Linda Holman

 "My friend Linda is having a mastectomy Her breast will no longer be next to me Instead there's a void Like when they removed her fibroid As part of a previous hysterectomy."      ~Matt Hunt Kia ora! I love that poem above, written a couple of months ago by my friend, and I'm glad to have had such well-rhyming surgeries! I hope you are well and are not getting run over by the Christmas madness. We are not putting up a tree this year as I'm struggling with the reminders of this time last year, when our lives changed utterly with my breast cancer diagnosis. I'm concerned I will stop loving Christmas if I associate it too strongly with all this waves vaguely . I am promising myself this will be a very short blog post as, a) who the heck has time to read a long episode in December, and b) I've not done much apart from recover from surgery . We will see how that pans out though... I do love to rant and rave a bit! Craft I have cut out a few patterns ...

 "Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again."      ~Sarah Ban Breathnach Kia ora whānau, it's lovely to have you here. September has been an explosion of life in so many ways: the garden is a riot of weeds, building work has brought tradies and noise and excitement, and I've finished chemo and am racing headlong into the next surgery - with all the planning and nerves that entails. Before I crack into the episode I have exciting news - in February I'm beginning study of Archaeology with the University of Leicester part time via distance learning! It's childhood dream material and it's been a long process to get to this point. I have talked myself out of studying archaeology for 20+ years and finally got to the stage where I realised I didn't want to look back at the age of 70 and feel deep regret for not doing it. I set myself a goal t...

 "Winter is coming"      ~Stark et al. Welcome Kia ora whānau. I planned the episode themes months ago, before I knew what my life would look like in 2021. April's theme is fitting, as the month had a sense of foreboding and oncoming chill - the seasonal shift towards winter and my internal shift towards anger and anxiety. Early April brought a phone call from my oncologist to say that the Oncotype testing had come back with a high-risk score, requiring the full 6 months of chemo. This was not the news I wanted, and to be frank, I was extremely pissed off. Whereas March had a lightness and playfulness, April felt like I was being dragged headlong into a dark tunnel. I was still doing all the same activities as in March, but now they felt rather hollow and joyless. Craft The chemo news brought with it a desire to make hats. Many hats. I finally received my delivery of yarn and pom poms from B Knits and set about making Lotus Flower Beanies . It's glorious yarn...

 "Duck love is recognizable in any language."      ~Edmond Manning A therapy duck In late January our neighbour's grandkids found a tiny mallard duckling on the highway, with no sign of its family around. They are kind-hearted folk so brought the fuzzy scrap of life home with them and set her up in their spare bedroom. Of an evening "Boots" the duckling would sit on my neighbour's shoulder and preen him enthusiastically. Hearts were melted and bonds were formed Tiny Boots the first day I met her I met Boots and instantly fell in love, and tried to spend at least a couple of hours every day with her. The feeling was mutual, and my heart officially melted when she squeezed herself under the spare bedroom door to chase me down the hallway. Ducklings are normally always with their family and we became her family - and parting was such sweet panic. The timing of Boots' arrival was such that I happened to have at least a couple of hours each day to spe...