Saturday, August 1, 2009

Imbolc Blessings To All

Out in the yard today, hands in the dirt, clearing an area for the swing set to go in. Sounds easy? Well, it wouldn't have been too hard except for the two huge wooden posts as well as the cemented in metal post that were in the area were were clearing and the fact that The Starchild did not want to borrow a chainsaw and sledge hammer from our neighbour. Stubborn, for sure, but a very hard worker and I was very, very happy that he ended up getting them all out in the end. The chooks were also very happy although I suspect that was more to do with all of the overturned dirt, weeds and worms that were available to them as we let them out of their pen while we were working.

So, we have cleared the big things out, have wooden sleepers set around the perimeter, have weed killer down and have a load of fine bark in the truck ready to put into place tomorrow, then we will just have to pull the stakes out of the ground where the swing set is now and move it back about 5 meters so it is not in the middle of the yard. It will be so wonderful to have it all finished!

I went to Imbolc at Rose Cottage last night and it was wonderful, as always. I actually wore my yellow ribbon from the Yule ritual up until yesterday and really feel like it helped me keep faith that the ideas of that time would soon be put into action, which has been pretty hard on a number of days between then and now. But I feel like I am really defrosting with the world around me and am noticing the difference with the things I am starting to get done already.

I do so love the winter and always look forward to each season while enjoying all that the current season has to offer but if I have to pick an absolute favourite season then for me it is spring and the world is really starting to feel like spring is just around the corner. I'm so looking forward to becoming more productive and I truly hope that you are all as inspired and enthusiastic in all you are about to embark on. Imbolc blessings to all.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Just Sad

Headaches and stuffy nose started on Wednesday - surely it's too soon to be sick AGAIN!

The smiley monster was the vomit and poo monster last night, every hour from 9pm until 4am, then he lasted an hour and a quarter and then an hour an a half before starting the day today. He is much better now, drinking and keeping it down with a few pecks on some food, but totally exhausted, poor little fellow. He's snoozing on the lounge at the moment so hopefully he will not have a relapse and will wake up feeling much better. He's been quite chatty, but without real energy and just wanting lots of cuddles. He had no temperature or any other symptoms but hasn't eaten anything different to anyone else so I have no idea what the cause is and I'm hoping that no one else gets it.

Got a call from old work friends this morning with very sad news. One of the guys I used to work with died last night. I sat next to him for about a year and a half and worked pretty closely with him on a number of projects but we also got along really well, which was saying something as he was not known for his friendliness or amicability. His nickname was Mr Surly and he had a terribly wicked sense of humour and absolutely no tolerance for idiots or the weaker aspects of human nature but revelled in his own dark aspects. Doesn't sound like a very nice person so far, does he? Well, he actually was incredibly nice and very, very humane, but in a tough love kind of way. He would do absolutely anything for people but as long as they were also taking steps to help themselves and he was very straight down the line and told things like they were.

After I left Sydney I fell out of touch with him but reconnected somewhat through facebook, although he wasn't much of an updater there. He was a fairly big man and had been working hard for a number of years to lose weight, which he did quite successfully. He would swim several times a week and walked a lot, he didn't drink or smoke but he did have a sweet tooth that he loved to indulge. He died at home of a heart attack on his treadmill at age 43. I'm sure he would have something ironic and entirely inappriate to say to make people laugh right now but I can't think exactly what it would be so I'm just sad.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Crunching Kind of Way

Good weekend. The Starchild went to Lithgow in the wee small hours of Saturday morning taking Bones with him and leaving me to play single Mum for the best part of the day. Started with a 7.30am swimming lesson with the smiley monster - at least the water was warm! Quietly productive throughout the rest of the day.

My older sister and her family came to visit and stayed overnight. They have been holidaying in Queensland and stopped overnight at Dad's on Friday night, then ours on Saturday night before heading home this morning. We had such a nice visit and it was great to catch up.

Watched movies for most of the rest of the day with the Kman. Ready for school to go back tomorrow and have an appointment with the accountant tomorrow afternoon so will be doing first end of financial year for the company. Pretty exciting in a boring, number crunching kind of way.