I got a call from Duncan yesterday to say that his and Becky’s baby has been born! A very cuddly, peaceful-looking, good sized boy. The girls are overjoyed. When asked what the highlight of Christmas day was, Rhea said it was seeing Becky and Duncan. In February last year, she asked me who I would most like to meet in the world. I said I would have to give it some thought and asked her the same question. She replied ‘I would most like to meet Duncan and Becky’s child.’
On the same night that Becky was in labour, with generous help from Steve’s mum, we signed the contract on a new house! As my mother said at the time, it’s all happening! We are deep in preparations for selling our house, after living here for sixteen years. We all feel a mixture of excitement and sadness for leaving the home where the girls have always lived, and indeed where Steve and I got married, and used as the base for overseas travels to Africa, Europe, Canada, India, and, with the girls, New Zealand. We have used the other two rooms of the house in different configurations as our needs changed: from one room containing a study with two desks, and the other being a guest bedroom and then two cots; and since just before the pandemic, the girls had one of those rooms each, including a desk.
We have had many relaxing nights sitting in front of the fire, I have had many deeply relaxing baths alone or with one or other of the girls, and we have built bookshelves and cupboards to accommodate the ever-expanding books, toys, games, craft items and towels and medicines that come with having a family.
Lotus came to this house, we had mum’s 60th birthday here and my 40th I experienced disappointments, read many books, discovered podcasts, got through depressions and hard times as well as happy ones. My uncle built the girls a treehouse out the back and they have spent many occasions with the two girls who live over the back fence, the younger of whom I remember being a baby and her older sister is two years younger than the girls. They are now aged seven and nine.
It was the garden that first had me smitten when I saw photos of this house, including the enticing stone pathway below a big old Manchurian pear tree leading from the footpath to the house, the tree dropping radiant red, yellow and orange leaves in autumn. I am hoping that the tree will be in full splendour when the house is open to the public in a month’s time. We kept the back garden as it had been when we bought the house, but created the Japanese-looking pebble garden down the side late last year, which makes me feel contented every time I am in it. It was only recently that I realized that the garden didn’t have to be the native, water-wise Xeroscape garden we bought from the previous owners and I could plant exotics if I wanted to, and that I did want to, so there is a magnolia in front of our bedroom window which I hope will one day grow into a beautiful vision from our bedroom window, for others to enjoy.
I will describe the new house in more detail another time. We were all equally smitten by it, and by some aspects of the garden. The house is not far away, just a few streets, and both it and the garden are much bigger. I will create a garden there that echoes this one, including the plants and features that are most special to me, like another pebble garden that I won’t put under a deciduous tree if I can help it.
And so, after this very busy time of repairs and organization, a pinprick at this time of worldwide upheaval and uncertainty, this will be another new beginning for us too, and one that I look forward to sharing with our friends and family, including the newest member of it.
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