Luckybeans

Creeks and Fourth of July

This week has been hot. I know that seems a bit odd fort he Pacific Northwest, but it isn't really. You get these little heat spells and then run for the nearest water. We went up the creek, without a paddle, but in our swim suits and with our new net. We splashed and had great fun. Skipped stones, found eels and fish, lounged around in that beautiful dappled light you can find under tall trees...

We also joined our cousins for a Fourth of July parade yesterday. Oh boy, did that confuse my children. They loved being with Henry and Lily, and the horses, and the throwing of candy at them, but they certainly didn't understand very much about the patriotic spirit or why kids kept rolling by in cardboard tanks with flags waving like mad.

We are meeting the cousins again today. More on that soon...

500

I just realised this is my five hundredth post. That's a lot of me babbling about nothing in particular. A lot of lost teeth, haircuts, small children getting so much larger, and craft projects.  And an awful lot of photos and  memories I am grateful to have recorded here. To those of you who have been here to encourage this little blog along its way, thank you. This has become a very special corner in my life.

In the meantime. we have two batches of raspberry jam in process on the kitchen counter.

We found a fantastic frog pond which we need to explore much more thoroughly.

And we have gotten quite good at wondering in the woods. Summer in the Pacific Northwest is pretty idyllic. I just don't know how you'd beat it.

We Have Landed

After a long and difficult journey, we have finally arrived in Oregon. It was worth it. We are enjoying spending time with my brother and mother, and many old friends. And we have taken to running about in the woods when we can.

For some it is second nature. Or perhaps first.

Others can be easily persuaded.

And others still have yet to fully recover from an exhausting journey and jet lag. But we are getting there.

We found fluff covering the forest, holes where wee creatures can hide, and a neatly nibbled mushroom.

We are also eating our body weight in berries, sushi and ice cream. Life is so good.

Things I Have Learned

1. The hall

shuffle shuffle doink*

shuffle

is really

doink* shuffle shuffle

long...

2. Gravity is not as constant as one would think. Oh, no. Sometimes it suddenly veers away and attaches itself to the wall, or corner, or your left elbow. 

3. Time is a very strange thing when are ill. A very random thing. Not steady and chronological and dependable like it usually is at all.

Things I Have Not Learned

1. Why people want to take mind altering drugs. I mean, I never really understood this one before. Now I really don't. 

2.  How come I am so dang irritable. Everything is bothering me right now. Do you know how annoying it is to irritated all the time? Gah!

3. How to walk down the hall. Yet. doink*

* sound created by someone's (you know, it really could be anyone's) head thumping into the wall as it asserts its random gravity. 

For the first time in over ten years of living in Africa, I have malaria. And yes, it sucks just as much as they say it does. I will be back when those wonder drugs have done their stuff. 

Ooooo the little bugs...

They have struck our house with a vengeance, Yesterday Asher was feverish and miserable. I had to carry him to the couch or bed or table. Bella took such good care of him-- reading stories, playing card games and bingo, bringing him toys or snacks.

She made a paddle boat yesterday for a school project.

We also made Asher some play dough.

Today, I  am the one in bed with a fever. I did manage to get to the bath, but found the whole process so exhausting I went back to sleep for two hours to recover. Asher, on the other hand, is much better. He wrote up the alphabet for me (no backwards or oddly formed letters from this careful boy, which makes me a little sad), read me stories, sang me The Motorcycle Song and did his best pirate dance to the Chieftains. Ana brought me miso soup, tissues and water.  So here I lay with my waterbottle, paracetemol and pillow. Who has time to be sick?! I have play dough to squish and car pools to run...

One fine day with a sick boy...

Asher stayed home again today. We had a wonderful morning together yesterday, and today he just didn't seem himself, so he stayed home again. And a good thing too as he developed a fever. But not before we had a good time painting together. 

I love watching this boy create. He is so thoughtful and meticulous. The brush is rinsed each time. Every colour is so carefully thought through and applied. He blends and dots, then pauses to consider. He asks me what I think about this now? 

How can I help but treasure every single painting he creates? Especially when I get to see him make them. They are all masterpieces.

Mulanje Massif Day Four

The last day was the day of our descent. The minunu path is extremely steep, but beautiful. The whole way is through verdant, mossy forest, and much of it follows streams. I had to keep stopping to pet the moss or talk to the ferns, or admire a tree's particularly beautiful roots or buttresses. The air is so clean and pure and moist and fresh. I think I was meant to live someplace like this.

We reached the bottom in good time, exhausted but happy. My knees, remarkably, are still in one piece today. I don't know if or when we will go again, but this felt like such a gift.

Mulanje Massif Days 2&3

We woke up with the light before it broke over the peaks behind us. A magical dawn of fog and smoke on the land below us.

The children were very good at eating (lest you were wondering), and a funny hat was absolutely a requirement on this trip.

Ute and I drank tea and discussed politics endlessly. Wait, I'm lying. There is no way we discussed politics. The meaning of life, maybe. Politics, electricity and minibuses, No.

During the two middle days on Mulanje, we explored waterfalls and streams, and spent a lot of time roasting things and making small projects.

We wrote, carved boats, made wreaths and even carved our own spoons. The second hut we stayed in had no cutlery. Can you guess which one was mine? It worked very well, for the record. Although everything did taste very strongly of cedar.

On the third day, we also crossed over to the second, spoonless hut we stayed in called Minunu. it is tiny, and we barely all fit in. But although the kids and I slept outside on our second night, the wind was too strong for that on the last night. So sardines we were.

The views on the crossover weren't too bad, either.

Mulanje Massif Day One

On the first day, we started from Mulli Brothers Tea Estate. There wasn't any tea to be seen, but it was hot and dry. We made our way up from among the housing through the millet fields. Have I mentioned how lovely the grass is right now?

It takes between four and six hours to get to the top (including picnics), but that is not walking; it is serious climbing. We had to take many opportunities to stop and notice what we were passing. As we climbed, we saw the vegetation change with the elevation as well.

Any hiker will tell you how important it is to take care of your feet. We brought lots of plasters and socks. We used them all.

By mid-afternoon, we reached the plateau (at about 2000m). It is a beautiful, rolling grassland with valleys of wooded forest that follow the streams, and peaks rising from it. There is nothing so good as a bath in a freezing mountain stream. I think that is the real reason I hike to begin with.

We spent the first two nights in this hut, called Thuchila (too-chee-lah). Like all huts on Mulanje, it is built from Mulanje cedar and has a stone fireplace for heat and cooking. Thuchila is a large, three roomed one, and has had its doors and windows trimmed in blue. At over a hundred years old, it is one of the oldest on the mountain.

And yes, the sunset was rather spectacular.