Day 94

Matthew holding Angelina

Princess Angelina, dressed in her green frock with pink flowers, given to her by the African contingent at the Easter gathering, i.e. us, again delighted everyone with her smiles and sweet singsong intonations.

I love how snapshots are just that, a moment caught, Matt with the awkward stance of a boy unused to holding small babies, but making an encouraging sound to her, Angelina's softened cheeks and expressive starfish hands, Tim sitting in the background, temporarily engrossed in something to do with his camera.

Sunday morning: I woke up, took Molly out to pee, sat on the steps of the deck and waited for her, half-dozing off I was so tired, then did my daily morning check on ancient Lily to see if she is still alive, which she was, in no uncertain terms, miaowing noisily for her breakfast when she eventually noticed me, as she is stone-deaf.  The boys think she miaows so loudly to try to hear her own voice. Then I took a plate of lettuce, spinach, apple, tomato and carrot up to the elderly piggy, who had also made it through the night, again, noticed the boys were awake and getting ready to go longboarding, so I told them to look out for each other, then climbed the stairs and joined my sleeping husband back in bed.

Sunday noon: 2.07miles (3.4km) run today, temperature 81F (27C)!  I was very hot.  Taking a bottle of water with me, I put it in the shade of an old broken bench in the meadow, and told myself to run until the water was finished.  I poured some over my eager head each time I succumbed to the temptation, which is why I only ran 3km!  My feet were overheating in their woolly socks and hiking boots, my legs in the oven of black sweatpants, and I constantly found myself running with smaller  steps, conserving my energy almost unconsciously.  Even after my cool shower my face still reflected red in the mirror.

My portrait today is a map of my lovely backyard and beyond, showing my own private running track, and all my beloved landscape.  It is like the ancient maps with Jerusalem in the centre and everything radiating out from there, completely useless for travel, just like a picture of somebody's idea, really.

And if you have ever wondered how the utterly unrelated concepts of Easter and bunnies and eggs and such go together, look at Eddie Izzard's wonderful take on that.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XJfRzNOJNE