small things around the place which make us happy

benoit was very excited about his new tip shop find. "the greatest dishrack ever" he tells me.

and we called her brocolli

there's two rooms now. everything changes. zsuzsa's got her little space away from the noise. to sleep, to cuddle her small giraffe and sprout little psalms before and after sleeping. benoit wonders how we ever lived without a little bird in our life. the weather cools. the rains come. we're rugged up in wools and layers and spending the days making cuttings of wordwood and lavender, planting grape vines and olive trees. i'm starting to make my first patchwork with these new stitches i've learnt. we're still rending the wall with wet clay and straw, but only when the days warm up. dreaming of green grass. of goats. of a whole field of pasture. dreaming of this winter lasting forever so that the earth is drunk, drunk, drunk on all this water.

we've got this little god to keep us company

comme un vieux souvenir...

ce matin on a tourne les robinets...
rien...
alors on a regarde autour de nous.
la terre, gelee, des qu'elle etait decouverte.
temperature dans la maison, 5 degres.
et l'eau, dans les tuyaux, gelee.
alors on a attendu.
comme a brigne.
le soleil enfin est venu.
l'eau avec.

so we're bulding it after all

we're getting the rain at last. and finding the time to saw and drill and hammer the wood into place. to give food for the termites. to give us another room at last. it's all a bit small now with zsuzsa growing up. the dam is filling. we're even thinking about pumping up water again. we're amazed at how little we've been using. the 5000 litre tank is still one third full from filling it in april. the place is greening up. the wattles all in bud waiting to open again. a year has passed since the yellow painted these hills. zsuzsa's some ridiculous age now, seven months, a real lady. sitting up on her own but not yet a crawler. she's giving us time to clean up all the nails.

life goes on. goes well.

all these heads around the place