So, as I discovered last weekend, the wise women around me were right - the anticipation of leaving my little boy for the first time was worse than the actual experience of being away from him. Sure, I missed him and daydreamed about him, but the "missing" didn't hurt like I feared it might.
After 48 hours away from home and my family, I returned feeling more "me" than I have in a long time. To walk, swim, eat, shower, sleep, do yoga, meditate, be pampered and read (book of choice: Sibella Court's Bowerbird - love, love, thank you Sarah!) at my own pace, as an individual entity, was pure bliss. I haven't felt like that in two years, since before I was pregnant. So refreshing.
The part I didn't enjoy was seeing Bassie's reaction upon my return. At the first sight of me, he beamed the brightest, sweetest smile. But the smile quickly switched to a frown and for the rest of the afternoon he refused to look at me, and preferred to be in his dad's arms rather than mine.
I hear this reaction - to make you pay for leaving - is common. Please tell me it is.
I am so grateful for the love and support around me - for my husband for holding the fort, my mum for helping out and putting Bassie to bed, and my family-in-law for keeping my two boys company.
Image above: I love this pic of Bassie, taken by my husband.
Image below: i spent a lot of time by this pool. you can see why.
Is this perhaps the cutest baby pineapple there ever was? It arrived in our weekly Food Connect fruit and veggie box this week and managed to entertain little Bassie on this spring afternoon. He couldn't quite figure out if he liked touching it or if he really didn't AT ALL.
I have a post I'd like to share soon about Food Connect and Community Supported Agriculture, but my wireless is giving me issues and Food Connect's website is down too! It's just not meant to be today.
I'm off to cover a story this weekend at an amazing organic health retreat in the Gold Coast hinterland but it will be my first weekend away from Bassie and I'm really not sure how I feel about this yet. He's in good hands with his dad and my mum (thank you, mama!) so I know he will be fine, and I need a recharge so I'm sure I will be more than fine. The wise women around me (i.e. my sister, sisters-in-law and friends) who have been through this 'first-time away' thing tell me the anticipation of leaving is worse than the actual experience of being away. Let's hope they're right.
When my mum asked me today what I'm most looking forward to about this weekend, I replied that I intend to swim in the infinity pool, and to sit under a tree and stare over the valley for hours on end. All I crave is to be still and quiet. To stretch and to sit. To dream and to breathe. Simple really.
*This adorable pineapple also gave me a good excuse to play with my new portrait lens, a 50mm f/1.8.
**The photos below are of Bassie getting bored with the whole thing and on the right, biting into a filthy shoe to get my attention away from the camera.
*** The top image uses my new favourite backdrop, which you'll be seeing a lot of in this space. I love our gum tree that shelters our porch and is right now dropping seed pods, which make the LOUDEST CRACK when they hit our tin roof.
Earlier in the week I heard Sydney stylist, creative director and author Sibella Court speak at Riverbend Books to launch her new book, Bowerbird. She is such a sweetheart - down-to-earth, passionate, grateful - and clearly a go-getter. She works constantly ("there's no loitering by the water cooler for me", she explained sweetly) but like most creatives and entrepreneurs she doesn't see her job as "work" because it feeds her soul.
This year alone Sibella has traveled to 20 countries (she noted Ecuador
and the Galapagos Islands were standouts) for design inspiration and research for her books.
Ever the collector, Sibella made me smile when she said: "I'm not great at
remembering what happened last week, but I can tell you about the
people I was with and the place I was in when I collected an object from
many years ago. It's just that I don't record my life chronologically but rather by the objects I treasure."
Sibella
also commented that collecting objects on her travels and through her life is her way of slowing down, of
focusing on the little things, of finding calm within the chaos. I guess this theory rings true whether you are globe trotting or simply pottering in your garden.
I love how memories are hinged to special objects, whether they are found or purchased, received or gifted. When I look around my home and dig through my cupboards, drawers and my great-grandfather's wooden war chest, I find so many precious memories hung on walls, tucked in boxes and wrapped in fabric.
Last month, I found dried flowers and seeds I had saved from Spain when I lived there 10 years ago. Pressed inside a folded piece of paper, their spicy scent took me back to the cork oak tree farm where I stayed alone in a yurt for a month over summer. There I would read books outdoors for hours on end until the sun slipped behind the hills beyond. Feels a lifetime ago.
Sibella's book will inspire me to display my treasured objects - perhaps to pop the dried seeds in a tiny glass bottle on my desk, rather than stashing them in cupboards and folded bits of paper.
What would you choose to display if you dug out your memories?
I'll be picking up a copy of Bowerbird from my friend Sarah's stunning interiors and homewares store, Carmel's Designs, at James Street, Burleigh Heads. Her two other stores are at Mooloolaba and Peregian Beach. So worth a visit. Sarah is a natural when it comes to displaying things beautifully.
Image: These are four of my favourite things (L-R) A hand-crafted Moroccan ceramic cup from my other dear friend Sarah to celebrate my boy's first birthday; a stone sculpture from our home country of South Africa that I took borrowed from my parents - they've had it in our home since I can remember; two of the three little bison milk jugs my very generous elder sister, Nichola, bought for me on my birthday many moons ago.
I interviewed Israeli singer and songwriter Yasmin Levy for the November edition of map magazine. The story lives online here. I felt so happy after our chat as Yasmin exuded such infectious joy down the phone line - it spilled out of her in the most natural and grateful way.
Yasmin is living the dream as she tours the world with her band (along with her husband and their 13-month-old son), singing traditional Ladino songs with a contemporary twist to keep her heritage alive. Ladino is an archaic form of Spanish and considered a "dying" language. It's sad to think that stories and memories can be lost forever in words no longer spoken.
map's November edition also offers an interview here by editor Mikki Brammer with Matt Pember of The Little Veggie Patch Co. It's such a fun little Q and A to read. Matt and his business partner, Fabian, have started facilitating veggie plots on top of a carpark in Federation Square in Melbourne's CBD. Another reminder that growing food is for everyone, everywhere.
I
thought our cafe days were over when our little one started to wake from his newborn slumber. But coffee expeditions are actually more fun now if we get the venue right. We
love this local cafe and its veggie gardens - perfect for a boy who likes to clutch at stones with his chubby hands, pull up on wooden benches and swat at flowers. Much more relaxing sitting among the garden beds with coffees in hand than trying to entertain him in a high chair. It sounds obvious, I know, but we're still pretty new at this parenting gig.
We ventured to the State Library of Queensland today for Toddler Rhyme Time. It was my camera's first real outing and I'm happy I had it close by. Oh, that green wall. Love.
