Tea&Whiskers: August Newsletter

Kylie Leane
Aug 21
6 min read

August Newsletter

Stars – there are trillions of them. Stars are being born every day, it seems. But we are unaware because they are so far away, and their light takes many light-years to reach us.

There are the human stars of TV, films, the sports arena, the music industry, even God.

We follow our stars or heroes in sport, music, and on screen. We even try to emulate them in dress and lifestyle.

Most of us have hitched our lives to a star that we hope will stabilise our life and give us a purpose and understanding of life

If you have very recently visited our website, you will find it has been reinvented. Kylie decided it wasn't user-friendly and rebuilt it.

Hey Presto! We now have a new-looking website.

We’d love to hear what you think of it. Leave your comments on Tea & Whiskers. Our webpage is a star we have put on the internet to shine and encourage us and anyone who reads it.

This New Holland Honeyeater is a star. She posed beautifully for this candid shot.

I’m Gwen, and my granddaughter is Kylie; together, we run TEA & WHISKERS, a website Kylie created and manages.

This Month with Kylie

Dear Grandma,

I will miss you.

Every time I sit down to write this, I find myself overcome with tears, filled with the realisation of just how much of a cornerstone you were in my life. Your quiet, gentle and warm radiance I have always known. Since the day I was born, you were there, like the gentlest touch of sunshine, always watching and always caring.

I have such fond memories of your little cottage under the shadow of Hummock Hill, swinging on the Hills Hoist despite you telling Andrew and me constantly not to do so. Warning us not to go near the deep, scary well or we might fall in and never get out. Daydreaming in the field of soursobs next door, imagining I was in my far-away world in the sky. Your cottage was magical, just like the stories you introduced me to. I loved listening to your books; I loved watching the videos you always had waiting for us.

But perhaps the greatest gift you gave me was reading and writing.

I hated it so much at school; I hated learning back then, I hated being bad at it - I couldn't understand the letters or grasp the meaning of words.

But you never gave up, and you made it so easy to understand, and you made it fun. You were so patient and kind as you taught me, week after week in our little tutoring lessons, to grasp the fundamentals.

I know that I love books and stories as much as I do today because of you, because you instilled in me such a love of the written word. You made something that was so difficult for me seem so beautiful and so full of life.

I cannot thank you enough for this magnificent gift, and every book I ever write, every story I ever tell, is because you took the time to teach me to love words, and to respect the power behind them.

I will forever cherish those nights spent in your little kitchen where you opened the world up to me.

I have cherished the conversations we've had over the years, the time we spent in my house together, the meals I got to cook for you, and the laughter we got to share. Most of all, I value the gentle, humble grace you taught me. Always you would encourage that God was ever present, even in the smallest things we did, and that His Grace was sufficient.

Grandma, you walked with the brightness of sunshine. This present world is a little greyer without you here, but I look forward to seeing you again in the presence of Our Lord, to share ever more wonderful stories together.

"Where do you get your Ideas From?"

A question I often get asked is, 'Where do you get your ideas from?'

And it's a difficult question to answer on the spot. I tend to give a vague answer like 'oh, you know, they just come to me.'

But it is a little more complicated and convoluted than that, and it does tend to take time for a story to mature to the point of being 'readable'.

However, I have plenty of other universes and worlds to pull from and share the experience of creativity with you all.

So, usually my ideas start with either characters or 'sets of characters', sometimes a notion like 'bells', 'tea magic', 'what if stars were sentient?' (That one you'll see crop up in a lot of my stories) 'ancient aliens' or 'what if you stepped on a crack and got teleported to another world?' or 'what if ships had souls? What form would they take? Cats, probably cats, let's make them cats, everything is cats...all the cats!!'

See...I just sort of go a bit crazy and start thinking, and my thinking leads me down pathways, and those pathways go down other pathways, which open other pathways and then before I know it, I have formed entire settings.

And then I have an issue that I have no plots to go inside those awesome settings.

Sometimes, this sense of 'writer's block' can last for ages, years even, that I will sit on universes and characters inside those universes without a plot, and I will just mull about, writing bits and pieces here and there...And then, it will usually happen in the most ordinary moment - while I'm washing the dishes, or taking a shower, or at the gym. The plot will fall into place like dominoes.

Overcoming Writer's Block

More often than not, I find that Writer's Block is a result of creative 'imagination' burnout. Over the years, as a writer, I have discovered that it's wise to listen to this lack of 'creative juices' and accept the break rather than force it.

However, here are some steps I have learnt to break myself out of a Writer's Block/Creativity Block. I hope they help you in your own creative journey.

Go for a Walk
Write in a Cafe/Or in a Food Court/Or a Library
Rewatch an inspiring TV Show eg. Stagate / Fullmetal Alchemist
Re-read my own work
Work on a Hobby
Take a Shower

Basically -

Anything that breaks my routine, or my concentration and hyperfixation around the current topic I am writing. It is hard to let go, but once the mind clears, and resets, the block seems to be released and I can get back to writing.

I hope this can help you. ^_^

Gwen's Stunning Photography

Available Now on Tea&Whisker's RedBubble Store

Tea&Whiskers RedBubble Store!

This Month With Gwen

Triptychs’ have caught my attention this month.

I was looking at Steve Parish’s webpage and saw his triptychs’. My imagination was fired up, and I thought I should experiment and see what I could do.

Creating triptychs helps expand ideas, composition, and structure, and encourages reinterpretation and re-evaluation of one’s images.

After seeking advice from family and Fabric artist and painter friends, this is what has transpired. Below is the result.

It is well worth visiting Steve Parish’s website. He has beautiful photography of landscapes and wildlife of which I am very interested.

He can be found: Steve Parish Nature & Travel Photographers.

Day at the Zoo

I spent a wonderful day at the Zoo with my daughter Diane and granddaughter Lou. We enjoyed lunch there. I had not been to the zoo for 20 years. It had changed so much, I didn’t know it. Now it seems like a botanical garden, with all the trees and gardens. A truly beautiful place to hang out for a few hours.

We snapped away to our hearts content. I was putting my new 100 – 400 lens through its paces. It was so exciting being able to zoom in from afar and obtain great images..