Veronika Wild

Not there yet - Consider it aspirational   -Image by Ylanite Koppens  via  Pixabay   The Great Clearout stalled when I got to the books, because I thought I should have a quick look at them before I passed them on. In the meantime my leg has gotten a bit better, so the urgency of getting rid of everything and selling the house has run out of steam as well. As I am starting to emerge from winter hibernation, I thought I would write about it instead. Strangely, the more things I've sold the more there seem to be and the messier the place looks. I did pull everything out of the cupboards. One friend surveying the scene asked me if I was doing Swedish Death Cleaning. I was a bit taken aback. "Hey," I replied, "It's not that bad, I was just having a bit of trouble getting up and down the stairs" and she proceeded to explain what it was all about. It turns out that Swedish Death Cleaning - döstädning in Svensk, isn't as grim as it sounds. It’s something peo...

-Image by Copilot   There are in fact quite a few empty chairs around our dinner table of late. Youngest son has gone to work in Queensland. Two of the older granddaughters have just gone to Melbourne to study.  We knew this was going to happen. My daughter was looking forward to less squabbles about whose turn it was to take out the recycling or stack the dishwasher, less noise, a bit of space in the bathroom and less chauffeuring. But the house is so quiet. There’s not much excited chatter around the dinner table, no one needing a costume for tomorrow, no music blaring from bedrooms. Freedom is a strange thing. I felt the same when my daughter left for college, when my oldest son moved in with his girlfriend and when my big sister left for work in New Guinea. I wonder how the youngest granddaughter is taking it? An only child at last. No more nagging and bullying by big sisters, and yet...Who is there to play cards with or watch a silly movie? She won't be far behind....