Linda Holman

 "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...

 "In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."      ~Margaret Atwood Kia ora whānau, I hope all is well with you. Meteorologically speaking spring doesn't start in NZ until the 1st of September, but don't tell the daffodils. This episode was originally going to be about the joy of spring, and how everything was progressively getting brighter and better, but it's actually going to be about the myth of everything getting brighter and better in a progressive and steady way.   Craft Buoyed by the success of my teal Cuff Dress I foolishly moved onto a new pattern without doing a practice run on cheaper fabric. I also attempted to bugger about with sizing which didn't go so well and needed some jenky alterations. I have ended up with a dress that fits, and as it's a wrap dress it'll expand and shrink with me, so all is well, but now I know to ALWAYS DO A TRIAL RUN. Brown bald rabbit I was fooled into thinking that because I ma...