Back to the Beach and a farewell for now

I was very fortunate to spend some of Thursday afternoon in this very cosy construction......

.....wherein role play (i'm the mama, YOU'RE the baby now. go to sleep) earned me a 15 minute power nap. Bliss.

Our Friday afternoon; from this......






......to this, in the blink of an eye. This went down very well with fish and chips and a beer followed by a good run down a small hill.

And today, Saturday, a family day at St Andrews followed by a very un-elaborate but somehow intimate and appropriate farewell to K, who is now on a plane to Chennai via Perth. And my love you will be reading this soon enough, this blog-come-letter. Handy thing. What did we do before the internet? We waited patiently for post cards and handwritten letters and at least week old photographs. It's strange to think that 17 years ago when I left for Europe, there was no email. And now we can talk face to face from a mountain in India. Love it.

market day and softened by the sea

Collingwood Children's Farm market on Saturday. Wonderful place, animals to pat and feed and milk, good produce to taste and buy, lots of happy folk......it's hard to believe one is in the city. Beau took the goat photo. I would love a goat. A goat loves a goat.



Had a very relaxed, slow Mama's Day. Had a great urge to be by the sea in the afternoon so we rugged up and went forth. How glorious. The treasures I found! I love to collect shells and glass all softened by the sea as we too felt. It's what I miss about the west. That Indian Ocean that I saw every single day for the first half of my life. The smell , the light, the waves, the sky. The eyes can rest on endless blue. We are planning to head back to the West in a couple of months. A long slow decision involving the extraction of ourselves from a pretty special community of people. The pull is so strong we have to follow it. So K will go to India for a few weeks and then we will start preparing to leave. It feels good. Big. Sad. Long awaited. Well timed. Good.

From four wheels to two wheels

Well, a long time between posts. So much going on and I've been so tired. I run a choir, a role which I've been loving so much and spending more time when Beau sleeps, preparing songs.....Still not so much time for crafting but I will get there. We've been so tired of a night K and I that we flop in front of the TV (which we hardly ever watch) and plough through episodes of The Sopranos. I must say I'm enjoying where it's taking us.
We are about to get rid of our car - the Electric Camel as it has affectionately become known is soon due for rego renewal and given that it needs huge amounts of repair work we cannot bring ourselves to spend another cent on it and we have decided to become a bike family! It feels like a big step. We want to have another baby and I shudder a little at the thought of not having a car at that point in time but our plan is to eventually have a hybrid - a car that has the capacity to run on bio diesel. But for now we are preparing ourselves for the two wheeled transport - a world of baby seats, trailers, trolleys, wet weather gear and newly acquired street smarts. I would love to hear from anyone who has made this plunge as a family. I know one family near by who have a car but choose to ride over driving. My friend M has toddler on baby seat, 6 year old on tag along, and 8 year old riding alongside her. So inspiring . We will lat the very least be fit and save money. We were put onto a fantastic trolley! If anyone is interested check out My Smart Trolley.
Our goal is to be less and less of a weight on the environment and to create as sustainable and self sufficient lifestyle as possible. The ultimate goal would be to move to the country and I feel this will happen but for now whilst we need the proximity to the city, we will do our best here.
Nowdays I get excited about water tanks and types of native vegetation and chook varieties and the shape and colour of home grown egg plants, and swinging a matic or a shovel.....We have some friends near by who have created an oasis in their suburban home. Something so beautiful and practical and sustainable that one can't help but be influenced.
On Monday I visited a friend near the city who has a 4 year old and a baby, and she had another friend visiting that morning who has three boys. There I was in the company of mothers of children who were biters and who have lived to tell the tale and who made me feel so relaxed and understood it was quite a unique experience. It reinforced for me that parenting is subjective- EVERYTHING is subjective. And that everything is impermanent.
I look at Beau and I can't believe my fortune. He is such a lovely little boy and I get to be with him step by step as he learns how to be in the world and teaches me how to be more relaxed in the world.
Anzac Day for us was a blissful day at the beach with buckets and sandwiches and banana cake and Beau was in heaven in the water cold though it was. My youth was spent on the beach. Our family life centered around it and it was good and healthy and relaxed and simple. I do miss it. It's the air and the lack of constant stimulation for the eyes. All sky and water, soft and peaceful.