Love and Adoration

You have no idea how besotted E is with her cousin. No idea. Every single thing that Rowan does she thinks is awesome. Jumping - awesome. Running backwards - awesome. Sniffing snot back up your nose - awesome. We spent the day hanging out together on Tuesday, it being school holidays at all, and I have to admit, he was pretty awesome. Especially to her. He didn't mind one bit that all she wanted to do was hold his hand, sit on his lap, lean up next to him and snuggle. And we're not just talking about for a little bit of the day - we're talking six solid hours of in-your-face toddler love. When he asked why E always needed to be touching him, I said it was because she thought he was the coolest, funkiest boy to have lived. His response? "I'm not the funkiest boy I know; there are boys who dress funkier than me".  When he said that my heart jumped into my mouth and I had flash backs to school and the cool-kids and all that angsty stuff that I'm so glad to have left well and truly behind.  Part of me thought that he's far too young for all that and I was tempted to just dismiss the comment and pretend that it never happened. Or say some complete 'bull' about how he was wrong and everyone was funky in their own way or some shit like that.  Instead I told him that being the funkiest or the coolest didn't matter too much as long as you had good friends.  I don't know if it was the right thing to say but it seemed better than a lie.  And besides, even if he's not the funkiest kid, being patient enough to tolerate E trampling all over him and his toys for the day - Awesome!

Autumn Harvest

My Dad grows grapes. Not professionally but as a hobby. He planted the vines from seedling almost seven years ago and this is the fourth year he's been able to pick.  Goodness me, it's a fickle business this farming! Last year the wind got to most of the blossom before fertilisation this year it was the foxes. Yup, foxes.  Despite netting the vines well before the fruit ripened about 10-20% of the total harvest was scurried away by a family who, I think anyway, has taken up camp under the wood shed. Despite the small crop we went up and helped pick a couple of weekends ago. All in all it took less than half a day. E spent most of the time taste testing directly off the vine. I spent most of the time documenting photographing the occasion. We celebrated at the end with a bottle from the 2008 vintage and declared the weekend a success. Foxes and all.

On Parks and Photography

One of the things that I've started up this year is a photography course. A proper, whizz-bang, fancy one that takes a few years and if you finish it you can call yourself "professional". I've done a few short courses over the years - both online and 'in person' - and always felt that I wanted more. So I bit the bullet and signed up. Two nights a week I sit in a classroom full of wonderful, friendly, creative, full-time working crazies who are passionate about photography and really, really, really want to learn the craft. I'm loving it. We're about a month in and we've just started getting to the juicy bits of 'camera craft' (the technical bits) and 'design theory' (the arty bits).  I'm increasingly finding myself multi-tasking with E, taking pictures for my assignments while taking her to the park or walking her to childcare.

So here she is, absolutely loving the park and getting super dizzy on the whizzy-dizzy (is that what it's called?).   And there's me, crazy Mama, trying to perfect a technique called 'panning' while satisfying a 1 year olds need to go high (but not too high) on a swing so that she can feel the wind in her hair.

 

Feasting

There's been much feasting going on around here in the last few days. Lots of time spent with family relaxing and enjoying that quiet time between Christmas and New Year. Sleep-ins, trips to the farm, a bit of kangaroo spotting and for one little girl, an opportunity to watch TV.  And although I'm very glad to have 2012 behind us there's a small part of me that wishes the quiet could continue just a few more days before everything starts back up again in 2013. 

quiet surprises

Much to the annoyance of my mother, M and I aren’t married. We kind of skipped over that bit and got down to the business of being a family. I wasn't particularly opposed to the idea of marriage, in fact I really quite liked the idea, it's just that we never really got around to it and given that neither of us are particularly religious and civil law is really quite open about these kinds of things, it just didn't seem like it needed to be at the top of our priority lists. But a couple of nights ago we went someway to easing my mother’s angst.  On a picnic rug, watching the sunset over the Melbourne skyline Matthias asked me to marry him. A very nice bottle of Champagne and a ring took part in the merriment. Afterwards we celebrated at a fancy restaurant where they call you 'Madam' and 'Sir' and we woke my mother up to tell her the news (she was pleased).

There are still quite a few decisions to be made before we actually marry - deciding the when and the where being chief among them.  And by where I mean the continent and country, rather than backyard or vineyard. So far Austria and Australia are favourites but Boston is also a possibility although the idea of organising an event from the other side of the world with no one “on the ground” to be the go-to person kind of does my head in.

*Picture taken with my smartphone just after... aren't camera phones awesome!?!

Water fight

Around these parts the seasons have definitely shifted in favour of the sun.  In amongst the hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas I am trying to stop and enjoy the small things; the first of the summer berries, a cool breeze on my neck at the end the day and the thrill of the first (of many) water fights shared between cousins up at my parents farm. Oh yes, I have a feeling that this summer is going to be grand.

rejuvenate

Sometimes you do get what you want. A long weekend and a very special birthday for my Mum had us hopping on a plane down to Melbourne and spending a wonderful Labour Day weekend with my family. The sun shone! We ate, we celebrated, we relaxed. I felt the warm embrace of family. It required an excel spreadsheet to coordinate cars, baby seats, sleeping arrangements and catering, but aside from a few frayed nerves when we realised that another trip to the shops was required because somehow a dinner's worth of meat got left off the shopping list, the weekend was pretty much perfect.

Favourite places

So, that favourite place we visited? This is it. McLaren Vale on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. The summers are magic there. Four days of looking out at this sunset while drinking a glass of red and waiting for the BBQ to be cooked. Even better, watching the same sunset looking out over the sea. Yes, we did that too.

And then spent the days doing this.

And this.

Yep, that'd  be - let's pretend to taste wine but really we're all staring at the baby who is hamming it up for the camera.

See, told you.

It was a pretty awesome long weekend which seems far too long ago now.  Never mind, I'll be seeing this lot again soon (yippee) - in two weeks we're heading down to Melbourne again to celebrate my Mum's "big" birthday.  They'll be more photos, more wine, more hands to cuddle and play with E.  I'm counting the days already.

A Year in Review

January - Deep winter snow in Vienna, Austria

February - Slow sunrise in Frankfurt, Germany

March - Celebrating Carnivale in Cologne, Germany

April - Late snowfall on the Austrian Alps

May - Early Spring sunshine in Berlin, Germany

June - Catching some morning rays on our balcony in Berlin, Germany

July - welcome Emilia!

August - Father of the bride, Vienna Austria

September - Wandering the streets with babe in arms, Berlin Germany

October - Another reunion; this time with kids in tow

November - Goodbye Berlin, Hello Canberra!

December - the beginning of a long summer, Bateman's Bay, Australia

 I think at some stage this year I decided that my 2011 word was going to be rhythm. On reflection I couldn't have chosen a word that would less reflect my year in any way shape or form.  Pregnancy, finishing work, having a baby and then making the momentus decision to move back to Australia was not exactly condusive to finding an easy rhythm in which to wander through life.  There were moments when it seemed as if I'd just tackled one hurdle only to see another, even larger challenge, looming up ahead. Rhythm seemed an elusive concept present only in other people's lives. And yet.

And yet you could perhaps argue that there is rhythm in even the most staccato'd work, that even the most modern of melodies has a rhythm if you allow the music to flow over and around you and let it seep into your pores.  And so if I stop thinking for a few moments and forget about the to-ing and fro-ing, if I just close my eyes and feel the year (as strange as that may seem) I find I did find a rhythm after all. Not a day-to-day rhythm nor the rhythm that comes from the steady beat of a drum or the tredging of feet down a well worn path. No my rhythm was all topsy-turvy, unexpected and slightly out of kilter with what you would predict. A fast-paced rhythm with only the occasional silence that might allow you to catch your breath. And if I'm being perfectly honest I expect that this rhythm will be around for time, because, I discovered, it is the rhythm of Matthias, the rhythm of Emilia and the rhythm of me. It is the rhythm of us.

How were your holidays? Ours went something like this.

As my Dad pointed out it had been six years since all four girls were together in Melbourne for Christmas. And with six years came the addition of five new people to the table. There was more food than any of us could possibly contemplate eating, naps for everyone in the middle of the day, good wine, bonbons, bad jokes and even a Christmas carol or two thrown in at the end of a long but wonderful evening. And at the end of it all we attempted a photo of Nanou and Dapa with the grandkids. I'm hoping that someone else might have got a good one of them all, although the silly one will perhaps always be my favourite.