Ro's first birthday

It was Ro's first birthday just a little bit ago, and I was on midwifery placement caring for women in labour, thinking, "This time last year I was in Samoa doing this..."

Wow.

...woke up just before dawn in the glowing white box of our mozzie net in the moonlight, full moon out the window, with the first pains just starting quietly, and our little man was born in our bedroom with two local midwives, five incredible hours later.   

And now that small, naked and slippery little fella, so freshly new -  but surely somehow always here too! - is one! And I've been a Mum, and Cam a Dad, four seasons. 

Wow. 

Walkabout at the coast

Mum came down to help us out while I'm on a midwifery placement at hospital. We went down south for a wander in the rainforest and played on a play-ship, washed up on the beach...

Harvesting winter spuds

Our neighbour above us on our hill here, who has been gardening his patch for 20 years and every inch is growing an edible something, told us we can grow potatoes right through winter. So we have, and here are Cam and Ro harvesting one patch (we still have several more around the garden to go).

The joy of rich old books

I was thrilled when Cam found 'Dinotopia' by James Gurney the other day at a secondhand bookshop. 

I used to love his beautiful paintings of a magical island, surrounded by treacherous reefs, where dolphins guided shipwrecked humans to the shore... And there, in desert and mountain top, swamp and forest, in a city carved out of rock in the middle of a huge crashing waterfall, dinosaurs and humans lived in harmony together, sharing the wisdom of the old, old reptiles with the skills of the humans and creating together a vibrant and joyful life. 

I think it is my idea of perfect community - creativity, sharing, purpose, colour, spice and FUN! (Minus the dinosaurs, nowadays, alas!)

Going, going, gone

Swallowed by vegetable jungle, a small boy...

Extravagant abundance

Saw this beautiful, paper thin and fragile seed pod spray in the garden, with all its very many hollows for all its many seeds, and was blown away at the generosity of our natural world. From one seed comes a brave plant, from one plant comes a hundred seeds. Such extravagance! 

Everything striving towards life.