Home Sweet Home

 It feels like the past month has gone by in a delicious blur.

We are "home" and it feels wonderful.

I wasn't sure how I would go with moving "home" but not home.  This is such a different house to what once stood here.  We've been here enough now though, that I am finding sweet, simple things that work.  I will always miss the old house, but creating little spaces and places here has been wonderful.

My new reading/writing/knitting nook in the bedroom

This table was supposed to be a temporary solution in my craft studio, but when I positioned it under Nanny's window the wood just glowed.  Sitting here, creating, just makes me so happy so we've let go of the idea of built in shelving and will instead go with storage units either side of the desk.  Dean is designing fairy wren stained glass for the outer top window panels and I have plans to plant the red climbing sympathie rose (that came from Nairne as a cutting, and survived the fire) outside the window.

This week, 6 volunteers from Habitat for Humanity SA came and helped me to rescue the old garden walls and replant and mulch.  I cannot believe that it took only 5 hours to recreate something beautiful when all this time I had been looking at it as an insurmountable task.  Not more than 15 minutes after they had left the Magpie family moved in to inspect the new Native garden.  Before I even went to pick Maddie up from school the bees had found the hebe!  Since then we've had so much wildlife returning and it gives me such great pleasure to have a cuppa out the front and just watch the birds and watch my garden grow! I've had a permanent smile on my face ever since.  It is amazing the difference a garden makes to my wellbeing.

Today James helped me to plant the citrus trees, and the Japanese maple and two avocadoes down the front.  He hung the wrapping station baskets in the butler's pantry.  Only little things, but all things that make me feel like we are achieving, and like this is becoming more like home.

Life is good,

Hoping your week gets off to a good start and the sun is shining on you,

Keep smiling,

Nell

Taking Stock - March

 Taking Stock

Making: a replacement baby blanket for Maddie (last 200g ball to go)
Getting: Excited
Cooking: Salmon, and chicken mini roasts, and more Autumnal dishes now that the weather is cooling
Sipping: lemon and ginger cordial with Adelaide Hills Soda Water
Reading: "The Night Portrait"
Waiting: for the house rebuild that never ends (14 months and counting)
Looking: forward to making new memories!
Listening: Norah Jones, Van Morrison, and the relaxation playlist I've created for rest time at school on Spotify
Wishing: We could move into the new house tomorrow (be patient Nell)
Enjoying: Maddie's excitement over the smallest of house things - a $3 hedgehog pencil pot for her room made her so happy!
Appreciating: That I have wonderful friends who are going to put Easter plans on hold to help us move
Eating: Dark chocolate with roast almonds
Liking: How easy our oven baked salmon with beans and tomatoes was for tea tonight - easy and delicious
Loving: the Autumn colour in our beautiful Adelaide Hills
Buying: kitchen stools and mixmasters and lemon squeezers and so many things we have been waiting for
Managing: to juggle work, renting, house project management and all sorts of other crazy bits
Watching: Anne with an "e" - it took me forever to disassociate it from the books and then I was okay to enjoy it
Hoping: The new season of Handmaid's Tale comes to SBS the same time as it hits the U.S.
Wearing: Summer dresses and skirts while I can
Following: Too many vintage/antique/secondhand places on fb and insta
Noticing: That Daniel is almost taller than James
Sorting: clothes, china, books...everything!!!
Getting: Impatient
Bookmarking: The meagre chapter of "The Night Portrait" that I read every night - feels like it is taking so long to read!
Coveting: chesterfields, rocking chairs, cute blue and white lamps
Feeling: a bit lost and discombobulated
Hearing: birdsong this morning when I went to let chooks out

Dreaming: of being "home" soon, so soon!

 

Happiness

I found this old blog post that somehow never got posted. It was written back in 2019 before our lives changed so dramatically but I want to post it now (even if it is out of order) because it is a glimpse into how my life was right then.

Here 'tis:

It is a weird thing isn't it, that humans are so resistant to change..I mean, from the moment we are born we are in a state of change so you would think we would be more used to it.  As many of you already know, this year has been a huge year of change.  I kind of had "change" forced upon me when the job I loved was no longer available and through no fault of my own I became essentially unemployed.

I began doing TRT work - back in classrooms after a 17 year break, often teaching Grades that I had never taught.  In one week alone I managed to teach every age from birth to year 7, and to teach specialist music, drama, art, PE and cooking!  After that I kind of felt like I could take on the world..
As I did more and more TRT days something magical began to happen.. I found that I really loved it.  I was enjoying the challenge.  I was enjoying the wonderful support offered by school staff and parents.  I was enjoying the kids. In fact, I was myth busting a lot of my self-made assumptions about children and learning, and myself as a teacher.  I have always said kindy is my favourite age but what I found was that I have LOVED working with lots of ages.  I actually don't just like kindy kids, I really like kids.  I like that "Ahha" moment when they "get" something.  I like the funny stories they tell.  I like when they feel comfortable to share their stories with me. 

Being a TRT/classroom teacher has had its benefits.  I have been home earlier for my own kiddos and been able to do mum things like make pikelets for afternoon tea, or play a game with them after school.  I have had more nights at home (and in Winter, when it is cold and dark and often wet, it feels like I need to be home and pottering about at night more)  I am definitely not as tired by the end of the week and most often when hubby gets home I am still happy and bubbly and wanting to talk about my day.

2019 brought another significant change.  A friend asked if I would be interested in helping her son with High school assignments and project planning.  At first I felt quite underqualified but then quickly realised that I have an Honours degree in Arts, History and Literature, and a 16 year career in mentoring and coaching about time-management and planning etc through my paper crafting team.  Once again, I surprised myself by actually enjoying spending time with teenagers.  I hadn't long been working with this young man when I was asked to take on a few hours a week with a much younger boy with ASD.  This has been life-changing.  Seeing the world through his eyes is amazing.  Those few hours a week feel like a gift.  He fills my bucket.  He makes me look at the world in ways I have never imagined.  I am learning so much.  I think it is the start of a beautiful friendship.  I am hoping that as we move on his beautiful Mum might let me share more about our rambles here.  I am even reading lots of texts on Autism, and doing my own research into different strategies and approaches.  It feels good to be inspired by something again.

Oddly, whilst I was quietly terrified at the start of the year, and still mourning the loss of a job I loved, I now feel like I am in a really good place.  A happy place.  I have been offered something more ongoing at one of my favourite sites next term, on days that will fit nicely around our life, and I am looking forward to the excitement of having my own classroom again, with kids that I already adore, in a supportive community environment.

Life feels good, and for that I am profoundly grateful.

I have even had time to indulge in reading more books lately and thought I would share a few of my current favourites.

"Why I Jump" is written by a teenager with ASD. Very insightful and a quick read. Fascinating for anyone who works with or lives with people with ASD.


"The Colour Mixing Companion" - gorgeous for teaching, but equally colourful eye candy for anyone who loves art and colour.

"A Year Between Friends" - Beautiful, every time I read it I want to cry, and laugh, and ring my besties.  I love the seasonal nature of this one. Perfect bath reading

"Wordsmith" - a new find.  Janet Clare is a logophile.  Exquisite typography, words, pictures.  Coffee table happiness.

Last but not least, I visited Twisted  Fibre Festival on Saturday and came away with an 1860s copy of "The Knitters Magazine"  It has, among its many patterns, instructions for a "bonnet preserver" and a set of "ladies mufatees"  I adore the primness of the language, the quirkiness of the content and that old book smell.  It is a rare treasure.

So what else is making me happy?  I recently purchased a sweet little slow-stitched journal, which has on its blue and cream cover a dear little squirrel.  It makes me want to do some slow stitching, but more than that, it has me scribbling again - new words that I want to remember, ideas, snippets of my day, random thoughts.  It feels good to be writing again.

I acquired a $7 bunch of poppies from my favourite local deli (which also sells my knitting and cards, and a great selection of plants, and the best hot chips and gravy anywhere!)  They've been on my kitchen table for a week now. Their silken petals make me smile every time I see them.

So what is making you happy right now?
I hope whatever you are doing with your one glorious life you are making the most of it?
Keep smiling,
Nell

Are we there yet?

Apologies for being absent for so long.

To be honest, since I lost one of my most consistent readers (my dear friend Karen last year) I now find myself wondering if anyone is still out there, and if the world has moved beyond blogging?  Is Instagram as good as it gets?

I am grateful to have this blog here, because when I lost all of the photos, it was reassuring to have so many favourites, and so many snippets of my pre-fire life held captive.  The joy of modern technology means I will be able to download and print all of those photos and start to recreate albums.

So where are we at?

We get keys next week. It has not been a fun build.  It has been 14 months that I would rather had not happened the way they did.  I still have days where it feels brutal, and whether I wonder if I will even be able to live in this new house.  It is a very different house to the one I adored.  There are many things I don't like (a stupid pantry because the cabinet maker didn't listen, a massive ugly retaining wall where I once had a bee/bird/butterfly garden, a weird wonky ceiling bit where someone stuffed up) and quite a lot of things I love (that kitchen, my new bath, the wooden floors, my craft studio, the verandahs)  It is definitely new, and modern, and I'm not sure it will really feel like "me" for quite some time.

I talked with another "total-loss"* friend (who moved into her rebuild just before Christmas) and she said that sometimes it is like the new build is on a "ghost house"  - I think that is a good way to describe it.  The light might fall the same way, the view from one window might be the same, but so much is altered, different, and not able to replicate the shadow of the house that was. 

Having said that, the thought of just being in our own space again, the thought of being "home" is so enticing and I feel as though, once we are in and beds are made, I might want to crawl into bed and sleep properly for the first time since the fire.  It feels very much like we will be coming "home" to our haven on the hill and I absolutely can't wait.  I have been so connected to the land there, feeding chooks and/or gardening every day, and somedays just wandering around barefoot lamenting what was.  While the chooks and garden have been a solace and a blessing, I can't wait to be back living there full time - to see and hear birds from my bedroom window, and to begin re-creating gardens and green, quiet spaces around the house.

We are busily packing boxes, and hoping that the real estate can find tenants for the rental and generally obsessing over all the stuff that has to happen between now and next week.

I'll be back with photos of moving in!

Until then,

Keep smiling,

Nell

*I don't personally like that term - we didn't have "total" loss - we didn't lose our friends, our relationships, our memories.  I don't believe anyone had "total" loss and I don't believe grief and recovery can be measured in terms of the haves and have nots.  It was a bushfire. It was shit.  There were no winners. We will all move on in our own way, in our own time.