Morning train

Even commuting can be beautiful:

Yes, I wear my running shoes with stockings.

Feet, meet grass and sand

Hi blogworld, it's been a while. I've been taking a break from the screen in my non-work hours and having a little holiday, playing around in my garden, and catching up on some knitting. Don't I sound 148 years old?

Here's what I've been up to:

Harper turned two

My wee boy is now two years old. I can report he has embraced the 'terrible' in terrible twos somewhat, but as his vocab and mimicry of grown ups increases, so does his charm. Il est tres charmant. We celebrated his transition from infancy, where we now have to pay for him to fly on a plane, with a party. It was awesome. Our lounge was full of people, toys and food, and though the day started off a bit cruddy, it fined up and the little ones could do a bit of freeranging out in the yard. We were so chuffed so many people made the journey to K-town to see us, and H was chuffed with his swag of presents, so thanks everybody! Shame the kids didn't like my cupcakes as much as the icing I plastered on it - I was still finding cupcakes with the icing scraped off them the next day.

We went on holiday

Being on holiday means forgetting about; the work shoes, what day it is, the news, being on time, washing nappies, making lunches the night before.

And means embracing: barefeet, bare bums (if you are two), snoozing on the couch, grass, hot dogs on a stick with sauce, laying yourself out to dry.

We did all this in spades as we drifted north to Auckland, Whangarei and the Bay of Islands for two weeks off.
And wore my ear drums out.

I went and saw Pavement play their first gig in ten years with The Bram at the Auckland Town Hall which was awesome and nostaglic and fun. They sing one of my top five favourite songs of all time.

Two weeks later I was back in Auckland for the Pixies gig at Vector, which was really fun too, especially as I was there with some really great pals; MatnNat, The Bram, and Ange. Thanks dudes.

We are alive

When lino and carpet collide -- Harper and me at The Three Oaks in Wairoa

Wow, that was a long break from the blog. We are alive. And healthy. And none of us has lost limbs. We've just been quite busy with things to blog about, which have means I've had little time to blog.

A quick update on What Happened To Us In January

1. I am Back At Work. Which means I am a Working Mother. I am supposed to feel terrible all day missing my kid, but actually I am LOVING being back. Though I feel the novelty may soon wear off, I am feeling pretty happy and productive and the time I get with Harper at both ends of the day and in the weekends is great.

2. In January, we went norf to Wairoa for the wedding of Harper's godfather Josh and his partner Kirin. The wedding was awesome, though I missed the haka and Bollywood dancing because a certain young man needed to go home to bed. It was held on a marae half an hour out of Wairoa, and though it was a hot sunny day in the early 30s, by the evening it was cloudy and rained during the reception, forcing everyone inside into the wharekai. Which was cool. Harper ate his first hangi food, and seemed to approve. It was a really lovely day, and I feel pretty lucky to have been part of it.

3. My first attempt at gardening is starting to produce produce. The first thinning of baby carrots produced enough finger-sized veges to keep Sweeney busy for a few minutes, and this lewd mutant carrot (above) that I ate in one bite. My cherry tomato is producing one red tomato at a time, and the first lot of beetroot have come up. Soon I will be pulling up the last of the carrots and beetroot and getting the soil ready for winter veges -- more carrots, parnsips, peas and lettuce methinks.

Watching the sunset at Neil and Becc's house - L-R Matty J, Neil, Nat, Gus and Deb

4. We said goodbye to our pals the Firestones, who have left for the sizzling sidewalks of Melbourne. Deb, Gus and Leo have been a big part of my life for years now, especially since I returned from Hamilton in 2006. Leo was the first baby I ever bathed, fed or had fall asleep on me, and there is now a big void in our group of friends. Who will bake the birthday cakes? Who will bring up UFOs at dinner? Who will cheat at board games? They were especially dear to us when Harper was born, bringing us meals on nights when the contents of the compost bin looked like an easy, quick dinner. We miss you.

Autumn

The glorious summer has ended. I know this because I bought new slippers yesterday, and new flannelette pyjamas last week. My hands as well as my mouth crave hot cups of tea to be warmed by. I put socks on my baby's feet under his stretch-and-grow. My wet, washed hair needs a blowdrier. It's time to put away my red stripy jandals and pull my red scarf out of the bottom drawer.

It's been an amazing summer. It was the summer I went swimming at Scorching Bay with a stripy singlet stretched over my belly then had leisurely coffees at Maranui with sand on my barefeet - on a week day. It was the summer I modelled my boulder-sized body under the trees in the town belt, resplendent in a strapless red top. It was the summer my Harper was born. It was the summer that nappies were dried under the blazing mid-morning sun, cicadas deafening me as I pegged them out. It was the summer I found a pair of sandals I can live with.
Still, autumn and winter have their own joys. Craft night. Mittens. Roast chicken. The Film Festival. Hot chocolate. Sleeping under piles of blankets. Knitting. Red scarves.

Lethargy

Tiny is sucking the life out of me, putting the final (hopefully) touches to his body before he's born. It's a week until D-Day and I seem to have ballooned even more than I thought possible over the last week, he's like a basketball stuck up my top. I've had to lean over quite far to see my feet in the above picture. Today I don't even have the energy to drag myself through the process of getting dressed - it's much easier to sit here and type haphazardly into my laptop with frequent breaks. I'm sure by the time I actually do get dressed, it will be bed time. The lethargy is not helped by how hot it is, or at least, how hot I am. I can feel warmth coming off my body like a heater. At least it's not just me. Even the cat can't be bothered looking up.

Noosa is awesome

Warm squeaky sand, hibiscus flowers on the surface of the pool, a kookaburra wake up call at 5.37am, the eternal fruitless scanning for koalas, whirring lorikeet wings, silent black flying foxes fleeing in their hundreds across the river to roost, continual surprise at the expanse of white belly protruding from my body, naked stocky men at a nudist beach staring aimlessly at the sand like cows in a field, the postie perfecting his surfing stance, brush turkeys pecking at our lunchbox, a growing collection of freckles on my legs, eating breakfast on the deck doing the sudoku in the paper, wearing jandals, kayaking through a swarm of stingrays, lying in the afternoon sun with a hat over my face, donut king, herons turning the gum trees white, kids playing aussie rules, an air conditioned corner dairy with a man who called me doll, swimming togs and towels drying on the deck, fresh pineapple for breakfast.

Life is feet

sweeney kimpy sunday

good morning, wellington


the desert road

charlie's hungry