Moving into the next stage....

The last week of the school term started on the Saturday with the music school's annual concert, and foolishly perhaps, I had volunteered to act as stage manager - or Stage Bitch, as I prefer to be known. It made for a long day, as we had to be in town (45 minutes drive) by 7 am to set things up and for rehearsal. We did come home in the middle of the day for 3 hours, but had to be back at 4 pm for more set up prior to the concert starting at 5 pm. After it finished at 7.30, there was pack up - and then unpacking again, back at the university, with drums, marimbas, electric piano and more, to be put away in the storeroom. It was a relief to go upstairs to the staff after gathering for food and drink. We finally got home at 11 pm. It was a great concert, and I got to watch J playing his trumpet with the jazz group - he has come so far. Of course M and I also played with the marimba group, along with our teacher - our son, J. There was a degree of sadness though, as after 19 years, my connection to the music school has come to an end. Next year J will be at university and probably flatting in town - and I will be growing into my next life stage too.

The rest of the week was full of album making and wedding (see previous blog post), until Sunday when we went and collected two of our grandchildren, T 6 1/2 and E nearly 5. I'm not sure I'm ready for this new stage in my life! I love them dearly, they are a lot of fun - but tiring! I must be getting old, as I can't even begin to imagine how I raised four kids without dying of exhaustion. E stayed for 2 nights, but T stayed an extra two nights, and I found that easier to manage.

On Tuesday afternoon, after E had gone, T and I drove to Bridal Veil Falls, 10 minutes down the road, and walked to the bottom of the falls and back.


On the path, T was fascinated by fallen nikau leaves, the strange roots, tree stumps, and odd angles some trees were growing on.


On Wednesday we spent a few hours finger painting, making paste papers (one of my favourite things to do), and making necklaces and bracelets out of beads. The following day we used one of the paste papers that T had made to make a book. T folded pages, and sewed the book together - do I have an apprentice, I wonder?