twenty five

This past week...

I used every spare second I had to throw clay pots on my borrowed wheel. I have a whole post in my head about being a beginner that will hopefully make it onto the blog before too long. It's such an interesting and humbling process. I am completely addicted though and am wondering if I might have to buy my own wheel when the borrowed one has to go back.

Our coffee machine broke!!

A nearest and dearest had a health scare and thank goodness is now clear.

I fought long and hard with one of my kids and then we made up and now our relationship is heavenly. If only it could stay this way.

I went to gym five times! I think that must be my record.

The world got a little less colourful when we lost Cam @curlypops last Tuesday.

We thought we were definitely destined to run out of water in the next few days but this morning farmer Bren went up the hill with a ladder, climbed up and peered in the tank and discovered it is half full after all. YES!!!! Not quite enough for a bath, but possibly enough not to worry.

We rediscovered Roman Mars and the 99% Invisible podcast.

We had our first camp-fire cooked bbq dinner of the season.

We picked armfuls of flowers.

I still haven't labelled the dahlias.

We pulled more of the summer crops out of the garden and replaced them with winter ones.

We went to a few garage sales and bought a cane chair, a punching bag, some paints and brushes, a tin of buttons and a tub of wool.

I crocheted four granny squares just to see if I still could.

We started the countdown until we see Indi.

We discovered that our kitten loves eating cucumbers.

We picked and podded thousands of beans.

My niece stayed with us for a few nights.

Miss Pepper swept up three cratefuls of golden leaves that had fluttered down from the grape vine and landed on the back deck and become a sludgy, slippery mess.

Farmer Bren turned some beautiful wooden bowls.

I spent ages searching instagram for beautiful ceramic shapes.

We started watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and we're absolutely loving it!!

I started knitting a blue beanie just for something to do with my hands on a big driving day last Friday.

We're still picking and eating tomatoes and cucumbers and strawberries.

I finished reading Flames by Robbie Arnott which I absolutely loved and last night I started kaddish.com by Nathan Englander (my mum called it 'a romp' when she handed it over - I'm actually not quite sure what that means - but I'm intrigued).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but I might include some more if I think of some.

How about you?
Quickly tell me a couple of things that you've been up to.
If you feel like it.
I'd love to know.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

See you in a week.

Love, Kate x

photos of flowers and things

The other morning when we came inside for breakfast after taking the girls to their schools, stacking a load of firewood in the woodshed and bottling up 12 jars of tomatoes sauce for the Fowlers machine, Farmer Bren looked at me and said 'I get it, this is who we are. This is what we do. This is our life'. 

I guess when you're so deeply involved in what you do sometimes it's hard to remember that not everyone is doing it the same way as you. Not everyone grows a lot of their food from tiny seeds; not everyone makes their muesli from the contents of about 15 jars each morning; not everyone lives so far from their closest neighbours that if they went outside and screamed as loudly as they could no-one would hear them; not everyone could have their growing season ended by one surprise weather event; not everyone uses fire to heat their houses and cook on; not everyone has a kitchen floor that's covered with crates full of autumn bounty ready to be preserved; not everyone only ever eats cucumbers and tomatoes when they are in season; and not everyone owns two pairs of the same boots - one for work and one for town.

There are some things about our world that probably sound so foreign to some people, like the fact that we have a mob of about 50 kangaroos that live on our property and most of the time don't bother us, but sometimes tear the nets in the orchards and eat all the apples. I'm sure there are koalas here too, although I've only ever seen one.

And lots of things I do feel terribly ordinary, like looking at my phone too much, trying to problem-solve for my kids a lot, and boring old housework (only ever the minimum I can get away with though).

I don't actually know what this is all about. My head's a bit cloudy today. I guess what Bren said, plus the messages you guys send me often telling me how different my world is to yours, reminds me to notice the special bits, encourages me to remember the choices we've made, and allows me to see the beauty.

I think that's enough words for today. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

I'd love you to tell me a bit about how your world differs from mine, or from those around you. It doesn't need to be big, just anything really.

Wishing you a happy International Women's Day!

And a fabulous weekend.

See you next week.

Love, Kate x

foxglove love

After our exam week away in a house in Macedon, after Indi's 18th birthday, after cocktails and dinners and dancing in the city to celebrate her, after Camberwell market, and after finally picking up our Jazzy from the airport, we came home. 

As someone who lives her life in bite-sized manageable portions, for weeks it had felt like the night of Sunday the 18th was when one portion stopped and Monday the 19th was a new beginning.

I dreamed that I would wake up on the Monday morning with the happy, comforting thought that all of my people were under our roof, snuggled up in their warm beds. And then I would go out and get stuck straight into my garden. I hoped to spend the next few days planting out every single pot in the greenhouse. I couldn't wait to begin.

I got dressed in my overalls and work boots, I popped a podcast in my ears and off I went.

But when I got there what I found wasn't exactly what I had expected.

What I found was a jungle. Weeds so thick I could hardly see the plants, grass so high I was scared I would step on a snake walking down the rows. There was no way I would be planting anything in that garden that day. I didn't know where to start, I couldn't work out what to do, I stood there feeling upset and out of control for a very long time.

After a while the words in my headphones started filtering into my brain and my consciousness. Coincidentally I was listening to a podcast that was talking about how feelings of anxiousness and panic can be compared to a working dog with no sheep. All that energy and enthusiasm and focus and drive, with no place to go. 

I was the dog, I needed to move my sheep/seedlings into their new paddock/garden, I needed to get practical, I needed an outlet, I needed a job.

So I mowed all the paths and I weeded some of the beds and when my farmer boy came over we pulled out some old crops, planted some more and then mulched them. After a while I began to see that things were looking more manageable, I felt less overwhelmed and I started to calm down. That evening I worked until it got too dark to see.

On Tuesday it poured with rain and the temperatures plummeted. I couldn't risk exposing my seedling babies to the elements, nor did it look like I should as the forecast for the rest of the week only looked colder and wetter and windier.

So the week that was supposed to be all about planting and staking and irrigating, instead ended up being spent mostly indoors...

spending time with our traveler. Looking at her pictures, listening to her stories, asking her questions, cuddling her, admiring her and feeling so grateful for the adventures she had and to have her back home.

Spinning fleece into wool. I'm still not great at it but I'm completely obsessed. I wrote once about how I was scared to start spinning my own yarn because it would take time away from the all important knitting. Well I'm here to report that it has. Absolutely! Apart from Indi's birthday crown, I've hardly knitted a stitch in weeks. And I'm okay with that. Happy even. It feels like it's adding to my knitting process rather than subtracting from it. I can't imagine how extra special it'll feel once I start creating something from what I've spun. I guess it's making a slow craft even slower but also so much richer. Lucky I'm not in a hurry.

I've been reading my sister Abby's copy of The Nowhere Child which is fast paced and suspenseful and completely unputdownable.

In between showers I pulled up one bed of garlic and then decided to leave the rest for another few weeks.

We finally divided our dahlia tubers. I would have loved to have planted them already but with all this rain it felt like too great a risk. Hopefully tomorrow.

I watched our poppies about to pop and begged them to wait until after the rains and it looked like they might have listened.

 I picked huge posies of roses and sweet peas and irises and peonies to brighten up the house.

And I've LOVED spending time as a family of five again, listening to Jazzy write a song on the guitar about her trip, watching Indi rediscovering life away from the pressures of school, walking through the garden collecting treasures with Pepper, admiring Bren's ongoing shed renovations, spending time in my studio, watching my girls comforting and cuddling and encouraging each other, and trying to remember that all this rain is such a blessing just before summer.

And sitting here right now writing this I can see that although this week didn't turn out how it was meant to, case in point being the still full to bursting greenhouse, it did turn out pretty wonderfully. Except for the cold, I haven't liked one single second of that.

Enough about me, how about you?
How has your week been?
Has it gone to plan? Or veered off wildly?
Can you relate to that sheep dog without any sheep feeling?
What flowers have you been picking from your garden?
What podcasts have you been loving?

I have to go now, Indi, Jazzy and Bren have come into my studio. Indi is trying on outfits for her graduation tonight and I need to focus.

Have a beautiful weekend my friends.

So much love to ya!

Kate x

winter one

Hello sweet peas, welcome back. 

Another week has passed, another season has begun. And while I'm not looking forward to the coming wintry months at all, I guess the sooner they start - the sooner they finish. Someone told me there are 93 days until spring-time, let the count down begin! Let's get on with it.

I'm pleased to report that my past week felt so much better than the week before. It could be the fact that I had a couple of five hour sleep nights in-between the insomnia ones, it could be the fact that I spent a good part of three days off the farm in the big wide world, it could have been the generally improved emotional tone of the house, or it could have even been the moon. Who knows. I'm just so relieved to be able to follow a train of thought and to have a spring in my step again.

It has been very interesting to me to read of your sleep difficulties. Until this past week I think I assumed that most of the world slept through the eight hours, cozily tucked into their beds, dreaming their fairy tales. Now when I wake up in the night and lie there staring out into the darkness I no longer feel as lonely. It's probably not a good thing, but it helps.

may twenty six - part a

Last Saturday we spent most of the day splitting and stacking firewood. These photos are of my parents but it was a team effort. Bren's dad on the splitter, me loading logs onto the splitter, Bren on the chain-saw, Bren's mum burning the heads, and my folks building the stacks.

may twenty six - part b

While we were hard at work on the fire-wood, Indi was cutting and pasting her photos up and around the farm for her year 12 art project. She pasted Bren hanging from a shipping container, arms reaching around hugging a tree, an arm reaching under a door, a Jazzy popping up out of an old drum, and the arm above holding the ornamental kale bed. 

It's the most incredible feeling to be inspired by your child, I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

may twenty seven

I finished my Merricks shawl. I didn't get a chance to block out that beautiful lacy edging this week but hopefully will soon.

may twenty eight

This will be the view from my big studio window. 

may twenty nine

On Tuesday we took my car into Ballarat for a service and spent the few hours watching Breath at the movies, drinking coffee and wandering around a garden centre looking at, but not buying plants.

Late in the afternoon I visited the sunflower patch in-between picking Pepper and a friend up from their face painting class and rushing off to gym. This close to winter they're definitely not looking their best, but there are still enough glowing golden faces in amongst them to make me smile.

may thirty

I spent the entire day on Wednesday in Melbourne with Jazzy doing jobs. We walked a hundred miles, we ticked a heap off things off my list, we ate yummy food and I learnt what a difference a properly fitted bra makes. It's miraculous!! Later on when we got home I took off my old bra that was full of holes and had long ago stopped supporting me, and I chucked it in the fire and burnt it. Good riddance.

The big lesson I learnt on that day was that it's probably not a great idea to share a changing room while bra shopping with a teenager. Let's just say that even the most body confident among us might feel a little wobbly at the sight of and memory of what once was and what now is.

The delicious box of yarn samples from Rosabella was waiting for me when I got back home.

From their website -

Ethically grown kid mohair, cruelty free fine Australian wool and fair trade silk blend together to create mohair yarns like no other...

The inspiration behind Rosabella is the desire to maintain the threads of traditional knowledge and the skills that are passed down through the generations.

Sustainable farming practices, care for the environment, cruelty-free animal husbandry and ethical trade are the values woven into every skein of yarn we make.

Sounds, and looks, and feels pretty wonderful. I've been sitting here squishing them and dreaming up a project that will showcase the gorgeous colours whilst making the most of the incredible softness. I'm thinking a pair of spotty socks, or a patterned beanie, or long arm warmers....

may thirty first

Yesterday Jobbo and Bren made the window frames for my studio. Hopefully next week they'll pop them in.

 june first

Today. The first day of winter. Sitting in the lounge-room with the door to the sun-room open to bring in the fresh air. Frankincense, wild orange, lemon and peppermint oils in the diffuser for invigoration. Five hours sleep last night. Wondering how many little socks I have to knit before I feel confident enough to teach other people how to knit them. Trying to remain calm at the thought that my talk and class at Soul Craft Festival are only one week away! Looking at pictures of people's beautiful bulb plantings in neat, straight rows and laughing at the fact that I am a messy flower farmer who chucks random handfuls around and digs them in where they land. Hoping to get the rest of the bulbs in by the end of the weekend. Listening to season 2 episode 8 of Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo. Drinking the coffee my farmer boy just brought me. Feeling happy that Indi has agreed to interview me on stage for my Soul Craft presentation. Wondering how many of you guys will be there on the day? Busting for a wee. Thinking I should probably press publish and go and do some outside jobs while the sun is shining.

So how are you anyway?
Have you been sleeping well?
Are you wearing a bra that fits and supports?
Are you a neat row gardener or a wild and random one?
Can you imagine lying on the bed on the mezzanine in my studio looking out at the forest through one of those windows?
Too exciting!

Sending love and good, restful sleep to you wherever you are.
See you next week.

Love, Kate x