procrastination | this is lemonade

Anyone else find that summer is a difficult season during which to concentrate? There is so much life happening around, that I often forget what I was in the middle of. (Not that I am complaining – don’t get me wrong. After half a year of languishing in winter, I would not dare complain! )

Yesterday evening, I was trying to concentrate and get some tasks sorted:

Testing the @classicfm magic, hoping it'll help me focus while the sun is bidding me get outside… happy summer's afternoon!

— this is lemonade (@ThisIsLemonade) July 25, 2013

I must say it was more than difficult. The sun was shining, the sky was beautiful and blue. I just wanted to be outside. Besides, there was a cat prowling about the garden as intrigued as I was, by a bird that was making a racket. It was a blackbird that I caught sight of for a while as it perched on a low roof, but could now no longer see. It was relentlessly “becoming more excited” (scroll to the end of the linked page and you’ll see what I mean).

Such a drama unfolded before me, it was hilarious. The cat was prowling about the garden with great poise as though it was on an undercover mission. Suddenly, a thud against the back fence startled me from my thoughts. There had been a failed attempt to grab the offending creature – which incidentally did not stop calling. The cat swiftly flattened itself against the ground darting its head from side to side as though pretending that it never lost its dignity. It settled and flexed as though unsure as to whether or not pouncing again was a good idea. Eventually, having held several different stances and come to no clear decision, it opted for the classic decoy tactic, darted at speed across the garden and leapt over the fence into next door’s.

Oh and it re-emerged not long after, prowling about again, lifting its paws stealthily with each stride in the parched grass. Hunter-like. As the bird continued to call unperturbed.

Until some children burst out of a neighbouring house into the garden screaming, pursued by a grinning grandfather wielding a water pistol.

I ask you, how is one possibly to get any work done in such an environment? And how can such a small creature as a blackbird, produce such a resonant sound?

Here’s something calming in case you need it. A great familiar soundtrack for summer… happy weekend!

Zara TRF T-shirt

Way back when AltaVista was the go-to search engine and Netscape enabled slightly geeky people to “surf the web”, I had a website to keep friends and family up to date on what was going on in my life. I also diligently kept a journal for a decade and dabbled in poetry in between.

Somewhere along the way however, I allowed procrastination to take over my life. I stopped writing, sharing ideas, even dreaming…Last year, I realised that I had lots of ideas floating about aimlessly in my head and I decided it was time I developed some of these thoughts before they got musty and deflated. I tried to get back to journalling, but I had adopted lots of lazy bad habits and kept skipping days, weeks, even months.

Then, sometime in January this year, I stumbled across this blog and started following it because it was so pretty. And, one blog led to another. I suddenly realised that there is a community of talented people out there with great ideas, wonderful bottomless creativity and the urge to inspire and share.

When I saw this t-shirt in Zara recently, it made me smile. Yes I have a tendency to procrastinate, and I guess, as human beings, we will all be failures from time-to-time. Some of us (e.g. me) more often than others. But then, I’ve only got myself to blame if I don’t try again, and again…so I thought this photo is a good way to kick off my brand new blog.