inside, outside

 : : inside

A spot cleared for my craft bits and pieces in the play room. Formerly it had become a spot for everything that didn't have a place (ie a big mess) now it is a breath of fresh air

buntinting I made last week from some peter rabbit fabric scraps, flowers brought in. The tiny posie off daffodills has filled the room with its sweet scent

some of my home spun wool being knitted into a little something. I love the feel of the lanolin

: : outside

our peas got damaged by fierce weather yesterday, they were reaching to the very top of the poles and now they are all blown down(you can see the poles are wonky too!). A bit sad but their still healthy and full of peas so thats what matters the most of course

 bennys parents dropped off about 10 bales (!!!) of pea straw as they were sick of bits blowwing into their pool. The garden and apple blossom kids are appreciative!

 my very favourite place to sit (my $2 garage sale chair)

A dinner I looked forward to all day, leftover babi kecap my by my Opa, the best cook ever (my slightly biased opinion of course)

harvesting

 Yesterdays harvest, broccoli, parsley, carrot, eggs, rainbow chard, spinach and the peas that we eat straight off the vine

Today- spring onions and celery for tonight's chicken soup, Chinese cabbage for coleslaw. And again with the peas. Oh yes we love peas!
As much as I like planting, growing and harvesting, I'm not a big fan of washing the freshly picked veg. A few weeks ago it occurred to me to let the Apple Blossom kids take over the veg cleaning. Because whats more fun than bowls of water, scrubbing brushes and a whizzing salad spinner. It takes a ridiculously long while for the veggies to get clean but I have some very willing helpers.
After these pictures I filled the big tub too and they added their own 'sharks' (big Cameron had a little shark toy from home, our new friend little Cameron improvised using our veggie scrubber as his own shark, Mitch had wondered off to play in the kitchen some more ) The sharks so happily hid and swum through the celery swamp that I felt sad having to take them inside for nap. Some days flow so nicely

kitcheny fun

I got the little cupboard on Sunday and have started turning it into a play kitchen. I cut a sink hole, put a metal bowl in as a sink, added wooden draw nobs for the stove and tap nobs. 

Benny is making us a stainless steel tap and stove elements at work. I love that he loves to help me with my making projects. He always thinks of good ways to make things that I never would have thought of. 

I was planning on cutting off the top shelf as I thought the shape would be cuter but instead I think I will keep it. Its always nice to have an extra shelf that the children cant reach!

You can see on the left side I have curved the cupboard side. The right side is still as it was. I will get to that perhaps next weekend. I still need to borrow my Dads edge trimmer to curl all the edges and corners too. 

 For the moment we have paper stove elements and the children use the imaginary tap.

 I also added cup hooks and hooks on the side for oven mitts and aprons.

 I was going to needle felt some eggs but didn't get around to it. Now I see there is no need (they made their own with play dough. Yes I am reminded, less is more

 Muffins bake in my oven and theirs. The play silk is the 'hot'

 bulbs are beginning to bloom in the garden and we brought this pot inside. We cant help sing on our favorite songs. Indeed Spring is coming! Not for a while, but we can feel it in the air and smell it in the breeze

green

Last week I visited my aunt Levin and she gave me this gorgeous Madeline tosh yarn. I'm so in love with it! Its slowly becoming the mermaid socks I dreamed up for it. I say slowly because I've only ever knitted socks in 8ply. I feel like I'm knitting these on tooth picks!

 this week the sun has been shining and days have been almost entirely spent outdoors. Ropes are so handy, they can become so many different toys. We make rope swings, bells on ropes to jingle and a basket tied to the veranda can be so fun to swing and twirl. A swing for toys or a good place for a collection of shells or rocks

With these warm days it feels like the garden is growing so much each day. Ive been spending so much time out there. My parents came over on Monday. We spent the whole day lazing in my veggie patch, snacking on a pancake picnic. They helped me build a big new garden bed and change the garden bed design a bit. Next time I will show a before and after 

 Potatoes are supposed to grow in the summer in Australia aren't they? I have quite a few volunteer plants from compost and I'm hilling them up to see how they go. I have to be honest, their doing a lot better than the summer potatoes I planted and lovingly tended to

 broccoli is surprising me. I haven't had a single successful broccoli since I moved to this town, each year I get little bugs that go crazy for them, this year I have the bugs but they just seem to be on the leaves mostly. Definitely wishing I had planted more. I will get a few seedlings tomorrow

 I like this old fence post with peeling paint that is now sitting in the middle of a veggie patch with no purpose. My cat mishka likes to sit on it for a good view

 Afternoon light peeking through the lattice fence

Garden update

Hi, me again. My computer is feeling a little under the weather but it occured to me that perhaps i can blog from my phone and apparently i can. The last few weeks ive been keeping buisy and keeping warm. Ive been making good use of the thick wool socks i felt silly for knitting in the middle of summer. Oh not so silly at all! I had my daycare annual re approval. As usual i got stressed about it and as usual it went fine! I love my assesor, she is so lovely and positive. Im always worried they will comment on the lack of toys outside as there isnt much but the kids never run out of things to do. Before we even got there it she was mentioning how much she loves that i dont over do the toys and how little 'things' are needed for healthy development and learning. Its nice to know that my hippy ways fit in with mainstream childcare too, sometimes i worry that im living too far from waldorf schools and dont fit in here but i hope in general most people can appreciate my daycare for what it is even if they dont know much about why i do things the way i do. Anyhow, i did say this was a garden update didnt i! Benny has put up a beautiful new fence to keep the chickens out of my veggie patch. Ive been enjoying green juice from all the thriving spinich, nettles etc. everything is doing well except the broccoli has its usual little bugs that ive had the last few years. I realy need to figure out how to get rid of them because we love broccoli and it grows so well here.

Blooming where ive been planted

 Its easy to see wonderful productive veggie patches and start to feel like mine will never get there.
My summer plantings didn't do as well as I had hoped. Being that they were planted in soil that had possibly never grown anything but weeds my expectations were probably far too high. I got more tomatoes during the summer than I ever have before so really for me it was pretty fantastic. I think the difficulty is that my gardening goal is to produce enough veggies to live off but that's something to work towards, not something that I can necessarily achieve just yet.

One day that will happen. One day we will be in our forever house.
Benny and I talk about a little farm house on the outskirts of Kadina. I'll have sheep for wool, he wants honey bees. There will be infinite space for my veggies and the soil will get better year after year.
For now I build up this soil to make it healthy with the knowledge that about the time the soil finally fills with worms and gets truly productive we will be ready to move on. Like at our last house. The good healthy soil I tended to had turned from clay to soft wormy loam and now its covered with pavers  (they have no side fence and ill admit to occasional snooping and reminiscing as I walk past:) I love where we are and also look forward to moving on. Its a lesson in patience and letting go, to put so much love into a garden knowing that we wont be here long term but its worth it for the food and fulfilment in the meantime

a tea cup pot my friend Kylie gave me as a 'just because' present. It makes me think of her and the tea parties we love to have together . Its planted with oregano and thyme

For now I need to remind myself to bloom where I've been planted. To be thankful for what I have now. To not be hard on myself. To feel proud of every single plant. To remember that each and every piece of food I bring inside is one less piece I have to buy, one more thing to bite into and smile

 Sometimes I think back to when we moved in and feel pretty amazed and full of joy that this section of unused empty land is now well on its way to being a healthy and productive veggie patch. Dirt is pretty amazing stuff, each seed that sprouts is incredible

 I look at these fluffy little veggie patch helpers and I remember reading the book that inspired me to get chickens. I was sitting in my hammock under the shade of the big orange tree at Mum and Dads. I had borrowed some gardening books from the library and one was about permaculture. I was so inspired reading about the chickens, how helpful they are in a garden. My neighbour had chickens so I went next door to find out about taking care of them. A few weeks later I had my very first chickens and my very first fresh egg!
Its good to remember that I'm slowly on the path to self sufficiency and although its not a fast path I will get closer and closer

 Here is our first row of peas for the year, I noticed today that the first peas on another row are popping up too
Its a good feeling to focus on what I have now. Its all good

yay for Mondays

Jams and preserves, garlic chives drying to save for winter

 My heart is full. Life is wonderful and im thankful for all the good im blessed with. I had my first monday off and it was good but wierd.

I re arranged my draws and managed to empty a draw to use for my beeswax and candles. As you can imagine its a pretty good smelling draw. Full of sunshine for the cold days ahead 

I was a mixture of loving it and feeling guilty that I'd felt the need to take it off. I am glad that I did though and i feel like these past weeks I've had a new lease of life just knowing that calm and rest was in sight.

chamomile, calendular, mint from my garden. Next to my favourite vintage thermos that sits out by the kettle all the time. Just because I like to look at it:)

There were lots of things that I had to let go of because I just didn't have time and energy for them, the saddest was not having as much time to put into my veggie patch which is so important to me. Way too many times I planted seeds and they just got forgotten about.

Vegetable soup. Otherwise know as breakfast lunch and tea. Not quite but almost!

Anyhow, its going to be nice. Monday I began a big clean and sort of the house. After weeks of doing the bare minimum to keep the place liveable it needs it! Life is Joy and im thankful. I think youl probably hear from me a lot now that I have more time to breath and more time to think. Life is good