This morning, Blaine and I took Tom and Thea shopping for their winter clothes. Although they acquiesced to Blaine’s choice of clothes (mostly:-) they did find some VERY cool sunglasses (well, Thea found them and I allowed her to choose a pair; then Tom came up and wanted them and I directed him to the sunglasses display so he could choose his own)!

Tom was caught on camera back our our place with his precious “Doggy” and his brand new trains.

Thea was caught while we enjoyed a well-earned morning tea (for Blaine and I anyways) after the shop-a-thon!

This morning, a lovely damp autumnal morn, a flock of endangered black cockatoos flew and wheeled across my path, their haunting calls loud in the still air.

Joy:-)

Blaine took this photo of a flock of them a few weeks ago.

This morning I spent a delightful hour sitting on the floor of one of the small rooms around our Concert Hall with Thea on my lap. Blaine sat next to me with Tom on hers. They took me to a children’s concert for my birthday pressie this year.

It was just delightful to experience not only my grandchildren’s response to the small orchestra playing to and interacting with them, but sharing all the children’s responses throughout the audience. The players were excellent at interacting with the children without any arrogance or talking down, none at all.

It was a truly delightful gift:-)

Well, I’ve bitten the bullet and told Elwyn that I’ll come to London in June to stay with her and meet Robin. She’s happier now. For a homebody like Elwyn to have fallen in love with someone half-way around the world, it must be a bit scary.

Rob will stay in Perth and keep the home fires burning. It will not be his sort of trip – no climbing, tramping, travelling or other outdoors time to share with his loved ones!

So I’ll have 3 extended weekends with Elly and 2 with Robin.

And I’ll stay with Judy during one week, and for the second week stay with Elly while she’s working and book visits to my business contacts in and around London.

And probably during that second week, when Robin isn’t there to do so, I might cook her a meal or two, as she loves being cooked for:-)

Last weekend, Elwyn, Robin and his dog Meggie went for a walk at the beach on the south coast of England…it was the first time that Meg had been to the sea.

“Looks like I’ll have a few camping trips coming up this summer, with climbing club, Robin’s family & aussie friends in london who are keen to try out camping.”

Now that Elly has met Robin’s parents and 2 nieces, I guess the next thing is doing things with them:-)

WIth Elwyn leaving in just a few weeks now to return to England, we made the most of an opportunity for all of us to visit the annual Caravan & Camping Show at the Claremont Showgrounds.

We gathered at our place, then walked to the train station (Rob, me, Jeanette, Christopher, Elwyn, Tristan Blaine, Tom and Thea) to catch the showgrounds train. That was very exciting for the kiddliwinks! Then we walked around the show, looking at kayaks, tents, caravans, camping trailers and lots and lots of gear. AND there were lots of adults to take turns in carrying tired little people. All good fun and the kids were very good, probably helped by frequent doses of food and drink:-) Even when we explored inside some of the many camping vehicles they didn’t break anything.

Back to our place for lunch and a well-earned rest – it was a good morning!

This morning, on a long walk in Kings Park, I planned to say “Hi” to my favourite tree, an old stone pine. But as I walked towards it…all there was left where it once stood, housing all the birds and other creatures that lived amongst its bark and branches, was disturbed earth. It had been chopped down, shredded and even the root bole was gone!

So I stood and remembered…

That tree was the first non-human living thing that gave me the feeling that there was more to life than what we can touch and see. And that realisation was crucial to my return to health. Actually to a lightness of heart and of being that I had never before known. So in those dark times of illness, and the lightening times of healing that followed, my morning walks always included that tree.

“Thank you.”

After remembering I walked on, but walks in Kings Park will never, ever be quite the same. The likeness here will remind me…

Tonight Rob and I watched some more of the DVD of “In the Shadow of the Moon”, which Elwyn sent us for Christmas, about when man first landed on the moon.

We first met 40 years ago about now, when university started after the (southern hemisphere) summer break.

Over a dead frog in the biology lab, as Rob likes to say.

Then, 5 months later, man first landed on the moon, on the day that we decided that we were definitely “an item”.

So the light of the moon has always been rather special to us…

As well as that special whatever-it-is that got man to the moon:-)