Bubble: I miss the emus.
Seli: So do I.
Woodroffe: So do I.
Angelina: So do I.
King: So do I.
Okami: So do I.
Pearly: So do I.
Malay: So do I.
Phoenix 1: So do I.
Ming: Well I DON’T!
Greener pastures
Yesterday I made a snap decision and gave the emus away to neighbours who run a farmstay up in the hills north of here – not very far away. The Emerys will now be able to run around more freely instead of being penned in and taken for ‘walks’. I am going to miss them so much!
It is hard to find the right words to say how much I admire Robyn’s resilence and determination and generosity when she is facing such pain.
~~
Uplift me
Today
Beside you
I’ll stay
~~
Loving strength
You extend
Broken pieces
We’ll mend
~~
Despite dares
That we face
Conjoined faith
We embrace
~~
Roots of passion
Persist
Amongst perilous
Twists;
~~
So
Together
We
Soar
~~
Bound as
One
Evermore.
~
©Robyn Lee
To all of my wonderful blog friends,
I dedicate this post to all of you who have been my ‘uplifters’ over these past several months. I have been deeply moved by your collective love and support with regard to both, my ongoing medical challenges, and my creative journey through blogging. The friends I’ve made here are some of the kindest and most generous and genuine people I’ve known. You have all touched my soul, and taught me so much.
Currently, I am facing more difficult times physically, and will need to reduce my blogging schedule temporarily. I want to let everyone…
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Rabbits rabbits rabbits!
As mentioned before, we have a bit of a rabbit plague. In rural areas like ours, rabbits are regarded as a pest because they destroy crops. So far, our zillion seem to be content to co-habit with the birds, dig little holes everywhere and look cute. They are also quite good lawnmowers, so I have decided on a truce; after all we have a bit in common.
Rabbits are not natural to Australia, but neither are white people.
Blanxiety
Every now and then I blog about blogging. I do this when I am blanxious – that’s a word that means ‘anxious about blogging’.
I know for sure that I am not the only blanxious person in the world and that, if I were, I would contact the Guiness Book of Records and make a lot of money.
Instead, I have decided to contact the English Dictionary people to tell them I have invented a new word to describe blog-blipping bona fides (‘bona fide’ comes from the Latin and, roughly translated, means ‘in good faith’.)
Blanxiety is a condition that may (or may not) include the following symptoms:
- inability to keep up with reading all of the blogs you subscribe to, then unsubscribe to, then resubscribe to;
- inability to respond to all of the comments even though you are usually very polite;
- inability to figure out a lot of blogging widgetty stuff you should have figured out when you first started your blog;
- inability to overcome the guilt of deleting, ignoring, saving, forgetting the words of blog friends who you care about; and
- inability to eat breakfast before you check your blogdom.
This blanxiety condition has several more symptoms but it is beyond the scope of this post to outline all of them so ….
I guess this is my way of apologizing for … I’m not sure what!
Note to non-bloggers: keep your innocence!
Just a moment
We had an appointment today in Perth (two hours north of here) for Ming to see the surgeon who operated on his scoliosis in February. After the usual X-rays and waiting room waiting, the surgeon said Ming’s spinal curve (Cobb’s angle – see below) had further reduced from 35% to 22%. Now I don’t understand the maths of this because I am not mathematically inclined, however, considering Ming’s curve was 75%/80% before surgery (depending on which radiologist was interpreting the X-ray) then I think 22% is beyond fantastic! I didn’t realize that his spine might straighten even more post-surgery.
http://www.e-radiography.net/radpath/c/cobbs-angle.htm
As we were leaving, I noticed a teenage girl who had tears in her eyes as she left the building with her parents so I told Ming to go and say something comforting to her while I went to the loo. When I came outside I found Ming talking in his loud, open, gesticulating way to the little family, and the girl’s eyes were no longer teary – they were shining. I said I was his mum and that we’d been a bit worried that she was upset. Then we all exchanged handshakes and wished each other well, all of us smiling.
We didn’t exchange names or contact details because it was all a bit ‘in the moment’ but that’s probably okay.
Bulldog
One of my blog friends has the interesting nickname of ‘bulldog’. You can find his blog here:
http://visitstothepark.wordpress.com/
Recently, he sent me a special photograph and I am now sharing it here because it reminds me of how an argument can clear the air.
Thanks bulldog!
The argument
Tonight the argument escalated to a point where we are both terribly shaken at how ferocious we can be towards each other.
The Aga was off because we ran out of kerosene a few days ago so, instead, we filled the kitchen with the heat of our fury until words whimpered away, and our tears tore our anger into small shivers of hot shock.
My son and I looked at each other with black eyes, unblinking and hateful but then one of us blinked and we found comfort in the Chinese food I’d brought home.
I have just tucked him in – this Anthony clone, Ming – and he admitted that he is terrified of losing me in the same way he has lost Anthony, his father, to illness. My sprained ankle terrified and engraged him.
His rage was thunderous and his beautiful face was contorted into a thousand lines of teenage fear. “I can’t lose you too, Mum,” he said, shivering into the blankets I piled ontop of him.
He always starts ‘the argument’ but I don’t blame him at all for this – my fantastic son, Ming.
Duck dynamics 2
Zaruma: Julie, I spoke to Tapper and she was quite defensive and just said she felt so sorry for Daffy after he lost Dotty. Apparently, Daffy thought Dotty was just laying eggs somewhere but it’s been too long now, so he has accepted that the fox got her, but he is grief-stricken.
Me: I know, Zaruma, and it is great to see that you’ve developed a bit of empathy.
Zaruma: I just miss those frolicking, rollicking days before Tapper changed. I concede that I feel sorry for Daffy – yes – but I do have a solution if you are willing to listen, Julie.
Me: Okay, I’m listening.
Zaruma: Just cook Daffy for dinner.
Duck dynamics 1
Me: What’s wrong, Zaruma? Why are you hiding?
Zaruma: I’m not hiding, Julie, I just need to be alone for awhile to think things through.
Me: Well come out and socialize soon please. I don’t like to see you like this.
Zaruma: I’m a bit sad – very sad actually – about Tapper. I thought she was my girlfriend but now she seems to like Daffy. I didn’t know she was a fence-sitter when we first met.
Me: I didn’t either, Zaruma, but according to my research, monogamy is not a requirement in duckdom.
Zaruma: But how can she compare my handsomeness to that daffy Daffy’s? I would really appreciate your honest opinion here, Julie.
Me: Okay, Zaruma, it’s quite possibly due to your lack of hygiene. Clean yourself up and go and have a talk to Tapper, then come back and we’ll discuss it further, okay?
Zaruma: Thanks, Julie. I’ll meet you at the back veranda door at 5pm. I am just warning you that I might have to bite Daffy in the meantime.
Me: You do what you have to do, Zaruma – you were my first duck, so I fully support whatever you think is best.
Zaruma: I’m a drake, Julie, not a duck.
jmgoyder 