Myriad Me

And in the Top Ten Most Boring Places to Take a Small Child...

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Me: Sophs, would you like to see the Thrombolites?

Sophs: From bot what Mummy?

Me: Living rocks!

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Sophs: Living rocks? Coooool! Do they dance?

Me: Er, no.

Sophs: Do they talk?

Me: Er, no.

Sophs: Do they sing?

Me: Er, no.

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Sophs: What do they do then Mummy?

Me: Er, well, they grow very very slowly. And look a lot like a rock.

Sophs: <sound of silence> Well that sounds boring.

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But I still got a smile out of her.

We picked a blustery, overcast day to visit living rocks that take decades to grow a millimetre. In terms of engaging activites for a small child, well, this was most definitely not one!

Painting faces

As the mother of a 4 year old I can now comment with some authority on the skill of face painters, having watched my girl be painted in several countries more times than I can remember. You can tell the ones who are more experienced with their confident sweeps of the brush and deft application of a rainbow-striped sponge across a closed eye. You can tell the ones who have skimped on their paint supplies as within 5 minutes of application it has smudged and streaked and you know that by the end of the day it will be all over clothes, hands and arms, if it even makes it that long. Because there are face painters, and then there are face painters.

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We stumbled across an 'and then there are face painters' at a local Art Show at the weekend.

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Her brush moved quickly and precisely across the smooth, beautiful skin as she built up and blended rainbow colours and then added detail and pattern from a pallete of pots and sponges.

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My girl sat perfectly still as the cool brush circled and swept over eyebrows, dabbed down cheeks and swooshed along lips.

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Until she was transformed...

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And my beautiful butterfly emerged!

The paint was still as pretty and intact at bath-time as it was when painted. Thank you JJ Face & Body Art!

Heatwave

In the romanticism of my conjured-up childchood memories the heat of the Australian summer bathes my bare limbs, and the dry winds warm my face upturned to the generous sun.

In reality however, the long stretch of a heatwave, the hottest and longest on record for nearly 50 years, has sapped my mind, enveloped me in a fug of heat-induced stupor, stolen my sleep and scorched my limbs. The light is intense. The sunlight blinds and burns.

We adapt our daily life. We live in the early cooler hours and take refuge in our hot house in the heat of the day, the air conditioning next to useless. Cold showers bring our temperature down. We breakfast at the beach and swim before the sun rises high in the sky.

The bone-chilling cold kept us indoors in London; the searing heat keeps us indoors here.

Can anyone teach me a rain-dance?

By the water...

We bathed in the sunlight.

We lazed about on the warm sand.

We looked up at the perfect blue.

We dipped our toes in the Indian Ocean.

There is much to embrace here; to soak into our cores, to steady our heartbeat and set an easy rhythm to our breath.

I am quiet by the water. At peace.

Mini-digger

What's that sound? Is that really a mini digger parked on my front lawn??

Why yes! I believe it is!

Several times a year in Perth there are 'bring out your rubbish' street-side collections. You place large items that won't fit into your bin onto the verge, and a digger and truck come along to scoop them up and take them away for you.The things people throw away in the more affluent suburbs is a little disturbing, although perhaps people put perfectly good items out in the knowledge that one of the street shoppers (people who kerb crawl and collect items to sell from the collections) will take them away so they won't be turned into landfill. We certainly live in a first world country is all I can say.

It was a blisteringly hot day beneath blinding sunlight when they came to clear our meagre pile.  As our house is the only one on the street with a shaded front lawn they sensibly parked the mini-digger and headed off for a long break, amid squeals of 4 year-old excitement (with some from a bigger person).

This city: Perth front and back

The city of Perth sits next to the picturesque Swan River. The views along this side of the city, as you would expect, are really quite pretty with the expanse of water beneath cloud-dotted skies.

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The other side of the city however...

To recap, from the front it looks like this (those teensy tiny specks on the grass are people!):

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and the other side looks like this:

I am being a little bit unfair here as this side of the city is very much a work in progress. A new Perth City Link is underway, an epic attempt at urban renewal in order to reunite Northbridge and the city for the first time in 100 years. If they get it right it will change the city for the better, with the exception of the new stadium/entertainment centre which was aptly described to me as 'what people in the 1980's thought buildings would look like in the future':

And they're not just stopping with renewal here, there are massive plans afoot for that grassy lawn in front of the city in the pic earlier in this post. It's going to be replaced with water. The Perth Waterfront project will see a harbour surrounded by apartments, cafes, shops and bars and hopes to connect the city to the water. Hmmm. We'll see.

This vast land

Several days before Christmas my girl and I headed inland to visit an old friend and to seek a recalibration of spirit and mind within the vast horizons of the wheatbelt.

The satnav instructions went something along the lines of:

~ Turn right

~ Drive for 233 km

~You have arrived at your destination

We watched the landscape transform as we drove, and drove, and drove; the housing being replaced by forest, and then bushland, which in turn gradually receeded until small townships sparsely dotted an otherwise empty gently rolling landscape of burned earth and dry crops.

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I live in a vast land. Leaving the city gives you a sense of place and slows you down. Mother Nature dictates your day and will not be hurried. Crops are harvested when they are ready, the earth is ready to be planted only with the unpredictable rains. The clouds tempt and threaten, destroy and enrich depending on when they unleash their cargo or drift teasingly by holding onto their precious load. The rain can cause celebration or heartache.

The crops stretch as far as the eye can see...

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When you stay with lovely farmers they sometimes let you play with their farm toys - this is apparently the small harvester (the top of the ladder is 6ft high):

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and it's a surprising piece of engineering with an airconditioned spring-seated push-button automated everything driver's cab, and I can now claim to have harvested wheat after a 15 minute ride through the fields!

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A sunburned country, a land of sweeping plains and vast horizons. I could have done with a wide angle lense...

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Thanks for a great few days B.

and so to 2012... or why I don't like self-help gurus

On New Year's Days I continued as I began when we moved back to Perth:

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It was a little bit on the grey side and very blustery and you should have seen the dark grey clouds blowing in behind us. But the clouds always eventually blow over and the sun shines again. A skyful of bright light is a given here.

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I don't really do resolutions per se, but I do find the change of year an apt time to reflect and acknowledge what was and what is. In the words of Sophia, there were quite a few 'wipeouts' in 2011. I came so very close to staying submerged on so many occasions but somehow, some way I managed to resurface and make it to shore each time.

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Under these vast skies, suitably dramatic at times, I continue to piece together new ways of living and being. Reconnecting and redefining that which fulfills, enriches and just plain ol' feels good. Creating my life in vivid colour and boldness.

So why don't I like self help gurus? They tend to sell you a destination, and for me life is not a destination, it's the journey. I don't believe that if you change this habit or that belief you will then arrive at Happiness and Contentment Forever More. I am all for self-reflection, introspection, adjustments and positive change but life is also a journey with blind corners, bumps in the road and long dark nights in between the scenic views, smooth roads and technicolour sunrises; it can be unpredictable, unstable and sometimes completely out of your control no matter what you do. But that's part of the journey and not the destination. Hold tight, ride it out. There's better things coming. I know. I speak from experience. 

I believe, and the past year has shown me that one of the greatest resources I have on my life's journey is resilience (stubbornness?); another is the desire, a deep innate urge to seek out the beauty, the whimsy and the magical from my every day life. I don't capture it on camera as often as I would like but I find it and see it.

And so to 2012... no resolutions per se but it is the year I switch my camera to manual mode and learn faster which settings work best, when. It is the year when I bring more creating and crafting into my life - sewing and knitting being at the top of the list. It is the year I intend to get onto my Masters program and complete my journey to becoming a psychologist.

It's also a continuation of loving and cherishing my wonderful joy of a little girl. She is everything.

Wishing for you every happiness, much laughter, resilience and joy in 2012.

Christmas in Australia Part 2

Christmas was spent largely inside this year, although this time it was because of the need to be in the airconditioning instead of the heating. The Christmas pudding was frozen in a delicious southern hemisphere summer-time twist:

And the trifle tasted even better than it looked (I take my hat off to my sister-in-law for making both!)

What's an Australian Christmas without a swim in the pool? My water baby now has the confidence but not the skills to go with it!

She wanted to be thrown high in the air in order to then splash down into the water, but she cannot keep herself afloat for more than about 5 seconds.

We're enrolled in swimming next term to try to match the bravery with the ability to swim like a fish to which she aspires.

This year Santa stayed true to his word and delivered the desired present, much to someone's delight.

I hope your Christmas was very:

And it's almost 2012... phew.

Christmas in Australia Part 1

Christmas in Australia - and the beach has just been closed because there's sharks offshore. The sirens are blaring, the life guards are shooing people in from their dinghy, the helicopters are hovering. We're inside the reef in knee deep water away from the main beach so we'll just wave at the sharks as they cruise by...

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Market Girl

In the last week at school there was a Christmas market and families were invited to apply to set up a stall. On the very last day of submissions I hastily filled in the application form, stuffed it into the box and thought nothing would come of it. As it turned out there was a shortage of crafts to sell (but an abundance of food stalls) so we were accepted. Eeeek. That meant we had to make things, and fast...

We are now masters (mistresses?) of covering buttons with fabric and using them to then make bookmarks by attaching them to enormous paperclips, or threading hair elastics through them, or sticking them to magnets, or making hair clips. We so enjoyed making and then selling them, and I have to say that my girl is quite the charismatic saleslady! We covered our costs, made a modest profit and had a whole lot of fun along the way. Maybe there is an Etsy shop in me after all... and I have been meaning to start listing some photos for quite some time. Hmmm. It's a project for when I have a little more time.

Little duck feet

We live one street away from a lake which although close for us, is quite a walk for little duck feet.

So we were somewhat surprised to find a fluffy little family resting on our front lawn one morning.

And the next morning, and the next, and the next...

We enjoyed their company for over a week and would often see them traipsing along the street enroute to our shaded cool lawn.

Until one day they came no more.

How wonderful it was that for a brief time, our 'everyday' included sitting on a green lawn with a Mama duck and five peeping balls of fluff dozing at arm's length away from us.

Poolside Musings

From birth your child grows.

Daily, weekly, monthly, the growth and changes unfurl in the many milestones reached and celebrated.

Parenthood is absorbing, at times consuming and all encompassing but like the seasons, time moves on and your utterly dependent child starts to stake out the corners of her life which are hers. Taking step after increasingly confident step towards independence.

With each new milestone and skill acquired there is a pang shadowing the excitement and pride, and I cast a glance back to what was. My baby toddler little girl grows. I still can't quite believe how fast the time has gone.

I want to raise a confident child. A child who knows herself, and trusts herself. Who, from a foundation of unconditional love can explore the world around her, and learn how to just be, in the way that is best and right for her.

I'll keep bundling all of the precious memories of times past together as I help her towards her future, celebrating each new skill and milestone with a quick glance at what was, and a warm smile at the joy that has been, is, and is still to come with my little love.

Moment in Time

On Saturday, November 5th, 2011, across the world:

Row 1, L-R: making strawberry jam in Perth; Abby by the wheat in Merredin Western Australia; Jung museum Seattle, Valerie's iPad crazy app portrait!

Row 2, L-R: Luke and Mara in the autumn leaves in Watford UK; making toffee apples in Copenhagen; Ed's 4th birthday party in London; autumn trees in Seattle.

Row 3, L-R: a dream made reality in Cumbria with little Amelie and Gabriel holding hands along a country lane; stormy skies over the wheatbelt in Merredin; Guy Fawkes fireworks in Cumbria; baking with eggs from my chickens.

Row 4, L-R: Seattle; more Merredin storms, Seattle streets, and a home-made lunch in Perth.

Thank you Beth, Kanami, Valerie, Sonya, Katherine, Sarah, Teresa and Su for your photos (I hope I got the details right!), and I promise I'll get the next Moment in Time up here in under 6 weeks from the date of the photos! I swear there is a time goblin stealing away hours of my life...

Christmas dreams

I think this might be the most magical Christmas yet...

A recipe for sunflowers

Take 5 sunflower seeds. Plant and water them well. Wait 6 days for them to sprout.

Pull up 6 paving slabs, remove half of the sand underneath and dig in compost and veggie scraps to enrich the earth.Transplant the little seedlings and tend them daily.

Watch as they grow from spindly, inch-high seedlings until they are the same height as your child.

Feed, water and love them until they are the same height as you, and are promising you an enormous sunny flower.

Keep feeding and watering them, harvest several courgettes from the plants next to them, keep watching them grow until you have to look up to see their just-opened blooms.

Study the wildlife that are drawn to the sturdy stems and flowers, for a nibble and a rest.

Watch the honey bees smother themselves in pollen, seemingly unable to resist burying their heads deep into the stamens and drenching themselves with tiny yellow specks.

Remember that you grew these from a seed. That with the right conditions, tender attention and care, and a touch of luck you can create beauty. Step back, and enjoy,

The Full Lunar Eclipse from Perth

In case you missed it, there was a full lunar eclipse last night and there won't be another one until 2014.

I've never taken night photos before and after a few false starts and some googling, I managed to (mostly) get the right settings:

I don't look skywards at night-time anywhere near often enough. There is an enormous velvety sky up there set with twinkling diamonds, and it is beautiful.

On the next clear night wherever you are, go outside and look up.

It's simply magnificent.

What comes first?

The chickens of course!

The eggs came 6 months later, and 3-4 eggs a day are still an absolute joy to collect each morning in our egg basket. There's always a 'thankyou ladies', a handful of corn and wheat (and strawberries several times a week) and a feathery cuddle in exchange.

The egg on the left is the same size as what you'd find in a shop-bought carton labelled 'large eggs' and comes from Speckles. The slightly larger egg in the middle comes from my one-egg-a-day-without-fail girl Yeti. And the egg on the right? Penny skips a day, then lays the most enormous eggs I've ever seen!

Those two orange yolks at the bottom are from a Penny-double-yolker extra-extra-large special. We bake, boil, fry, poach, grill and eat eggs every which way, savouring the fact that they are free-range and organic from our girls. Our chickens might have come first, but the eggs are equally loved and appreciated.

A place to dream

I found a place to dream, to be at the very beginning of all I am yet to create and live. Thoughts cascading and tumbling down into the quieting deep still ponds of peaceful reflection.