Sanctuary

Today I realised why I had been blogging a lot less. Of course there is the obvious lack of time and energy when work becomes a full time prospect but there is also less quiet, still time to just notice those everyday marvels that I used to feel so compelled to record.

Due to the disease (whose name we will not mention today for I am cross with it)- I have spent a lot of this week lying on my back in an endone haze. Monday I had some reconstructive surgery which is all good and fine and dandy, then I read a whole book Tuesday, much of which I may not remember, and Wednesday I walked to my neighbour's for a cuppa and leg stretch- quite limited activity for a gadabout like myself.

Today Shorty and I were alone in a quiet house...like the olden days of yore when it was just her and I... everyday. We decided to do one of our favourite girl things together.

 "Down the back" is getting less and less use from the older offspring as they tend to use out the front more with their own friends and a little more independence. Down the back has languished a little since the Year of Chunders.

The giant ginger plant that sheltered and fed the ladies with all manner of bugs and lizards has shrivelled to dry stumps in the drought but the recent rains has sent new shoots popping out all over.
The ladies scratch around in relative chicken luxury under a bower of red hibiscus and taller natives.

The ladies' garden is back on track with egg production back to where it once was and the rain tank being full enough to get water down there.

That will help with getting these dormant old vege patches back into action. They died off and dried out when I lost the energy and will to tend to them in the Y.O.C. (Lets just call it YOK from now!)
I'm thinking that stump of gum tree left over from the 2008 Gap storms would be good as a stool or table up the front. Too rustique? It will be considered.

Back in the cubby there are residual shells and stones from the beach holidays of years past and dingly dangly stuff from when the bigg-uns were wee-uns. All these things hold their own memories and make me smile.

 Sitting, having a cup of tea, while Shorty Divine makes glitter sand cakes and chatters along with the cockatoos and chickens is like a restorative salve. I feel my back unknotting, my mind clearing and the anaesthetic residue wafting away on the warm, spring breeze. It's not New York or Straddy but it is my sanctuary above the chooks in the cubby with a cup of tea and my baby. Things are looking up.

Sing it, Johnny!

Tea Spree!

If you have met me you'll know I do love my tea. Hippy infusions, Orange Pekoe, English brekky, good ol' Liptons- I love them all. That's one of the reasons I got this tea service at the school fete last year. That and the fact that it is identical to my nanna's pink one- and it was $5!It seems I have a third week of work coming up. That will be it! I need some time with Shorty then before she starts kindy. It seems we were just mooching around together for a couple of years and out of nowhere this time has come. There is work for me if I want it. She is ready. I'm not sure about me.

Saturday, there was a lot of dropping off to do- kids to sport, bags of clothes to the oppy, crutches to the chemist. I always have to buy something at the oppy when I drop so Shorty got this pretty Milkshake dress.
I got my deposit back for the crutches and used it to buy this stuff called Moo Goo which is meant to have astonishing skin restoring powers. It has ingredients used on cow teats to make them all soft and uncracked. If it's good enough for a lactating mother cow it's good enough for me. It's cheaper than Clarins anyway and I've been surviving on old sample tubes lately. I'll let you know about its miraculous effect when I am mistaken for my children's cousin.
Shorty and Fishy were with me. Fish got a bit of cash from the friends this year. It was burning a hole in his pocket so I took him to DFO for some retail therapy and mother/ son time. He spent the lot at a sports shop. It was not my natural habitat. Typo was. I need a pencil case for the essential pen collection I seem to always have. Mine includes the imperative Artline fine tip, Sharpie, erasable blue pen for messed up paperwork and scissors.
Then we hit the Corelle shop where I was served promptly as my children were wielding a rugby ball and crazy grins. Nothing is that unbreakable! Corelle has met its match at our house but I like these red and white ones a lot. Did your family have Corelle for the kids growing up. It's nicer than plastic.
Then I spotted this marked way down in the Wedgewood Shop. Not a big fan of theirs, I was hunting for a thank you gift for Nanna and Grandad's child minding services. I did get them something. Then I saw this. The Jasper Conran version is more my cup of tea than the more traditional Wedgewood designs. It looked like the sort of thing that might have always been in a 1940's farmhouse like ours. The ribbon is from Typo. I can think of a lot of things to use that for!
This morning I tried the tea pot out. I love the huge flat lid. Three different girlfriends dropped in over the course of the day so the pot got a good work out.
The jug was down to $10. What could I do? It was a small reward to myself to commemorate the week I went back to work- and it worked out okay!
Cheers!