time to play

It's school holidays and we've got time....lots of time.
No rushed mornings.....no short winter afternoons...just long and languishing ones that start right at lunch time.

There are small spaces to ponder and backyards to rediscover.

There is art to create...

and life to hold in our hands.

There are campfires to make on the lawn....purely for marshmallows of course...

and some new babies to care for and snuggle. (Yes, these two little men chose to live with us for Mia's birthday. The little rex has been christened *Radish* and the ginger and white fluffball *Carrot-y*..... great 5 year old names I think for much much loved little *pigs*).

And then there is that light....the sun I seem to have been chasing all winter. It's still there, marking the passing of our time in it's subtle way.

Our time to play.

seeking the sun

I found the sun today...
Just for a little while as it moved brightly between the shadows across the floor.
It was beautiful.
A welcome and warming reprieve.
An amnesty at the centre of cold air, chilled bones, grey skies and the drizzle of late.
It seems a lot of us passing the winter solstice have been gathering, somewhat dormant and dreaming, in the bellies of our homes and ourselves...
Seeking the sun.

five

A magical age...

Life is simple.
Easy wishes, effortless to grant.... make the world just perfect.

A picnic lunch...
And a pretty cake...

A Birthday crown....worn all day.....

Enchantment sought in the rainforest...
the best wish of all...

Then climbing to the top of the world...

Just because you are brave, adventurous,

oh so full of spirit....

and...

five.
Just because you are five.


Happy Birthday Mia... Mama loves you.

happy harvest

Recently we plucked our modest and somewhat experimental corn harvest.
Thinking corn a *hungry* crop I had only ever dabbled in it's growing in the past with really not much result....
I just threw this bunch of seedlings into one bed rich with manure a couple of months ago and let it do it's own thing.... with gardening being such a teacher sometimes I find I learn best if I just stand back and watch quietly.....

So we were more than adequately rewarded (and educated) when we were able to enjoy our speckled homegrown treats for a hot lunch on a cold day the other week....

with their many small golden pods of sunshine, bursting sweet juiciness into our mouths and onto our cheeks and noses.

And what to do with all those husks torn off with both satisfaction and excitement at the feast about to unfold?

Make Happy Harvest Dolls of course!

I'm not sure I'm sold on growing corn regularly in my patch yet. It seems a little space stealing and maybe a little time consuming providing only one crop.....I'm a little hooked on my pick as you go and multiple harvest food plants you know.....but I do concede that that yellow sure makes you smile and the dolls are earthy and lovable....and it indeed provides nevertheless, along with everything we nurture with our own hearts and hands, a happy harvest!

walking a different path

Somehow we have found winter this week..... and together with that recently I have found myself walking down a new path.
I wonder have you felt my absence? I have, I'm sorry.
I've been a little lost in my wilderness....

This new place feels barren, yet also strangely overgrown.... it is very unfamiliar.

Though I may be walking alone and though I feel uncertain I also feel sure that with each step I take, my foot will still land on the supportive earth that makes up this new path and that all I have to do for now is raise the other foot next....and keep walking until I find my way home.

the perfect remedy

When the whole household looks doomed to spend the weekend overcome by sniffles, sneezes and coughs there really is only one perfect remedy....
to get baking - Pistachio, Banana and Cardamom cake baking.

Then find a sunny spot to scrape the bowl......

and let your creativeness shine by adding a little (or a lot) of orange icing.......

then eat said cake in the garden with pots of lotus tea of course.

Pistachio Banana Cardamom Cake

2 cups plain flour
3/4 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3 mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/3 cup finely chopped pistachios

Preheat oven to 180° C.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Place sugars and butter in another large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, sour cream, and cardamom and beat until blended. Add flour mixture then beat at low speed just until moist. Stir in the pistachios. Spoon batter into a greased and lined tin. Bake at 180° for about 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Ice with orange icing.

To make the orange icing combine icing sugar (approx3/4 to 1 cup), freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest (about a tablespoon)with a whisk. Adjust your ingredients until you achieve your required consistency. A good hint is to add your orange juice slowly so as not to make your icing too runny....if this happens simply add more icing sugar.....and round you go! Enjoy!

hearts and flowers

“The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.”
Henry Ward Beecher










We headed out to the garden on Saturday morning for some outdoor crafting (have you tried this gorgeous idea yet? ). We set about creating some simple gifts from our hearts for the Mother's in our lives..... because what mother doesn't love flowers and because what mother doesn't hold your heart.......

We collected every blossom we could find that was filled with colour...including some leftover rosella's from our homemade tea and set about designing, freestyling, imagining and then crushing them between crisp squares of creamy calico fabric........

We created faerie splashes and splatters..... in vibrant reds, pinks, purples and yellows.....and we made hearts......colourful flower hearts to be sewn and embroidered into gifts from own our hearts and hands..... gifts that don't quite compare to the true gift of Mother's day....

that of being indeed blessed to be a Mama.

rosella tea

Well it seems I could not bear to let my rosella's go to waste. How silly of me to even entertain the thought!
I decided gratefully instead to make tea with what they have provided me this season.... though jam is what I yearn to make with them eventually.

So yesterday with lots of help from little hands we set about plucking...

picking.....

peeling...

and drying those stunning fleshy red calyxes in the oven to make our tea.

It really is delicious and I could not stop at just two pieces in my cup.

Of course unlike me you could strain your tea but sometimes it's nice to enjoy your cup the rustic way, especially when it is homemade....you know?

the backroads

When you take to exploring the backroads in search of some sweet small camelids you never quite know what or who you will find.
If you go as far as the postman will go you may also find places so inviting you don't have to dream too hard to imagine carving out a more simple life for yourself there also, or wondering why you haven't done so already!

I did escape again this weekend with the little ones in search of that Autumn sun and the freedom of the outdoors.
We found Grandma and Grandad and Uncle Chris and made our way to a busy little country town in search of an old cafe to fill our bellies, as it has done for about 90 years.

We continued on after a delicious lunch, more than satisfied but encouraged by Grandad's excellent search for adventure and everything different, and found our destination here....

and met the most delightfully good natured woolly little friends......

and later returned home with more wonderful memories, woolen whimsical playthings, feathers in our pockets and requests for one for our own backyard.... that was indeed very difficult to say no to.

We will instead work on convincing Grandma and Grandad to travel the backroads once again and to go ahead with getting their own pair for us to visit on *the farm*!