floored

Our home has beautiful old hardwood floorboards, floorboards made from trees from Bellingen, they are really strong and are particularly lovely to look at, as long as your eyes keep away from those um, scratchy bits. However there is one room in this home that has carpet and that is our room and it is foul. It is grey and laden with dust, regardless of how often we vacuum, it is there lurking deep within the creases, it is so dusty that sometimes I even have to face inwards in bed just so I don't breathe in it's disgustingness. 'Rip it up', I hear you say and we hear you, we have our landlady's approval but the only thing is that strangely, it has been glued to the floorboards, crazy, we know. So we have peeked and realised that it is a big job, well one that needs helpers and possibly a shovel and a willingness to lose some skin off knuckles.
But unfortunately we haven't been able to find the time and we lived with it like that for a while, disgusting, yes. It took Jo, our landlady and some professionals weeks to do the rest of the house, she was so over it by then that she just stopped at our room.
Anyway, one night whilst I was away with Poe and Ilo in Sydney, I let myself fantasise about the possibility that Scott might just take this opportunity to strip the carpets whilst I was away, pretty saucy, hey, oh yeah.
You see, in my childhood whenever my mum would go away somewhere, for more than a night or so, my dad would do something to the house to um, err, surprise her. He used to get so excited unveiling the surprise but unfortunately for him the responses to the painted black wall or an 'interesting' and colourful new bathroom were not always what he expected. Luckily he did create some amazing surprises like a mirrored cupboard, a new bedroom for me for my 13th birthday (up in the attic no less), stunning stained glass windows and yes, the stripping of very old brown shag pile carpet and the polishing of the floorboards, looking back though, I do think his successes have been probably more than his um interesting, failures. As a child and teenager and then adult, my heart would always go out to my dad, as he always put so much effort in, he had so much vision and loved to surprise.
So, basically I was projecting all this onto Scott, without him even realising it, so I talked myself down and decided not to think about it.
And then we arrived home, it was delightful seeing Scott, we all really missed him and he really missed us, despite being shared around by the whole town every night we were away, two hour long baths and time spent with his guitar and laptop writing songs, oh and the silent house and no mess, oh yes, he really did miss us. And we could tell as soon as we saw him and hugged and kissed him, we were home. And home was clean, very clean and yes our room was especially delightful, the floorboards were on display in all their glory. I was speechless and delighted and rambled to Scott about wishes coming true, it was very special and so wonderfully sweet, yes sweet sweet air, I now take great pleasure in sleeping facing out and taking big luxurious breaths.

magnolia love

topped off by this

To complete our little holiday I handed over the little people to my parents and headed to a cooking class held by one of my most favourite bloggers, Amber from Mindfully Green.
Amber is one passionate human, passionate about eating well, being gentle to the planet, raising and loving awesome children and passionate about her love for her beautiful partner Fritz. She is also on a mission, a mission to gently educate and inform the masses, one workshop at a time, her workshops include everything from skin care, cheese making, the joys of fermentation to eating with the seasons.  It is always a delight to connect with people, but to find a spark in blogland and then witness as it quickly ignites to moments of mutual admiration and declarations of commonality and then affection, is not only pretty surreal but also totally wonderful.
So you can imagine my delight when I realised that one of Amber's Wholefood cooking classes coincided with my trip to the Coast, we would get to actually meet and eat together, whoa.
In the class we discussed warming winter meals and ingredients, marvelled at the wonders of turmeric (so amazing it even helps to heal cuts), shared wholefood journeys, waxed lyrical about the wonders of kombucha and looked at what steps can be taken to change the way in which the majority of people eat and view food, the environment and health. All this, whilst sipping tea and devouring a delicious red lentil soup, complete with grated beetroot, black sesame seeds and yoghurt and then savouring the warming delight of millet porridge.

But just quietly, my most favourite moment of the day was when I walked in the room and spied Amber talking to someone, she looked up, our eyes met, our grins widened and we quickly embraced, emerging from Blogworld into real world and realising that the connection that had been created in was real, tangible and more than a little special.

Oh and speaking about specialness in the form of blog friends coming to 'real' life, in a week or so we will be heading up north to Mullumbimby to catch up with the lovely Nikki again, oh I can't wait, there has been talk of a bonfire, multitudes of children, deliciousness and the mandatory overload of embraces. 

To connect and hold connection are both wonderful and at times very difficult things, but my heart does swell when I feel that bit of magic with special folk, folk to me, that hold intimacy dear and cherish the journeys that come along with the openness of the self. I admit to struggling and at times holding back in fear of hurt or judgement but then I can't resist, it is the beauty of life and in turn makes so much possible. 

Oh and for those couple of lovelies interested, I just added one extra photo to my last post, i couldn't resist, it is of the beautiful and oh so grown up Jenna, having a read and a snuggle with Poe and Ilo. 

away

With Scott busy on this, the kids and I decided to steal away to the Coast and Sydney for two weeks of quality catching up. Time spent with my parents was, as per usual, full of delight, sleep ins, snuggles, deliciousness and plenty of successful op shopping expeditions.
With our cups full of parent/grandparent love, we headed down the highway to Sydney for a week that was to be full of the perfect dose of quality time with our dear ones and a large number of delightful catch ups with nearly everyone on a very long list.
I particularly treasured the extended stay at Jen, Rod, Lily and Saul's, our family since Poe was 8 months old, the children have grown together and have beautifully maintained such a love filled and delightful connection. For Poe, Lily and Saul are his dearest pals, they know him and adore him and he feels totally safe to be the beautiful soul that he is with them. They spent six days playing and performing, games that were full of kindness, cuddles, cubbies, squeals of laughter, overflowing imagination and lots of singing. Needless to say (but I will anyway), it was wonderful and very, very special.
The sadness that Poe carried with him for the days after we left them was heartbreaking, but knowing the connection that they hold is just beautiful.

Other highlights, besides more op shopping success, included crazy games with Dom, tree climbing adventures with Lulu, Iris and Lenny, scrubbing a kitchen for my brother, a pre dinner catch up with a beautiful, old friend followed by a divine and intimate dinner with Jen here (thanks Omi), a delicious and entertaining dinner and 'show' with Sarah, Gary, Mira and Stella, a new house showing and play with Zoe, Arkie and Priya, fun and wonder at the Powerhouse and a sneaky playground play with Lisa and Otis. Phew.
The rest of our time in Sydney was spent next door to where we used to live, with our dear old neighbours and wonderful and dear friends, Vince, Remy, Jenna and Tracey. Everytime I think of them, I feel their embraces, their warmth and the ease in which we slot into their lives. They love us wholeheartedly and as we do them. Oh these friends who have become as close as really great family (not the average family, or the type of family you never talk to), our chosen family. Ah the love.

Sadly we didn't get to catch up with our dear Ruth, Cam, Edie and Oscar due to sickness, damn that sickness, getting in the way of some special lovin from these guys, oh well, next time.

A favourite moment occurred as we entered the craziness that is Sydney Park on school holidays, it was quite overwhelming. Poe, Ilo and Saul, tentatively slid down some slides, swung on a swing and spent a lot of time fixed to the ground staring at the teeming mass of little and big bodies raging all about. Looking at their faces, I suggested a little walk, as we distanced ourselves from the masses, their legs began to skip about, their smiles returned and their eyes darted about, allowing themselves the freedom to stretch their field of vision. Their eyes fixed firstly on a tree with plans to come back for a climb and then as we reached the top of a hill, I lost them, lost them to a tiny bit of bush, they disappeared beneath the foliage with squeals mentioning 'fairy houses' and 'kindling', I stopped and watched as they created and brainstormed, the perfect playground adventure.

As we drove through the city to Surry Hills to help my brother clean a house, Poe and Ilo stared out the windows, staring at taxis (there is but one lonely taxi in Bellingen), trams, police cars (not many of them either) and buses. Poe had a couple of interesting observations;  "Why are there so many cars with just one person in them?","Why don't all these people in cars go on buses?"and "Why are there so many overweight people in the city?", there were more, but my memory has buried them in a currently unretrievable hole. 

Sorry about the amazingly photo and name heavy post but I couldn't bear to leave any or anyone out. 

365 hankies

Bernadette and I first officially met and connected one day at my market stall, she told me about a project she had been working on, a project that was inspired by someone far far away and was started as a way of distracting her from the depression that had engulfed her as she headed towards 50 whilst suffering from debilitating arthritis. Bernadette had started on a 365 project, everyday for a year she committed to embroidering a hanky, obviously I heard the words 'embroidery' and 'hanky' and saw the electricity radiating from Bernadette and I was captivated. Bernadette, when I met her was so far from her days of agonising pain and depression, she just radiated passion and joy. Every kerchief was embroidered with intention, for a loved one, a moment, a memory, a thought. She started a blog and she facebooked and people grew around her, sharing the memorial of her father's death, the joy of the birth of a child, the humour of comic characters, the beauty of a simple tree.

Bernadette, photographed every hanky and then driven by such wonderful feedback decided to exhibit,  she hung hundred of hankies at Vintage Nest and on the first and following days watched as people smiled, pointed, delighted and engaged with pieces that she created. As I chat with Bernadette I realise the biggest thing she has gotten from this is connection, connection not only with the purpose and intention of each piece and the thoughts connected to them but connection with the hundreds of people who have been so moved by her work. Bernadette now dreams of celebrating her new zest for life by having a holiday in Italy, funded partly by handkerchiefs.