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

the autumn break

Hello honey bunches,

How's your week been?

From where I'm sitting on the day-bed in my room I can hear Bren stacking a load of fire-wood in the wood-shed. We are expecting a big, wintery, weather change this afternoon or tonight and the list of things to do to prepare for it is endless. Bring in, tie up, take down, gather, cover, pick, pack up, clean, set up...I feel a bit guilty sitting here. 

This morning when I realised it was Friday and I hadn't taken one photo all week I ran around quickly and took a bunch. The light was glarey and they're all a bit overexposed but hopefully they capture the moment and tell the story. I'll go through them quickly and fill in the details for you.

Everywhere you look right now there are baskets and crates and bowls of produce waiting to be eaten and preserved and shared.

Every vase in the house is filled with flowers from the garden.

I grew that heirloom glass gem corn just because it's so pretty. There's a whole lot more to harvest this afternoon, hopefully I get to it.

I've been making dried apple rings using my old recipe from here.

The apple crates are on their last legs, even though we're slowly finishing planting them up for winter, I'm not convinced they'll all see the the season through.

We've grown so many different types of bean this year. Over the next few weeks we plan to pick them, pod them, cook some up in a sauce and preserve them for winter and dry out the rest.

I tried to grow a few different varieties of nasturtiums this season but only this old fave really thrived. And climbed.

It's hard to imagine the garden going back to just green after such a riot of colour. I know I say it all the time but I seriously wish we could live here without winter.

We're currently eating silverbeet in everything we can squeeze it into. (Mum I still can't believe you bought some from the shop the other day!)

We've had an incredible tomatoes season this year. We have eaten heaps and preserved more than enough to last until next season. These purple ones have been fun to grow and eat.

I didn't grow any yellow eating corn this year because I have yet to find a variety that we love. I have however grown that colourful type and a blue popcorn.

These crazy colourful beauties have filled my heart with so much joy, I don't know how I'm going to survive all the grey months to come without them.

The bee frenzy in every flower this morning makes me think that they're feeling the same.

But cold, wintery days do have their pluses. Or so I keep reminding myself.

I got a fresh delivery of fleece from my spinning teacher Rebecca this week which is exciting. It's been months since I've been anywhere near my spinning wheel, I hope I can remember what to do.

And I cast off the Astrid socks in the photo at the top a few days ago and started thinking about casting on the colour-work sweater I've been dreaming of for years, or maybe just a great big shawl to wrap myself up in.

It's 2.30 now and it's blowing a gale outside. In half an hour I've got to drive to pick Jazzy up from school and hopefully I'll make it home before the rain to get some of the jobs done. I'd dearly love to cut some more flowers and to pick through the tomatoes. But if I don't, well I'll just have to close my eyes when I get home and hope for the best.

So what's going on in your life my friends?
What are you planning? Hoping for? Making? Watching? Wondering? Dreaming? Writing?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I hope you have something lovely to look forward to, I hope you get enough rest and I hope that you get some time to do something sweet just for you.

Sending extra big love out over the seas to our biggest girl who is asleep in her own bed right now after a big week away. We adore you and are in awe of you Miss Indi Apple xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Lots of love,

Kate xx

with arms full of flowers

Last Friday at around 5 in the afternoon my dad came home from a trip to Melbourne with my fixed up and updated computer. 'Are you going to write your blog today?' he asked me as he handed it over. My computer had been sitting in a shop in Melbourne all week and I'd barely thought about it at all. I knew it was coming home late Friday and assumed I wouldn't have time to create a blog post so I planned my whole day without it, and when he asked I replied 'nope, I'll be back to blogging next week.' 

It's interesting how powerful our mindset is. Only after I'd thought about his question later did I realise that in retrospect I probably could have knocked something together. If I'd known it would be back in the afternoon I could have done everything early and then sat down to write it late. And more than that I would have been thinking about it and collecting stories and thoughts all week in preparation. But my mind wasn't in that state, and I had nothing, so I didn't.

But now that it's a week later, and I do, I am.

Last Saturday after an argument with someone in my family, I was presented with an apology and a big bunch of flowers picked from my own garden. One of each variety of flower and seed pod that we grow. I've made and received plenty of apologies in my lifetime, but I don't think any has ever felt so meaningful and looked so beautiful. 

Last Sunday, actually every single day, I have this routine where first thing in the morning and last thing at night before it gets dark, I walk up and down every row of the garden. I admire the new, I deadhead the old, I tie up anything loose, I harvest the ripe, I watch for any pests, I squish caterpillars and slugs, I sing, or chat or just listen, I try to take it all in and notice everything, I breathe, I fill my cup.

Last Monday I was walking back to the car-park after the school drop off with a mum I'd just met. Her oldest just started his first year of primary school this year, while my youngest just started her last. As we walked we swapped little details of our lives; how long we've lived here, our other children's names, what else we juggle along with mothering.

As we arrived at her car she slid open the door to reveal a row of child seats and it surprised me. Then it occurred to me that it's been ages since I've buckled one of mine in. It's funny how something that's part of your life for so many years can look so strange and alien when you've gone past it and left it behind.

And then I went one step further and thought that not only has my back-seat booster-seat period disappeared, but now I have a child that could legally drive that car. Wow!

I'm not sure this story feels so profound a few days later now that I'm writing it down, but last Monday after we'd said our goodbyes and she'd driven off, I sat in my car for a few minutes and contemplated the stage of mothering that I'm in. It all feels very grown up and big.

Last Tuesday, and every other day, Indi has been texting us stories and sending us photos of her wonderful worldy adventures. It's a crazy feeling to live with someone under the same roof for 18 years and then watch as they travel off to make an independent life on the other side of the globe. It's wonderful to watch the world through her eyes, it's interesting to see her style evolve as she captures her surroundings, it's heartwarming to see her beautiful smile, it's fascinating to hear her stories, and as with all her firsts - it's taking me back to the people and the places and the adventures I had when I was her age doing a similar thing. Of course I miss her like crazy but much stronger than that is my sense of joy and delight for her, and pride and awe of her.

Last Tuesday one of us decided that the new dynamic of four in the family was too difficult to navigate so she went down the hill to stay with my parents for a few days.

It's funny, while the bare bones of our family life are still the same - schooling, farming, eating, home-working, preserving, growing, music-ing, driving...the details are all different. There's one less plate on the table, there's one less pile of washing, there's one less story, there's less drawing, there's one less guitar being played, there's one less person in the shower queue, there's no-one to tell you which shoes to wear, no one talks about Shawn, sometimes there's just no-one else who understands.

It's early days still and I'm sure we'll all get used to our new normal I just hope our little wanderer knows how much we adore her and miss her. And I'm also ridiculously grateful to have my parents at the bottom of our hill to pick up the pieces and to spoil the runaways when a little bit of extra love and care is needed.

Last Wednesday I sat together my farmer boy in the sun-room and had a discussion about all the things we're struggling with. Nothing major, just the day to day stuff like water, and farming, and aging, and sickness, and time, and moods, and housework, and caterpillars, and wanting to be 18 again with nothing but a backpack traveling the world.

Last Thursday morning we dropped Jazzy at school and caught a train into the city. We ate breakfast for lunch, we visited the Escher x Nendo exhibition at The NGV, we strolled around holding hands and people watching, and then we headed back home feeling lighter and brighter and more capable of dealing with things.

It's amazing what a difference a day made.

Which brings us right back to Friday, today!

I'm reading and loving Preservation by Jock Serong, a few days after Indi left I cast on a pair of socks as knitting comfort and I'm slowly working away on them, I'm listening to It's Not A Race podcast, we finished the last episode of Russian Dolls last night and wish there was a second season, we're listening to a lot of very old James Taylor, and we're eating loads of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, carrots, onions, lettuce, plums, apples, zucchini, silverbeet, berries and herbs.

It's pretty nice to be back here. Sitting up on the daybed looking out on the forest, typing away on my fixed up and quiet computer, thinking about my week that's just gone.

Thank you for your messages and your kindness and patience.

If all goes to plan I'll see you again next Friday.

Until then why don't you fill me in on what's been going on for you.
How are you feeling about things?
Have you settled into the new year's routine yet?
Do you sometimes get a glimpse of who you are and get a surprise?
Do you have something fun planned for this weekend?

Bye!

x

light my fire

I always find the blog that follows an exciting, milestone, life-event blog difficult to write. The words don't flow as freely, the subjects are harder to choose and the 'who even cares' voice sneaks into my brain and makes itself comfortable.

If the lead-up to Soul Craft was 'the before', then the past week has most definitely been 'the after. And the after is filled with things we have to do before true winter sets in and the paddocks are too wet to drive in, the wood splitter has been returned to its owner, and everything that grew in summer has been pulled out, pruned, or cut down, and everything that needs to go in the ground before spring has been planted.

People talk about how lovely winter is because it's a time for bunking down inside by the fire knitting and drinking tea, but we are so not there yet. We are still outside. Most of the time we can't feel our fingers or our toes, our work pants are wet up to our knees and our boots are so caked with mud that we appear inches taller than we really are. But we are ticking things off slowly, so hopefully by this time next week or the week after, we'll be able to admire the blanket of frost covering everything from inside the house.

So let's get back to the photo journal shall we...

june sixteenth 

I made these Uppsala slippers as a gift for my farmer boy to say thank you for always taking care of us and our many details. They're the perfect project to take on when you want to make a present but you can't commit to a pair of 4ply socks. Someone on instagram suggested I stitch a piece of leather to the sole to protect them against all the little bits of wood, but I feel like that would make them slippery, and the truth is I only asked him to wear them in the wood shed to make my photos look good, and he held them in his hands and only put them on once we got there.

Here's the link to the pattern on Ravelry. It's a quick little knit but be sure to go down a size because they knit up bigger than you think.

june seventeenth

I've spent so much of the past week splitting wood. Now that that job's almost done I just need to find some time to stack it.

june eighteenth

Late one night last week, with nothing to read, I crept into Indi's room and took the two books off her bedside table. One was Heart of Darkness, which is one of her English Literature books and the other was her philosophy teacher Skye's copy of The Little Paris Bookshop. I didn't make it past page four of the first, and I stayed up until way past four reading the other.

“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I sell books.”

I love the concept of a literary apothecary, an encyclopedia of emotions, shopping on a floating book-barge. And I love the characters in this book and the story so far. I always feel rich and relieved when I have a book I am loving to go to bed with, because then it doesn't matter as much what happens sleep-wise in the night.

june nineteenth

That's a photo of my scrappy sock blanket that I have been knitting since November first 2014. From time to time I consider turning it over, darning all the ends in and marking it as finished. But then I remember how comforting it is to have a project on the go all the time. It's always there. Whenever I cast off a project but before I cast on something new I pull it down and add a few squares, I love the mindlessness of it, I enjoy the weight of it on my lap and I reminisce about all the socks I've knitted over the years to make the scraps to make the blanket. It would look so good on the day bed in my new studio though...

june twentieth

And speaking of my new studio, on Wednesday while I was on my hands and knees in the freezing cold mud trying to get the rest of my garlic in before the winter solstice (see the very first photo), Bren and Jobbo were putting the finishing touches on the door and starting on the shingles.

Oh and just in case you get excited about those shingles like I did the other day, whatever you do - do not search up #shingles on instagram. Let's just say I made that mistake so you don't have to.

june twenty first

On Thursday we had our first true, crunchy, frost of the season.  And I ran around taking photos of everything before retreating inside to try and warm my fingers.

And Bren and Jobbo made frames for and inserted two triangular windows in the pitched roof at the back of my studio and finished and hung the door. I don't think I have ever been so excited about a door in my life.

june twenty second

Today. We spent the day crunching through the frosty grass, and then later the wet grass, in the orchards pulling the nets off the trees. We're late to the job and you can almost feel the trees stretching their limbs out in relief and wondering why it took us so long. Which is why it's so late at 5.24pm for me to be writing my blog. Which is why I'm rushing it to get it done before the girls get home from school. Which is why I haven't even taken my wet socks and clothes off yet which feels awful, but I'm also okay because my farmer boy just brought me in a hot cup of tea and a hot water bottle. The best thing about wearing overalls to work is that you can pop the hot water bottle in the chest bit, like a baby. The best bit about hot tea is that it's hot.

And I told you I was excited about my door, but just in case you didn't believe me here are a few more photos of it. Bren is going to turn me a couple of door handles this weekend.

And that's it! All caught up and into a hot shower I go.

But before I leave tell me some things about you.
What are you reading/writing/playing/watching/growing/crafing?
What are you loving most about the season you're in?
What are you getting up to this weekend?
I want to buy some charcoal yarn with a fleck through it, do you know where I could get some?

See ya's next week okay!

Love, Kate x


ps Did you get my door joke in the title - Light my fire - by the DOORS!!