Hey hey flower friends!
This week for #APRflowerEd is a mix of flowers and a more personal, not-so-flowers related post. When I first started this journal I thought I'd share a mixture of things on here but have mainly been sharing all things flowers. So I thought I'd start with a trip I took with some family members all the way to Mt Kosciuszko back in March, as well as share my three main methods for flower pressing.
On my trip south, there was absolutely no reception until we got into one of the bigger towns and it was the BEST thing for my soul! I'm so used to being plugged into a device daily, whether for work, home or self-interest. There's always something to be done or researched. Additionally, for some reason, I've felt that because I have no children I have to be busy to compensate. I feel guilty when relaxing because I know others who can't. I felt that I had no excuse not to be busy and without realising, became a yes man in my teen years—whether it was work, tertiary education, socially or in my family... I could do it all.
The thing with being a yes man is that you will always be put to use. What's that saying? If you want something done, give it to a busy person. Little did I know that this leads to burn out and these days I burn out a lot quicker. I've spent every waking minute doing all the things and thinking all the thinks and so when we had no internet on this trip, it was—unbeknownst to me—the biggest reset I never knew I needed. It's like my body just refuses to go at the fast pace I once thrived on. The word that keeps popping up is 'slow' and I feel really aligned with it.
So, 'slow,' meaning being more mindful and considered is where I'm at in life at the moment. You will see this on my business side of things and the things I have in the pipelines too. It's exciting to be in this space and a shock to think that I once operated on full speed ahead. Speaking of slow, flower pressing is one of those things: it's fiddly, it's trial and error, it's waiting and hoping there's no mould haha. You can watch my video, on how to flower press with three methods below: or continue further below to my post about Mt Kosciuszko.
Mt. Kosciuszko has been on my list for a while and so for my sister's birthday, we took a few days off to walk this beautiful mountain. It's about 4.5 hours or so away from where I live and so I finished up at a wedding job in Bowral to drive home and pack my things—yep, last minute packing argh!—and we were leaving early that evening. It's a gorgeous drive if you can leave early enough to see it. We left about an hour before sunset and so we got to see some of the beautiful Aussie landscapes we love, before it got dark. I dodged so many Kangaroos along the way, it's not funny. Luckily, only near misses.
I've always loved the idea of travelling and have been lucky enough to have crossed many places off my bucket list over the years. Since we've been freed from lockdown and are restricted on international, and even at times interstate travel, I've gained even more of an appreciation for what's in my own backyard. I've been trying to go on hikes/walks once a week for fitness, mental health and to explore the beauty of where I live. I tell ya, it has been so good for the soul!
We spent some time in some of the nearby towns but we really were just keen to do the Summit walk and just chill with no real plans. The walk has a paved path so it's out in the open and at the end of March when we went, it was quite chilly. We were wearing normal activewear and did not get warmed up haha and so I recommend wearing appropriate mountainous attire. Regardless of that, it's very scenic and a pleasant walk with some tough sections. If you've been anything like me, my fitness levels have greatly suffered and so it took lots of digging deep to keep going.
We took the chairlift up and that in and of itself was gorgeous. We'd been in such a la-dee-da state being so free from reception haha that we ended up turning up to the chairlift quite late, meaning that we had to try and do the walk in a couple of hours to make it back to the last chairlift down, otherwise it'd take a couple of hours extra to walk down.
Now, we were hoping to make it down the lift but of course we didn't haha and we weren't sure which way we had to go to walk down Charlotte's Pass as instructed when purchasing our chairlift tickets, so we basically followed the same route down as the chairlift.... boy was that not only hard on the knees but also very deceiving in regards to how steep it was and how long it'd take haha. It got dark but in the end, we made it in the end haha. Moral of the story, DO NOT miss that chairlift down... or if you do, make sure it's earlier on in the day. We went to the nearest pub and sat down to nice roast dinner, then went home and collapsed by the fireplace.
I hope to do this walk again and especially when the flowers are blossoming. It almost feels like you've been transported to Scotland in some parts of the walk and once you reach the top with all the fog, it's quite magical. We also visited Jillabenan Caves and the Yarrangobilly Thermal Pools—yeah, it might be something reserved for Summer because the water was cold! Here's a little viddy of some highlights of our trip:
I hope you enjoyed my flower pressing video and enjoyed this Mt Kosciuszko post. I'd love to know if you get to walk to the Mt Kosciuszko Summit. If you don't see me on social media, you'll know why, but I'll be consistent with my posts here and on YouTube—I think I'm experiencing more tech issues re: video editing than I've ever experienced haha. Winter is slow down time for my business but I'm still taking orders. Until next week, have a fabulous rest of the week!
xo rose