too much of one thing

Seems like I've been seeing a lot of this little doorknob lately.....coming and going......

and I've been doing quite a bit of this......

which is not a bad thing at all....but as for the time...well where is that going?

Am I the only one or is the time this year just spinning away and leaving me somewhere behind in it's swirling wake? Throw in a couple of shifts back at work and well I'm paddling. I seem to come to each afternoon lately with some sort of strange vagueness wondering what I've actually been doing with the day.

I definitely have not had my sewing machine out in way too long and my list of *I want to's* is growing by the day.

I definitely have not been spending enough time in my patch of earth....only stealing moments to snatch a quick yet longing look at what's growing and fruiting and then pull a few weeds between dashes to hang out clothes, bring in clothes, collect eggs and feed my gorgeous girls.

I even have a complete bed of bare soil just waiting to support a new crop.....

But do you know what.....today is quiet and I am not going to race time and try and do all those things I am longing to do. I am just going to do one....a different one. I am going to do something I haven't done for even longer than the others and sit and read my favourite magazine that I treated myself to this morning. Sit and read....just today....

The weekend will be for the garden and just maybe some sewing because we don't want too much of just the one good thing do we when we have the spare time?

awards

Littlechrissy has given me an amazing award. I feel very very honoured.

It is the Proximidade Award.

It is for believing that:
This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind blogger's aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!

Thank you Littlechrissy and congratulations on your award also. Please have a look at her creative blog and while you are there take a trip over to her Etsy store....

I have also been kindly given The Lemonade award by The Magic Onions AND the lovely Tammy from Laugh, Live, Learn, Love AND Lisa from 5 Orange Potatoes.... It is a sweet award that is given to bloggers for showing great attitude and/or gratitude. It is touching to know that my blog emulates such wonderful things.

I cannot choose 18 people to pass these awards on to.....it's too difficult although there are easily that many blogs as deserving. I will however pass on the awards to all the blogs that I love to read, and all who visit my blog, for their own creativity, generosity, great attitudes, dedication and friendship fostered through sharing tidbits of their lives and *art* with the world and me. I so love my little visits to your places.

Many thanks to everyone.

the earth turning

Have you felt it yet?

It's very subtle.
It's in the early morning and late afternoon light.
I can feel it on my skin and in my soul.
Mostly I can see it in the shadows..... both inside and out....

The way they have moved and changed.... streaming through the windows where they haven't for months..... sliding from trees and plants in the garden to sprawl across the lawn.

The seasons are changing.

I am not so sure I am finished with Summer yet.

Normally my yearning for cool beats me to the beginning of Autumn.....but not this year.

The earth is always turning.... leaving nothing quite static.

It is ever so gentle....but I am aware it is becoming different.

eve's apple

Eve's Apple.
That's the title of this piece of art which unfortunately I don't have the credits for.
I have been tagged to play the 6th in the 6th game by Leanne and Little Chrissy and this is my 6th photo in my 6th folder...."My Favourite Art".

I've had this picture stashed in there since I was pregnant with my girl. I found myself drawn to it and had a print pinned to my wall at the time so I could gaze upon it when I wished. I've always found that pattern hidden deep within apples such a captivating mystery since I was a child. Combine that with the symbolism of the star, the deep reds and the hint of the fat round ripeness of the apple and it must have struck my feminine core..... especially as I was carrying my first babe.

I've also been tagged to play the 4:4:4 game by Celia and Amber which similarly had me hunting down the 4th photo in my 4th folder....

In a slightly freakish moment of serendipity I found this photo of our uninvited Christmas lunch guest. It's a very beautiful, very large, quite full and sluggish carpet python in my Mum's garden. I wonder if you can see the large lump in it's belly where we guess it is digesting a small possum? My brother and Roger relocated it to the bush the following week as it's choice of home was making those that live inside the house just a little jumpy.

So there it is....apple and snake.

It's quite a fun game this one so I invite anyone who wants to play to join in....I'm really enjoying watching the results over blog land.

And if you are one for a giveaway.....there is a fantastically generous one for the little ones or the young at heart by Amber over at The Nutrients of Life....pay a visit.

::: love :::

Valentines day....

Playing with crochet hearts for my babes.

Chocolate.

Dinner, wine, games and laughter with great friends.


* I have been tagged a few times for the 6/6 game. I will be back very soon to play along.

sundays are for....

Sundays are for waiting huddled in the kitchen to place wrapped steaming bread directly from the oven into the picnic basket and piling into the car....


Sundays are for finding a mountain to watch over you as you fill your belly with wholesome salads, hummus and said fresh home baked bread.

Sundays are for listening to the gurgling, babbling and splashing of fresh river water below.....

Sundays are not for thinking too long..... but for immersing yourself.

Sundays are for discovering.....

Sundays are for fascination and beauty.....

Sundays are for fulfilling you hands and your feet....

Sundays are for being sun kissed and satisfied.... and knowing you will be back to visit this place.

** My Sunday evening was also about feeling grateful and safe and feeling a little hopeless for those experiencing tragedy not too far away**

we love eggs

We love eggs here....

We love everything about eggs....eating them, collecting them, feeling them, cracking them for cooking and waiting to see if they have one yolk or two...

Warm fresh perfect eggs just like this one in my hand this morning laid only minutes before....

Smooth creamy shells and golden orange yolks. Fat little spheres of goodness. We love eggs here.

But most of all I love where our eggs come from.
I love our girls and the way they chatter, and sometimes whine...the way the other always has a better treat.....the way they wander and scratch while always staying together....fluffy rears in the air. They are pure and humorous personalities dressed in pretty feathers.

The new girls have settled in just fine, growing as fast as little chicks do....which is very fast indeed. They have reached adolescence now and like most children are quite difficult to photograph, preferring of course to run, although they are relatively easy to coax as still as chickens can be with food. I feel confident allowing them to roam the garden during the day now and in true chook form they will run and follow me whenever I step foot outside....how I love that too.

Of course little Prudence and Emmeline have not been formally introduced to Henrietta and Harriet yet. Being as sweet and pottering as chickens appear, pecking orders are not pretty so we have quite a while to wait yet until my small girls are big and strong enough to look after themselves.

We also have about another 16 weeks or so to wait until we can get excited about collecting even more eggs from these girls in the coop too. We are counting down.

Did I mention we love eggs?

pardon me while I detach

I cleaned the house today. I've vacuumed, dusted, mopped, hung out washing and even cleaned windows and scrubbed the shower. And in true and fascinating form my mind predictably wandered far and wide as I worked.

It wandered to the abundance of talk in blog land lately about how "real life" is not always so squeaky clean....of how sometimes we can set a standard for ourselves or create a desire for something quite unrealistic. I agree..... I know this..... sometimes I still do this.... yet I like to think most times I don't.

Then my mind wandered further while my arms were in the air pegging clothes to the line. I had thought quite a bit lately that I had changed....a lot....in the last year. I think it began about the time my little guy started moving around and making his own additional mark on my home. I thought about how I had started to not clean so much and... not really worry too much about it. So I started to think about why?

It was then that I realised within almost the same moment that I'm also really really good at making excuses. Excuses! That makes me guilty of placing at least some unrealistic expectations on myself despite liking to think most times I don't. So just because I think I have changed because I don't physically clean so much doesn't mean that it doesn't bother me in some way to make excuses for it. I'm still attached to the thought that my home should be clean.

It seems I still have some mental housekeeping to do to detach myself from these thoughts....because like a lot of blog land is getting at....it really is unimportant. So pardon me please....while I disentangle myself from the dust, cobwebs, spilt food and smudgy fingerprints of my mind....and really stop worrying about whether I clean the house or not.

But before I get to that wholeheartedly and just for today, to practice being in the moment too of course, I'm really going to love the fact that my house is quiet, tidy and scrubbed clean!

Have you seen the new "in real life" flickr group?
It's quite fun and heartwarming and best of all...grounding.