Thursday, May 23, 2013

my story in eight

These are the last eight photos I took off my camera.

Mostly with photo taking, I take a bunch of pictures all at once and download them soon after and blog them not long after that. In those cases I pretty much know what to expect. And as the photos flash onto the screen, more often than not, the words that tell their stories come too.

Other times, my camera sits on the kitchen table or near the front door for days at a time, only picked up for a quick snap here and there. After these times the downloading is more of a surprise and more fun. Random snapshots that tell the tales of my life at a moment in time. 

As the eight photos in this post downloaded I was half looking and half eating a feijoa. As they popped onto the screen I noticed how autumnal their colour pallet is. I realised that I am so very obviously the Mum of school girls now as none of the photos has little kids in them. And I saw that although a huge amount more than these eight events has gone on in my life over the past few days, these photos do tell the story of my late autumn beautifully.

Photo one of the kitchen garden up there, tells the story of tiny little lettuces and spinachs trying to put on as much growth as possible while there is still sunshine and a bit of warmth in the air before winter really kicks in. Our kitchen garden is my happy place these days. I am always kicking my clogs on and picking some herbs or greens for a meal, doing a spot of weeding or transplanting or admiring. Yesterday we noticed the first few broccoli of the season which was cause for much excitement.

Photo two is of the loveliest, chunkiest wool I am currently using to knit my farmer boy a new beanie. I don't know about you but I find it very difficult to source really chunky, soft, pure wool. This stuff is from New Zealand, I bought it in Ocean Grove last week and now I'm thinking I should have bought more. Details here.

Yesterday I drove past farmer Bren on his tractor wearing two beanies at once, so I think next up once I finish this beanie will be a balaclava.

Photo three is of a marker for a seed tray filled with onion seeds in the hot house. On Tuesday we filled the hot house with trays of onion seeds and leek seeds. I'm hoping they grow big and strong soon enough to transplant them into the garden and leave us the space to start the tomato season all over again in August.

Photo four is of the bottle tree in Autumn. I love how that tree and its bottles tells a different story each season. After a summer of thick green foliage that practically hid the bottles from view, the leaves slowly turned golden and reflected in the bottles' glass. And now as the leaves fall to a carpet below the tree the bottles remain, swaying and occasionally clinking in the cool wind.

Photo five is of the basil seed we saved from this year's crop to dry out and plant again next year. There may not be any fresh, green basil leaves to flavour our cooking for some time, but our freezer is filled with containers of pesto for the winter.

Photo six is of the carpet of autumn leaves I mentioned above. I remember when I used to live in suburban Melbourne autumn was always filled with raked up piles of autumn leaves to be burned, composted and sometimes run through. The leaves on our farm are a bit more free range, blowing around, making a pretty mess and then disintegrating back into the earth. I think they are terribly beautiful and they make me happy even though I know that the leaves on the back deck and in the entrance way are a sign of my bad housekeeping.

Picture seven is of a big bowl full of green-manure seeds I mixed up before planting. Doesn't it look like soup mix! This mix of fenugreek, broad beans, peas and vetch went in where the tomatoes came out of the garden. Our garden worked super hard making the vines and fleshy tomato fruit over the past six months and this green manure crop will feed the soil and prepare it for next spring's plantings.


And picture eight I took a few minutes ago. Picture eight is of some gorgeous wool felt I bought off lovely Lizzie this morning at Mill Rose. I have book mark plans for this pile. Book marks with little vintage caravans parked on top. The publicity campaign for my book has begun and these book marks will be a part of it. I'm both excited and nervous. The release date is still a few months away but there's loads to do before then. Eeeeeeep!

I hope your week is telling a wonderful story.
I hope it is warm, delicious and pleasing to the eye.

Ciao x

27 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful collection of photos. They tell the story of Autumn. Thank you for sharing them.

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  2. Dear Kate, I am a frequent reader of your blog and I love it. Your pictures are beautiful and inspiring. May I ask what lens you've been using? The depth of field was extraordinary. Greetings from Una :-)

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    1. Thank you so much! I'm using a 50mm 1.8 fixed lens. I've been having so much fun with it. Hope that helps.

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    2. Thank you Kate. I also enjoyed your Israel photos very much. I am always looking forward to your next posts.

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  3. Yay for lovely NZ Naturally wool. That'll keep the farmer boy's ears snuggly warm! You guys are having much colder weather than us but I think ours is about to turn..... I love this time of year - it's lovely being a knitter in winter.

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  4. None of mine have kids in them either, something that I am only just now becoming sentimental about (it's only taken me four months). In winter the light just goes and little faces remain unrecorded. x

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  5. Oh my. Sigh... where to begin with words that honour the post I've just read. Ok let me try and refrain from too much riff raff (I am a notorious chatterbox) and just say this:

    An authentic life of gratitude and passion - witnessed - is a blessing. A true blessing. XX

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  6. What a great post - yet again. Lovely photos too. thanks for reminding me I need to plant some green manure too. Might be tomorrows job to get some seeds. I think you are having much colder weather in Australia than we are in NZ at present.

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  7. When we moved house earlier in the year we lost our veggie garden which I am still mourning. I have managed to plant a few herbs in a pot or two, but I think a pallet garden with gorgeous little rows of lettuce like yours would be perfect! Excuse my ignorance, but a bottle tree? For fun or for a purpose otherwise?

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    1. Purely pretty. And because we had the bottles and wanted to get them out of our cluttered house. xx

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  8. Lovely to catch up this morning Kate, have fun with that awesome felt..
    Lizzie
    xxx

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  9. What's the book about? I am fairly new -in the last few months - and can't work out if it's tomato / growing based, caravan decor or.....

    Lovely words and pics as usual.

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    1. My book is about vintage caravans and road trips and craft and cooking and family.

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    2. Sounds lovely! I'll look out for it Kate.

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  10. Wonderful post. I love the Fall season with the beautiful leaves and remember the raking and burning and roasting hot dogs on sticks out doors. Of course it's coming on Summer here and I am not a fan of the heat. Waiting on the book. Will it be on offer at Amazon or will we direct order thru the blog?

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    1. The book will be available from the publishers. I have no idea about AMazon. I'll be sure to give you all the links closer to the release date. Eeeeeep!!

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  11. I loved read this post. Small things makes our life bigger!

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  12. I love everything here but most especially those autumn leaves. Ah, autumn... xxx

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  13. I love the photography, you get a great depth of field. Hope your book marks fly out. Jo x

    http://joeveryday19.blogspot.co.uk/

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  14. Beautiful thoughts and photos from your place as always Kate. I love the felt...caravan bookmarks, oh my. Happy Friday x

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  15. Naturally make beautiful wools and it can be hard finding NZ wools in NZ too - I have to drive a good distance to get to a decent wool shop to buy it! Have been knitting many pairs of fingerless cable gloves with the same wool. Gorgeous felt too.

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  16. I always love these little peeks into people's story-telling processes.
    These photos are, as usual, stunning. Your garden... I just love it so much, Kate.
    x

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  17. Your photos keep getting better and better. I see a second book in your future!
    Jana @ 333 Days of Hand Lettering

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  18. you're so good.
    *SO* good.
    the photography, the story-telling, the insight, the angle...everything is just.so.good.
    xx

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  19. So very beautiful! I love your bottle tree especially, how fun. Your kitchen garden looks amazing too... !

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  20. Hello Kate, I just wanted to let you know that you gave me the last kick to buy a 50mm lens (2,0) for my Olympus E-620. I bought it second hand, and it really is so much fun! :-) Greetings from Una

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Thanks so much for stopping by...

I do read every single comment you leave and appreciate it very much, but I should let you know that I can be a wee bit on the useless side when replying to comments, that's just me, everyday life sometimes gets in the way....so I'll apologise now, just in case.

Kate XX

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