Everything is autumnal, the light is low and watery and my slower pace and mood seem to match it. It is now around five weeks until I have to move from our lovely house. Each day I appreciate the sunlight, the warmth and the space and light.
Autumn has been my favourite season since I’ve got older and too fat for a bikini. Spring makes me sneeze, in summer in this house flowers die and candles melt in the sun and winter is the harshest time. Autumn means you can rug up and go for a walk and then eat lamb tagine or soup or drink mulled wine.
I am betwixt and between right now so I am a bit apathetic about cooking in this house and I am lucky enough to have my dear friend Deb who is letting me stay at her house for as long as nine months. My house is underway with foundations going in but it is going to take time, especially if this rain keeps up. I have been consumed with ideas about buying something else in the meantime which is quite stressful. In the end I think I will just bide my time and enjoy staying with Deb- I hope she thinks likewise! This is her view from the living room and is so beautiful, even in the rain.
As you can see, I will be really roughing it. I’m hoping her cat will become more enamoured with me when I’m living there.
I put a lot of stuff into storage when I was preparing the house for sale. I don’t miss any of it and so I need to go back there and pick it over to throw more out. I am selling Bruce most of the furniture because I’d rather do without than live with my old sofas I’ve had for over 30 years. It might be a very sparsely furnished home for a while. I love looking at magazines on line though and hope to experiment when i move. There will only be me to satisfy and so I’m looking at some very different things. I like this dark grey bedroom for example:
I love the head board and think I could do that with a large canvas. I don’t have any choice over the carpets etc. but the walls will start out white so I can go from there. I’ve always hankered for white floor boards but that is going to have to wait.
I am also coveting mid century furniture right now but they will have to wait until I see how the finances pan out. All this coveting is not good for simple living principles. I always like a good dose of Kirsties’s Handmade and Free shop programme and can get quite inspired with revamping things.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kirsties-fill-your-house-for-free
I love these Parker chairs and they don’t come up very often but I’m just going to have to wait and see.
A lot of my stuff has sentimental value. The table below belonged to my dearest friend Bev and I sat at that table when I babysat her children and Bev counselled me through my teenage years. Then Sam sat there as a tiny little boy and enjoyed the love and warmth of her kitchen. We solved many of the problems of the world at that table.
Then there are my late husband’s sculptures. I had thought about apartment living but couldn’t really accommodate them. I have just become aware of the reason for my faint melancholy. Brett died in 1994 at Queen’s Birthday weekend. We had just got married on May 14 and were really hitting our stride with a new job for me, a new old kauri villa in Dunedin and he was home full time looking after Sam who was 20 months. I know it was a long time ago but I feel a downward swing in my life at this time and then a lovely upsurge by Sam’s birthday on August 18. I am now starting to feel a real desire to see him home safely on NZ soil although he is having a ball on his holiday break.
I will really miss my paintings. They have travelled with me for many years so all my homes tend to look the same but some are very much a part of me. This Picasso print really soothes my heart.
In the end though it is all stuff. I am reading applications for the New Horizons for Women Charitable Trust and it is heart breaking. I want to give everyone a scholarship. They all truly deserve it and I admire their grit and resilience for all that they have faced over the years. If any of you have spare dosh please feel free to set up a scholarship. It certainly puts my wish list in perspective. https://www.newhorizonsforwomen.org.nz/
I realise how lucky I am. With all this rain there have been some lovely rainbows. And so I think of the Rainbow Warrior anniversary and those who are so committed to these great causes while I covet shoes and chairs.
I am still knitting, reading and going to movies. I am nearly finished a rug for Bruce’s 50th. He claimed it wasn’t big enough for his couch slouching so I’ve knitted two and will sew them together 🙂
The most affecting movie I’ve seen lately is The Ground We Won about the Reporoa Rugby team. I loved it and was appalled in equal measure. Take a bloke and go and see it.
The critics say: With great bawdiness and backbone, a rugby team made up of farmers strive to redeem themselves from a long run of bitter losses. In the face of the hefty demands of farming and fatherhood, the Saturday game becomes the focus of the men’s passions and the ground on which their worth is proved.
The Ground We Won is a highly authentic, slice of life film about the challenges and joys of manhood, as seen through the rites and rituals of a rural New Zealand rugby club.
These little twins and their dad stole the show for me.
Right now I’m reading Full Tilt by Rebekah Tyler. She took her two boys aged 2 and 9 I think, on an 8 month holiday after her beloved Nan died. She is a kiwi. Sort of an Eat Pray Love with kids. I admire her grit as she sold this book to my friend Deb, by going door to door. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/640666274/full-tilt
I can think of nothing better than to snuggle in in this weather and read the afternoon away. Hope you are warm and well somewhere. FG.
PS if any of you have teens or your friends do my Parent blog for AUT is now live. I would love some feed back please!
Fluffy George 