Sunday Stills Banner 2022
Posted on by Debbie

Hot wet dirt and rustle for #SundayStills

Earthly Gifts

I’m reminded that without earth many things just wouldn’t be.  The gifts we get from the earth are endless.

Earth is a myriad of colours and textures – one minute earthy brown mud, the next red sandy soil.  

Grounded on the red earth of Uluru
Uluru
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National park

Just like people really – we’re all different colours but we all need stability, good grounding, roots (family), water, fertiliser, earth, sunshine and love, so that we too can blossom and grow.

Without earth, where would we be?

Ochre from the earth (dirt)

A few years ago we were fortunate to do a cultural walking tour in the Flinders Ranges (in South Australia), staying with the Adnyamathanha people, who generously shared their culture and history with us.

On one day trip we visited the ochre fields and learnt about the importance of ochre, what the colours meant, how it was used in trade and how it was transported in the hair.

White was for the spirit world, yellow was for a renewal, red for the blood of the earth, brown for Mother Earth and breathing, and purple to cleanse and reboot.

Each colour was dotted onto our faces, forehead and neck in an almost spiritual way.  In fact, it was almost like a blessing.

Proud of our painted faces in the Flinders Ranges
Proud of our ochre painted faces
Painted face in the Flinders Ranges
Painted with ochre
Ochre painting in the Flinders Ranges
Ochre painting in the Flinders Ranges
Painting faces in the Flinders Ranges
Painting faces in the Flinders Ranges
Lavender ochre in the Flinders Ranges
Lavender ochre
Ochre pits in the Flinders Ranges
Ochre pits in the Flinders Ranges

With the addition of each colour we were asked if we were ready to connect to the earth, take charge of our lives, reboot, accept the spirit world…and so on. It was an amazing experience. 

Water (wet)

raindrops on green leaves
view looking into sunroom
Raindrops on roses
Double rainbow in a stormy sky
rainbows
ruby red frames
raindrops on orange flower

Without the rain there would be no rainbows!

Fire (hot)

in front of the fire
fire sparks
A shadow of its former self
Fire pit fun with a family visit
Sparks flying
trees reflected in firelight

Bushfires have ravaged our area in recent times but at other times fire is welcome (like in winter).

Wind (rustle)

One tree hill in South Island NZ
sunroom storm damage

A windblown tree and wind damage to the sunroom which was repaired within a few weeks thankfully!

Sunday Stills and #WQW

Terri is back with Sunday Stills photo challenge for 2022 and the prompt this week is all about The Elements – earth/wind/fire/water. You can read Terri’s post here The Power of the Elements where she also announces her WOTY.

Marsha has #WQW (Writers Quote Wednesday) where the only rule is you must include a quote, so I’m linking to her post as well.

I wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.

Sir David Attenborough

Please note, I asked The Mathematician to give me a title for today’s post and he came up with Hot, Wet, Dirt and Rustle – he loves puzzles and this is his idea of a word puzzle based on Earth, Wind, Fire and Water 🙂 It’s his birthday today so we’ll humour him and go along with it!

The Mathematician on his 65th birthday
The Mathematician on his 65th birthday

I do hope you enjoyed my earth shots from the land down under 🙂

Deb x

All my Sunday Stills posts can be found here – I’ve been doing these for quite some time now!

Also linking up with Denyse for #lifethisweek

Latest posts on Deb’s World:

You can also find Deb’s World in lots of other places – stay in touch by clicking any of the buttons below.

Debbie - mother of a 40 year old

Everyone has a story to tell! Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. She never imagined being Granny Debs would bring so much joy to her life! You can read more of Deb’s story here

.Copyright © 2022 debs-world.com – All rights reserved

45 Replies to “Hot wet dirt and rustle for #SundayStills”

  2. Thanks Denyse, our experiences in outback Aus were great. Hopefully we can do more of similar travels again one day soon. Yes it’s been a busy day but a good one for the birthday boy!

    Like

    Reply

  3. Wow! Stunning photos from your trip and I loved learning about your time with the Adnyamathanha people. It almost seems like a spiritual experience and sense the peace and harmony within you. A fascinating post and yep, love the title! Have a fabulous day of celebration!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Pingback: Sunday Stills: The Power of the #Elements – Second Wind Leisure Perspectives

  8. You showed us a wonderful glimpse into your world walking through nature’s elements, Debbie. Being with the Adnyamathanha people and experiencing their culture must have been a thrill, as well as purposely smearing dirt on your faces 🙂 I agree with your catchy post title, too, and thanks for a great read with beautiful photography!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Terri, that’s what I was hoping would be the case, showcasing a different world down here but an ancient awe inspiring one full of elements. Yes he did well with my title 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Deb. I had to look up ochre just to make sure. Thanks for sharing and linking to WQW, too. So sorry about all the bush fires. It reminds me of CA.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. I am thinking about going there in the July hols. I am a little nervous about the borders and lockdowns. It’s very hard to work out what to do but you’re really made it an enviable experience to look at (the pics). Your fire shots are tip top too. And Happy birthday to him!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I can understand you being nervous about borders Lydia, it’s a time of uncertainty that’s for sure. We loved our time in the Flinders and doing the cultural walk the way we did with guides giving us history and cultural lessons the whole way. I’d do it again tomorrow. Thanks for the birthday wishes, he doesn’t like being a star in my blog but every now and again doesn’t hurt 🙂

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thanks for your kind wishes Donna, he was very bemused with me asking him for a suggested title for this post but he seems to have done well! I’m so glad you noticed my ‘gentle’ WOTY reference in this post. I’m subtle sometimes 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  13. Happy Birthday to your hubby, Deb! Fabulous photos in this post but my favourite bit were the photos and story about your cultural walking tour in the Flinders Ranges staying with the Adnyamathanha people. That would have been such fun and so interesting! Have a great week! xo

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the birthday wishes Min! The tour we did a few years ago was a wonderful time of learning, reflection and pure enjoyment with a group of like minded people. Thanks for your kind comments 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  14. Happy birthday to your husband Deb and I love the pics. I’m working with a lot of First Nations people at the moment (and have done so in the past) and their culture offers us such a reminder of that connectedness to land and to nature.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Happy Birthday to your husband – hope he had a lovely day! What amazing pics – love the “face painting.” What a wonderful experience!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. Your photos and experiences from your travels are truly stunning Deb, the indigenous experience in particular sounds very special. Love your WOTY and love the title of this post too! Hope hubby had a wonderful day. xx

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  19. Pingback: WQW #5: Communication Through Blogging – Marsha Ingrao – Always Write

  20. your photography here was outstanding – and the ochre is so interesting (saw the lavender and that was a nice hue)
    smiled with the glasses for water – and the top photo for me was the second photo in the post – the layers were so interesting

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  21. Happy Birthday to your husband.

    Oh, how I would enjoy the Adnyamathanha people. Clearly you did as well. What a gift to share their culture.

    I loved your interpretation of the elements and your husbands input.

    The sunglass photo is sweet. A greeting card image for sure.

    Have a good week Deb. Donna

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hi Donna, many thanks for the birthday wishes and lovely comments on my post. It was fun putting it all together and deciding what photos to use to show my thinking process. I’m so pleased you enjoyed it too 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Let's keep the conversation going...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog at WordPress.com.
%d bloggers like this: