It's a funny time of year, slow and dreamy but also alert and listening.
I love how the brand new 2013 seems to lie in front of us filled with promise and adventure.
I've had a draft of a blog post open for four days now but I still can't seem to decide on the most important details. Resolutions? A word for the year? Words to live by? Do I need them? Should I make them? Will I use them?
Farmer Bren is up and at 'em super early each morning. He's changed taps, fed and watered animals and checked fire hoses and sprinklers and generators before I've even opened my eyes.
It's hot and dry but very still today. On the radio they're calling today the baking day. Tomorrow will be hot and windy. High fire danger. My farmer boy has the fire wireless strapped to his waist constantly chirping in his ear. We have a plan, a few plans and we are mostly fire-ready but when you live in the middle of a forest, are you ever really fire-ready?
In the mornings we drink coffee and then we collect the eggs. We wear long pants, white business shirts and wide brimmed straw hats. We are cool and protected from the sun but I know we look silly. Cool but not so cool.
The girls are slow and lazy. Sometimes they help us with the farm jobs but mostly they play quiet games together, they lie under the trampoline, they write words and numbers in little notebooks and they eat lots of ice-blocks and juicy fruit.
We still have no Internet. I'm uploading this blog with wifi from my phone. It's crazy frustrating and upsetting.
And the book blanket grows.
And in amongst it I try and write lots of book words. It's coming together slowly. Soon we'll finish with the text and start on the images. It's a book about caravanning and family and adventure and vintage vans and craft and food. I am so grateful for your kind words of encouragement, they are keeping me here at my desk writing and editing and imagining and remembering. I really hope you like what I'm doing.
I wonder how you are spending these first few days of the brand new year.
Are you slow and steady or are you straight back into things?
Have you made resolutions and plans?
Will you stick to them?
From our family to yours - we wish you a happy new year.
May your 2013 be super sweet and juicy!!
I have a great feeling.
Lots of love xx
The book sounds wonderful, I can't wait for it to come out. I know it's going to be super-delightful! Stay safe in this ominous weather. Sounds like your girls have got the right idea for coping with the heat :)
ReplyDeletelove how your simple descriptions are so evocative. The book sounds like it will be a great read!
ReplyDeleteHave the happiest of New Year's Kate - you and your family! A new book will be seen sometime in it, along with lots of other unknown delights. I was going to ask what the book was about but you told us before I had the chance. I sounds very interesting - I'll have to have a look at it once it's published.
ReplyDeleteLazy summer days are the best...Do stay safe from the fires. Our country is one extreme to the other most years - Victoria gets fires and up here in Queensland we get flooded! Hopefully no nasty weather will get any of us this season though.
Stay safe, enjoy the holidays, writing and the year!
Sarah xx
I seriously love your blanket beginnings. It's supper hot here too and will ber for the next week as well. We haven't gone below 30 for a week. We are also doing any work outside early and then heading inside, pulling the blinds down and taking it easy. I try not to make resolutions,they seem too harsh - rather I just have a couple of things in mind I'd like to do this year with our new property.
ReplyDeleteYour baby apples are looking wonderful.
Do you have "Fires Near Me" on your phone? It's a great free app that is updated all the time and that outlines where the fires are that are near you so you can keep an eye on their status ( under control/ out of control etc). Agreed, not much help if no internet, but you can still use the mobile lines and especially worth it if in the danger period. Stay safe. We are having our first year in the bush with burning days the next little while so this is all news to us and a little scary, sometimes.
Happy New Year Kate! It was VERY HOT here yesterday but today there is a cooler breeze and I can feel my body relaxing...breathing a sigh of relief I think. Looking cool isn't always the coolest thing to do is it? I am glad the white shirts are working for you.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kate, I hope the fires stay away from your place. I am so damn excited about your book, especially now that you have mentioned caravanning and food...actually I am excited about the whole thing! I love the soft colours in your book blanket.
ReplyDeleteIce blocks and long sleeved shirts are all the rage at our place too. Enjoy these summer days with your family x
I love your posts so full of imagery and sweet things. That blanket is just darling
ReplyDeleteSlow & steady around here. Perth has been scorching hot, not ideal weather to be out & about for any of us but as I'm 24.5 wks pregnant I'm feeling it much more than I ever have! Yesterday it finally felt like the heat wasn't killing you & today is gloriously cool....
ReplyDeleteI'm trying ( for the third time) to crochet a ripple stitch blanket for the baby. I keep messing up but I keep trying.
No resolutions for me. We have plans, me & Tim, things we'd love to do around our house but that's about it. Actually I want to cook from my huge collection of cookbooks more this year. Not really a resolution but more about not getting stuck in a food routine.
I'm loving your blanket Kate. It looks very pretty!
Fingers crossed the weather is kind to you & you don't need to use your fire plan xx
It's raining here and overcast but not too cold since its Hawaii. It seems that my New Year is filled with straight back to business somewhat like it was already set for me for it to be that way.
ReplyDeleteYour life sounds lovely and your words are lovely as well. I'm a new reader and am looking forward to more. Thank you and Happy New Year. :)
Keep plodding with your book. You will get there! Stay safe in this heat.
ReplyDeleteStay safe. Happy new year to you. Loving the blanket. X
ReplyDeleteHoping there's no need for the "fire ready" and that there is plenty of sweet and juicy.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read your book, and own a copy one day soon. Congrats!! Keep on going. It's inspiring!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
x
Will I stick to them? Who knows. But I do know that I never make resolutions or whatever we should be calling them. But this year I am setting a few goals. I'll see how I go!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Kate to you and yours! This whole Book things sounds terribly exciting. I can't think of anyone more qualified to write a book on the combination of all those topics you mention :-) Good luck with it! We have a severe bushfire raging out of control just down the road from our property right now. Scary stuff! Richmond has been evacuated and tomorrow's forecast of 40 degrees and high winds is not very comforting. Stay safe over there. Mel x
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!! x
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see your book finished! How exciting! Been following for blog for a while now, enjoy it much!
ReplyDeleteQ
happy new year Kate! your book will be lovely and well loved im sure! ive been drooling over gorgeous vintage caravans online tonight….one day im going to get one and make her so pretty.. and off we will go! I'm hoping there are no fires coming with this heat in the next few days. we will be inside keeping cool while the poor farmers have to face the heat... the iceblock maker will be on high rotation :-) keep cool and i hope the words flow freely. love manda x
ReplyDeleteThe tales of your girls slow and lazy days take me back to my own childhood in the summer, playing beside the lake near my home, sitting in the garden whilst my mum got her hands dirty and I mostly spoke to clouds and played with bamboo canes. I also have to mention that I read your interview in Frankie the other day, I was so excited to see you in there! It was a lovely interview.
ReplyDeleteI love all of the ideas in your book, Kate. A book about gorgeous caravans sounds like the perfect book. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteWe're slow and steady here this time of year. No car at the moment so very slow.A little cabin-fevery actually. I've been holding off on the new year's resolutions on my blog this year - can never seem to keep them happening. Better to take each day as it comes for me. Plans for building my new garden is big on the agenda, though, and unschooling adventures with my son too. Happy days to you xx
This morning was the first alarm clock day for several weeks. It was a rude shock. But as I stood in the shower, half asleep, I felt oddly ready to get back to real life. Even if the plans for this year are largely unformed - I think I'm opting for 'go with the flow'.
ReplyDeleteStay safe today - its a scorcher! xxBrenda
ReplyDeleteLove your photography and your crochet! Two things very close to my heart.
ReplyDeleteAh, I was wondering what your book was about. Sounds like a fun book! I am spending the start of 2012 waiting for second baby to meet us "on the outside" but hoping for another week till then. Staying in the city with my parents. Wondering what it will be like to go home after being away so long. Wishing I could use my "nesting" instincts to scrub out and organise home. Happy New Year to you and yours, I think you're right 2013 will be a great year :)
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Thank you for sharing your authentic life with us. Your book is eagerly awaited and the New Year is definitely going to kick bottoms!! All the best lovely lady! ♥♥♥ PS - New Years resolutions... I decided to just have one word... ALLOW ♥♥♥
ReplyDeleteHi Kate ,
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Slow and Steady start to the new year here. The man of the house is off until the end of January and has the man flu to end all man flu's so lots of rest and relaxation here.
ReplyDeleteI think you would rock a straw hat xx
ReplyDeleteI wish your book was out already. I can't wait to read it!
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