When we first heard the term ’slow’ being used to describe a way of life which was about appreciating all that’s “unique, local, natural, traditional and sensory” we had a bit of an aha moment… That’s what Dumbo feather’s all about!, we thought. And so, when Martin Hughes, cited our ‘mook’ as a source of slow inspiration for him in his recently published Slow Guides to Sydney and Melbourne, we were chuffed. So chuffed in fact that we invited him to chat to people at our most recent ‘evening for Dumbo feather & friends‘ in Melbourne.
We’re so keen to share the goodness in these fantastic guides that we have copies to give to the first ten of you to post a comment below with your favourite ’slow’ thing… a corner, an experience, a taste, a time of day…..
Here are a couple of pages from the Guides; Sydney on left & Melbourne on right.
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Well, my favourite slow moment of late are my saturday mornings now that spring has sprung. The routine is a walk to Toby’s cafe, picking up a coffee and then wanderign acrocc the road for a swim at the local pool followed by the reading of saturday paper in the grass whilst drying off. I look forward to this time where I can enjoy the feeling of grass between my toes and some sun on my back. gorgeous!
Taking time out in the afternoon to make a proper pot of tea, sit down and enjoy it. Pair that with savouring a short story and it’s the ultimate in slow pleasure.
Summer is a slow moment for me… the first sniff of a frangipani; bite of a lemonade ice-block on a scorcher of day; the salt air coolness from a Bondi train being pushed through the Edgecliff tunnel – just some of things that freezes time for me and makes me aware of the sublime in an ordinary day.
our favourite slow moment was spending a warm summer evening atop the curtin house, soaking up the afternoon sun as the rest of the city rushed by… relaxing with drinks, followed by a great movie after sunset
A slow part of my life that I really enjoy are the regular long relaxing walks I get to take with my husband, along the beach and in our wonderful countryside. Especially when it is without the company of any mobile phone device :-)
My favourite slow moments are when I’m baking. I love going to buy all the ingredients and baking things from ’scratch’ – no packet mixes or cut corners. The measuring, sifting, kneading and stirring of ingredients is so comforting. And when I have a lovely cake, loaf of bread or a batch of cookies cooling at the end of it to share with friends, it’s simply heavenly. :)
Sundays are my favourite slow moments. Taking the time to finally read Saturday’s paper and potter around aimlessly is the perfect way to end a week before starting the next.
i’m living in london, so those delicious, slow moments are hard to come by and tend to be deliberately created. my favourite windows of slowness to savour happen when i sit down with my knitting, switching off my brain and my ‘gogogo’ impulses, and just purely doing.
Make a cup of fresh herbal tea in a teapot. and sip it slowly from a beautiful little cup. The aroma and the soothing tea is very refreshing and uplifting!
My favourite slow moment is enjoying a croissant, coffee and the paper at Kerford Pier in Albert Park on a sunny sunday morning, watching all the runners and cyclists go by. Nothing better than people watching for appreciating a town!
Remember when you’re standing at the traffic lights waiting to cross, or waiting for the lift to arrivem that pushing the button more than once WILL NOT make it arrive more quickly.
My ’slow’ day is definetly sundays… this day is spent waking up late, eating breakfast with the family- and catching up on the week that was and the week that will be…. its nice to have a day like that devoted just to family!
watching a feather compete with the wind, ever so slowly
Nestling into a grassy patch in a beautiful local park, kicking shoes off and sinking into a delicious book I cannot put down – getting to the last page and that incredibly wonderful feeling of actually getting to the end of a fantastic book.
Having a toddler teaches you so many things. But I think it makes you stop and take things slowly and has taught me to relax and enjoy the little things. My usual 2 minute sprint to the postbox now takes an hour as we stop to examine every little insect, fallen leaf, spring flowers, cracks in the pavement. I wish I could have this time forever to enjoy the slow moments …
Food such as onions cooked slowly (gently sweated) … helps the flavours develop as you caramelise the sugars. there is no substitute for flavours that develop like this… slowly!
My favourite ’slow’ moment happens when I’m baking…I always make cakes from scratch…get the butter out in the morning and put in in a bowl on the window sill in the sun, make a cup of tea and read DF while it melts…it makes it much easier to cream with sugar end eggs. Mmmm…cake!
I like ’slow’ communication; posting a snail-mail letter overseas & licking the stamps; walking around school to talk to a colleague rather than “shooting them off an email”; talking all afternoon on the veranda with a friend and a cup of tea; annoying the heck out of my sister by refusing to use SMS slang, because I don’t want to see her L8R, I’d rather see her later. However, to contradict myself somewhat, modern communication can still help because I can order something on line and then receive a fantastic parcel with foreign stamps wrapped in someone elses local paper! Cool!
Ultimate slow time for me is through yoga. As soon as I sit down on my mat I am catapulted into a zone where it’s about my body, senses, breathing and quietness. Bliss!
My hubby says I should have said that he is my favourite slow thing! True!
to sink into the ground in my yard, flat on my back, and with the chimes in the background, watch the clouds, thinking…..nothing. just breathing….aaaaaah
Mine is also the cure for Mondaynitis. Its starts off on Sunday evening after the kids are in bed. I put on some light SLOW jazz, put candles around the hot tub, a chilled glass of bubbly, scented oils in the tub and just soak in the blissfulness of being alive…. well, for 2 hours anyway. Next morning – ready to meet any challenge the week throws at me :)
festina lente was always my favourite Latin phrase….
A coffee at Coffee, Tea, Me – Bliss
I have a rock on Sydney Harbour I sit on, and everything around me is fast – ferries, trains across the Bridge, seaplanes, airplanes, jet boats slamming on the brakes and spinning in front of me, all busy and going somewhere – and I’m still, just lookin’, just takin’ it all in :)
I like it when I have my days off from uni [without assignments on my back], or the weekends, and starting off the day by going to the gym and taking a nice cooling shower afterwards. Putting on body moisturizer never felt better with the mandarin fragrance swirling around, especially now that it’s spring! I’d then rummage the kitchen for something nice for brunch, something more elaborate than a bowl of cereal. I live in an apartment so I’d open the sliding door to the balcony and listen to the cars and trams passing by… then time to hit the streets to Mr Tulk @ State Library for some chai latté. Oh and there are stacks of new magazines to flip through too!
handy slow tip: when organising a get together with friends, to enhance the ’slow’ness of the event, send out an invite in the mail with all details arranged so no use of telephone, email or mobile phone allowed….. and then enjoy!
Capturing the moment between waking and opening eyes so that the experience of waking can be conscious and slow.
window shopping…inexpensive and always slow
Not trying to ‘multi-task’ and just focusing on one thing at a time. Giving something or someone all of your attention. That slows me down.
…eating mangoes by the sea shore
I am at a time of life when I am able to ease out of the workforce. It’s been a slow process but I feel like I am almost there and it feels wonderful. For the first time in years and years I can contemplate doing what I want, at the pace I want, if I want. Incredible actually.
although, doing the crossword on the tram would have to be one of my favourite slow activities, having the time to walk tops it by far.
i love doing a two hour walk from the city to my house, taking all the back roads, so i can enjoy all the neighbourhood verandahs and gardens.
the smells, the unique colour and style combinations, even the mental re-decorations i make for them or steal for myself.
it’s a sensate joy for all weathers.
x
slow food and wine. lazy sunday afternoon with good friends just taking it all in, slowly. perfecto.
Walking to the markets, buying fresh organic food and making big crazy summer salads. Also making real coffee and reading the weekend paper. And sailing the east coast, which I’m currently doing and which requires a very small wardrobe of shorts and tees, no hairdryer, no tv (you get the picture)…
My favourite slow time and place is the Bathers Pavillion at Balmoral about 4:30 -5pm sitting sipping a coffee or glass of wine, chewing over the day’s events with my partner and gazing out across to North Head watching the rock glow golden in the late afternoon sun.
Mmmmmm a great way to integrate the day’s happenings and put everything into perspective
hand writing a letter and hand folding the envelope – using masterful origami creases. that’s slow beautiful communication.
Sunshine, a glass of wine and live jazz music on a sunday afternoon. Love it!
My most recent enjoyable”slow moments”were spent visiting Eileen’s garden at Chatswood ….open as part of Australian Open Garden Scheme…sitting in the Bale imported from Bali and chatting with the young designer of that very garden ….Michael Wild…a very unassuming young gent……listening to the delicate music wafting in the background, surrounded by lush vegetation and a tranquil pond….
Slow has been developing for me for for quite awhile,being a really fast moving and talking person by original nature. There have been lots of favourite pivotal moments and my most best is PAUSING BETWEEN THE BREATHS , in and out, while meditating or even moving- slowly- about. Pausing, watching, waiting, being.
A sweet slow start to the day … in nature, at dawn, marveling at the rising sun, and breathing in the crisp clean air …
my favourite slow moments often involve sewing. my nan, mum, three aunts and myself gather every 6 weeks or so, sit around the kitchen table, eat hame baked yummies and help piece together one anothers quilts.
Roll a little, take a bike and let the wheels do the fast, you do the slow…
To focus on breathing will help to slow me; especially when busy at work. In to count of four, out to count of 6. To energise – in to 6, out to 4. Feel the difference – then DO SLOW. Focus on this minute
My slow moments in Melbourne happen during the weekdays,when i have my days off work. I love to wander into the city early in the morning.There are people rushing past me,on their way to work.I take a coffee and sit in middle of it all, watching and enjoying.And not having to go anywhere.It’s wonderful!
Hi all… JAZ here! I have just bought my first copy of “Slow”. Wanted to tell you about this anyway. Every warm and/or sunny morning on the days I don’t need to scramble to work, I sit on my back porch and drink a 400ml mug/bucket of licorice tea with rice milk and leatherwood honey. (Next time will be with my new copy already). My back yard is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool – I live in inner city Melbourne… which makes it even more spectacular. I can see the tops of tall city buildings over the edge of the fence and a couple of very large trees. I can see my teeny dog Blossom – a Mini Foxy – bounce around the knee high grass at the back of the block like a rabbit simply at the joy of having such a huge yard. We’ve been here for only a year and it’s the first big yard she’s had. B’s nearly 12. Then my twin Manx pusses ( or is it “pui”? pussii?), Mimi and Lulu come and sit with me, cuddle me, talk to me, cover me with their ‘moulting for summer’ fur and try to pretend that they aren’t going to catch any of the birds – native parrots and honey eaters. They’re gonna get the indian miners and pigeons instead. No they too are (nearly 10) too lazy to get off their paddy paws to lift a nail and help the Oz bush deal with feral birds even. ‘Drather soak up a bit of rare Melbourne sun whenever they can too. It’s pretty “Slow” guys n gals. It takes me ages to peel my butt off the porch and go inside to get on with the day. Then my beautiful, brilliant, boxer clad teenage son, first year at uni, knows everything, barges through the back door, sloths his way to the can, grunts something unintelligible in reply to my good morning whilst scratching unmentionables in nether regions, as the male counterpart of our species are wont to do, proud of it to boot, farts and the spell is broken. I go to the kitchen and wash my cup ;->
ps. I think I’d better go get him and his big brother a copy each for christmas before they run out.
What better way to be reminded of how much fun taking it slow can be than watching your kitten sit by the kitchen sink trying to catch droplets of water dripping into the drain without ever getting tired of it, ever! If you don’t happen to have a cat handy, try watching rain fall on your balcony, spend a night under the starts following the moon moving throughout the night (and then sleeping through the next day) or inviting your friends over for a slow chocolate fondue session. Bliss.
There’s nothing better to give you a sense of local community than to walk at a casual pace down your favourite local street, talking to the fruit and veggie seller about what’s in season and delicious, perhaps stopping to pat a cute dog or comment on the weather to a friendly passerby, and ending up at the local patch of greenery and doing cartwheels with sheer delight at the beauty and interconnectedness of the universe.
There are times I wish I had the ultimate sensory recorder but until such a devise can capture not just sight and sound but also humidity and smell – the job will be left to the vagaries of the human brain to recall it.
Last Friday, I left my office in the CBD to early evening on the streets. Chestnuts were unseasonably being roasted; buskers competed on each corner creating a soundscape cushioned by the sound of chatter on the tightly packed pavement, with the percussion of trams in the background. My skin felt of summer and whispered the promise of languid nights, scantily dressed, sipping cool drinks with friends. Bundling these senses together they could be tagged life, hope or even promise.
In 2 blocks to the tram stop I was more stimulated than I had been all day.
Slow for me is about soaking it up, tapping into each sense and storing it away for a rainy day.
My slow tip for everyone is to take a minute or two to breathe in the smell or your sheets before getting them off the line. There is nothing better than taking a moment to smell the sunshine in them.
Slow Saturday afternoons, cooking curries. Grinding, chopping and dicing, then blending everything together over a slow heat and letting the scents waft through the house while we stir and talk over the week that was.
Taking my seven-year-old son to Little Athletics on a Tuesday evening. It’s all rush, rush, rush to get there… then there’s nothing to do but sit, ponder, wander round the oval, watch my son dawdle back to the start line to run the 50 metre sprint again, smell the sausages sizzle on the bbq, chat, and smile at the warm fuzzy feeling I get from being involved in my local community.
A favourite slow moment :
Sitting on the lawn with my cat right up close to our ancient hedge, listening to the scurry of small unseen creatures making their way through the sun-shot labyrinth of a million layers of musty leaves and all of the secrets they hold.
My life is full of everything, and the universe tends to crack a pace that far exceeds my ability to navigate space and time, so I decided to make some serious slow changes. My best one at the moment is catching the train to school with my seven year old. It’s actually faster than the car, but ride goes forever. We chat, I do her hair, I learn all about the kids at her school while sitting facing her. We walk down the road and kiss each other good bye at the gate. The best slow moment of all: “I love you mum!” I can relive that one all day.
I had the most spectacular moment with one of my pussii today. It was a bit tooo coool to sit on our back porch with the wind ‘n’ all. While I was checking my email Mimi was watching me from her spot in the sun by the window. Her eyes caught mine and we seemed transfixed for about a minute. She seemed mesmerised. She then “moved”, prewted, (purred and mewed at the same time) and walked across the back of the couch and my keyboard to sit on my lap to cuddle me and smooch me, making dough on my jumper as she does. Only this time she is more focused and passionate. I love my cat(s). She (and Lulu) has(ve) kept me sane through many insane moments over the past 10 years that they have been with me. We retired to the sofa and spent the afternoon mooching under a doona. Yum. Bliss. >”o,o”
Slow for me is 5.30pm sitting in my
sunroom looking at the changing
light over the water with a glass of
wine & the latest Dumbo Feather
Breastfeeding my nine week old son at 2am and having nothing to do in the night light but take in every tiny little detail of him, his tiny fingernails, the dimples on his cheeks, his new baby smell – there is no rush – each second is savoured as all too soon he will sleep through and I will have no one to silently and secretly love in the middle of the night.
I have just had a precious warm on the back porch morning moment with my kleine hond, Blossom and my two pussii, Mimi and Lulu. I am well into my copy of “Slow Melbourne”. I love love love love love love love the book. Buy it read it!!!!!!!!!!
I have rediscovered the local library. What was once a thing of my childhood is now a great slow thing. Wander to the library, peruse the shelves of books for some treasures and come home for an afternoon of reading.
sitting down and listening carefully to a record – savouring it… vinyl lives