A kind of happy exhaustion.
We're back. Wagga to Newcastle via Sydney for a 7-day, three stop, whistle tour of the rellies. 1322km (821 miles) round trip and covered all the required bases: family, friends, playmates and good takeaway.
You couldn't get us away from home with a crow bar again for at least a week!
Our Christmases have a 3-year cycle: 1) my family 2) H.I.'s family and 3) staying at home. This year, in Newie, we had a fabulous times and felt really privileged to be able to get 4 generations under one roof for the Christmas celebration again. Him Indoors' grandmother has had a lot of illness this year and had us all worried for quite a while but she seemed to be in much better health now the weather's warming up. I got to meet a new fiance and we all got along as cheerfully as one can when surrounded by many more people than one would usually encounter during the course of a single day and two semi-hysterical little kids.
Til got to play with her 5yo cousin for three whole days, which helped her understanding of all things cars, particularly V-Dubs. She can now park, wash, fill with petrol, do donuts any car (with the exception of the beloved V-Dub collection) and make a truely wide variety of car-related noises not previously in her lexicon of weird sounds. She asked for her cousin for the rest of the car-trip home (2 loooong days) and was more than slightly put out to learn that he wasn't hidden in the back of the car somewhere.
We also got to catch up with friends visiting from Rome and some old family friends of mine that are close enough to be called 'family', anyway. Surrogate families are a great marriage of friends, loyalty and default kindness.
Back in the land of Wagga, floods have receded now but there are stagnant pools of water all about generating concerns about Ross River Fever spiking this summer and autumn. Poor Til's coming home from daycare with at least 5 bites/day. This is on top of all the bites we're suffering around the house, particularly at night as we're not getting good coverage with both barrier and insecticides, although we're obviously hesitant about the use of the latter. We'll just hope for the best.
At least we haven't had any ants in the house so far this summer!
Have re-potted a zygocactus that a friend gave me when she moved house. It's a glorious hot-pink one but was a bit root-bound so I've tried to give it a boost with new soil and a more free-draining pot. I've also taken some cuttings from my jellybean cactus (sedum rubrotinctum) and a few others I've not got names for. I'm hoping to put together a dish garden - we'll see how I manage as I'm not exactly at home dealing with plants that are happy to not be watered! After 10 years of drought, I water almost reflexively.
That's the news from the back porch. I'll try to be a bit more rivetting in my next post!
You couldn't get us away from home with a crow bar again for at least a week!
Our Christmases have a 3-year cycle: 1) my family 2) H.I.'s family and 3) staying at home. This year, in Newie, we had a fabulous times and felt really privileged to be able to get 4 generations under one roof for the Christmas celebration again. Him Indoors' grandmother has had a lot of illness this year and had us all worried for quite a while but she seemed to be in much better health now the weather's warming up. I got to meet a new fiance and we all got along as cheerfully as one can when surrounded by many more people than one would usually encounter during the course of a single day and two semi-hysterical little kids.
Til got to play with her 5yo cousin for three whole days, which helped her understanding of all things cars, particularly V-Dubs. She can now park, wash, fill with petrol, do donuts any car (with the exception of the beloved V-Dub collection) and make a truely wide variety of car-related noises not previously in her lexicon of weird sounds. She asked for her cousin for the rest of the car-trip home (2 loooong days) and was more than slightly put out to learn that he wasn't hidden in the back of the car somewhere.
We also got to catch up with friends visiting from Rome and some old family friends of mine that are close enough to be called 'family', anyway. Surrogate families are a great marriage of friends, loyalty and default kindness.
Back in the land of Wagga, floods have receded now but there are stagnant pools of water all about generating concerns about Ross River Fever spiking this summer and autumn. Poor Til's coming home from daycare with at least 5 bites/day. This is on top of all the bites we're suffering around the house, particularly at night as we're not getting good coverage with both barrier and insecticides, although we're obviously hesitant about the use of the latter. We'll just hope for the best.
At least we haven't had any ants in the house so far this summer!
Have re-potted a zygocactus that a friend gave me when she moved house. It's a glorious hot-pink one but was a bit root-bound so I've tried to give it a boost with new soil and a more free-draining pot. I've also taken some cuttings from my jellybean cactus (sedum rubrotinctum) and a few others I've not got names for. I'm hoping to put together a dish garden - we'll see how I manage as I'm not exactly at home dealing with plants that are happy to not be watered! After 10 years of drought, I water almost reflexively.
That's the news from the back porch. I'll try to be a bit more rivetting in my next post!
posted by Kate at 9:29 PM
3 Comments:
Oh how exhausting. Glad it all went well (apart from the ear drum thing). All the best for the New Year.
Sounds like a good trip:) We are home early from our travels - a 17 day holdiay turned into a 6:(
That sounds like a great Christmas, if pretty exhausting and a hell of a lot of driving!
Personally, I'd be going for the insecticide, better than the risk of nasty mosquito-borne diseases, some of which can have life-long effects. Hope you can stay stay safe!
You must talk succulents with Jen sometime, they're her planty passion :)
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