A new family member makes a dramatic entrance

 Tuesday April 10th 

After a massive labour, an emergency hospital visit, and some moments of life-threatening worry (Pip lost four litres of blood in total after the birth), we would like to introduce you to Pelé Ray Williams, born 6th April 2018 at home in Ocean Grove.   Thanks so much to the Birth House midwives,  Pip’s totally amazing support team  and all the wonderful team at Geelong hospital, we are so grateful for you keeping Pip with us.  Pip would like to especially thank all those people who donated their blood for lifesaving purposes, she owes her life to their generosity.  Thanks to our friends for milk to keep Pelé going while Pip was so unwell... Thanks too, to family and friends who have dropped everything to bring us food, wash nappies and everything else we need and make sure our lives don’t fall in the cracks while we have been away. We are looking forwards to going home some time in the next few days, and bit by bit catching up again with the people we love. Pip is not planning on looking at her phone or email in the near future as she recovers, so please send any messages through me. Lots of love a&p

Well, that's the short version.  It has been a pretty dramatic time for all of us and the week was complicated by my mother having liver failure.  She is 97, so we have all accepted that this means we will now loose her.  It is all very sad but she is the last family member of her generation and she has not liked feeling so left behind.  My sister and her children in the UK are spending as much time with her as possible and they say that so far she is not in pain or distress.   I still try to talk to her on the phone every day, but she has not been able to talk much for three days now.  I have talked to her every day for years but it has only been this year that she has felt really ready for death and wanted it to come.  

We are just so lucky that we have not lost Pip too!  Bo, Indi, Ti and I drove down to Geelong hospital on Sunday and Bo , Sylkie and I went down again yesterday because we had to pick up Amy the Great Dane and bring him home with us.  Al and Pip's house is right down by the coast to it takes at least 6 hours driving to do this.  It was much easier the first time because everyone shared the driving. Al's kids were wonderful and did everything that was needed and more.  We were lucky that Ti was with us when we got to ocean grove because we had been instructed to take Amy for a run on the beach.  It was dark and with out Ti to drive us and find the beach we would have been lost.

Indi drove home and we dropped off Ti at his mum's house.  He now has a job doing an electrician's apprentice ship so he had to be ready for work on Monday morning .  Going home via Melbourne added a lot of extra time to the journey so we were very glad that Indi is such a good driver.  We all went in her large comfortable car too, that helped

Friday April 6^th

The big news today is that Al has a new son.  We have not got much information yet but Pip, Al and the baby are in hospital and hopefully recovering.   We got back from visiting them yesterday.  Al came out with us for a meal at the restaurant on the beach at Barwen heads but Pip was too close to giving birth to feel like having visitors or going anywhere.

We stayed in a motel over night and caught the ferry across the heads in the morning.  I had found a place on the internet that would process small amounts of wool and decided to check them out.  The place was unlabeled and well hidden but we found it and met the most amazing couple who ran the business.  We all got talking and it was like meeting old friends you have not seen for ages!   They had a work shop with wool carders and spinners and were interested in alternative house design. The guy had worked for ICI and came from Scotland.

Our next stop was at garden world and by strange co-incidence we met a couple we new who used to be neighbours so more socializing.  Then I finally found a Sydney Rock Orchid and also brought a dwarf avocado.  I always find something I can’t resist at garden world but turning 70 is a good excuse for a little indulgence.

Actually, I have done rather well for my birthday.  Bo cooked me a fabulous Indian food feast at the weekend and we went with Wayne and family to the Warren glen garden shop and enjoyed a long, lazy,  family lunch there. Silkie and Ella were happily occupied feeding ducks and looking for Easter eggs.  Ollie stuck with the adults for most of the time.

I am now trying to get back into the normal routine.  The hour has changed so it gets dark much earlier and our working days are shorter.  It is still very dry and warm so we continue to get straw berries, tomatoes and other summer vegetables.  Bo looked after the farm when we were away and all the seedlings survived, much to my relief.  Watering takes a lot of time in these conditions.