from the south 5

g'day,
I used to think that life flew by very quickly. With a new marker of time, Stephanie, life is roaring by like never before. She’s been with us nearly 4 months now & yes, since last time she has grown & grown & developed & grown a bit more. In the olden days, we gauged the passage of time through events/ places/ journeys. Nowadays it seems we gauge the passage of time through the growing of a person.

We don’t really get out & about much these days; one trip per day is about it. And a walk to the supermarket counts as a trip. These walks are little journeys of discovery & enlightenment such that we, like young European aristocrats, now know the virtues of a parasol on a sunny day. So we spend a lot of time in Coburg. Knowing other parents. Bumping into people at the shops. It’s happening. The feeling of community is at the tips of our fingers.

Meanwhile, the back porch is a happy place to be. Birds twitter and flap around in the aviary next door; the lemon tree we planted last year has established; and two acacia seedlings that we picked up from the CERES market in Brunswick are kicking on. Ruefully, however, I must report the recent death by cat attack of three birds in our very back yard. A ginger cat from 2 doors down appeared in our yard one morning, whose stealthy stalking was screened most effectively by some (admittedly) pretty long grass. And then POUNCE. Whammo. Dead bird. Three times. Terrible.

The big trip of recent times was a three night adventure I had in Darwin for work. Weird to be back there. Back walking the streets we’d inhabited for 12 months. Back in the land of monsoon and iced coffee and the NT News. But back without Catherine. Walking along the Fannie Bay cliff tops without her felt like walking without my shadow, or without my whole self. It felt a bit empty. A bit surreal. I wanted to tell stories & show things, but couldn’t. Touch down in Melbourne was brilliant but even better was being greeted by Catherine & Stephanie as I walked through the plane doors.

And so the days slip by.
Sometimes they glide by.
Sometimes they frazzle by; or perhaps we frazzle through them.
But mostly they pulse from one session of Steph-awake time to the next. These days she breaks into a huge smile when eye contact is made, her legs pump around like crazy, she gurgles & sings. Shed sucks on her own fist. And of course she screams the house down from time to time.
In between, in the quiet times, there are gardens to garden, washing to wash, cooking to cook, work to work & sleep to sleep.
A couple of biggish life changes, hitherto distant, are now almost on top of us. Next week I commence a Grad Dip in Secondary education, a one year fulltime course that will have me out & about in schools & contributing in a very immediate way. Seriously looking forward to this course. And CJ will soon be re-starting work, probably for a coupla days a week.
I hope this letter finds you well.
Happy days to you & yours.
yo.
dave & catherine & stephanie of Coburg.