Spring

So much for my resolution to blog more frequently - another couple of months have flown by.

September brought some unseasonably warm days prompting an unprecedented picnic
in the back yard.
We visited Elle's (Eleanor's preferred name) new house in Brunswick for a delicious Asian meal one night. Will seemed to be in one of his hairy phases.

On October 11 Sophie and I waved Rosie off on the bus to her class's week-long camp. She'd been looking forward to it and by all accounts it went swimmingly. While she was away Peter and Sophie did a road trip together taking in Daylesford and Hanging Rock. Fred and Barney kept them company. Don't know what they thought of the small horsey creatures and kangaroos or vice versa. A stop at a chocolate factory was squeezed in for afternoon tea.

With Jessye happily occupied socially or with rowing most weekends, Rosie away at camp and Sophie and Peter out for the day. I was able to devote most of Sunday to hanging out with Sandra and Rosalind. Rosalind had been plotting a trip down from Sydney for months and it all came together brilliantly at the last minute. Sandra and I were able to be almost completely free for three days and we had fabulous quality girl time including a day trip to Sandra's beautiful Portsea beachhouse and lunch at a nearby winery.

Rosie came back from camp tired and happy. Note the new braces, by the way.

Jessye and I went to and loved a concert by Stevie Wonder at Rod Laver Arena then it was right into a week of serious rehearsing (as serious as it can be with a couple of clowns) for a little NZ tour with the Munro/Smith/Berlin Trio. We played concerts in Wellington, Rotorua and Christchurch with a free day between each pair of concerts so that there was time to see Donald and Mary's new house in Wellington, have a drink with Judith Clark after the concert, catch up with a few more people at Al and Jane's house (including a new-look Jenny and David Chickering and son, Luka), go on a terrific tour of a dry cave and a glow-worm cave at Waitomo (one of our 10-person party happened to be a good mate of Michael Houstoun - small world!), have a soak and a massage at DeBrett's hot springs at Taupo, see the mighty Huka Falls (Ian was particularly impressed when I told him my Grandma's younger brother had dived into the worst bit from a rock on the other side and lived to tell the tale AND get his picture in the paper) and catch up with Chris and Grant, Kirsty, Dave and boys and my dear Uncle Frank and Aunty Diane. I was especially glad to visit Uncle Frank who's been having a pretty rough time since his quite severe stroke a few months ago. Oh yes, and the concerts were fun too. We had lunch in Christchurch with Chris Marshall who had commissioned the new trio from our illustrious composer/pianist, Ian Munro. Giving the premiere performances of the trio was the reason for the trip and it was really well received at all the concerts. Thank you, Chris - and Ian.

I came home to some welcoming artwork by Sophie and then, unfortunately, to the ordeal of Halloween a few hours later. Joey came with us and after a slow start - it was a Friday night and lots of people were out (or hiding!) - things picked up and the girls felt vindicated. Their costumes went down well in the neighbourhood.

Rosie is constantly baking and went through a fairly concentrated cupcake phase culminating in the very colourful collection she made to sell at her class's fundraiser for some charity.

I told the girls it was Lenny's birthday on Melbourne Cup day and went off to play a concert that night. I came home to find they had made a cake in his honour and lit the ceremonial Lenny candle which we brought back from a trip to Mexico when Jessye was a toddler and Rosie was in utero. The candle used to look like a teddy bear but after being lit for a meal or a few minutes every year for the last 15 years, it's a little worse for wear. Lenny would have been 17.

To follow up on last blog's medical story, Rosie has had no more seizures and the scans and MRI seem to show no reason to think it will be an ongoing thing so we have relaxed and have stopped watching her every move. She is nevertheless quite aware of what to do if she feels faint and is scrupulously careful about crossing roads etc. Peter and I saw a neurologist at Children's Hospital who interpreted Rosie's brain EEG and heard her life story then assured us she is just a fainting type (a bit like Peter in his youth, apparently), that what she had wasn't a real seizure but just a faint with a bit of palava afterwards due to oxygen not getting to brain fast enough (awkward falling position etc) and that she is definitely not epileptic. Phew! one less thing to worry about. We are now gearing up for our big European adventure in 2 weeks preceded by a few days in Auckland for me to do the preliminary judging phase of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.