morning tea with tulips

Eowyn picked the tulips and set the table. Nani wore her bathers and I chopped up the fruit.

Central CA in May

This photo of Leilani and I walking away from the ocean (taken by Peter) reminds me so much of a photo my dad took of me and my mom nearly 30 years ago. From memory so similar except my mom and I were wearing bikinis (on holiday) in Hawaii instead of rugged up in jackets and scarves. Well, Leilani should have been wearing a jacket at any rate. She tends to dispose of as many layers as possible no matter the weather.


{You can see if we had stayed much longer I wouldn't have been able to post this photo}

I am skipping around a bit, pulling photos from our trip as I think of them, or as I browse through and a thought hits me. It seems easier than trying to make a cohesive linear presentation of things.

I also want to say thank you for your compassionate comments on my last post, I felt encouraged and blessed to have such friends as you.

ps - maybe dad will send me a scanned copy of said photo? maybe :)

tears

1. Jeana
2. Peter

Still in Asheville in June.

My parents gave Peter and I the gift of a few days sans children. We spent those days in Asheville where we went for walks by ourselves, visited the art museum by ourselves, talked by ourselves (to each other of course) and very much enjoyed time alone together. It was our very first retreat from the children.

It was a beautiful time, well spent just before Peter returned to Australia - he only had a few weeks leave from his work. Eowyn, Leilani and I stayed on in NC with my parents for precious and rare time together. A few days after Peter arrived safely back home I discovered I was pregnant, and sadly, yes very sadly we lost another tiny life at the end of June.

If you are a close friend and reading this I apologise for not having told you sooner. It has been on the very tip of my tongue for so long yet the words were always somehow lost.

Since returning to Australia it's taken me a while to be able to go through our photos taken pre-July...I would open a file and see a photo Peter took of me and wonder was I pregnant then? And then, even though I was so happy to be home with Peter, I would become overwhelmed by how much I miss my loved ones in the USA and I would abandon any attempts at organising those photos.

Yet taking care of documenting our holiday is important to me for so many reasons...The past couple months Peter and I have now had a chance to grieve together (even he had not seen most of our photos) and I am feeling more settled and at peace, yet not without tears, lest I make it sound as though there is a time limit on grief.

As for future children at this time we are completely perplexed. But that may change and we are leaving it entirely in the hands of our heavenly Father. His good, strong, sovereign and loving hands.

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

green

1. Jeana
2. Peter

Asheville, NC - Mid-morning walk in the woods

Every trip to the USA, (even the winter trip of 2006) we are bewildered by the greenness. Not surprising after living on what is probably the driest continent in the world (other than Antarctica) for the past 10 years (or in Peter's case his whole life). Not to mention the regions we've lived in have been in drought since before I immigrated. That sounds awfully dramatic doesn't it?

Policy H2O

Whilst on the topic of water I thought I'd share with you a new blog authored by my sister-in-law, a hydrogeologist in CA.

two views

1. from Blue Ridge Parkway NC; Peter

2.from a car park in Asheville, NC; Jeana

June 2010

tick tock

The clock at my paternal grandfather's house. We visited him back in May...

We have reached our download limit for the month (ABC iview. So
entertaining, so much data.)

When things speed up again I want to start posting photos from our
holiday before I Never Get To It.

Meanwhile this post took so long to organise my children are in the back garden naked screaming war chants bouncing on the trampoline with a box of Weetbix. I'm sure that sentence needed a comma or conjunction somewhere but...really...let's not fuss.

Internet in Australia

{If you really want to know}

collecting spring sun

Two years ago I planted tulip bulbs, Queen of the Night, because that's what I had in my wedding bouquet almost ten years ago (next year). I didn't pull the bulbs and keep them in the fridge for a few weeks before replanting this year (as I've been advised to do in this climate); too busy with my holiday. Apparently winter was cold enough this year!

Unfortunately (for the garden) not ten minutes after I photographed my tulips they were also brought to the attention of my eldest who gathered up a lovely posy as soon as my back was turned. They looked lovely in the house too, but I haven't collected that photo off the memory card yet.

Also on the to do list is: Find Battery Charger. In the meantime I am playing with Peter's camera. He has a very lovely lens that makes me wonder about finding a converter ring. Why can't we have the same brand camera? I don't know.

One day soon I shall show you something fibre/textile related. For the time being I'm in collecting and chattering on about it mode. I have been doing a bit of embroidery. To Do #3 (or was it 4?): Photograph Work.

What are you up to?

and then there was spring. maybe.

So glad to say I am no longer needed as 'nurse' for a time (hopefully a long time). Now I can be 'take kids out to the park, or museum as the case would be' mum. We have been enjoying the recent sunshine (though this photo is from one, maybe two, three? weeks ago. I can tell you it wasn't warm that day).

Today we enjoyed a trip to the National Wool Museum to see the Expressions 2010 Wool Quilt Exhibition. A nice end to what has been a few very sick weeks.

Names I remember from the exhibit are:

Glenys Mann and Sarah Louise Ricketts

These two I remember simply because I've heard of them prior to today...Glenys from, I can't remember precisely, and Sarah was one of my tutors last year. Brilliant artists - stunning quilts.

Anyway. This is not a review.

Usually I take a notebook & pencil to jot down names - works - thoughts, but exhibition seeing with (my) children doesn't lend itself very well to recording details (Even children, maybe especially, can sense the tactile quality of textiles...Don't Touch!). Eowyn's favourite quilt was the one with pink lines and Leilani's favourite was the one with 'the scary little black sheep on it, mummy (3 yr olds...).'

I of course know what they are talking about but you may be somewhat confused.

We also had a wander through the 'From Fleece to Fabric' gallery. The girls, especially Eowyn, were pretty much fascinated by the scouring and spinning machinery (not operating but there are videos of the machines in motion) and the many looms. I felt like 'good mama' today giving them lessons not only in wool textile production but also Geelong history.

When all is quiet

For the whole 5 years I've had my Eowyn I've thought she would really, truly benefit from a degree more structure and organisation than she receives from me. It seems I needn't have worried. She's starting to take things into her own two sweet little hands.



Lucky none of our furniture is terribly precious (although I think the value of this piece has gone up significantly...)