Tuesday, May 13, 2008

:take yourself out:

These photos are of Midnight Espresso in Wellington - a favourite haunt of mine since the early 1990s. Sometimes the thing that I love about a place is how it doesn’t change. Everything else changes apace, so it’s wonderful to have this little portal of nostalgia availabe whenever I need of shot (of espresso, yes, but of memory also.)

***

I’ve been busy with lots of my paid work over the past few weeks. I do enjoy my job, but it is so very tidal. By that I mean, weeks go by where the most I do is have email conversations with students and then their assignments come in and suddenly my life is not very much my own and I am trying to pack a 40+ hour working week in around family life. It is always a challenge. For all that, though, I am grateful to have part time work that firstly, I can do from home - allowing me to full-time parent, and secondly, is related to my passion: writing.

There is a real sense of ‘coming up for air’ when I send the completed assignments back in their courier bag...I’m feeling that today. I have Magnus home today and tomorrow, but Thursday - his next kindy morning, I’m going to take myself out for the morning. I usually use the kindy mornings to do work or housework or writing work, so it will feel deliciously decadent. On the agenda will be a leisurely chai and chelsea bun in the library cafe, a loooonnggg mooch in the bookshop and library with no little hands tugging at my sleeves and, of course, some op shopping! I got the idea of taking myself out on a date from Julia Cameron’s ‘artist’s dates’ in The Artist’s Way book. There is something so valuable about indulging yourself. You go home relaxed and enriched. You get ideas. You become a nicer partner / parent / person.

There is a cake, a book and a bag of op shop goodness with my name on it - come Thurday I will heed their call!

Monday, May 12, 2008

:six:

Helen tagged me to write a six word memoir last week. A harder task than you might think! At first I tried to write something witty around words ending in ‘ed’, as in: “Fed, led, wed, bred, dead” but firstly, I couldn’t think of six words and secondly, that approach involves me foreshadowing my own death. Heh.

Then I had the bright idea of looking at what pops up on my Flickr tabs - and chose six from that:

“Family, blood, moments, garden, just give.”

I think that is self-explanatory. And the photo above is to represent the peace of mind I strive for, but often don’t attain,

The other part of the tag was to share six oddities about myself. (Where do I start? Ha!)

-I spend at least 15 minutes per day dancing to loud music in my living room. I usually have a three song cycle on high rotate. At the moment it’s: “I’m still fond of you” by Cut Off Your Hands, “This is your last chance to be famous” by The Mint Chicks, and “Boyz” by M.I.A.

-I am squeamish about slugs - just seeing them makes me gag, but I quite like snails.

-Even though I never get around to reading all the books in time, I cannot leave the public library with less than ten books, sometimes more. Honestly, I’ll head there thinking “I have plenty to read at home. I’m just going to get that one recipe/poetry/gardening book I need” but I CANNOT do it. I see other interesting books, I remember writers I wanted to find, I procrastinate in the knitting book aisle and before you know it - huge stack of books.

-Although these days we have a coffee machine and drink fair trade, home roasted coffee - some days I get a craving for an instant coffee. Hell, I was raised on the stuff.

-I cannot sleep in a room with an open wardrobe door. Too much C.S.Lewis as a kid, I think.

-I think of the yard birds (sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, wax eyes) as my pets, and everyday I feed them our toast crusts and cereal scrapings. There is even one big blackbird who comes and visits me when I’m weeding, hoping for juicy worms, but very bold. I like to think he trusts me.

***

So there you go! That was fun. I invite any of you who blog out there to join in.

Have a good day, dear ones!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

:stripy sock photo of the week:

I’m very excited to bring you this week’s stripy sock photo of the week a) because it is a beauty and b) because it was taken by an accomplished photographer! Scoutj takes a good shot - there is a whole lot of beauty in her photo stream, but check out this beautiful boy who she shot for the amazing 100 Strangers Project. I love the idea of this project - if I wasn’t trying to write a poetry book, teach creative writing, raise two kids, grow food, make craft stuff to sell....I’d do this. I would.

I love this shot, too. Flower as weapon.

And this isn’t so much about the photography, but check out these fur-reaaky pancakes, apparently they are ‘Horton Hears a Who’ themed pancakes from the ‘International House of Pancakes’ restaurant. Woah - that’s a lot of blue food colouring.

Anyway, I digress - regarding this week’s stripy sock photo - I love this - it is atmospheric, moody, it asks questions. I love the blur, the colour.

It also reminds me of a friend I used to flat with, also called Helen. For a while we were “the two Helens” and she wore drain-pipe jeans and converse sneakers very much like the figure on the left (still does) and I wore interesting shoes and stripy socks (still do!) like the figure on the right.

I’d love this one on my wall, I reckon. Thanks so much, Scout, for letting me use it.

Hope you all have lovely weekends. I have a lot of work to do, but despite that I’m feeling pretty buoyant. Long may it last. 

:yoga buddy:

I try to do yoga first thing in the morning, before everyone else is up. Sometimes Willoughby wakes up and comes to do yoga with me. The main difference in our styles is that while I try to hold a pose for a few minutes - he holds them for a few seconds before racing ahead. He can do my 30 minute yoga sequence in about five. I enjoy his interest and am trying to quietly encourage it, without appearing so enthusiastic that it puts him off. (Have you noticed that with older children? If you get too fired up about something they are doing, they swiftly decide it isn’t interesting anymore.)

His favourite thing, though, is to do this pose - which he called his “try to kiss your own butt” pose.

And then to giggle uncharitably at my attempts to get my rickety old body in the same position. Not a chance. That thing they say about youth being wasted on the young. So true. 

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

:prehistoric bites:

Willoughby made these dinosaurs (with a little help from his papa.) Normally I find it easy to resist eating the baking we do, because it’s for the children, right? Pre-kids we didn’t bother baking much, except for special occassions - but these days, with two hungry kids - we tend to ‘fill the tins’ a la the childhood many of you may have had, but I didn’t. My mother didn’t bake. If we were hungry we were offered crackers or fruit. (Oh sob sob, my tormented childhood. No fresh baking! Wail!)

But, anyway, shortbread is hard to resist. Which is why we only make it a few times a year. Usually we make oat based things like anzacs, flapjacks, also hokey pokey biscuits and afghans and chocolate chip cookies.

Note to parents of children obsessed with dinosaurs - buy dinosaur cutters! They will eat anything - pastry, bread, scones, biscuits, crackers, healthy oat slice…

if it is in the shape of a dinosaur. Rowr!

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