Gibbs-esque

Plug time: Photo and nappy cover by Kelly of Pepper Place.  When Skye reaches critical mass she literally explodes and I can not believe how much  sh*t comes out of one tiny baby. These nappy covers achieve something akin to duct taping the the nappy to her body.  Oh, and they look pretty too.

What is boredom?

I know the transient, excruciating type one feels in meetings but what is it that people are experiencing when they say their lives are "boring"? Can anyone fill me in here?

Sigh...Labradors

Yes, that is a swing-top bin lid over this head and a pooey nappy in his mouth.
Kurgen - 1
Tamara - Nil

Archives

I bought another large book case last month intending to reserve a shelf for Rohan's photos and ashes. Unfortunately I have already packed it with books, and various media. In the top of this book case I have placed my most valuable books. A few of my favourites being: The Witching Weed (1927 - A book on smoking), Burn's Works (18??), The Decameron (of course - everyone must have this), and most extraordinarily, An Anglo-Saxon Reader (1925). The contents of which date from 700s to 900s and is printed in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet. One of the texts is a poem by Cynewulf who wove his runic name into the poem, Juliana  (Use the link and type in p.174 if you're seriously interested).

Sigh...beautiful books. It's lucky they're a tax deduction for teachers' professional libraries.

Skye Update: At 2 months she has doubled her birth weight and grown 6cm.  She is not a very smiley child but nevertheless alert and fairly content.

Grandma's sheets

As a girl I stayed with my grandmother most weekends and on winter nights I loved snuggling into the flannel bed sheets. After she died these passed to Mum and Dad and eventually they came to me. When their centres started to thin I patched them until I cut them down the centre and sewed the outsides together. Finally they are beyond repair but I can not let them go because they are imbued with "Grandma" and still smell distantly of sunlight soap. Moreover, they have survived at least 50 years of use while the flannel sheets I bought in the 1990's managed barely four.

Thinking of this I envision a timeline of memory persistence. My Grandma was born in 1904 and died in 1987. She acquired a household full of stuff and to have something of hers is to enable her some small existence.  This puts me in mind of a Radio National show I heard about living on as a part of nature. A person may be dead but their corporeal form has been distributed and has become a part of many things and the speaker suggests the mind may also be experiencing the same phenomena. A wide, worldly, planetary consciousness. Lifiting your arm becomes the swaying of a tree and your thoughts a swam of sandflies.  I will trawl the archives and see if I can find that show to share with you...AFTER I have turned these sheets into nappies for Skye.

Gold Coast Trip

Kirk has the flu so our plans for snorkling and rockpooling on Gold Coast  were replaced with Foxtel overload. Nevertheless, Skye is starting to settle and behaved fairly well. "Thankyou" to our family and friends who have fed, housed and put up with us this week.

By the way - I highly recommend the sushi train underneath Robina Town Shopping Centre. DE-LISH-OUS!

Transition Towns

This weekend I attended a workshop on Transition Towns which is a determinedly non-political movement to facilitate communities towards the lifestyle changes which must be made once the cheap oil has run out. The point being (cue cliche) "to leave oil before it leaves us." To detail here what  we did at the workshop would be tedious so for the time being just imagine how life would change if fuel jumped to $5 a litre. Now, excuse me while I turn Henny Penny into chicken soup. BOK BOK BOK!!

Mooo

Sky's belly is getting better now I am sticking with just one breast per feed. She doesn't cry as much any more and we are both getting a better night's sleep. (Note that it is currently a quarter to 3 in the morning, I'm awake but she's asleep...Mmmm)

Kirk now has a blog, The Apprentice. The purpose is to keep people in touch with what he is doing for home schooling although we will just be posting the highlights. It's also for him to reflect on his own progress and experience different ways of communicating with the world. If anyone wants a full breakdown of skills and a program, let me know. Incidentally I am writing a program for a 14 year old home schooler who loves sailing, YAY! There is so much he can do which ties in with grade 9 benchmarks. By the way, Jessica Watson is a homeschooler too, imagine making a solo circumnavigation of the globe your culminating assessment!

My friend and I start an Auslan course tomorrow night but we've had a lot of rain so fingers crossed she will make it because there are 9 creek crossings between her place and mine.

PS Kirk's not scared of Rhino beetles any more. He chases Aunty Michelle with them instead.