On the edge

I remember watching a tree at the end of my mum's road at this time last year. Its leaves were turning red and starting to fall, and the thought arrived in my head, "that tree will be green again." I get a little nervous about winter. I don't like cold, I don't like rain, I don't like wind. I have a funny thing about wanting to know that my favourite people are tucked up safe and warm with me when the weather is stormy, and it is so hard now when they are far away or nowhere at all. While I'm happy to work on looking at the positive things, there's a heaviness and oppression about winter that doesn't do much for my state of mind and is hard to shake.

Dreaming

I've been working very hard on living lately.

Having discovered what it is like to live in the deepest and blackest of holes, I'm pretty keen to keep as far away from it as I can. It seems to me that the best solution is to climb as far out as possible, to find instead the dizzying heights and cool breezes of the mountain tops. When you're prone to falling, you have to work hard on your climbing.

Good for me

Many months ago I mentioned to Reuben that I would love to have a go at painting again. I had done art right through school and have barely picked up a paintbrush since, if at all. I suppose it came to mind when I was considering what I could do around home, for myself, when I have a bit of spare time and don't want to find myself in front of a screen. Something creative with a beginning and an end.

Christmas Day 2014

I am pleased to report, and you lovely lot will be pleased to hear, that we had a very good Christmas Day. As the cliche goes, the kids really did make it wonderful. We were a fairly small family, but that never dampens the kids' party spirit. We had a few hiccups along the way, and always a big gap at our table.

A change is as good as a holiday

I've been getting a bit bored with dinner lately. You know the balance of trying to keep everyone in the family happy. Finding what you all like, finding healthy meals, a good range of food, all that sort of thing. I miss cooking for someone who eats with enthusiasm (well, some nights they do) and smiles in appreciation down the table. So I decided recently it's time to shake things up a little.

Why

A friend has asked me if I would like to be the next in a line of bloggers who are writing posts about why they write. It's a topic that I often consider, and have briefly tried to explain before, and so I was very keen. There was a list of questions, which I'm afraid I have taken very little notice of, but essentially, here is my answer. Much of it is also based on my writing on my other blog, Griefprint:

Getting to the heart of housework

I'd love to write an awesome, insightful, uplifting post, but I'm afraid I'm going to write about housekeeping instead. Housekeeping and a heavy heart and how the heck to combine the two.

A moment of quiet

Reuben had his tonsils out last week. It went well. I was nervous for him, as you are when your child is going under general anaesthetic and having surgery. And I was nervous for me. I have not managed well when visiting the hospital in the last couple of years, the associations are too strong and the memories are too bad. Having to wait for a beloved to come out of surgery wasn't something I wanted to have to do again. But I did well. I noticed a pretty shaky hand every time I reached for my chai, but I kept the memories at bay.

Home and heart

When I was in the sixth form (age 16) I told my class I wasn't going to live in a normal suburban house. I wanted to live with space around me, to live somewhere different, to be different perhaps. The teacher thought that sounded exciting, and encouraged me to hold on tightly to the dream.

Hi blog

Hi blog, I'm just tip-toeing past and don't really expect to be seen. I have missed you very much in this time of moving house upheaval, and lately, as I sit at my own computer in my own home, I have started sneaking past just to have a look at you. I'm hoping you'll help me put my recent thoughts in to words, and that I will soon see you often again. I'm looking forward to it.

A summery holiday

What a wonderful holiday we had! Apart from a couple of trips to the Wairarapa, our post-Christmas holiday was the first we have had in many years and I admit I was a little nervous. Sleeping the kids in strange beds is never entirely successful and holidaying has not really been on my radar. But wow, what great experiences there are to be had!

The Hill St Farmers' Market

I read about the Hill Street Farmers' Market many months ago and thinking about going has become a regular feature in my life. The market is held on a Saturday morning and we're often on the lookout for something to do on a Saturday, and we finally got there this weekend.

Christmas Day treats

In this summer series of humouring me, here's a bit of a collection of pics from our Christmas Day. Yes, I had a nice day thank you. I find the lead up to Christmas very difficult, but the day itself - good food, presents, happy children - there's plenty to like about that.
And I took the kids to church, actually.

Moving out, but not on

  

On December 10 we closed the door to our lovely but-getting-too-little home for the last time. It didn't matter, by then, whether we wanted to go or not, the train had already left the station. The house was sold, the truck had taken our boxes away and the house was bare - soon to be filled by a young couple who had fallen in love with it. I was ready for whatever will be next.

Summer holiday humour

We're back! Or should I say, we're still here! In the last month we have moved out of home, settled in to Nana's, put in an offer on a house and lost out, celebrated Christmas, been on an extraordinary holiday, landed at Wellington airport in 140km per hour gales, and found ourselves in a new year.

New items, same old subjects

Hoorah! I have two recent acquisitions to let you know about. No, neither of them is a house. But the next best thing. I received a delivery of some glucose chocolate the other day, and...bought a new camera. A Canon EOS 1100D, for those of you who are interested. Here's a sneak preview of the choc, and a few of my first pictures -

My bed companion

Gosh it's been a while. I notice that none of you are keeping me accountable. But then I don't suppose you will tell me that I'm slacking. I don't know if you have noticed that my Portrait a Week has been slipping a bit, and I'm now 2 weeks behind. I tried to remedy it a few days ago, only to discover that my camera is broken. I'm hoping like crazy that a quick trip to Wellington Photographics will fix it fast, and trying to decide whether to use an inferior camera or just take a brief break. The kids are growing fast, but not that fast.

Morepork in the trees

There's a morepork in the trees

When I go for my night time wees

It's making quite a racket

Across the evening breeze.

Family pics at Point J., and 12/52

Our trip to Point Jerningham yesterday resulted in photos of more than just Point Jerningham. Humour me while I show them off...

Doing it different

I was sitting on the floor picking up some old spoons that I use in food photographs (someone had pulled them out of the sideboard and made a mess) when I was struck with quite a revelation. I'd much rather eat with old cutlery - like those lovely sets they have in the second hand shop up Cuba St, you know, white bone handles, the kind your Grandparents had - than the run of the mill "modern" Briscoes kind of cutlery.