weather patterns

Holidays over. First day back at school. It feels like winter again. Ugg boots, doonas and radiators all pulled out of the cupboard where I stashed them prematurely during that blast of summer heat a few weeks back. Did those sweltering days really happen or did we just imagine them? Internal weather also has been grey and  overcast since return from the beach. 

When J turned up this morning for marimba group and said “How are you?”, my answer was ‘”I’m crap!” “Yeah, me too!” she said and we both laughed and that was the beginning of feeling better. 

I put the roses she brought me in a vase. They are the lovely home-grown sort, imperfect, assorted sizes and colours, with big mean thorns, and glorious old-fashioned perfume: a thing of beauty in the midst of domestic chaos. 

We are in the middle of getting the deck sanded and re-coated. I had hoped it would be done when we got back from holidays but because of the interminable rain, the final coat is still not on and all the outdoor furniture is shoved inside. Plus the coffee table and lamp are pulled away from the wall and the carpet rolled back because we had a flood of water inside yesterday in that corner. 

So I am living in mess. I think of myself as an orderly, even a slightly  obsessive person,  domestically. But right now I am averting my eyes from it all. I’ve even let the washing up accumulate today. It’s a sort of  experiment in laziness. 

Anyway J and I had tea and cake and agreed about how we hate the school day grind, harrying our kids off in the morning. We also laughed about  how  crazy we get with our husband/partner. And how fast it can all change. Yep I say, I can be feeling like I just can't stay in the relationship a moment longer, then an hour later he’s playing the ukulele, jamming with our son on the clarinet, and all is sweet and harmonious in our happy little household. 

Plus he’s made me  roll around laughing by phoning up on the mobile last night pretending to be a Vietnamese chef called Ling and telling me he will be serving Vietnamese ricepaper rolls for dinner. Which he does, and they are delicious. J and I agreed that  we seem to be pretty much stuck with our respective blokes after all these years, and that you just have to let it all go past like the weather. After a while you recognise the familiar weather patterns. 

Then we all played marimbas - an African piece -  and the black cloud that had been hanging around me since getting back from hols was blown away. Someone told me the other day (no kidding) about some form of therapy called ‘Pleasant Activity Therapy’ (PAT?) Well marimbas and a good chat and a laugh does it for me. 

This is a picture of a rainbow after a storm when we were up  at the beach house last week.