Withywindle Wanderers

Coco is delightfully eager in her basketball playing! Dear Eowyn is poorly today, with the nasty cold I had - what a gift to give my daughter! Bens, Naomi and I are getting ready to attend Avak's party - I am excited, though at this very moment, feel most like popping in to my pink flannellette jammies and reading my book (Tom Wolfe's 'I am Charlotte Simmons')! James Taylor's 'Up on a Roof' is playing, which is lovely, although it makes me feel homesick  for Bag End,  where I'd climb on the roof, with Mon Petit Chou (our cat), and sing it to myself, taking in the splendid view of the Cascade Mountains and the Floating Meadow and our line of birch trees and the grove of cedars in our back garden, and plum trees and mountain ash and chestnut, and the row of maples at the foot of the hill, ahhhh,  so splendid in the fall...

As I did after Mum's lumpectomy in 1996, I am nursing Bens' surgical wound at home, rather than him having to go to the doctor/hospital for his dressings. As with Mum, this is a tremendous privilege. Bens is slowly getting more movement  in his hand. I am sick, and cosily at home in my winter jammies, cooking chicken soup, drinking hot tea, lolling by the fire (well, heater, actually!) It is so luxurious to relax at home, yet I do it so infrequently. Whenever I am sick, I think, I should mooch around at home more oft! I am listening to  Greg Laswell . How exciting and wondrous - I shall be seeing almost all of you in our little bloggery-neck-of-the-woods in May. I feel supremely happy about this! Love Megs

PHEWF!! Bens doesn't need a second surgery. He'll be in hospital today on antibiotics and then HOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful relief! The lovely element of this time has been the gentle acknowledging of how very much we mean to each other. Thank you for your support of us, near and far. Love, M

Bens' surgery went really well today - thank you for your kindness and support! The BB was encapsulated in fibrous tissue, and the tendon and synovium surrounding it were inflamed, and starting to become infected. Bye bye BB!! Bens is still in hospital on IV antibugs, and the girls and I are snug at home, listening to  the rain on the roof and looking forward to his homecoming soon!!!!! I have just finished a hauntingly beautiful book named 'Sorrows of an American', by Siri Hustvedt, and wanted to share some of it with you! "I think we all have ghosts inside us, and it's better when they speak than when they don't ..." "...Hans Loewald wrote, The work of a psychoanalyst can turn ghosts into ancestors." "...the snow was beautiful, and as I paused to watch it fall, illuminated by the building's lights against the darkness of the evening, it struck me as a moment when the boundary between inside and outside loosens, and there is no lone...

Lovely Bens has good pain relief, IV antibiotics, no surgery today, perhaps tomorrow. A team of med students are coming to see him in the morning, as (in the doc's words) "We don;t see many bullet wounds around here in Australia". Bens seems quite pleased to be the centre of so much attention - the hospital staff all  love him - he is particularly charming when he's all drugged up!!!!!

Bens is in St Vincents' Hospital overnight, on IV antibiotics, awaiting surgery on his hand in the morning. There's been a BB (bullet) in his hand for the past 18 years, and it has become infected and is limiting the movement in his hand. Poor Bens. It is really hard not to be able to be with him in the hospital. The girls are asleep, so I am staying with them, and shall go in to the hospital tomorrow after dropping them at school. At 11.30 I have a job interview at Save the Children, across the road from Bens' hospital. Please pray for him, and us all. Coco is scared Daddy will die, like Nana did. She said "People get sick before they die, don;t they Mummy?" Thank you for loving us. This pic is kind of incongruent and random - I was looking for one of Eowyn as a baby. Our hard drive is a labyrinth - beware the minotaur!!

(from left to right, Mum, Dad, Eowyn, Coco, David Nicholas and Rachel!)

Coco's coach and team, just before their first ever game! (She is #7!) They were adorable! Really sweet. Coco, and Eowyn in her game, were very determined. I am proud of them! I think it is going to be good for them to be playing basketball, and their wonderful Daddy is a great basketball player. I love the scene in 'Father of the Bride' where Daddy and daughter play basketball together, the night before her wedding. Bens has been playing basketball with Eowyn and Coco, (and Gump!) and it is lovely to watch and cherish these very precious relationships. Mum, Dad, Rachel and David are coming to lunch tomorrow, and Seren on Monday for dinner - it is brilliant being close to some of the family - and we miss the family and close friends who are oceans away. Oh, to have you all in a teensy weensy provincial insular village!!!!!!!

Eowyn plays for the SKiPPS Cheetahs, and Coco for the SKiPPS Lynx, SKiPPS standing for their school, St. Kilda Park Primary School. The girls are very energetic and fun little players. This is their first 'officially' playing on a sporting team, and as their mother, I am very proud of them, and delighted to see them grow in new ways.

I cried this morning at the farm, seeing little Stephen's height less than 3 feet, when Tom's and Sam's heights grew to be so very tall. I wish Stephen had grown to be tall too! We measured Eowyn and Coco, and noticed, as well as we Jones siblings, heights for Edmund and Sebastian. It is so lovely to have children and nieces and nephews!! It was lovely, and sad, to take the girls to Stephen's grave for the first time, and Bens for the second. We are very thankful for this wonderful farm holiday. It makes me feel connected to my lovely family, and my childhood self.  It is the first place I've been to in Australia that I have ever been to before, and have history with. No wonder it has been a challenging transition. I feel much more peaceful after this holiday. The girls and Bens loved it too. We'll be back!!!!

These days are marked by words beginning with the letter 'n'. A very lovely n is my New Niece, Stella Lucy, born at the Baker Street Jones' New Nook, on Harewood Row, accoucher: TOM! Brilliant birthing, Anita! Congratulations, big brothers Edmund, Sebastian and Reuben!! A less lovely 'n' would be the nits which have decided to inhabit our hair. They are DISGUSTING, DEPLORABLE AND DESPICABLE, and DEAD, thankfully. Bens shaved his head, and we girls have intensive chemical attacks going on in our hair, under gladwrap. Bens has washed every item of linen and every garment we've worn  recently in hot water (15 loads!!!) I couldn't face it again, having done it already twice in the last week. This was when we were using the lovely herbal remedy for lice, which smells nice but doesn't work. We are off to the farm for a week tomorrow - on the way, Eowyn and Cosette will see Stephen's grave for the first time. We love you all! M