Flowers and thanks

Thank you everyone for you kind comments, and love and hugs. I really appreciate them all.

Taph and HappySpider sent - very appropriately, white lilies. Thank you ladies, they are so beautiful, and it was a very touching surprise.


And we were completely bowled over when this Gardenia bush arrived from Lily's veterinary hospital! She had many friends, that little dog.


Here is Lily's grave, with the bush rose on top. It's about to bloom, so hopefully I will have some yellow roses to show you soon. The blue & white bird on watch over Lily is one I made in ceramics class some years ago.

We're missing her in funny ways - like how we have to clean up food that falls onto the floor now - our furry vacuum cleaner is no longer there!


I've just about finished the neck pillow for my Uncle Tony - it just needs 3 buttons. On the suggestion of the man at Stockfeed, I used millet (I wouldn't be able to import buckwheat hulls into Australia because of Quarantine restrictions). They are very smooth, but it does make the pillow fairly heavy. I hope this won't be a problem!


I fly to Melbourne on Saturday, with my dad and his wife, to see Uncle Tony. He has a very rare form of acute leukemia. It's a huge blow.


As we're only taking hand-luggage, and I want to knit at the hospital, I'm breaking out my trusty pencil needles again. I figure if I separate them (one in a handbag, the other in a tote bag) they won't cause comment. I don't intend to knit on the plane this time. This is another Short Circuit Scarf, in Noro Silk Garden. It'll be fairly short as I've only got 2 balls of the Noro. I've figured out to knit backwards for the really short rows, which is kinda fun.


As you know, life has been one awful thing happening after another, for quite some time now, since Dotter got Type 1 Diabetes in June last year. Life-threatening illness, deaths, even more life-threatening illness... all the serious stuff. Pretty grim. I've been very depressed, not surprisingly, and have really not been coping well in recent weeks.

However.

Last night Dotter and I went to our first belly dancing class (with fellow Raveler Souhair as our teacher!). We were both feeling exhausted and depressed, and not sure what to expect, but willing to give anything a try. Well.

It was SO. MUCH. FUN. Completely took all our troubles away - even today I'm feeling more human and less humourless tragic. I haven't done any dance type classes since I was a teenager, so this was a big step out of my comfort zone - but (and I know it's been said before), it's so fantastic to do something physical, moving your body, paying attention to it, being joyful, lively, and just appreciating being a woman with wobbly bits :)

We know how to shimmy. It's so cool. We're hooked.