Summer is ending. This weekend there was a burst of warmth, perhaps the last one. The girls and I had brunch with Helen and Sophia, now aged two with beautiful orange hair and a memory that goes back a quarter of her eventful life, which has spanned bushfires, weeks of smoke and COVID.
After the iced chocolate with cheese toasties for the girls and Sophia, and my smashed Avo – Helen had a brekky burger – the girls timed themselves racing across the climbing walls and ropes at the nearby playground.
Back in our own suburb, I stocked up at the local IGA for the week, including rasberries at $4 a punnet; a packet of Darrell Lea bullets for $2.50; and corn chips and salsa to add interest to the girls’ school lunches. Later we all went to the pool and played Marco Polo using our inflatable donut ring (Lara really REALLY wanted us to all play together), then the girls had hot chips and chicken nuggets for dinner under the plain trees. Steve and I ate at home with a salad of heirloom tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozarello with salt and pepper and olive oil, and then we made a dent in all the leftovers in the fridge. Most satisfying.
This is the weekend in which dad helped us with his trailer to pick up the white pebbles for our new side garden. First we had to sweep the concrete area well to remove the dirt. I’ve decided it’s not worth spending $50 per stepping stone for stone pavers to provide a solid footing, but a neighbour has concrete ones and I discovered that they are sold in charcoal, grey, terracotta or sandstone at a paving centre nearby for only $10 each. During the long weekend next weekend, I want to make a decision on what colour to choose, buy them and perhaps we can also choose the plants for the big pots I bought with money from mum and dad for my last birthday. The pots are a metre high each and painted rustic blue matching the house, scratched in places to show white and terracotta.
The girls are catching a school bus then a local bus home by themselves now once a week and letting themselves in while we’re at work. It’s exciting to them to be home alone for an hour and a half. They can ring us on their Space watches if they need to, and have found that a brother and sister share their journey whose mother I know from playgroup. All four of the children were all there together seven years ago, though they don’t remember each other.
I haven’t moved to fulltime flexible work yet but will when I have a spare moment to apply. So perhaps I have one last Tuesday when I run around the lake after dropping the girls at school; pop in to see mum; and see whether there’s a movie I can catch. Then I’ll be heading in to autumn with a busy schedule just like the girls have. They are doing aerial sports, 2-3 musical instruments/activities each and swimming as extra curricula activities this term, and homework seems more regular and time-consuming than last year. We are all getting in to the swing of the year.
