as it spins

life's twists and turns here lately...
sunrise and sunset
cloudy and clear
stillness and haste
disquiet and grace...

there's always room for grace...and a bit of muddy fun.

remember when

Do you remember when it was so easy to make new friends?
I do.
Back when days seemed to go on forever and a year was just an eternity.
It happened so naturally.
Mia made a little holiday friend on our recent trip.
Goodness they were inseparable.
Goodness it made me remember when...

walk with me

Care to stroll with me down some of the paths I've recently wandered?
On water and on land...

Some go to nowhere...
Some to everywhere...
Who can resist what might lie around the next bend?

beneath the mountain

It was thanks to heavy traffic that we bid farewell to the setting sun and drove directly into the darkest of rainclouds that I unconvincingly told myself would pass us by.

Arriving at our destination in the pouring rain and pitch black we clumsily found our way bumping in the darkness between large rocks and the tall dark twisted trunks of numerous gum trees, completely missing the road most of the way, to a back corner of the property that would be our new home for the next four days. And admittedly with thoughts of then turning around and driving all the way home to sleep in my own dry bed and then begin our trek again the next morning, we set up our tents by the glow of car headlights and the thundering sound and wetness of the heavens opening.

With soaked hair and clothes clinging to every inch of skin and the ever so frequent looks to each other reassuring ourselves that things will only get better from here we succeeded in pitching our tent and tarp. After some mopping and ringing (yes ringing) of towels to rid our bedrooms of the puddles inside we had a dry and comfortable first nights sleep with dreams of conquest, the feeling of being watched over by another shadowy looming dark shape that seemed to cover half the sky and of a sunny day in the morning.

And indeed that's what we were granted. With the challenges of the night before seeming such a strange and distant memory we discovered what a pretty place we had set up camp amidst and that shadowy looming enormity watching over us the night before showed itself as the strong and ancient rocky face of Mt Edwards.

It's always such an adventure to wake in the crisp misty light of morning, with sun streaming through the cold air leaving swords of foggy yellow light between branches of trees illuminating the unexplored. Like a stripy wrapping paper on a much anticipated gift that you can now unwrap.

Oh and the things that that unwrapping revealed....

new friends....

outdoor baths....

gratefulness for remembering to pack the hammock....

and for the view to be admired while gently rocking there.

I celebrated my 38th year.

We dyed eggs with leaves and onion skins to have for breakfast Easter morning.

We canoed and boated (of which I have no photographs because there was quite a bit of indulgent playing with my new camera which caused the battery to flatten a just a little too early) ever so peacefully in the creek...unfortunately without spying the platypus that live there so I think an earlier row on the creek is required next time.

I made damper and cooked it for the little ones on sticks over the fire and they ate it with melted butter and raspberry jam while we sat mesmerised by the flames.

We collected eggs, fresh from sleep, around dawn on Sunday morning.

So yes, each dawning moment was an unveiling.

Quite the right way to celebrate all the weekend was.
A challenging beginning and a blissful end...all unwrapped beneath the mountain.

bunnies chicks and clicks

It's all winding down to the holidays.
Tomorrow we set off for our days sleeping out... off into the crisp and colourful freedom that is our *backyard* in search of adventure, discovery, wild things, places to dip the toes and just sit and listen and be a while.
But in the meantime the sewing of rabbits and chickens for Easter baskets has been completed...

and Easter bonnet parades have been marched most proudly with pink bunnies on our heads...

and Mama has gifted herself with a much anticipated toy to capture the long long weekend...


and hopefully do a little learning in the process...boy there are a lot of buttons to play with.
Click click click.

a hat for her

I've been sewing hats this week...
My machine has been gently whirring again these last two days thanks to a very early birthday gift from my sweet sister. She, much to my gasping surprise secretly heeded my (honestly)casual and inadvertent wish to the universe and filled my hands with this much desired little book last week.

And while red stitches zigzagged across rounds of fabrics, once belonging to the intended wearers Grandmother, and vintage buttons were placed and hand stitched in just the right spots for embellishment I couldn't help but think back to a conversation I had with my girl in the days before...

It was an ordinary drive home from school and a discussion began about what she wanted to be when she *grew up*. Expecting her wish to be a Princess to be declared again, I prepared myself for my own enthusiastic declaration that "of course you will be a Princess my darling".

Instead we proceeded through a huge list of amazing possibilities only to end in a slight pause from the Princess in waiting before she most assuredly, in her most assured little girls voice stated... "Mummy you know what? I just want to be me when I grow up".

Oh my sweet girl...if that's what you know you want to be already then my little one you will be perfectly happy in whatever hat you put on. Your Mama on the other hand is still figuring that one out... but I'm close.

By the way...she loves her new Mama made hat and even more so she loves that she has found something to sew her favourite huge button on... just to look herself as well.

around here

It seems indeed, after all this time, I can successfully grow tomatoes.
Beautifully perfectly imperfect organic roma tomatoes.
And indeed the boy and I can sit in the sunshine while we easily devour half a dozen of them straight from the bush and grin broadly at each other.

to scout and to discover

With Easter quickly approaching us and the talk of spending those days amongst the trees and the wild freedom of the country at risk of remaining just talk, we ventured out in search of some open skies and open spaces this weekend...

An adventure to...
ward off some wander lust...
relieve a large amount of captive frustration with the indoors due to the (lovely) ongoing downpours of late...
escape, for just a little bit, all the craziness that is living within a building site though it was only for a short while (I have to tell you our deck has far superseded our expectations!)...
and most importantly to discover and investigate possible camping locations for the impending holidays.

We found ourselves traversing down back roads and farm lane ways from the Albert river to Running creek.....

to dip our toes and stand together indulging in the great meditative art of rock throwing....

to find old bones to fascinate us....

to scout, to breathe and best of all to discover new places for adventure and ultimately an outdoor *home* for the coming holiday.
Hopefully the perfect nest in nature for us to escape to to nourish ourselves and celebrate it all.

::: monday's summer pics :::

on a Wednesday... It was the last of the Summer series this week with the final day of summer officially landing on Monday.
I have only so subtly felt Autumn encroaching on us. Watching the lengthening shadows and the wee freshness to the air in the early morn but it is a slow change this year. Much slower than this time last... I wonder why. Maybe it is because it is still so very hot and well....the watched pot never boils.

I have thrown together a little mosaic of my summer Mondays and being still without a new snappy love I haven't any new pics to share right now...other than perhaps some rather rough one's on my phone of the works on the house.
And on that front all is adventurous, somewhat testing and never dull...
We are again sleeping in our finished bedroom (lovely) and are yet to tackle the dismantling and completing of the next...
The deck is well underway and is proving to be bigger and better than expected but not without some anxiety on my part in general regarding big change (I'm silly like that)....a sewerage pipe accident...and a little bobcat budget blowout....

But perhaps by next week I will be laying back out there... with a view of the patch... in my hammock I haven't stretched out in for years from lack of hanging space...sipping some new chai and really welcoming the light change of Autumn.

Happy days.