Robin Artemis photo gallery

Outings and special events in Robin's fourth month, 11 July - 11 August, 2011

At the Newport fruit and veg swap.

A playground trip on a bright sunny morning.

It's a rainy day, and I'm standing out on the balcony roof with Robin. He's a bit curious about being out in the rain with me, but there's a reason.

There was a full double rainbow in the sky, with the late afternoon sun making everything glow. It was really quite awesome to see.

I was hoping to get a picture of Robin framed by the rainbow. It turns out though that it's really quite tricky to get a baby that's strapped to you and a full-sized rainbow in the same picture, not to mention in focus and at a good exposure where you can see both of them. This was my best effort.

Here's another not-quite-outing. It was Imbolc, the druid seasonal festival that is the last rite of winter and the first rite of spring. I was going to celebrate it with the local druids at a sacred spring on the far side of Mt Dandenong - but they have their ritual at 5:30 in the morning and it's more than an hour and a half's drive away. I got way too tired the night before and couldn't face driving up there. So I did my own little ritual in my sunroom at the same time, with Robin sleeping on my lap. Still very dark and very early, but protected a little from the biting wind and not involving any driving. Plus I could go back to sleep afterwards.

These two photos are a recreation - it was still dark at 5:30 and no-one else was up to take the photo! So I got James to take a photo later at a more civilised hour just for the record. Robin's first druid ritual. He thought the candles were really very exciting. I enjoyed having the blossoming plum branches - I'd trimmed the tree in the previous couple of weeks, trying to make sure it was done not long after winter solstice, but I'd kept the branches in case they would still flower. And they did, just at the right time. Imbolc is about the first flowers of spring breaking through the cold of winter, and so that was very nice. It's also about motherhood, and the priming of the seeds, so doing it with Robin on my lap the week before donating eggs was particularly apt. All in all the themes were very cogent to this time and place this year. Or at least, most of them were. The ritual often refers to blacksmithing and poetry and I didn't have any of that going on in my life this time round.

A trip to Bunnings.

Out with the mother's group. Bev and Mali are giving Robin a cuddle.

Off for a walk in the stroller.