various family health updates fyi

The broken wing is slowly mending within its lime green, glow-in-the-dark fingers to shoulder casing. Did I tell you it ended up being a three day hospital stay? However he was in the teenage ward with two anorexic girls who looked as though they'd been there for some weeks, which puts broken bones into perspective, really. We are grateful, all up.



In other news, the cat improves daily and our scars are fading.









As you can see we've even progressed to upside down chin scratches which is something no one would have dared even contemplate a month ago. We pick him up quite fearlessly these days. So brave!

retreating

So, craft retreat. Feels soooo long ago due to the hefty doses of Life between then and now. Mmm, what shall I tell you? There was sun ...



... rain ...



sunsets



and gold.



There were glimpses of autumn



where ever you looked



and roses everywhere.



We sewed in the sunlight ...



... beneath a rising moon,



and into the night.



New skills were acquired,





the irons were constantly in use,



and I laughed so hard I couldn't hold the camera steady.



I do love these women.



And these weekends away together.



For me, craft retreat is as much about the retreat as it is about the craft. One of my favourite moments this time was waking up with a start on the first morning at the rather late hour of 9 o'clock (it had been an early start on Friday morning at home with the alarm set for 5.00 am due to a breakfast meeting at work, only to be startled into consciousness at 4.00 am by my phone beeping in my ear (my phone is my alarm clock) with a text message from a friend with a sketchy understanding of time zones. Once we'd recovered from the adrenalin rush and realised no one had died I answered the mister's bleary query with Oh just my friend in America. She's knitting and thought of me. [...] Riiiight, he muttered).

But I digress. So I finally woke up on Saturday and realised the cottage was silent. I stumbled out, thinking everyone must've been over at the studio and had been probably for hours, only to find the sun streaming through the lounge room windows and four bodies variously and silently lounging about the couches and at the table, each engrossed in a book and clutching a hot drink. A mere one person was in the studio and two more were still in bed. Oh this is my tribe all right, I thought.



There are always many such moments at craft retreat with these wise, wonderful [and sometimes wacky] women.



Through the looking glass, into a weekend wonderland.




Even more photos are here.

you can knit almost a whole sock during a two day* hospital stay

I was going to blog about craft camp yesterday, having spent most of the midweek evenings uploading a shipload of photos to Flickr. But life, you know. Happens.



So have a look at a photo of some yarn instead and I'll tell you about craft weekend another time.

Yesterday Son #1 broke his wrist so thoroughly it required surgery and two nights in hospital. Two nights! Hopefully he gets to come home tomorrow. He's fine, and not in much pain any more so please don't worry on our behalf, just send us some good sleep vibes if you would.

It's been quite A Hospital Weekend. On Friday night I went straight from work to the Royal Children's Hospital to visit my niece who was flown from Tasmania to Melbourne for spinal surgery ten days ago. Then all of yesterday and today we've been at the Austin, having our own medical adventure. Oh, and Mr Soup has gone away for the weekend (naturally) to a place about four hours drive away, and they all went in the one car so he can't get home. Hmmm. Not clever.

Anyway I've come home to feed the other children and fold eleventy loads of laundry (and um, blog. Priorities, people!) and now we're all going back for an hour or so to kiss him goodnight and leave him some clean undies for tomorrow.

Life. Never dull.

* turned out to be three days

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mother partner sister daughter cousin aunt sister-in-law worker-bee student knitter dyer seamstress beginner-cellist spinner blogger photographer writer thinker dancer reader gardener listener runner problem-solver colleague organiser penpal cook friend

Edited to add: soap-maker, quilter, besotted cat lady. Oh yeah, housecleaner extraordinaire. (Thank you for those contributions. I do like the way this post has become interactive).

pinch and a punch for the first of the month

The cat now sports a pink, flowery and totally girly collar, complete with little tinkly bell. His masculinity is not the least bit compromised, I assure you. (That was done by a vet a year or so ago).

The cat and the dog spent their first whole day together today without human intervention while we were all at work and school. Together they managed to pull the almost-full box of cat food off the shelf (that would be the cat), thoroughly shred the cardboard in their mission to rip the box open (the cat, again) and eat three quarters of the contents (the dog, although I'm sure the cat ate at least a handful). The dog now smells like he has severe indigestion and the remaining cat food is safely in a tupperware container with a secure lid. The cat? Butter wouldn't melt etc.

The hall rug was also bunched up into a little bundle so someone gave it what for during the day.

I've knitted two more baby hats (babies and photos to come) and am now crocheting granny squares for this appeal. The cat is assisting. If any of you hookers out there want to make a few grannies please do!

More sad news. Christchurch, around the world, and in my own circle once again. Too many funerals.

Semester has begun and I've attended my first lecture of the year. Simultaneously exciting, stimulating and exhausting as I think of the juggle ahead. (Note to self, don't think, just do).

Similarly, at the university where I work (a different one, of course, just to make life inconvenient interesting) semester has begun and the staff car park is full of illegally parked students and the queues for coffee in the caf are ridiculously long, forcing us to make do with the sticky and slightly dusty jar of International Roast in the staff kitchen.

As I drove to work this morning the sky was low and steely, the wind it did bluster and as I thought to myself goodbye summer, we hardly knew you, a large classically shaped autumn leaf (plane tree? maple? liquidamber?) blew across my windscreen, right on cue.

In big-to-me news, I declared 2011 the Year of Getting Fit. I've been declaring this every year for about twelve years now but this time it's actually happening OMG. Before Christmas I downloaded the Couch to 5K program to my iPod and embarked on a nightly walking program, planning to start properly with the actual running part in the new year. I faced a setback when we returned from our holiday and I was still sick, but am in the swing of it now. No, I don't know me any more either. (Also, I may have shaken hands on something regarding a charity run in April. I work best to a deadline).

The unbloggable issues are not quite resolved but being managed in a positive temporary way and I surprised myself with the strength of my feelings on the matter. It's good to have one's convictions and beliefs challenged sometimes, and I have come out of this exercise with my passion more firmly embedded than ever. I [ironically] feel a blog post coming on - the beauty of Steiner education and its importance in the lives of my children. Or something.

Things I saw on my run tonight: a pretty sunset, a kangaroo, a giant cobweb stretched across the road, a blister. The husband is buying me a pair of decent running shoes for my birthday. (It looms). (I'd rather a macro lens for my camera, but hey ...)

I have typed the last three paragraphs with a cat on my lap, his head resting on my right arm. Behold the glory of my dedication to my blog and my soft spot for this cat.

Did I tell you our new cat is awesome? And that he's staying?