on this marvelous day, I am enjoying the sun outside, sewing myself an overdue birthday handbag (pic below - I made a replica of a bag from Nest that I have been using for the past 2 years), eating raw fruit and veg straight from this morning's market, listening to music louder than my gang normally allows (right now: Calexico), making bread and now I am about to fiddle with soil, seeds and seedlings.
As the sun began to set behind the mountains and I was listening to Tchaikovsky's violin concerto in D major, op 35. by Jascha Heifetz, a green hummingbird approached the window and up to the terrace it went, and so did I, where I witnessed his visit to our "forest" for the first time. Can there be more beauty in one moment?
I spent the last 3 days mostly at home because a cold put me down and also because the girls always like a day at home. These 3 days were completely different one from the other, though. I experienced a horrible horrible mood two days ago, where all seemed to go wrong and I had no desire to be around young children and could not stand picking up the same toy for the 10th time in one afternoon. Both Leila and Coline reacted to my mood by dropping or throwing food, toy and themselves on the floor. There was that heated moment where I found Coline covered in blue gouache paint and there was no hot water for her to have a shower, and that moment where Cristiano who had taken over the evening shift, stepped on Tintin's poop and walked through the house until Leila remarked how stinky the air had become. Some special kind of day it was.
Then yesterday, I was still very edgy but the day went by smoothly because the girls had taken the attitude to ignore me and have fun by themselves. I must have spent 3 consecutive hours on the terrace without them disturbing my focus on planting. They sometimes helped (in their almost 2 and almost 5-year old ways) and mostly played all sorts of imaginary games together, like cooking stone and mud soup, playing doctor and I heard laughter and cries and problem-solving without being asked to interfere. And that was good.
There was a lot of good on my bad day too and how soothing it was to be aware of it. Like when Leila excused herself from the breakfast table to go and speak and sing to her plant (one of our sempervirens which she transferred to a clay vase of her choice), that impromptu hug and back massage with Coline on the kitchen floor, the smile Leila and I shared when she went down the stairs and opened the door for me as I had forgotten my keys, and the last ten minutes of her day that we spent drawing on the kitchen table, where she fell asleep with her pen in her hand. I wish to remember the way my heart swells and the whole world pauses when these moments happen. There are my treasures.
The actual reason why Coline wanted to go to Ponte Nova today, was to play in a plastic ball pit, which we only get in Ouro Preto during carnival. When I took Coline out from the car tonight she said two words: "piscina bolinhas" (ball pool).
