The fabric of a country

Over the last couple of days - since Anzac Day really, I've been thinking about what I'll miss about New Zealand when we move to Brisbane. In many respects while we were visiting a couple of weeks back I was struck by the similarities rather than the differences. Yes there were all those Australian accents, and my wallet kept getting weighed down by all that heavy coinage - but it all seemed pretty manageable. I've moved regions in New Zealand before and I was beginning to think it wasn't going to be much more of an adaptation than that.

Then on Anzac Day during the Dawn Parade when the Army speaker started his address in Te Reo Maori, I began to think of the day to day inclusions that I take for granted. Hearing and using Te Reo (however infrequently and badly) is one of them, and that God Defend New Zealand is the New Zealand national anthem. That I could as easily have been at a war memorial on Sunday which carried the name of one of my great, great uncles.

I know that the importance I place on cultural inclusion and the awareness of cultural equity is not universal in this country, but as I watched the boys leaving the college Jon would have gone to while I stopped at the crossing' I was struck by their incredible diversity of skin colours and ethnicity as they (at least in that moment) were laughing and joking together at the end of the day. And it troubles me that not one of the schools we could enrol him in, in Brisbane, had an indigineous role percentage of more than 4%.

And what worries me more - and why I am writing about it to remind me - is that after a few months I wont even notice the absence.

Christmas wanderings

After catching up with everyone at the Web Services morning tea (including doing a tweet for their Christmas tree) Jon and I headed over to check out the Christmas Shop at Kirkcaldies. We weren't that inspired by the Christmas Shop itself but - as ever- the Kirk windows were wonderful. We particularly loved this one which featured the bears knitting and weaving!

Catching up with Advent

I've found it ironic this year that I haven't been nearly as onto Advent and getting ready for Christmas as before - despite (in theory) having more time. I think part of it is not being in the office environment and general chat about counting down the days.
Today I took a break and made a conscious choice to do the three things that have been "nagging" at me. I made the Advent Wreath, put together Jon's new Playmobil Calendar (the last year for this I think) and got out the stack of Christmas books.

A new tradition I started when Jon was a baby, was to get one or two Christmas themed picture books each year (often from Amazon at the start). They only come out at Advent and are put away at Epiphany. When he was little we read him a couple each night - now he reads them to himself, although it is not unknown for him to bring one out to be read to him. As the tradition progressed, for a time I looked for books that reflected our summer Christmas as I would buy two copies and include one with our December 98 birthday buddy gift exchange.

It's a pretty substantial collection after 10 years. The first book in the collection was given to me when I was about 8 and is Dick Bruna's The Christmas Book, with his distinctively simple illustrations. Then there is Tomi de Paola's Clown of God which David got for his first Christmas from extended family followed by Why a Donkey was Chosen another year. I bought a copy of Lucy and Tom's Christmas by Shirley Hughes as it reminded us of our only winter Christmas in the UK.

That was the start - and now the collection includes what I would call the "heritage" stories, new editions of The Littlest Angel and The Night Before Christmas,which I remember from my childhood. There are the NZ books like Hattie's Christmas Gift, The Christmas Caravan, Santa's Kiwi Holiday and The Boxing Day Test. There are the beautiful picture book re-telling of the Christmas story - the grumpy cat in Michael Foreman's Cat in the Manger, the gathering animals in Room for a Little One, Joyce Dunbar's Follow the Star - and there are many more - children anxious about aspects of Christmas pageants, stories about Saint Nicholas, a fabulously illustrated story call Wensulas about the carol, and many more.

This year I've just bought a copy of Grandma's Kiwi Holiday - were Grandma saves the day when Santa falls ill on Christmas Eve, and Charles Dickens Christmas Carol. And I've just remembered it must be about time to find our copy of Jostien Garder's A Christmas Miracle which has a chapter for every day of December to match the pictures of an advent calendar and which I read aloud each night to Toby when he was about Jonathan's age now.

The cultural capital of gardening

From time to time over the past few years I have been moved to consider how much cultural capital is involved in the process of gardening. While most of the committed gardeners I know do use books etc to gather information - there is an element of handed down knowledge which forms a foundation to work from.

A couple of weeks back Ana decided she was going to grow some vegetables this year and as the rest of us are so erratic in our care of growing things she would commit to seeing this through. So on a lovely sunny day we finished clearing out some overgrown corners and went on a shopping expedition. We got all kinds of things to plant and throughout the process I noticed how much there was to learn from her perspective. Things like how far apart to space plants, providing trellis for climbers to grow up, not planting certain things to early, checking for sun. A lot of that information is on the labels of seedlings but I also know it from watching my parents and grandparents garden.

My cleaner is also providing garden labour at the moment - she enjoys gardening but is learning herself so it's a two way process of me showing her how and where to do/plant things and her experimenting.

In the meantime my persistently enthusiastic and green thumbed youngest exercised his growing muscles digging out the root system of a couple of old hebes that we took out.

RItes of Spring

One of the things I' ve had more time for this year is to stop and notice the idiosynchritic approach I have to some aspects of life - and spring really seems to bring it out!!!

The flowers I find impossible to resist are fresias, tulips, daffodils and poppies. All spring flowers... and for planting - violas, pansies and violets. Quite apart from the purple theme in the later - it's no wonder my garden languishes a bit in mid summer. And while I never seize to be amazed that they florish it's probably why my roses thrive because they get so much attention and food in spring.

But it's not just spring flowers - on reflection - we have almost always moved house in July/August and so I think it triggers my "got to get this place sorted and tidy" frenzy in spring. Over the past couple of weeks I've been cleaning out cupboards and drawers, washing windows and beginning my significant de-clutter. (And if truth be told kind of resenting the limited work commitments I do have for interrupting) It's a counterbalance to all that is new and techie, dishes still need to be done, washing hung out, floors vacuumed (altho actually I still I have a cleaner for the vacuuming ;) )

Nick has been away for nine days - and I'm not expecting he'll notice much difference when he stumbles in past midnight tonight but I can still the progress.

Boots are made for walking

So today I had a meeting in town and I decided that I was going to wear my new winter boots that I raved about when I picked them up four months ago and have worn maybe twice!

I had to plan my whole outfit around them so they could be seen as they should and it was a surprisingly powerful feeling to be in that persona again. It connected to that part of my brain that has been mulling over next steps career wise.

One of the weird things I've noticed about myself is that around this time of year I start getting job itchy feet. September through November is the most common date on my job applications. And I quite often do a 180 degree turn about a decision I've only affirmed recently. One of the classics was September 1999 when having decided to wait til after Christmas to get a job (when Jon would have been one) I had a job (and under two childcare - the real miracle) within four weeks. Many of my jobs have an October in the start date. Nick thinks it might be a spring thing...

Anyway I've seen a job that I'd really love - despite it having many qualities that I know will frustrate and sadden me. Certainly a job I'd feel unhappy about not at least putting my hat in the ring for. And so after declaring my supreme satisfaction with my current working arrangements, that is - not working full time, working from home etc I'm going to apply.

Funnily enough I was playing with a new personal website yesterday and because it wasn't "real" wrote quite a cool piece about who I am and what's important to me in terms of work (no I'm not telling you where it is yet cos I checked this morning and it has typos!) I read it back and thought why can't I write stuff like that when I'm doing a cover letter? While the obvious answer is the absence of pressure - it's good to know I already have something to start with (typos corrected of course).

Just to add to the story ... I was doing the "what would I do if I had a million dollars" game that's quite effective in uncovering your deepest desires a couple of days back... and apart from wanting to move back to Canterbury ... I realised that I had most of what I was listing off already - you just need to see abundance.

So keep your fingers crossed - the universe will provide the answers which ever direction I'm meant to go.

So it's ages since I posted

Mainly because I have been kind of busy with writing and working in lots of other spaces. But this morning I realised that I have had an incredibly productive winter with my knitting. I finished my fifth pair of socks!!! This pair are made out of some pretty hand-dyed wool Tash sent me for my birthday and they are my best yet (Including the lacy pattern)
As well as the five pairs of socks, I have made 6 pairs of handwarmers, a beanie,finished the back of another cardigan for me, and progressed three other projects. Which isn't too bad given my record over the last ten years or so for knitted garments is ... zero!!!
The picture is of the socks in progress that I have just finished this morning.

In the meantime the kakabeak and kowhai are flowering, it's a lovely sunny day - and life in general seems pretty promising.