This morning, as we slowly woke to the birds calling from the trees in our yard, we thought we were going sailing in Dusky Dolphin today. Over breakfast our friend Roger called to invite us sailing in his yacht on the Swan River. We’ve been trying to organise this for months, so we immediately changed plans and organised ourselves for a river sail.

It was just lovely, and took me back to when I was occasionally allowed to sail with my father in his friends’ boats on the river. We sailed around, tied up at RPYC and had a lovely lunch, then sailed back to Roger’s yacht club.

Sublime:-)

Today Rob and I took a picnic lunch to share by the sea at Trigg’s Island. Lovely to be by the sea, and Rob took his camera for some lovely shots of the surfies, plus this one of the amazing limestone that is Trigg Island.

I can’t do much these days with my sore knees and aching throat, but it’s lovely to just be outside:-)

Tonight, as I have been the past few nights, I raced up to Kings Park to watch the sunset. Somehow it is helping me to heal from my tonsillectomy. Rob came with me tonight and got this photo. If you look closely you can see the sun-gold reflected on some of the leaves on this gum tree:-)

If you look closely, you can see the black and white-tailed cockatoo feeding on the seeds at the top of the branch of the tamarisk tree in our back yard.

It is early afternoon on a late autumn day, and I heard this bird and all of its fellow travellers calling as they fed in the tamarisk and gum trees that we have tended in our garden for many years now.

I am in the 5th day of recovery after my tonsillectomy, and the pain is starting to ease, thank heavens. I am being quiet in our family room which looks out on the back yard, the trees and all the birds that visit here. The black cockatoo calls roused me from my reading. I don’t know what it is about their calls, but (as with calls of migrating geese and ducks and other birds) the sound tugs at something in my belly. So I dropped whatever it was that I was reading and raced outside to see them. And caught this one in a photo.

I came back inside after they’d left, feeling better somehow.

I will be in this room a lot over the next 6 months, while I recover from both my forthcoming knee replacement surgeries. But now I realise that wherever I am the path to my healing is always there – just connect with the natural world around me!

This afternoon, just before sunset, I felt the need to leave the house having been at home all day. I think this is the hardest part of convalescing from my tonsillectomy. The required recovery from surgery, and the pain, are keeping my energy at a very low ebb. My usual antidotes of walking outside do not seem to be working as they usually do.

However, I set off around the park, wondering how I was going to see this through in any sort of grounded fashion. And stumbled over these tree roots. Of course! I just have to focus on my feet and their connection with the earth. Like these roots. It doesn’t matter if I am inside or outside.

Turning around to the west, there was the sun in all her end-of-day brilliance, her “God rays” spreading out around her:-)

Today, Tristan brought Tom and Thea to our place for backyard cricket (with the new cricket set that Rob bought yesterday) and lunch while Blaine was at work. It was lovely to see them as I can’t get around too much at the moment.

After lunch Tristan invited Tom and Thea into the library to learn to play the piano. I sat on the couch and watched, while Rob used his new camera lens to get the photos (see all of them in the photos section of this website). It was one of those deeply touching moments, watching Tristan teach his son how to make music. Thea did not pick it up so well so we will try again another time. She sat on my lap after a while and had a big hug while we watched the piano practice:-)

This morning, when we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6am, I raced out onto the balcony to check out the planets in the eastern pre-dawn sky. They there were, cradled amongst the branches of the trees in our front yard, just like on the NASA video!

Today Rob is taking me into hospital to have my horridly infected tonsils cut out. Not much to look forward to in the short term other than pain, but at least I can look forward to better health once I have recovered from the surgery.

With the planets aligned like they are this morning, what can go wrong? 🙂

This morning Rob and I enjoyed our last breakfast at Zamia before my operation. Rob went for a bike ride then met me there after I’d enjoyed a short walk.

It’s a lovely way to start the day:-)

I wandered past the dining room this morning and spied this lovely sight – the jigsaw I’d bought Tom last summer was keeping the whole family busy!

Last night we sailed down to Woodman Point. This is as far as my fading knees will allow us to sail, but we wanted to make the most of the last weekend on “Dusky Dolphin” before my tonsils come out on the 12th May.

It was a magic sunset and lovely new moon. And this morning swallows came to visit on the lifelines just outside the galley window:-)