Read / December 16th, 2009

Alphabeasties and other Amazing Types

I recently had the pleasure of randomly picking up this book from the shelf at the library for the kids. Alphabet books have been done before – many times – but this one is slightly different. As the preface says, “Have fun in our world of wondrous Alphabeasties where you’ll meet animals – and letters…

Family / December 15th, 2009

Tennyson, me, and the problem of ‘self’

Originally posted May 2009 It has been said that my favourite poet would often sit alone as a child and mutter to himself, “Alfred, Alfred, Alfred…” over and over in some sort of attempt to figure out the problem, the complexity, of self. His self. Goodness, don’t we all? We emerge from childhood into a fiery adolescence, then that…

Family / December 14th, 2009

Seven years

This is one of my favourite photos from our wedding day. It is almost certainly the most candid one. We were walking back from having the formal shots being taken up on the headland; it was about a million degrees and I, for one, was looking forward to getting back to the guests, eating, loosening up my…