my passion for baby-wearing has led me to be involved with the sakura bloom sling diaries.

here we are in the mount tomah botanical gardens in springtime, wandering around with our handsome gardener boy & saying our sweet goodbyes to the blue mountains.

papa knew most the names of the flora and delighted in telling us all he knew of them. though i’ve been known to yawn during his passionate conversations about plants, i do whole-heartedly love that this is where his heart is, and someday alba might share that with him. it’s so important to be connected to our earth and to learn to grow our own food without poison or cruelty.

i hope these images inspires you to wear your babies close to you, where they belong.

i am wearing an organic maple sling. images taken by our gardener boy, mexico, as always.

we got lost in brisbane city for over an hour, with alba sobbing and no where to stop. we tiredly argued over directions. when we did eventually find our way to georgia and errol’s new home, things became a lot brighter. alba was happy to be out of her seat and we didn’t feel tired any more.

in the brizuela’s house we felt at home the moment we were inside. within a few minutes of lying on the bed in the spare room (made with beautiful big windows, wooden floors and high ceilings) i began fantasizing about living there. the yard was big and wild and m’s mind swam with the possibilities.

in private i told m about my thoughts and he said i should keep them quiet for now. that if it was even a possibility then we didn’t want to push it. but then they started joking about us moving in and it was obvious they were secretly and excitedly hoping we’d say yes.

georgia is kind of like my misplaced twin. it is so unusual to find someone who i can be myself with and i guess that is why i don’t have many close friends. when i’m with her i feel like i’m in school again and it’s lunchtime; i’m carefree and she makes me laugh til my sides hurt.

i remember the first time i found her blog and i got lost. i’d never seen such a beautiful mama blog that so closely mirrored my own values. i became so obsessed and inspired that i spent a long time carefully wording a message to her (thinking ‘keep it cool nirrimi, you don’t want to sound like some crazy fan’). she replied that she knew and loved my work and i near fainted.

one night we caught a bus into the city. the streets were packed with people around to watch the city being lit on fire (with light shows). we wandered over a bridge above a river, me with alba in the ergo on my back and georgia childless. we walked for hours and a love stirred in me for this city. so similar to melbourne and sydney but more humble, more home.

the buses were no longer going so we got gelato and walked back. when we reached our street possums were skipping across the power lines above us and the trees sprouted new life from the tips of their branches.

on one morning we all piled into errol’s car to go to the festival of flowers in toowoomba. two of my young cousins waved at us from a train float in the parade. alba glowed under the sun. we stopped by my grandparent’s home on the drive back and came out with arms full of organic, homegrown produce, and m even had some plant cuttings for the new garden he and errol had already started planning.

again, we had to leave. m drove our car back to the mountains (anxious to check on his veggie garden) and a few days later alba and i flew back to sydney. it is miserably cold and we are all sick, but there is a growing joy in our hearts for the next chapter of our lives. it will hurt to leave the place we conceived and birthed alba, to leave our first real house, but it’s in our blood to keep moving, always, onto better places.