lessons learnt

Hello honey bunches, how gorgeous to see you again. I hope you've had a lovely week since last we met. Ours has been filled with school holidays, family, friends and autumn fruits. Not necessarily in that order. In fact never in order. Well not orderly, anyway.

So here are some things I learnt, or relearnt this week. Just for fun. Still disorderly;

That farmer Bren was right when he told me that we'd have a great tomato season even though it was our first year growing without poly tunnels.

That all the colour can drain out of someone's face. It's not just something that happens in books, I've seen it.

That sewing up the seams of my Mirehouse sweater is taking me almost as long as knitting it in the first place.

That there is no apple that compares to a home grown granny smith picked straight off the tree.

That there is no coffee better than the coffee brought to me in bed on the first slow morning in months.

That it feels strange these days to post a blog without any photos of flowers.

That getting dressed in the morning when you have a pair of jeans that fits you well is super simple and quick.

That 10 and 14 year old girls can still spend HOURS in the garden making pretend food from mud, flowers and petals.

That eventually bras just stop working.

That in order to cut really long stemmed flowers, sometimes you have to sacrifice some buds.

All about life in prison in America after reading The Graybar Hotel by Curtis Dawkins.

That there are still people living among us that don't own smart phones. A man sitting opposite me on the train to Melbourne the other day, asked me to look up the address for the CFMEU building in Melbourne and spoke of how despite the fact that he'd had a hand in building half of Melbourne and also built his own family's mud-brick house in the forest, he didn't think his spelling was good enough to be able to use a phone. Of course I filled him in on the joys of auto-correct, but he still looked skeptical.

That after reading a book describing intimate details of life inside prison, I will find myself staring at the man sitting opposite me on the train's faded black tattoos of birds and bees and wonder if they were drawn using a guitar string, a Bic pen and the mechanics of an old Walkman.

That there are brands and styles of jeans that suit me and my eldest two daughters.

That there are people around who think it's okay to give unasked for advice about parenting even though my kids are not babies anymore but in fact practically grown ups.

That boxing into pads held above my head is so much harder than I thought it would be.

That even though I don't like eating pumpkins, I love growing them. The bigger the better.

That despite the fact that I'm only five jars away from my 100 jars of tomato sauce target, I still want to make more.

That happy 14 year old = happy life.

That I should have gotten up and written down the hundreds of lessons I've learnt this week when they woke me up at 4am, because the 5.12pm lessons aren't as free flowing or clever.

That the biggest kangaroo I have seen, jumping as fast as it can to outrun our dog and coming straight at me and my children is one of the most frightening things I have even experienced. Thank goodness it saw us at the last minute, tried to change directions, fell over and jumped away before any damage was done. The youngest of us was still upset hours later.

That a Clydesdale horse eating a carrot sounds like a washing machine.

That a kangaroo can hold an apple in two paws and eat it standing up.

That year 12 seems like a cruel and unusual punishment.

That when the dentist gave each of the five of us a toothbrush after our appointment this week, I was disappointed to discover that mine was orange, my least favourite colour. I'm still childish like that.

That even though every week I feel confident that I will make time to reply to all of your comments and emails, most often life gets in the way and it doesn't happen. I do read and appreciate and answer every single one in my head though. And I love you for taking the time to write them.

I think that's all. Well that's everything I can think of right now anyway.

Tell me some things you learnt this week.

See ya next week!

Love, Kate x