The Maroon Diaries

I was lucky enough to get the chance to spend a week with one of my most favourite people, Littletree , and collect these sage and wonderful gems. ***** Littletree was a little overwhelmed by how big the airport was. Littletree: It's such a long way to walk from the building to the car. Me: Yeah, it is. Sorry about that. Littletree: Oh, don't apologise. It's not your fault. You didn't build this stupid place. ***** I had just told Littletree a cute, funny kid story about myself when I was five years old. The climax of the story involved me presenting my Nana and Pa each with a piece of fruit cake. Littletree loved the story, and laughed and smiled, and then became quite serious and thoughtful. Littletree: One day, if I become a grandmother... I had the feeling that she was about to make one of her profound pronouncements, and listened carefully. Littletree: ...I'm going to have to warn my grandchildren that I don't like fruit cake. ***** ...

I'm the luckiest girl. My baby sister came to visit me! Well, she's not a baby any more of course. She's all grown up, with qualifications and a passport that has seen more stamps than the lady at the post office. She's so busy flitting around the world that this is her first visit in eight years! Yes, we are aware that we don't look much like sisters. We don't sound like sisters either. Aya has a posh London boarding school accent and I have an ocker drawl that grates even on my own ears. The short story is, we have different mothers, so technically we're half-sisters. For most of our lives we've lived in different countries, and if I added up all the hours we've actually spent physically together, it wouldn't come to much. But there's more than that with us. We've always had a connection, regardless of time and space. We are spirit sisters, perhaps more than kin. We are both always a part of each other, even when we don't c...

Out of the mouths of babes... or of one babe in particular,  my darling goddessdaughter Littletree . *** Littletree comes inside from playing outdoors. Me: Watcha bin up to? Littletree: I was playing an imagination game. I imagined that our treehouse was a community and Leonard and Penny and Howard and Raj and Bernadette and Sheldon and Amy were all there. And - hey, well, you know how Penny really likes drinking alcohol? - well, she was getting addicted to alcohol and we were trying to get her to stop drinking so much alcohol and have a break. *** During goodnight snuggles. Littletree: Demelza, I'm really glad that you are my godmother. I'm glad I didn't have someone who was really strict and all, like, (screwing up face, wagging a pointing finger and using a screechy voice) 'You get into your pyjamas now girl!' *** Littletree: Hey, um, what's cellulite? (fortunately I had some that I had prepared earlier ready to show her.) Littletree: Oh...

I didn't wake up so well this morning. As soon as I was conscious I felt irritated, disconnected and anxious. My mind was running over in circles of negative thought. I felt the shadows of the night's dreams - quite a string of disconnected anxieties - still present in the morning light. This is something I'm used to. It's a common feature of a depressive illness - to wake up in the midst of the hardest emotions, and to struggle to rise out of them somehow to reach the realities of the day that is unfolding. Taking care of how I wake up is an important part of my mental health management. The discovery of the blogosphere was a remarkable boost to my morning experience, possibly the best one since I discovered tea-drinking in my late teens. First thing, when I wake up in the morning, I make a cup of tea. I often dream of having someone to make a cup of tea for me and bring it to me in bed - oh, surely, the very definition of luxury - but in the meantime, the thirst f...

The attentive follower may have noticed that things have been a little quiet lately here at The Maroon Diaries. I am very pleased to report that this lapse in blogging was not due to any health problems or techno-avoidance issues. Rather, I've actually been busy HAVING A LIFE. Yay for Lady Demelza! The Maroon Household made a collective decision to go North for the winter. This is wonderful for me as it means staying with my darling goddessdaughter Littletree , whom I adore more than life itself. The climate is the wonderful thing for Mr. CJ. With many of his health problems being arthritis-related, July and August can be a pretty miserable time for him. Up here, he gets to hang out on a sunny verandah rather than huddle by the fire... while I complain about the unreasonable heat. Yes, I am very sad to be missing out on the winter... but I have lots of happy distractions here to make up for it. I wish I could find a way to explain and express just how awesome and amazing Little...

One of the more profound honours in my life is to be goddessmother to a certain little lady who happens to be one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met, and she's only nine years old. I remember the moment back in the summer of '02-03 when I read in an email from Majikfaerie  that she was going to have a baby. A physical presence landed in my belly and in my heart. I knew from that instant that we were part of each other's lives, that I had a charge and a responsibility come into the world. I had to wait a bit to get to meet her and to find out what an amazing person she would become. Oh wow, did I luck out in the goddessdaughter department. Littletree is sweet-natured, funny, thoughtful, kind, caring, and so bloody smart that the whole world had better join me in hoping that she continues, as she grows up, to use her powers for Good and not Evil. And that's not even to mention her incredible sense of fashion and style. I can't imagine what will ha...

It was with great joy that I collected my copy of   The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection  by  Alexander McCall Smith  from the library and with great satisfaction that I devoured it, over two days, like a delicious block of chocolate. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection is the thirteenth installment in  The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series . I absolutely adore these books. They are right up there in my shortlist of best books ever. When The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was published in 1998, it was a huge success. Everyone adored it, and no wonder, it was just gorgeous. I have been delighted with the steady stream of subsequent installments, though I noticed, as the years went on and more episodes were published, many of the people I knew who were captivated by the story in the beginning were starting to complain that they were 'getting a bit same-y.' But I am just thrilled to discover, with the release of each new episode, that it takes me ...