Blossoming

October 9, 2013 By DorkyMum in Family, Tasmania Tags: child development, Family, spring, spring in Tasmania 25 Comments

It is spring here. I almost feel guilty enjoying it so much, when friends and family back in the UK are posting updates online about the days getting shorter, the mornings getting colder. If I could bundle up some of our Tasmanian spring and send it across to you all, I would.

Last weekend we moved our clocks forward an hour. Not that we needed to – the mornings and the evenings here were already filled with light. The kind of light that makes you run from one window to another, watching it change, holding your breath as the sunbeams catch one cloud, exhaling silently as they shimmer on another.

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One Month

October 4, 2013 By DorkyMum in Family, Tasmania 14 Comments

It is four weeks to the day since we landed in Hobart.

One half of my head is saying ‘Four weeks ALREADY?‘

The other half is saying. ‘ONLY four weeks? It feels like so much longer.‘

DorkyDad started his new job this week, so gone are the lazy mornings of lounging around in pyjamas with a second coffee. We are back to early starts and hurried bowls of Special K before he has to dash for the bus. How nice it’ll be if we’re lucky enough to find a house for the longer term that allows him to walk to work again, feeling the seasons on his face rather than watching them through a window.

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The Great Outdoors

October 2, 2013 By DorkyMum in Family, Tasmania Tags: children outdoors, childrens outdoor activities, garden, gardening 7 Comments

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love having a little garden again.

It is nothing too special, just a patch of grass, a few shrubs, and some wooden decking at the back of the wee rented cottage we are spending our first months in. But what a joy it is, to have a piece of the earth that we can call ours.

DorkyDad and I are content to stand out on the deck every so often. There are sliding glass doors off the kitchen, and we step outside to admire the sunset, or the scudding clouds, or to feel the soft rain on our faces. Hobart is one of those cities where you can stand for ten minutes and watch an entire weather system passing through. I have seen more rainbows in the last three weeks than in the previous three years. The sky feels big and open, and the air feels pure and clean. Continue reading →