Whew

Some time ago I realised that many of my earlier blog posts were (a) a bit long and (b) a bit rambly… that I should really try and restrict myself to one topic per post.  Since then I have tried.  But some weekends are just too busy and give me too much to think about on a Monday… and I am not sure I am up for the daily blogging thing yet…

Apologies then to those of you who make their way through this ramble, and I will aim to be succint.  This weekend did make me go ‘Whew’ several times by the end of it all…

Early in the week, after having decided that the parsley was finally coming along and maybe we might eat some before the cold weather set in, I was astounded to discover a colony of Eastern Swallowtail caterpillars chewing their way through the now juicy plants!  So Akira dug up the plant that still had foliage and rescued the pretty caterpillars from the birds who flock to our feeder.  On Friday night we witnessed an ancient miracle as one of them split its skin and turned into a chrysalis.  We have one remaining caterpillar this morning and it should go the way of the others by bedtime.  They have been an incredible nature lesson and I am looking forward to posting pics of the beautiful butterflies in a couple of weeks.

Saturday we ventured out, post-nap to the annual Wash U Psych Dept BBQ.  It was a gorgeous day and there were scores of people at Deer Creek Park for the party.  The best part of this event for me was meeting up with several new families with babies as it opens up a world of social opportunities for us with Kazuo that we will really need in the coming months. I was so glad we went, and although Kaz didn’t really love the crowd, he did last the distance, which was quite a feat. Whew…

Our big drama this weekend happened on our return from home.  And just as well we returned when we did!  This old fridge had been occupying space in our garage (turns out it doesn’t belong to anyone who lives here) and about 20mins after we arrived home, it caught fire! Quick thinking from Akira (who knew where the fuse boxes were because we had been doing some investigation into our power bill… long and really silly other story) and some help from the neighbours whose dryer was going right next to the fire meant that the fire was out by the time the Fire Dept (who are just across our back fence) arrived with an ambulance, massive fire truck and two police cars.  WHEW!

On reflection we were lucky the whole fridge didn’t explode while the guys were in the basement with hoses and watering cans… and it was a very narrow escape.  The fireman put it down to lint from the dryer (harumph!) which made our poor neighbours feel a bit bad… but when we inspected it all later, it was plainly an example of the landlord needing to get rid of stuff that is left behind and do a wee bit more tidying up before new tenants come in… we were very fortunate – WHEW!

Sunday was another sunny, stunning  ‘Fall’ day.  It was the St Louis Art Fair in Clayton, 20mins walk from our new place.  We had our friends Nate and Denise round for lunch and as soon as naptime passed, we popped Kaz in the back pack and wandered up the hill to see some art.  Last year we only dropped into this big event, and had no real concept of the scale.  It was huge… and impressive.  There was nothing in our price range, but it was wonderful to see some of the incredible things people are doing.  Nate & Denise’s friend Joachim Knill was there with his beautiful still life, large format polaroids… and the most striking things I have seen in a while were the wax-based resin moulds in stainless steel (I think) that embedded little twigs and gumnuts and other wonderful, natural found objects.  Sadly, I didn’t catch who the artist was… but I was so taken by these organic little masterpieces, so much precision involved in their production.  We tested Kazuo’s gallery skills… the heat was not too helpful and he was not that taken with the whole activity if we stopped to look at things, but he had a nice little nap on the way home.  Whew.