago I first participated in the Reverb10 project, created by Gwen Bell, and met lots of lovely people (virtually, that is). To read a little about the history, click here. The original bloggers who started the project quickly moved on to other things the following year. Several bloggers picked up where they left off, but over the years the community sort fizzled out as careers changed, babies were born, and other life events took over. I’m suggesting continuing the December writing challenge with a new name: Manifest20. ….”

Quote from Project Reverb:

“Answer one prompt.  Answer all the prompts.  Answer some of the prompts.  Maybe just answer the prompt in a Tweet or as an Instagram post.  Or perhaps answer the prompt with a photo or graphic.  Be creative, let loose.”

For more information please go to:

https://patchworkmomma.wordpress.com/manifest20-prompts/

 

December Writing Challenge/ Prompts

These are the Prompts so far:

  1. Choose one word which you would like to embody during 2020 as a sort of theme for the year. How would you like to see this word manifest in your life?
  2. Who inspired you in 2019? Why? What gifts did they give you? How will you carry these forward in 2020?
  3. What made you feel joyful in 2019? What steps can you take to create more joyful moments in the coming year?
  4. What goals did you accomplish in 2019 that you’re proud of? How will your achievement continue to benefit you or others in the future?
  5. What musical discovery did you make this year? Share a memory involving music or tell us what artist or song would feature on the soundtrack of your life for 2019?

I already made an effort to answer the first four. Now to Nr. 5. What musical discovery did I make this year?

I can only say that music is very important to me. When I get up in the morning, one of the first things I do, is switch on the radio to see whether there is something good to listen to on the ABC’c classical music program. When I move around to do things, I like to have some music in the background. Good dance music I like too, for to move to some music makes moving easier! Even some Jazz or Country music makes me want to move around a bit.

I think it is great that I can find a lot of music on YouTube! At the moment Peter and I aim at listening to a Berlin Philharmonic Concert every Sunday. We have a lot of these concerts on DVD, and listening to one of them and watching the orchestra playing is a special Sunday treat for us. We hope to be able to keep these Sunday concerts going well into the next year!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtRkmSO4PrhJ4TzNOmFIwjw

“Discover the Digital Concert Hall of the Berliner Philharmoniker! Until 25 Dec 2019 with bonus edition: Kirill Petrenko conducts Beethoven’s Ninth”

Our Morning Walk

https://patchworkmomma.wordpress.com/manifest20-prompts/

4. What goals did you accomplish in 2019 that you’re proud of? How will your achievement continue to benefit you or others in the future?

I am elderly, this is why I walk with the help of a walking stick. In the morning, after a bit of stretching, I manage quite regularly to go out for a little walk. Peter, my husband, does the same. He can still walk twice as fast. So he walks ahead. He walksa bit further than I do. I usally walk to a section of some trees that I love. Near these trees I often wait for Peter and he meets me then on his return from his walk.  We talk for a few moments. Then he walks on along the footpath back home, while I walk back home along a grassy area. I love to walk along there in the early morning sun. For me this is quite an achievement that I can still do this. Mind you, I carry my walking stick. This gives me good support so that I am not in danger of having a fall in case of some unevenness in the grass.

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This picture was taken when the grass was still quite green.

The last few months we had hardly any rain and everything dries out too much. All over Australia are lots and lots of bushfires and grassfires. We had a few heatwaves and great gusts of wind. But no fires close by and hardly any smoke. But Sydney is suffering from a lot of smoke right now from bushfires in the west of Sydney.

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This picture I took quite recently. It shows how dry everything is!

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I like to spend some time hugging these trees.

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When I walk across the grass, I can beat Peter:walk along the footpath islonger. I then wait for Peter at the other end, and he is happy to see me and stops for a moment to talk to me.  Sometimes I meet some of my neighbours during my outing in the morning and they stop and talk to me for a while.

AOC: A Political Wonder Woman

https://patchworkmomma.wordpress.com/category/manifest20/

 

patchworkmomma's avatarCreations of a Patchwork Momma

It has been just over a year since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in the United States. She was sworn in on January 3rd 2019. Over the last year I have been continually inspired by her courage, compassion, and integrity. If she is already this formidable at age 29, I can only imagine how much stronger she will become with more time and experience.

Her values align with my own. I think it’s refreshing to see someone in power who wants everyone to have the same opportunities. I admire how articulate and unwavering AOC is in each of the following videos, addressing issues which are important in America and beyond:

Climate Change

Campaign Finance Laws

Immigration and ICE

The fact that AOC’s campaign was a grassroots success story is another cause for celebration. In the second video she breaks down in simple terms how flawed…

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Third of Advent 2014

RIMG0047
This is a picture from 2012

In my blog from December 16, 2012 I mention the four red candles:

“Surprise, surprise, this year we had just the right sort of small red candles. We saw them in a shop in Germany on one of our last days over there. I am so glad I bought them. They look absolutely beautiful on our Advents-Kranz. There are of course four candles for Advent. On each Sunday of Advent a further candle has to be lit, so we started with one candle, then two and today, on the third of Advent, we were able to light three of the candles.”

All the following pictures are from 2014:

Today is the third Sunday of Advent. Today is the third Sunday of Advent.[/caption]RIMG0027Our tree is ready for Christmas! We can still sort this out.RIMG0033RIMG0034RIMG0035RIMG0036RIMG0039We played joyful American Christmas songs. I liked this very much. We played joyful American Christmas songs. I liked this very much.RIMG0041RIMG0044RIMG0043

This is what I wrote on December 16, 2012:

The other day I lost everything on the computer. Just one wrong click and everything was gone! With some great help by hubby I am now back in business minus all my pictures. At the moment I wouldn’t know how to continue publishing pictures anyway. Apparently I used up my quota. I guess I can still write a bit about Advent even if can’t publish any pictures.

For the first Advents Sunday we dug out the ‘Advents-Kranz’, the one we’ve had for years. Usually we try in vain to get suitable small candles to fit on the green wreath made of artificial small fir tree branches. There are decorations of pinecones, shiny red apples and sweet little red mushrooms on it, all made of plastic and permanently fitted onto the wreath. Because we weren’t able to get candles of a suitable size we usually resorted to placing some bigger candles on the table, setting the Advents-Kranz up in the middle.

Surprise, surprise, this year we had just the right sort of small red candles. We saw them in a shop in Germany on one of our last days over there. I am so glad I bought them. They look absolutely beautiful on our Advents-Kranz. There are of course four candles for Advent. On each Sunday of Advent a further candle has to be lit, so we started with one candle, then two and today, on the third of Advent, we were able to light three of the candles.

We also dug out our artificial Christmas-tree again. (We didn’t last year because last year we had gone away on a holiday!) So we wondered what would it be like to put up the tree after a two-year break? Peter found the tree well packed away outside in the shed. Unpacking it, he established the tree was still as good as new. He had no trouble setting it up in the living-room. He also found plenty of electric lights and skillfully wound these around the tree branches. At the top of the tree he put a red ball with a golden pointy top on it. He also wound a bit of lametta around the tree.

I found some more decorations to hang on the tree, shiny balls and the like. On the whole I am rather pleased with our Christmas-tree. The only thing that was left for me to do was to pack all the empty boxes away. I also dug out quite a few candles to spread around the room. Most of them landed on our big dining-room table for the time being. We have a candle-holder with five big candles in it. Here is what is written on each one of them:

‘I love you because each time that we’re together something special happens between us and gives me one more reason thinking of you.’
And it says this is from jerry’s candle company.

There is something else I took notice of, meaning I took time to have a closer look. For the third of Advent we opened some special Christmas biscuits. ‘Fine Nürnberg OBLATEN LEBKUCHEN (Fine spiced cookie Assortment)’, this is what it said on the packet. And the cookies are really delicious!

Amongst all the Christmas stuff I found our ‘nutcracker’. This nutcracker is really special to me for we had it for so many years. I was very happy when I found it. It was such a pleasure unwrapping him and putting him on the table as a decoration. He may not be able to crack nuts, but by gosh, he looks beautiful to me.

Sorry, no pictures for now. I miss being able to publish pictures!

Some pictures you can find now on Peter’s blog

Childhood Memories about Advent

https://auntyuta.com/2015/11/29/childhood-memories-about-advent/

At this time of the year memories keep coming back about how we celebrated the Advents Sundays during the late 1930s and early 1940s. During those years we always had an ‘Adventskranz’ with four, thick, usually red, candles. On each Advent Sunday one more candle would be lighted. The ‘Kranz’ was made up of fresh fir-tree branches. When we sat down with one, two, three or four candles lit, my little brother and I would be allowed to do some ‘kokeln’, but of course always under supervision by Mum. ‘Kokeln’ would mean that Mum gave us a beautiful fresh twig of the fir-tree branches to hold over a burning candle. This made a fantastic smell. Oh, how we loved this smell. I could tell, Mum loved it too. This quickly brought us into the mood to sing some Christmas songs.

https://auntyuta.com/2014/12/03/christmas-songs-and-some-german-christmas-customs/

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In Answer to Geraldine’s Question

This is something I wrote quite a few years ago. It was interesting for me to read it again. I reblog it in the hope it might be of some renewed interest!

auntyuta's avatarAuntyUta

Hi Geraldine, to your question about writing I can only say that I am not a very qualified writer but I love writing. If I talk to people on the phone for instance I tend to forget important messages in the conversation whereas when I communicate by email I can always look up what has been said and remember it better. I think I write my blogs on the whole similar to how I would write an email or a letter. I feel there is always something to tell about my life, what I have experienced, what I have been reading, the movies I have seen and so on.

It depends of course who you want to communicate with. What you write about your life, you can also call it a diary or a journal. You write it either just for yourself in order to remember later on what happened…

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