On a mid-spring day that feels like summer, I walk through the bush with Nora and Quinn, scanning the sandy track ahead for snakes among the fallen tree branches.
The other day, a long, fat, black, fast slithering snake blocked the track behind the children’s playground. As soon as I saw it, I turned around and strode quickly away before the dogs noticed the venomous, dangerous creature I didn’t want us to meet.
Ducking under the bowing branches of a line of wattle trees, I notice they’re about to flower. An abundance of tiny, tightly coiled spheres is ready to spring open. Any day now, a sweet wattle smell will saturate the warm air, the scent of the bush.
On our way home, through the trees, a lone blue agapanthus flower catches my eye. Surely it has bloomed too soon? None of the agapanthus plants crammed into our front gardens is ready to flower.
I love the agapanthus season. Despite our local native plant nursery declaring this plant an exotic weed and trying to discourage us from planting it, all the gardens in our street are agapanthus-rich. Clumps of flat, strappy leaves. from which tall, sculptural flowers will emerge, mark the front boundaries of our properties. Well before Christmas, our road will be lined with striking blue and white flowers.
And a few agapanthus flowers will appear in the bush even though they don’t belong. They’re somewhere they shouldn’t be, but I can’t help but admire their adventurous spirit and their desire to conquer new territories. Rounding a bend in the track, they’re unexpected delights among the native plants.
Years ago, when my girls and I would finish our early morning runs through the bush, we’d flop amongst the clumps of agapanthus plants planted by our local council, who’d also ignored the warnings about exotic flowers invading the bush. We’d upturn our bottles, gulping the cool water before plodding home on run-weary legs.
Our running days are over. My girls have moved on to new adventures, and some now belong somewhere else.
But part of them will always belong here, in the bush with the wattles and the agapanthus. And the black venomous snakes that we wouldn’t miss if they decided to migrate somewhere else.
It doesn’t matter where my girls go or what they do; they’re still running along the tracks, jumping over fallen branches, panting as they approach the finish line. They grin, high-five with sweaty palms and congratulate each other: “Good work, Team!” And joy flows.
Those days aren’t lost. They live in my memory. No one can take them away. They belong to me.
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Sue, I love this recollection of your time with your girls and the way you beautifully illustrate the places you go. Sending lots of love Nancy
Nancy,
I’ve been thinking about the value of recording the little details of our lives, things we label as ordinary like the annual flowering of the agapanthus and the occasional sighting of a snake. The little things that make our lives unique. I want to remember them all.
Also, I imagine my ordinary life is very different to yours. I wonder what little things you encounter every day that aren’t special to you but would be so fascinating to me.
Thank you so much for your encouraging words. You are always in my thoughts and prayers. ❤️ xx
Sue, you are so right we are each so unique. I have chickens that I tend to everyday I collect eggs and sell them to two doctors offices once a week. We have a chocolate lab her name is Gracey, we have two goats Ivy and Tanner their Norwegian dwarf goats and we have them just for pleasure. My husband and I tend to an organic vegetable garden in the spring and summer time. I can’t say we’re Masters at it, LOL but we try really hard every year. If I get a bounty of zucchini which I did not this year but in years past I will bake anywhere from 10 to 12 loaves of zucchini bread and put them in my deep freeze and share them with my mother-in-law as that’s her favorite. I like you hang laundry on a clothesline. And when it is charged we are able to actually use a solar generator to run our washing machine. I make my own homemade granola, my own homemade spaghetti sauce with the tomatoes from our garden. I also make our bread homemade either in a bread machine or by hand. I make some different mixes from scratch like onion soup mix and taco seasoning. I grocery shop weekly and take my son Nathan out to lunch before grocery shopping so he and I have lunch together and then we grocery shop and then we stop at a cafe to get a coffee and enjoy time together sitting and talking while we drink our coffee. I feel very blessed. My husband takes really good care of our family he’s a wonderful provider. We live on three and a half acres back in the woods on the main road of our town but you would never know we live on the main road because we’re so far back we’re about a thousand feet off of the main road of our town. I have the privilege of helping to take care of my 84 year old mother-in-law she needs rides to the doctor other than that she is pretty healthy. I try to make as many meals as I can at home. I make most meals from scratch. Every once in awhile I will stop and get a bag Caesar salad and a rotisserie chicken or something like that as a meal or maybe we’ll get pizza occasionally. But most of the time we try to eat our meals at home. None of this stuff is all that exciting just part of my daily life day by day week by week.
Nancy,
I really enjoyed reading this snapshot of your life! Your days are very different from mine. They might not seem exciting to you, but I think they are very interesting. I could imagine you sharing your everyday stories on a blog that I’d love to read.
There’s one thing we have in common. You have lunch with your son, do the grocery shopping and then chat while having coffee. I do something very similar with my daughter Imogen. Each week, we meet at the supermarket in town to buy our groceries. Once we’ve bought and stowed them in our cars, we go to a cafe for brunch. We talk for a long time, sharing our news of the past week, while savouring our food and coffee.
Enjoy the weekend with your family and animals! ❤️
You have a wonderful weekend too❤❤❤
Thank you, Nancy! xxx
My dad always encouraged me to invest in riches, that noone can take away. Like skills, or beautiful relationships.
Yes, those precious memories are yours and they are beautiful. I have enjoyed reading about your families running adventures and was amazed, how everyone participated. It was team work in its best form.
How did you begin doing this? Was it hard in the beginning? Did kids not complain too much? Did you run yourself before you started doing it as a team? As you see,I`m very interested in more details, if you don`t mind answering. 🙂
And I like this flower-plant! No wonder people want to plant it, it is lovely and probably also easy to maintain.
Have a lovely day! Luana
Luana,
I love your dad’s attitude!
My husband Andy and our daughters, Imogen and Charlotte, started running first. They went out together each morning after inviting me to join them. I refused to run with them for a while, but then I decided to give it a go. It didn’t take me long to regret that decision. Running was hard work. I couldn’t run very far. I got breathless and hot, and my legs hurt. I crawled home from my first run with my heart thumping fast, vowing never to run again.
But when I got home, Sophie and Gemma-Rose greeted me with excitement. They were so proud of me. “You ran, Mum! Can we run with you tomorrow?” So I had to run the next day and the next… Running got easier. We all encouraged each other. We became a team.
Running just after sunrise turned out to be a beautiful experience. We were all in the bush at a time when most other people were still in bed or getting ready to go to work or school. We saw kangaroos. We heard the birds. We saw flowers bloom. We smelt the wattle-scented air.
I think there is something very special about doing difficult things with other people. Running became easier over time, but it required a commitment, and as we got better, we set ourselves challenges. We ran greater distances and up steep hills. At the end of our runs, we felt exhausted but satisfied. Those runs bonded us together.
Oh yes, agapanthus plants are very hardy. They don’t need watering or any special maintenance, though we remove the flower stalks when the flowers have died and turned to seed. Each year, new clumps of agapanthus appear in our flower beds. Years ago, we bought two plants from a market, and now we have a garden full of agapanthus!
It’s so lovely to chat with you, Luana. Love to you and your family! xxx
Thank you for your reply, Sue! It sounds doable, hard but doable. Very inspiring! Yes, doing difficult things together with a good attitude and encouraging each other is a good recipe for a strong bond.
My family helped reltives with work on a farm every summer. Some of it was hard, some of it took a long time for a kid, but it got done with lots o laughter and encouragement, sometimes a song, a story and with good food afterwards. I have such fond memories of these summers.
Luana,
I love your farm story. Oh yes, working hard together is an opportunity to bond closely with one another.
The good thing about doing difficult things is that they can sometimes get easier if we persevere. That’s what happened with running. The first few weeks were awful. I came home from my runs feeling like I was dying. But encouraged by my kids, I kept going. Later, I had a huge feeling of satisfaction when I looked back and saw how far I’d come.
I wonder if you are thinking about running. How about your kids? Do you have somewhere beautiful to run close to where you live? ❤️
Sometimes I am thinking about running. I like the idea a lot. Especially idea of a family running together. Having a baby and also winter coming around the corner doesn`t feel like a practical moment to start, but maybe next spring? Who knows. Some of my kids enjoy running, so it might become a family thing someday. I remember the smiles of your family after your morning runs. Such fond memories!
I love your reminiscences. You write them into such a lovely story. How fun to look back and remember. I’ve also been reading about the Stoic practice of being nostalgic for the present which can make us appreciate it all the more. It seems strange but it makes my present moment feel bathed in golden light like a movie set. I wonder if that will make me remember it more in the future? I have a notoriously bad memory usually! 😀
Jack,
What a treat seeing you on my blog! I’m glad you like my story.
The Stoic practice of being nostalgic: that’s a new idea for me so I did a quick bit of research. Do we treat every moment as being our last one, extracting everything it holds, just in case it’s never repeated? (I guess moments aren’t repeatable. Even if they’re similar, they’re unique.) Or maybe I didn’t understand properly?
I’ve had ‘last time’ moments that I didn’t recognise when they happened. For example, I didn’t recognise my last run with my girls. It seemed like any other run. It was only when I looked back, I realised that was the last time the whole Team gathered together and cheered each other on before walking home for breakfast.
We sometimes say, “If I’d known that was the last time… I would have… paid more attention… savoured the moment more… appreciated what I had…” Perhaps when we’re being nostalgic for the present we don’t need to say these words?
I love your image of feeling bathed in a golden light like a movie set. I shall ponder that as I move through my day! 😊❤️
Hey Sue, how are you doing? I hope you are having a beautiful Advent and did meet some nice people. Wishing you all the best! Luana
Luana,
It’s wonderful to hear from you!
The last time we were chatting, I was talking about joining the Catholic Women’s League. Unfortunately, I haven’t done that. I’m having a lot of problems sleeping. It’s hard to make a commitment to something new when I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to attend meetings. So I’ve placed that idea on hold.
From another comment about running, I see you have a baby in your family at the moment. What joy!
I hope you have a very happy Christmas. May God bless you and your family! ❤️❤️
Hi Sue, I`m sorry sleep is not coming easily now. I do understand, everything in our days needs to be as simple as possible, when we are so tired. Maybe you can sometime join their meeting spontaneously?
Yes, baby in the family is such a joy! Also sleepless nights, but this kind of “sleepless” is so different and also sweet. Sometimes I cannot sleep, because I worry about my older kids, or life in general, or some problems – and that is another category of exhaustion. I definitely prefer babies keeping me awake at night 🙂
It seems to be a common problem among women, to not be able to sleep well easily. What does help you? One friend has told me, when she manages to rest more during the day, the night sleep is better. Also fresh air and sunshine helps, but with dogs walking, you already have that.
I hope this night will be good to you. Thank you for your reply, it is always so nice to chat with you. Luana
I am wishing you a and your family a very happy Christmas too!!!
Thank you, Luana! ❤️
Luana,
Oh yes, sleepless baby nights are so sweet, though maybe I only appreciated that fully when they were over! It’s such a delicious feeling slipping into sleep when we’re tired.
I’m sorry to hear that worries about your family sometimes keep you awake. Things won’t work out perfectly or exactly as we hope, but everything will be okay. God will look after everyone.
I haven’t yet found anything that helps me sleep. Maybe acceptance is the answer for now. One positive about being awake in the night is that I’m listening to lots of audiobooks!
Hoping your Christmas is full of joy and love, Sue ❤️
Merry Christmas, Sue!
I love how you combine words “delicious” and “sleep”. Yes, sleep is indeed delicious. And when it is not coming easily, acceptance might be the best thing we can do in that moment. During my young adult years, sometimes I had trouble sleeping, especially during the exam seasons. I remember one friend telling me, that is is also very good to simply rest – even without a good night sleep, it is still good for our body to at leas rest. This helped me accept this situation and relax into “resting”, when sleeping wasn`t easy.
I am wishing you a wonderful Christmas season!
It always takes me by surprise to see Australian Christmas in the middle of the summer :O) How long did it take your husband to get used to it? It must be such a fun feeling to experience Christmas on the other side of the world. Didn`t you have some Christmases in England, too?
Luana,
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
Oh yes, resting without sleeping can be good. I agree. So does my Apple Watch. It congratulates me for getting an excellent night’s sleep even if I’m awake all night as long as I lie still!
My husband has experienced many more Australian Christmases than English ones, so I guess he got used to celebrating this season in summer a long time ago! I remember a few English Christmases when I was at university. One of the big differences, apart from the weather, is the length of the holiday. It was over very quickly in England. Here, the long summer school holidays begin just before Christmas. Many people are still enjoying a break even though Christmas Day was nearly two weeks ago, including Andy who doesn’t return to work until the end of January. ❤️
Enjoy your school break with Andy! You two are such a wonderful couple.
I agree, it must be so nice to have a nice long australian break after Christmas 🙂
Luana,
Thank you! I am so grateful for Andy. He is a very loving husband.
I hope all is well with you and your family. May God bless you. ❤️