Now that the parties are over and the hangovers cured, I wonder how many people have wavered from any New year resolutions? The timing of your great post Gareth, is very apt.

My track record is about ten days and for that every reason I did not make any this year. Instead I went for deciding upon a word for the year.

My word is TRUST.

For me this has many levels.  Trust of myself, to keep stepping forward into the person I want to become. Then there is the trust of others; to trust that they do not need me to take care of them and that I can trust them fully without expectations or assumptions, which usually lead to misunderstandings. Then there is the trust of the universe, that everything will unfold as it should without too much interference from me. That the universe will provide what is needed for me to continue on the right path in life.

Hopefully like the idyllic path pictured above taken amongst the vineyards of Provence.

So, what word would you choose for your word of 2009 and why?

Today is ‘I’m Not Going to Take It Anymore Day!’
Don’t believe me, do you?  Its True January 7th is ‘I’m Not Going Take It Anymore Day’.
This is possibly more poetic today than any other, given the goings on in our world.

Perhaps it is time we stand up and scream “I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!”

In the interest of healthy debate, getting it off your chest and all the cathartic stuff, they tell us we should do to vent our frustrations.

Be Strong, Be Proud, Be Inspired. Its rather Liberating don’t you think.

What is it you Wont Take anymore?

Come on get it off your chest, you know you want too, you know you need too, quick before the day is over, start the year off fresh. It’s good for you and you’ll feel so much for it, promise

Here’s a clip from the classic movie Network to help get you started (trust an Aussie to tell it to you straight):

Very soon a sad day will day dawn. I have already started to gather my grieving costume, black jeans, black T-Shirt and all the rest. Most of you would have heard that my dearest David will soon be departing as the much loved Dr Who, ((sob, sob)). He is being replaced (as if anyone ever could) by a younger face, that being Matt Smith. ARGHHHH!!!

Sob Sob I am mortified……….

There are some characters we just seem to identify with.  Be it a novel, Television Program, Radio, Movie, Comic Strip, what ever and some which can never be replaced. They have no direct impact on our lives, yet we get caught up in the lives of these fictional characters. Many of us rush home to see the next installment of their lives in progress, leaving our own real-life happenings on the sidelines for a brief hour of respite. Possibly it is the need to detach ourselves from our own lives, to laugh at another’s misfortune or revel in some incredible stroke of luck or genius. Perhaps it gives us the escape we need to go on with our own lives, to get through the mundane tasks, endure those tough moments and thrive in the good days. Which ever it may be we all have our favourite fictional characters from the myriad of sources, media, spiritual, mythical, legend.

Is there someone you identify with who could never be replaced?
But if they were whom would you choose as successor?

Here’s one reason I will miss our current Dr

Anyone here take their eyesight for granted?

Laughed at that Stevie Wonder joke?

Or the term ‘blind drunk?’

Close your eyes for a minute - imagine that forever?

Every January 4th is World Braille Day. However, this year is a very special because it marks the bicentennial of the birth of Louis Braille.

Louis was the inspiring genius who created a way for people who are blind to communicate and become literate opening huge doors for them. The World Blind Union is the international voice of more than 165 million people who are blind, deafblind and visually impaired.

Additionally, in 1952, the accomplishments of Louis Braille were fully recognized by the French government. His body was exhumed and reburied in the Pantheon in Paris to lie with the rest of France’s national heroes.

And there is more… (more…)

Hi from Doo-bye folks. Jim here photographed from a mobile phone at Emirates towers, courtesy of my pal Tom. An arty photo or just plain poor quality? I quite like it.

Any ‘must do’ stuff for 2009? I’m striding out with optimism and treating every opportunity as a time to learn.   Turning frowns upside down - my aim and the main thrust of this main blog page content here GO! Smell the flowers for 2009.

In Feb we’ll launch a newlook flowers harnessing  new Buddypress software that will give readers a chance to take the plunge and dig deeper with thie personal profiles and post photos like this.

So - what of 2009? Do tell, photography classes optional.

Any fans of facebook here? This sums it up!

Comments welcomed!

Anyone else feeling a tad nervous about 2009 - Fear & loathing perhaps? Not as Hunter S Thompson would have wanted, surely?

Fear not, loathe less as GO! Smell the flowers will become more fun and easier on the eye in 2009 as we figured the world needs more of this.

Watch this cliche - more fun is required whilst making you think as you GO! Smell the flowers.

Deep is busying himself lining us up for a Buddypress software launch on February 1st when personal profile pages and viral techniques will be applied with lashings of babyoil.

Comments welcomed - what fun and features would you like to see more of here at GO! Smell the flowers? Do tell and enjoy the trip! Cheer.

Happy New Year Garden Dwellers

Well a New Year and a New Begining, for each and everyone of us on a global scale.

Did you know:
2009 is in numerology an 11, a Master Number.
There has not been a 11 year since 1910. It is a very powerful number in all form of numerology and astrology. Every numerologist is tauting 2009 as something special, and I would have to agree with them if only in what we are seeing in peoples shifting attitudes. The importance which is being placed upon Truth, Humanity issues, justices, love and family.

Here is an explanation I found on Universal Life tools:

The number 11 is the most intuitive number and is a clear channel to the subconscious. It is the number of leadership, personal power and spiritual truths. The number 1 by itself represents leadership, initiative and new beginnings… thus two number 1’s together opens a gateway of potential far greater than the sum of its parts.
The gateway of the Master Number 11, is the freedom of choice. The freedom to choose a path of truth, authenticity & Love, or conversely to recoil in fear, pain and stagnation. Thus the 11 Universal vibration year will bring about a planetary rLOVEution of grand proportions and connect EARTH back to the HEART (just move the H from the end to the beginning) of LOVE (Live, One, Vibrational, Energy).

If this comes to pass throughout the coming year, Its going to be one heck of a year.

Fireworks where first made by the Chinese over 2000 years ago, by (it is thought) a Chinese cook who accidentally mixed three common kitchen ingredients saltpeter, sulphur and charcoal.
The banging and colour of  fireworks (which scares my poor dogs so much) is of major importance in the Chinese New Year Celebration, it is used to scare away evil spirits and bad luck for the coming year. Since we have adopted so many Pagan and eastern aspects into our own, I thought to share one of the stories around their use. In Chinese mythology there is a story which goes like this:

‘A terrible monster or giant lived in the mountains and would come down at the end of the year and terrorize people and animals or even kill them all. It was discovered that the monster was frightened by loud noises, bright lights, and the color red. This is one of the reasons that the Chinese New Year has many loud firecrackers, bright fireworks and lanterns, and the color red is seen everywhere.”
Chinese New Year will be on January 26, (Australia Day here in Oz) and will bring in the Year of the Ox.

The use of fire in Pagan festivals is to clean,  purify, lift the spirits, bring comfort and security. Fire being one of the four elements it is the Yang so to speak. Fire is the Creator and the destoyer of all things, the positive aspects of fire include creativity, passion, confidence, courage, transformation and purification. Many cultures light Bonfires, hold Fire Festivals and many other rituals at New Years and throughout the solstices to cleanse the earth and the air for the coming year.

So as you watch these fantastic Fireworks, apart from their incredible beauty, spectacular displays and just awesome AWWWWWWWHHHHH power, see the wonderful thing they do, taking away the staleness of 2008, scaring away the bad spirits, bad luck and cleansing 2009 for a new beginning for all of us…

Happy New Year 2009 Flowers

It’ll be great.

Bored now Christmas is finished? Why not dig out your old vinyl records and do a Sleeveface? - heh you can use that new camera you got. Sleeveface, which is the art of - well see above - sticking a record cover in front of your face, really took off last year. There’s a website, a facebook group and a book:

“This book WON’T help you lose weight, make friends or money, won’t help you give up chocolate or change the way you think. It will, however, make you laugh, stare and wonder at the brilliance of Sleeveface!” Huw Stephens, BBC Radio 1

Here’s a step by step guide to the fad that is saving vinyl from extinction:

Particullaly helpful at this time of year if you are looking a bit rough after a late night party! Now then where’s my copy to Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax 12 inch? A light limber up with naked twister and I’ll be ready to Sleeveface!

GO! Smell the Flowers must have a post on an event all about flowers and other organic materials!!!  For those, who live in other countries you may have had Boxing Day on your news! However, in Southern California the day after Christmas is about shopping and the Pasadena Rose Parade. (Pasadena is about 30 miles NE of LAX). By the day after Christmas, all the grandstands and most of the barriers are in place. And, lots of tourists fill the shops, entertainment venues and restaurants. The last week is crazy, long days, no sleep, tedious work, cold evenings and days, tons of organic material and thousands of workers and volunteers!!!  And, everyone praying it doesn’t rain.  Planning for the next year begins on January 2nd, so no rest for the weary.

Having lived in Southern California all my life, I have had wonderful opportunities to be apart of many aspects of the parade. Three evenings a week I had the privilege of watching a float being built from frame to flowers and it was an animated float. The best part was seeing it work on television.  I’ve had the honor of being involved in the Rose Parade in other ways…

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