Mood-lifting park ride

I've been feeling a little out of sorts recently. It's a combination of factors. I'm missing people and that grief has hit harder than I thought (I wrote about it here) but more than that, I've been "between projects" since the start of the month.

In my work there is fluctuation in my busyness. Sometimes I'm over-the-top busy, at other times it is slower. I don't necessarily have a lot of control over it, because it depends on a lot of other factors, like how fast my editing team works. That also means I can't necessarily anticipate how busy I'll be at any particular time. Though there are some things I can anticipate, like the last week of the month, for example, has become busy as I've taken on a couple of extra responsibilities for our mission that are due in the last few days of the month.

Hence, I had to work (a bit) during our camping holidays in July and after that while everyone was still home into late August, I was still working fairly hard. Now that they're all back at school I find that the pace of my various projects have slowed. I'm mostly waiting for other people to do their thing so that I can do mine.

These stunning Red Spider Lillies are only around at this
time of year. In Japanese they are called Higan after the time
of the year that they bloom (autumn equinox). I've learnt
(vis Facebook friends comments) that they are associated
with death because this is the time of year that Japanese
visit their ancestor's graves and hence these flowers don't
appear at the florists, you don't give them to people.

Basically I hate being bored. I hate running out of things to do. It's why I've never aspired to solely be a housewife (not to mention I don't like cleaning, but I can't find enough to do around the house all day to satisfy my need to stay occupied). When my youngest was nearing school age I was actively looking for more things to get involved in.

Ironically I would have happily taken more leisure time in August, while everyone was at home, but I find it harder now, it seems like I'm bludging (Aussie slang for shirking responsibility)! This post isn't an invitation for people to give me more work, because I am well aware that, as I've already said, my work fluctuates and there are coming times when I'll be extra busy.

I've been trying to get more exercise (I've been slack this year) and have been scheduling park-rides as well as gym times. Yesterday was a day I set aside to ride to my favourite park. I really didn't feel like it, but because it was on my schedule and because I had to do some birthday present shopping on the way home, I just went.

I'm so glad I did. It had rained during the night and was overcast, so things were damp, almost misty in the park. There were few people around, so it was very peaceful too. I took my camera and found some gorgeous things to shoot. The overcast conditions gave me beautiful diffused light to work with and the colours just seemed to pop out. 

I took a picnic and enjoyed sitting on one of the benches I photographed across the seasons in the last 12 months. On top of having good success in my birthday shopping, riding 20+km, and relaxing in the park, I came home at 4pm very happy. That elation lasted right through the evening. I'm so glad I went.

In the background you can just see a hint of a large number of kindergarten kids who were having a games day in the park.

I don't know what these are, but they are delicate and gorgeous too.

A white Spider Lily.

The advantage of going around with a camera just after rain 
are the raindrops adorning plants!