Spring, reminiscing, and the arts

I'm nothing if not predictable.

We've had a little burst of sunshine these last few days and it's been glorious.  After such a wet couple of months it's a real treat.  We've been putting in plenty of hours at the park.

Yup, we need some sheep in here pretty urgently

The birds are as pleased as the rest of us and the bird song is off the charts.  If you go for a walk around outside there's joyful twittering in the trees, bees zooming busily past (by the way, did you know they have actual big fat bumble bees here? I thought they were just in picture books!), the cat slinking through the grass, everyone knows what's coming.

It makes me want to throw open the windows, turn up some classical music on the radio, and fry something for lunch.  

Hard to say why exactly, except that some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around Mum's homemade veal schnitzels eaten outdoors in the mild spring/autumn sunshine, with Mozart's clarinet concerto drifting out the windows.  But really, who needs an excuse to fry food?

On the back of the wet weather, we've all been struck down one by one with a rotten cold.  First it was B (who never gets sick).  Then poor J who always seems to get knocked down the hardest by any virus.  She lost her voice and coughed and coughed and coughed which led to several cough-vomits (if the name wasn't explanatory enough, that would be a coughing fit so violent that she vomits).  The washing, my friends.  It was biblical.  And hearing her sad squeaky little voice whimpering for me was almost more than I could bear.  Thankfully she's on the mend now, although still coughing and with an endlessly runny nose.

A predictably caught it a couple of days after J, and has done a couple of cough-vomits too (WHY UNIVERSE WHY), but she seems - cross fingers, jinx, I hate white rabbits - to have got over the worst without anywhere near the misery of poor little J.

I thought I'd avoided it but a couple of days ago I went down hard and today I have my own version of J's squeak, slightly less endearing though.  Mine's more adolescent male with sudden pitch changes taking me from falsetto to a gravelly growl with no warning.  Makes it very hard to effectively get my point across when arguing with the insurance company about our house in Perth.  Never mind.  I can still write a zinger of an email.

The Taranaki Arts Festival is on at the moment.  We're so lucky to have this kind of thing!  Coming from South Australia (the Festival State!  Do they still call it that?) I'm used to having lots of cultural events at my fingertips - whether or not I actually partake, it's great to have the option.  I grew up with my parents regularly taking me and my sister to concerts and the theatre.  Another very fond childhood memory is sitting in a darkening theatre, listening to the orchestra tuning up and feeling that sense of anticipation for the curtain to roll back.

So for me, it's great that Taranaki also has such a lively arts scene.

Last night as part of the Arts Festival there was a concert of Beethoven's sonatas for violin and piano.  Tickets were $10.50.  Yep.  That is not a typo.

Sadly I missed out on that one (see: cough-vomiting children) but big plans are afoot to leave the house after dark next Friday to catch Velvet, a cabaret/circus extravaganza.

B is working overtime at the moment, not at work, but on our vegetable garden.  With this burst of spring-like weather, it's time to get serious.  We don't even have a herb garden at the moment.  I'm not sure how to know when the last frost has been but I reckon we could just about risk chucking some things in within the next week or so.

We've already got peas and rhubarb which both seem to have survived the frosts but I'm dying to get some more things in.

I've missed our edible garden in Perth.  It was really productive when I think back.  All those passionfruit!  It's also just so nice to be able to step outside and collect ingredients for dinner.

I've been quietly amazed at how quickly the seasons change.  Listen, I'm sure we're in for some more wet blustery weather, but I never noticed before how it all changes over a matter of days.  Suddenly there are buds everywhere.  One of the pear trees is covered in blossoms.  Yesterday there were none.

I've always rolled my eyes a bit at people who talk about the wonder and joy of four defined seasons. I mean, whatever.  I have to admit, though, that now I sort of know what they're talking about.

Flowers, a new car, and a sort of bonfire

Something I have discovered recently, which lots of you probably already know, is that camellias do not last as a cut flower.  But daffodils do!

I'm still going strong with my bullet journal.  I spent a blissful half-hour last night setting up next week's spread.  We're very happy, thank you.

My big news of this week is that I finally - finally - got a new car!  Since we arrived in NZ in April, I've been driving an old (but reliable... SNORE) RAV4.  Possibly the ugliest car that ever existed.  We bought it cheaply, sight unseen, before we even got here.  However, any softy sentiment about it being our first car in NZ was pretty much totally overridden by the non-functioning heater, the lack of central locking and other missing luxuries.

I ended up driving the RAV4 for a few months longer than we'd planned, which made it extra sweet when I got to glide out of the car yard the other day in my shiny new (well, new to me) Camry.  

I know, I know, Mom Car alert!  But, because I'm a total car dag, I've actually wanted to drive a Camry since about 2006, when my boyfriend at the time was supposed to buy me one at auction but totally lost his head and came home with a hotted up Ford something-or-other instead.  But that is a story for another time.

We've had some more seriously wet weather.  Everyone is saying how this year has been ridiculously wet.  Double the usual amount of rain in July.  Apparently only three rain-free days in August so far.  I'd believe that.  

Despite all that, last night we decided to try and have a burn off.  It was Friday night.  I mean why not.  J even got to stay up late to watch, although with everything so sodden, all the fuel in the world could not get that thing roaring.  See underwhelming photos below.

What else...?

The long exposure makes this look waaay more impressive than it really was.

Being back on 5:2 has reaped amazing benefits for me, and my weight loss app tells me I'm now the lightest I've been since before I got married.  This is in spite of Tim Tams, wine, pasta, cheese, coca cola, and fast food all being on the menu.  

Boastful?  Yes, yes, I am.  But hey - intermittent fasting.  Look into it.

Oh - I promised you guys a toilet training update a while ago.  So, I did give it a try.  And J is really and truly not ready.  We'll wait.  Now if I could just get her to stop taking her nappy off all the time...

A is 11 months old... today!  Which means she is ONE in a month.  How?  How.  

She's still not crawling, but has a variety of wriggling, rolling and manoeuvring to get herself where she wants to go.  She claps, waves, jabbers constantly, still wakes at least once in the night, has one or two naps per day (depending how soon after 5am we start our day), and LOVES FOOD.  She has six teeth, eight dimples where her knuckles should be, and some wild hair.  

She adores her big sister, her dummy, and putting things in and out of containers.  She does not like socks, homemade food (EYEROLL), or waiting for anything, but especially food (see above).  Her favourite song is "open shut them".  She's going through intense separation anxiety right now which means she cries desperately if I so much as leave the room.

This time one year ago I was so over being pregnant, and also slightly terrified of what life with two kids would bring.  As it happens, most of those fears have been realised, and yet it's been a million times easier than I thought it would be.  And yet also harder.

Clearly I have some unresolved thoughts on this topic.

Since I love an inconclusive ending, I'll leave it there.

PS Oh - except to say if you're looking for something to read, I was gripped by Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica.  Sadly the e-book version is full of spelling and grammatical errors but the story itself I found so absorbing I could forgive the shoddy nonexistent editing.  Read it.  You won't regret it.

The bullet journal

Further to my last post...



The bullet journal.  People, I'm a convert.  Let me explain.

I am an organiser.  I'm a list-maker.



I have post it notes stuck to my computer monitor, lists of things to buy, books to read, plants to plant, stuck to the fridge, more lists saved in my phone, a wall calendar to manage our day-to-day appointments, and my diary for recording family life.



I need to write stuff down, especially to get tasks done.  I will write and rewrite my lists.  Tapping everything into my phone doesn't work for me - even when I worked in an office and managed numerous electronic calendars for other people, I still preferred my own "day to a page" desk diary.  The problem with the diary is that I would jot down important information on a certain day, and weeks or months later I would remember that I had written it down, but it would be almost impossible to find.

Bullet journaling (invented by Ryder Carroll, and, shockingly, shared with the world for free) makes sense of the chaos.  And I can indulge my artistic side as much or as little as I want.



The system itself is very simple.  I won't bore you with an explanation because you can find the original and best explanation here.  The most important thing (to me) is that you can write any old thing - any task or reminder or inspirational quote or whatever - that comes into your head, at the moment you think of it, and later on you will be able to find it.



This is exactly what I've been looking for.  There are so many things I'm keeping track of at any time and finally here is a way to keep track of all of them, together, in an organised way.  Oh and you can make it pretty.  AND you can use beautiful stationery.

I must admit that googling "bullet journal" brings up a deluge of the most intimidatingly artistic journals with beautiful lettering and delicate artwork.

That stuff is really nice, but it's not what your BuJo (oh yeah!) is about, and not being artistic shouldn't put you off starting a bullet journal.

It's not for everyone, of course, but for someone like me it's the perfect solution that I've been looking for.

Anyway!  Make up your own mind.  Moving on.  

Look at this handsome boy.  One of the few people (yes my cat is people thank you) who gets his face on the blog.

I know we're not even halfway through August, but I'm starting to notice undeniable signs of spring being around the corner.  We've already discussed the daffodils at length.  And the light these days is... different.  The sun is definitely setting later.  My kids go to bed super early (fist pump) and it's barely even dark now when I close their curtains.

But on top of that, the other day I was strolling the driveway with my little girls when what should I see underfoot?

I glanced up and, yep!  Blossom!  Blossom on the trees!  And in fact, now when I drive down our road I realise that there are soft little smudges of pink and white on the bare trees.  Oh boy.  I loved autumn here.  Can you imagine me in spring?

Our resident tuis also appreciate the blossom.  I love hearing their distinctive calls through the trees.  They went a bit quiet over winter and I'd almost forgotten they were here.

After the surprise of a whole tree in flower without me noticing, I took my camera for a closer look through the orchard and it's true!  Little buds forming everywhere you look.

The jonquils by the house continue to do their thing.

Looks like the peach tree outside the kitchen window is gearing up for something.

Speaking of the peach tree, check out my amateurish bird feeder efforts.  The pinecone that J and I made into a bird feeder at play centre one week was, frankly, a big fat failure (although they did pick it clean eventually).  The big success has been the bird feeder we bought at a garden centre recently.  The waxeyes (which I call silvereyes) have been having quite the bonanza, and J loves watching them twitter and spin.  You could just about set your watch by the times they arrive and leave: always the same every day.

The cat also watches with interest, although his facial expression is a little more calculating than J's.

It's been seriously wet this past week.  To the point where yesterday the septic flooded.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.  Luckily everything is back to normal today.  Thank goodness.

And lastly, the cows are gone.  Sad face.  They did their work eating lots of grass, brought immeasurable joy to the little girls (and, ok, to me), caused plenty of headaches and very early starts for B, and now they're off to... actually I don't know.  Greener pastures?  I literally have no idea.

Already I miss seeing their hopeful faces standing at the fence when I pull in the gate.



Ah, well.

What's new with you this week?  Any signs of spring at your joint?

Winter flowers and bullet journalling

There's a great view of the mountain we get sometimes when the peak is obscured by cloud.  I keep taking photos because it looks so cool in real life but it (once again) just doesn't translate to film.  See Exhibit A below.  On another note, do you think those people are getting sick of me taking photos of their house?

 I've been waiting almost since we moved in to this house for the camellias to bloom.  I never realised they start so late?!  Meanwhile the daffodils are definitely flowering now.  Even the ones I planted on the very last day that the packets recommended are coming up and the first one has now flowered.  They came in mixed packets of 25 so I'm looking forward to seeing all the different varieties we've got.  I also scattered some windflowers along the same fence but they've been slower to emerge.  Fingers crossed.

There's a modest handful of jonquils flowering in one of the garden beds by the house.



And the drifts of frilly yellow daffodils out in the paddock doing their thing.

We've got three different types of camellia so far - this big pink one out by the wood shed....

This very simple white one in the front garden...

And this deep red almost rose-like ones by the roadside.

We've taken cuttings of all of them with a view to a camellia hedge in the future.  I especially love the  neatness and symmetry of the red ones.  I wish I knew the names!

With such a profusion of blooms, I took my basket out and picked as many as I could reach.  It made me feel very grown up and accomplished picking and then arranging flowers from my own garden.  And there are heaps more!  Anytime I want!  For free!

The other thing I'm loving is proof that the sun is most definitely shifting southwards.  It now shines in the window and warms my feet when I'm (inevitably) at the computer desk in the early afternoon.

Lastly, before I go, have you guys heard of bullet journalling?  As usual I'm very late to this party but I find the idea quite appealing.  Aside from this blog, I also write in a journal about the girls' milestones and parts of my life that might be on my mind but don't need to be broadcast to all and sundry.  The problem with my current journal is that details get lost in the pages and pages of scribble.  It's also hard to capture everything I want to record longhand.

I like the idea of being able to index topics, as well as record briefly the things that have happened that day, not to mention keeping a calendar/diary all in the same book.  At the moment I save our old wall calendars because they record so many events that I want to remember.  Bullet journaling would save me from eventually appearing on Hoarders: Buried Alive when my tottering collection of calendars threatens to squash us all.

Not sure why you would care that I may or may not ponce around writing a bullet journal that you won't see but... yeah.


Oh!  And this really is the last bit of news.  I think.  B and I are back on the 5:2 bandwagon.  We had a break while, you know, moving internationally when willpower and motivation was at an all-time low, but it's time to return to the fold.  It is seriously the easiest thing to do for your health.  Just don't eat for two days of the week!  So our first fast day will be this Monday.  I'm quite looking forward to it.  Remind me of that at 2pm on Monday.  Ok good.  Thanks.