Christmas Day tomorrow, so herewith is my usual greeting of the season.
I hope 25 December is a good day, the best day it can be.
This is what I wish for those who will be doing big family events, and those having a quiet one at home with the teev.
This is what I wish for those for whom Christmas is easy and fun and joyous, and for those for whom it is hard and awful and terribly sad.
This is what I wish for those who don't celebrate Christmas at all, and those who used to, and don't anymore, and those who want to, but can't.
I don't do Christmas cards anymore, but instead I write a Christmas sevenling poem, as my card to you all. Please to accept it as my sincere wish for you all as 2018 draws to its end.
A Christmas Sevenling for 2018
Three colours dominate the season:
Red for the holly we do not grow; green for the pine trees brought to these shores;
white for the snow that never falls on us in the summered south.
Another way to look at it is this:
Red for all the blood of the ages; green for the promise of new things;
white for sadness, and also for purity, and also, hope.
The colours promise: the year, again, dies to be reborn, as shall we all.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Photo every day
I have started doing the "post a photo every day" thing on Insta over the past month. I quite like doing it - I am a big recorder of things, and this is giving me a daily prompt to record something from everyday life in an easy, straightforward way.
I created three collages of the first month of doing it, just for ease of reference. I thought I might post them here, on the basis that the more broadly they are distributed, the less chance one individual app will eat my record :-)
So here is 28 Days in My Life, in photos, without captions or explanations ... just for fun. I'll probably do a similar compilation every month. (For those who can count, yes, there is one less photo than there should be - this is because I posted a video one day instead of a still, and I can't embed that in a collage).
I created three collages of the first month of doing it, just for ease of reference. I thought I might post them here, on the basis that the more broadly they are distributed, the less chance one individual app will eat my record :-)
So here is 28 Days in My Life, in photos, without captions or explanations ... just for fun. I'll probably do a similar compilation every month. (For those who can count, yes, there is one less photo than there should be - this is because I posted a video one day instead of a still, and I can't embed that in a collage).
Sunday, November 18, 2018
On the world beneath the covers
Having finished Dianna Wynne Jones' classic The Power of Three, my 9 year old and I have started on now started on Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men for bedtime reading.
I am going to profoundly miss it when she decides she is too old for shared reading. Reading to, and with, my girls has been hands down my favourite part of parenting. I have so, so many rich memories of particular stories and the way they have all responded, and the stories I have discovered and rediscovered with them.
It all started with picture books - things like nursery rhymes, The Velveteen Rabbit, Pumpkin Soup, Sleepy Pendoodle, all the Mem Fox and Pamela Allen books, Charlie and Lola, Shirley Barber, the Hairy McClarys, and my childhood pile of Golden Books. Early reader fodder from Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, the Rainbow Fairies and many others - revisiting the Faraway Tree and Famous Five was a particular joy. Taking each child to the Misty Mountain and Narnia, and on the water with The Wind in the Willows, was incredible. The big girls and I particularly loved the Wrinkle in Time series.
I have passed on my devotion to The Dark is Rising series three times now. I did Anne of Green Gables with the older two, and the My Side of the Mountain books with the youngest. We got through the first four Silver Brumby books before horsey interest started to wane. We have read Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew, and with the older ones, Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. We found new material together too, like the Sky Horses series, Clarice Bean and Ruby Redfort from Lauren Childs, and the wonderful My Australian Girl books.
There were more - so many more. If I have any regret at all, it is that I didn't keep a reading log (something I also wish more broadly in my own life that I had done, but ... bygones).
They all have their favourites. My eldest favours anything with even the slightest whiff of dystopia. The middle kid likes mysteries and sad stories. The youngest likes fantasy and nature stories. There is one clear overlap winner in terms of adoration, and that is The Dark is Rising (because Susan Cooper is queen, no don't argue, she just is).
I really hope that, when my girls look back on their childhoods, they remember that among all the many imperfections, there was always time and will to open up the covers of a book and step into wonder together.
I am going to profoundly miss it when she decides she is too old for shared reading. Reading to, and with, my girls has been hands down my favourite part of parenting. I have so, so many rich memories of particular stories and the way they have all responded, and the stories I have discovered and rediscovered with them.
It all started with picture books - things like nursery rhymes, The Velveteen Rabbit, Pumpkin Soup, Sleepy Pendoodle, all the Mem Fox and Pamela Allen books, Charlie and Lola, Shirley Barber, the Hairy McClarys, and my childhood pile of Golden Books. Early reader fodder from Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, the Rainbow Fairies and many others - revisiting the Faraway Tree and Famous Five was a particular joy. Taking each child to the Misty Mountain and Narnia, and on the water with The Wind in the Willows, was incredible. The big girls and I particularly loved the Wrinkle in Time series.
I have passed on my devotion to The Dark is Rising series three times now. I did Anne of Green Gables with the older two, and the My Side of the Mountain books with the youngest. We got through the first four Silver Brumby books before horsey interest started to wane. We have read Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew, and with the older ones, Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. We found new material together too, like the Sky Horses series, Clarice Bean and Ruby Redfort from Lauren Childs, and the wonderful My Australian Girl books.
There were more - so many more. If I have any regret at all, it is that I didn't keep a reading log (something I also wish more broadly in my own life that I had done, but ... bygones).
They all have their favourites. My eldest favours anything with even the slightest whiff of dystopia. The middle kid likes mysteries and sad stories. The youngest likes fantasy and nature stories. There is one clear overlap winner in terms of adoration, and that is The Dark is Rising (because Susan Cooper is queen, no don't argue, she just is).
I really hope that, when my girls look back on their childhoods, they remember that among all the many imperfections, there was always time and will to open up the covers of a book and step into wonder together.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
A Nonet for Baking at Home
needlesticks and playground upsets
at last, sliding through the door:
straight through to the kitchen
to squeeze out the day
in soft butter
rich doughy
sweetness -
home
Monday, October 1, 2018
Spring holiday at the mirror lake: In pictures
We got home last Thursday from a 5-day family holiday to Lake Tyrrell, in Victoria's Wimmera Mallee region. Lake Tyrrell is a shallow lake resting entirely on a bed of rock salt. It is quite otherwordly and amazing; I highly recommend it as a destination if you want to have your mind blown (and get some awesome photos!)
Here are some of our really good shots.
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