Author: Isolde

We planted an apricot tree and two plum trees four years ago: one satsuma plum and one blood plum. The plum trees were productive from the second year, and this year the satsuma was laden with sun-sweetened fruit. Plums are one of those fruit and vegetables (like apples, rhubarb and apricots) that I think you can never have too many of. There are so many things you can make with them. This summer, I tried preserving them. My cousin gave me a Fowler’s preserving kit when I saw her over Christmas. She has many fruit trees on her huge block…

While on holidays interstate this summer, we visited one of the markets and did some shopping while pushing the babies in their pram. As usual there were comments from passers-by. One old lady stopped me for a chat. –          ‘Are they yours?’ Prudent. It was best to check. When I nodded, she went on. –          ‘They must be a lot of work.’ –          ‘No, not really,’ I replied, carefully explaining that it wasn’t much more effort to change two nappies than one. –          ‘You mustn’t get much sleep.’ I informed her that in fact the babies were good sleepers. She…

Alice is coming to meet the babies and to stay with us for almost a week. She has a very different background to me, with none of my advantages. Her family is poor, she is uneducated, her father was violent, and she was fostered out. Many of the worst things you can imagine happening to a person have happened to her. I met Alice when I was doing volunteer work at a Women’s Community Centre interstate. She lived in the area and used to drop in. She is in her early forties with greying, shoulder-length brown hair, smaller than average…

Sometimes I forget that I don’t have the twins with me when I nip out alone. I smile dementedly at strangers. This makes no sense without babies to create a bond. I enter a friendly world as the mother of twins. Most days when I am out in public with them, the person who notices them tells me that they are a twin, or their husband is, or their children. People might start off with a negative comment about twins, but they open up and talk to you. They are so much more friendly than when I take my invisibility…

In my old life, before babies, I used to go to the local shops about twice a year, and I would never walk around the neighbourhood. I did my shopping along the route from work to home or at my closest market, and I used my bike as a means of transport rather than as the instrument of aimless meanderings. In fact I rarely walked at all, preferring to ride my bike right up to my destination, or take the bus when distances were prohibitive. Now I take the babies for a walk for about an hour every evening, for…

Sister Maggie has come to meet the babies, travelling from the US. A good excuse for us all to have a few days at the beach! This is also the dress rehearsal for our drive with the babies down to Steve’s family for Christmas. We pack the car: twenty baby suits for the two of them for three days, 160 disposable nappies in two packets, sheets for them (the cottage is supplying portable cots), sheets for us, a sheepskin rug, baby pouches, a baby rocker and some food. We‘re not bringing the double pram, port-a-cot, or anything for a bath,…

That’s right. I’m having an affair and loving every moment of it. The dreamy, wordless exchange of smiles. The late night trysts. That feeling of excitement and adventure. The good thing about being in love with babies though is that no one is scandalised. In fact they don’t seem surprised at all. Everyone tells you that being in love with and responsible for babies changes your life. They don’t tell you exactly how.  I’ll give you some glimpses during the babies’ first two months. As I mentioned in Baby Farm, the babies were born at 36 weeks, so when they…

I’ve discovered a baby farm. Not producing babies, but growing them, and nurturing their new parents before both are released to the world outside. My discovery began when I had twins, born a little early at 36 weeks and one day on 16 June 2010. I had twins and I am a twin. Retribution. I would learn first-hand what my mother did for my sister and I all those years ago. I approached motherhood with some trepidation as well as excitement, as my mother had had little support back then in the 70s, and her succinct description of the experience…

Knowing that our twins were born nine months after our return to Australia, you might think that they had their origin in Paris. In fact they were conceived in a sterile, white room containing a doctor, nurse and embryologist. Steve was there too, but he was fully clothed. Yes, the babies were conceived by IVF, very much on Australian soil. IVF isn’t a single injection, but involves a series of processes: blood tests every few days to establish the right point in a menstrual cycle to start treatment; stimulating the ovaries with self-administered  injections of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) at…

Having now had the good fortune to have lived in Paris for three months and explored its many hidden corners, I thought I’d share some of the lesser-known delights with you. Places you might not have heard of or had the time to squeeze in if you have visited Paris before. My top six secret treasures of Paris then, next time you are there: First, some green space. The Promenade Plantée (planted promenade) was created more than twenty years ago now, and is a garden path that meanders way above your head atop a viaduct where a railwayused to pass.…