nine

 Beautiful Bella turns nine this week. I finished the doll and Martin made the gorgeous cradle, decorated with bees .Our children are growing up tall and strong, witty, wise, creative and delightful.

I found a book of stories and drawings of mine from school in 1976. I was 8; around the same age as our kids now. It's fun to read them together. Now and then I regret the day I burned my 30 diaries on a fire in Byron Bay 13 years ago. I'd kept a diary since I was 14 until that time - 31. My dad sent me the last few boxes of my stored belongings and because I was such a nomad at the time, I decided that carrying so much stuff around in my van was ludicrous and proceeded to lighten my load. I could have left the boxes in WA. There were many things I let go of,  that now as a parent, I would love to have hold of. Those diaries contained all the secrets of the teenage psyche! What a hoot at the very least it could have been to share them with the kids!