Aaahchooo!!!

Ooh, spring is springing in beautiful Melbourne and I am sneezing. It's a lovely mild sunny day today with a strong wind, blossom trees are shedding their load everywhere, and I am sneezing. Six months of hayfever coming up. Yes, I do take stuff for it, goodness knows what I would be like without it!!

Busy, busy weekend. Baby Bear is now off school sick - the inevitable result of an overly busy week followed by the busy weekend. In the last week she has - done the normal school and music stuff; had late nights Tuesday and Wednesday doing orchestra practice (with two orchestras on Tuesday); sat a music theory exam on Wednesday; had a late night on Thursday performing with one orchestra in an Eisteddfodd (the School Bands Festival); had a late night Friday at Youth Group; on Saturday we went to Geelong for the day to see my mum; she slept over at a friend's place on Saturday night; yesterday she performed with the other orchestra at a concert, and sung a solo with a choir - no wonder she was throwing up at 7am and looking very grey around the edges! She is spending a quiet day in her pajamas making bracelets and reading.

The trip to Geelong was exhausting. It's not a great drive - a dangerous road, even though it had been upgraded a lot, and to tell the truth my mum lives in a fairly awful part of Geelong that we hate visiting. That makes me sound so snobbish - but I just don't like taking my kids to an area where the streets are full of broken glass and there is a lot of violence and drug-dealing. I hate it that my mum lives there (no, it's not where we grew up - not even in the same city) but we don't have the space for her to live comfortable with us - we would need a granny flat as she is fiercely independent and wouldn't do it under any other circumstances, and we don't have anywhere to put one - and she can't afford to move (frankly I doubt if she could even sell the house - it's quite pleasant and comfortable but houses just don't sell down there and are worth next to nothing).

She's just got a new dog - she had two beagles, Becky and Kelly, but poor Becky had a stroke and died a couple of months ago. Tilly is a 3 year old Cavalier King Charles spaniel - not my favorite breed of dog (sorry, no offence meant! But I prefer bigger dogs with long pointy snouts!) Tilly is a darling, very loving and cuddly and nice-natured. I hope she is happy living there - we took the dogs for a longish walk (Sirius came down with us) and Tilly was panting a bit by the time we were halfway through.

After a pleasant lunch we came home via the Brisbane Ranges, a lovely little mountain range northish of Geelong. This was partly to take photos of Baby Bear for the next Sheepeasy pattern - yes, the scrumbled scarf will be released as a pattern in October - but partly just because it is a lovely drive. We spend a couple of hours meandering around, stopping to take photos and look at plants and animals - several kangaroos and wallabies. Then dinner at McDonalds and home, very weary.

Baby Bear's concert on Sunday as a success. It was a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon at Glen Waverley Uniting Church, which is the church we attend. She plays clarinet with the church orchestra, and had been invited to sing a small solo with the Free Spirit choir who were also singing in the concert. George's mum came down for the concert and we had a great afternoon together. The orchestra was, frankly, a little off-key (well, a couple of the newer and less experienced members were), but performed well enough. Free Spirit were excellent - they are good enough to be professional - and Baby Bear's solo in One Small Voice (from Sesame Street) brought tears to my eyes. She was very good! Lots of people rushed up to me afterwards to praise her, which was very gratifying.

Now what I really want is a completely quiet day - but of course she is at home and George has just spent the morning working on the dining table. Never mind. She wants to make some jewellery now that he has gone (and cleared the table) and I need to make a pin or something to go with the scarf - which I hope to post out on Thursday.