I feel like I have to share two things for Ladies of Hive this week, because both came to mind when I read the new question of the week:

What's on your screensaver on your phone?

Coincidence would have it that yesterday I changed my phone screen saver!So it seems only fitting to explain both.

Firstly, the one I DID have was a photograph of waves overlaid with the words:

Why Now?
What For?
What are You Yearning for?

This was an experiment that I was undertaking after reading Sarah Wilson's book 'This One Wild and Precious Life'.. In it, she talked about how much time we spend on our phones and it's mostly trying to fill a need within us for connection, but results in endless scrolling and time wasting, and is quite the antithesis of living. The three questions on the phone are designed to check your reasons for being on the phone. I moved all my apps four screens across, so it was much harder to just pick up the phone and find them.

Did it work? LOL. Of course it didn't. I just found clever ways to get around it, and my brain was so used to seeing those three questions it no longer even REGISTERS what they say. The best way to not use your phone? Put it on silent and either leave it at home or put it up the other end of the house with the door shut.

So yesterday, I decided to change my screensaver to this picture of my son, his fiance, and their dawg, Edie.

These kids have known each other since 14, and have been best friends and then got together at 18 when they moved out of home with friends. She's a keeper - I adore the girl. The two of them are tight - they really look after each other, and are totally together. I could have done a lot worse for a daughter in law, right? Every mother's nightmare, I think, to have your son stolen by some horrible person. But she was like a daughter to me well before they got together.

They got engaged in the last Melbourne lockdown, just before she went into hospital for an endo operation which was quite serious. The first thing she said when she woke up was 'can I have kids?' to which the answer was 'of course!'. So I guess in the next few years this screensaver might be replaced by my grandkids, which is kinda freaky, right? I'm too young to be a grandmother, aren't I? I mean, I'm only 39 :P

But now to Edie. Edie we got in the lockdown of 2020, the mid year one. She was meant to be our dog, but we chickened out at the last minute. Wanderlust, independence and dogs don't always mix.

So the 'kids' got her, as the week before their rabbit died. Cue weeks of sleepless nights and months of puppy training, which resulted in them looking like death warmed up and as stressed as mums with nightmare babies. To their credit, they persevered - determined puppy training and puppy school meant that a year on, this shnauzer-kelpie cross (I know, right?) is quite a good doggie, and we love her so much we even occasionally allow her to sleep on our bed.

My prospective daughter in law sends photos from Melbourne of Edie nearly every day, and it's even better if I get a picture of my son and the dog as well. A boy and his dog is just the best, isn't it?

Every time I look at my phone, I just think of happiness. Three beings I absolutely adore.

Here's something else though, while I'm on the subject of Edie. A schnauzer cross kelpie is quite the unusual mix - we don't see them a lot. Many people stop and ask what kind of dog she is. Some people guess schnauzer, because of the beard and eyebrows, but the kelpie suprises them. We just dont see dogs like her. Anyway, Melbourne cup weekend, we were down the beach with the dog and a woman walks past with her doppelganger. She stopped to chat as she was also amazed - she'd never seen another dog like hers, and yes, it was the exact cross. We thought it might have been from the same litter, and same parents, but it absolutely was not - the dog came from a different part of the country. Stranger, neither of us had been to that beach before and she was visiting from out of state. How odd it was that we both were at that beach, at that time! My question is - can you tell which one is Edie?