twenty seventh

It's the twenty seventh day of the year and I'm sitting here with an anxious feeling in my tummy that won't go away. These photos don't really have anything to do with my anxious feeling except that when I look at them they tell the story of a simple life and my anxiety is that I'm about to lose all of that. I feel like our family potato picking days are numbered. That things are about to get crazy.

From next Tuesday my two big girls will start going to a school that is 50 minutes drive away from here. That's 50 minutes drive one way, which means that if I take them in in the morning and come home in between, that's four hours of my day spent in the car. Unfortunately from what we can work out none of the public transport available works.

I am incredibly lucky because my farmer boy and my parents are going to share the load. And without a doubt the driving is worth it because the school they are going to go to is going to be incredible, but still. Our life as a family is going to change. Our farm life is going to change. And Miss Pepper who will still go to school in Daylesford, her life is going to change too.

The other day at spinning group an older woman told me to embrace this change. To enjoy the challenges and opportunities that this new stage in life brings. She said that although it feels enormous to me now, that time will fly and soon we'll be in a different phase. My farmer boy keeps quoting her back at me. He likes Charlotte's way of thinking.

And I am trying. Another woman I met told me about the knitting group that runs in a nearby town on Tuesday mornings and then invited me back to her house afterwards each week for a private spinning class. I could also spend time in a local library writing my blog or notes I have for a book. I can think of loads of ways to pass the time if I stay for the school day so there's less driving, but then I'm away from here. And if I'm away from here then less farming will get done, less house stuff and cooking will get done, I'll spend less time with Pepper and in our community and with Bren. And if he does it then he'll miss out on all of that and me.

Not to mention the girls whose lives will shift. Home will remain here but their friends will all live further away and so their social lives will move further away too.

Mostly I feel positive and optimistic about what's to come. This school feels like an opportunity we cannot pass up. I sat through speeches by the principal, head of campus and teachers yesterday with tears in my eyes. This is going to be a really wonderful place to learn and I feel like it'll provide our girls with the best education we could hope for for them.

But things are definitely going to change, and part of me misses the simplicity and slowness and ease of now already.


xx

sixteenth

the very first apples of our season

the ripeness test

hello sunflower?

new potatoes and a couple of beans

miss pepper's flower bed

nasturtiums catching the light


Hello lovely blog buddies, how are you?

I'm good. I started today, the 16th day of the new year reading a few pages of my book in bed. It's a school holidays luxury that I'm loving and will be sad to see the end of. It's such a gentle, quiet way to start the day. Lots of people do yoga first thing or go for a walk around the block - I like to read, I love it actually.

After breakfast we walked down to the orchard to check on the progress of some of the apples and cover one last row. And then we spent the rest of the morning putting up fences and planting the last of the tomatoes. Finally. Grow well and fruit abundantly my friends.

While I watered the tomatoes in, farmer Bren bandicooted some new potatoes which we cooked and then ate for lunch with butter and garlic and rosemary and salad. Best lunch ever!

After lunch we were both exhausted and slumped on the couch to watch an episode of a series. There was iced coffee and a bit of knitting involved too.

Once that was over we did a fire drill. We got in our fire clothes, closed the doors and curtains, grabbed the pets and our bug-out bags and headed down the hill to the cottage. Once there we ran around turning on sprinklers and doing the things we think we'd do if there was a bush-fire. It was good to run through it and we learnt a lot about how we'd do things differently next time. Like keeping the cat inside on fire danger days because she really did not want to co-operate and was completely freaked out by the cat carrier.

After that my Mum came and picked up some cucumbers, she's going to go and pickle them with my auntie the way my Nana used to and document the method so we can do it too.

Once she left I went out and picked a bowl of blackberries to make a cake, then we gave the girls their dinner and settled them outside to camp in the tent.

Which brings us to now, it's almost dark, my blog is almost written, and I'm thinking about having breakfast again for dinner. Muesli with cut-up stone fruit and some seeds and nuts. Yep, I think I will.

And then we'll probably watch another episode, shower and fall into bed. Then read. Then sleeeeeep.


So tell me sweet things, how did you spend the day?
What did you eat?
What dd you watch?
Who did you meet?

Catch you tomorrow.

Love Kate
xoxo

PS Photo credit to farmer Bren for the one of me.

fourth

Farmer Bren is laughing at me because I just left the room to write my blog somewhere quieter and told him I'd be back in ten minutes. He obviously doesn't believe me so I'm going to put a stop watch on. 

GO!

Today, on the fourth day of the new year I got up really early and watered the garden. It was the most beautiful morning and I loved the time alone and the thought of setting the garden up for the day with a big drink.

Then our cousins from Melbourne came to visit and the skies opened up and it POURED!! It rained and rained and rained which was awesome because everything was so dry and the garden didn't mind a bit extra at all.

After the rains and after our cousins went home we went for a walk to admire how beautiful everything looked all soaking wet and lush. We had to take big, deep breaths of wet eucalyptus smell and walk around in wet, muddy boots, it was gorgeous.

First stop was the peas to pick a pocketful for the way.

Then we checked on the apricots, the plums, the potatoes, the berries, the pumpkins, the zucchini, the cucumbers, the beans and the sunflowers. We didn't get to the apples, under the nets in the background of this photo, but hopefully we will spend a bit of time in the orchard tomorrow covering more rows and checking on their progress.

Some of the sunflowers look ready to burst which is exciting. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll see some yellow action.

And then back up to the house to walk through the kitchen garden to pull a few weeds and tie a few trellises.

One of the old potato crates broke down recently, well actually I fell out of it while forking it and broke the side, leaving us a big pile of soil filled with potatoes. We ummed and ahhhhed for ages about how to manage the pile and in the end built a wall out of bricks. I don't love it as much as I love the crates in neat formation but it's growing on me. And the the spuds are growing really well in it.

A quick water of the hot house and a mental note to spend the next chance I get planting a lettuce succession and some winter veg.

And then home to do a few rows of my Artista shawl before the night time rituals begin. The Ravelry link to my Artista is here. My sweet instagram friend Lori sent me the yarn and the pattern so we could become shawl twins. I'm almost there, five rounds of pattern, then the tassels and I'll be wearing it.

And that's that. Our fourth has been a pretty and wet and fun day.

How about yours? What did you get up to and what's the weather like there right now?

See you tomorrow.

Love Kate
xoxo

STOP!!!! So I already had the photos loaded but the words for this blog took me 16.55 minutes to write. Not that much longer than ten.

PS Big thanks for all of your gorgeous messages on my blog these past few days, I'm loving reading through them. I'm trying my hardest to reply to you in the comments but sometimes I run out of time.

PPS Indi is incredibly grateful for all the love you've been showing her, thank you. x

digging spuds

Today we ate porridge with honey for breakfast.
I did a Pilates class and learnt how hard it is for me to balance on one leg with my eyes closed.
My farmer boy surprised me and took me out for an early lunch.
We came home, got the eggs, fed the animals and watered the garden.
Then we took out our map and walked through the orchard and it occurred to me that it is my job, my occupation, to wander through hundreds and hundreds of fruit trees and taste the fruit to decide what's ripe and needs to be picked.
After that we gave the farm gate stall a clean up and a fruit shuffle.
While we were at the stall a dad from school came past for some apples and a chat and then a lovely couple who read my blog and had driven an hour to get to us pulled up. It was so gorgeous to meet them, hear a little bit about them and then just as we were about to leave and drive on up to the house the woman gave me the most lovely letter she'd written on the drive out. She had been planning to leave it at the stall but gave it to me instead. The kindness and love in that letter totally made my day. Thanks Pauline xx
Then I baked this cake - which has had rave reviews.
And I hung some washing on the line.
I picked up the girls from school and from the bus stop.
Jazzy went off to dancing, Bren went to training and me and Pepper left Indi inside with her guitar teacher and we went out to pick apples, tomatoes, potatoes and other odds and ends.
Bren came home and made a spoon, the girls did some homework type stuff and I made soup and garlic flat bread for dinner. Everybody loved it. It's the best when that happens.

The second day of autumn was a lovely day indeed.
And now, after a mad scramble, all the girls are in bed and my farmer boy and I are going to sneak an episode of House of Cards. Shhhhh don't tell the girls we're breaking the no TV/movies during the week rule.

So what did you get up to today?
I hope yours was lovely.

Love Kate xx

every day in may - or not

This is the bunting I made and the stamp I cut to stamp the bunting I made.

When my book comes out in August, hopefully some book shops will hang this stamped bunting in their windows as a display.

My book!! Oh my gosh! Did you see I put a little pic of the cover over there on my side bar. Eeeeeep!!

This is the wool I was lucky enough to win in Little Woollie Jules's giveaway to celebrate the opening of her online store. Thanks Jules!! 

Delicious and soft and squishy and waiting patiently for the perfect project. Six 50gm balls, any suggestions?

This is the show-off autumn kissed grapevine on the front side of our house. The back-side (ha!) grapevine gets less sun and is yellow. 

This is about 30 or 40 rows of this brilliant idea I had that is never going to happen. Such a shame. A wide, loooooooong, grey scarf would be so useful and snuggly and cute. But realistically, 120 stitch rows of plain knit and plain purl are not so much fun. Unravel.

This is the state of our cubby so far. 

There'll be more tomorrow. @thebuilderrecycles (on instagram) is coming at 8am.

This was my attempt at a wintery colour palette blanket.

It hurts my eyes. Unravel.

These are the potatoes we picked last Friday.

This is the beanie I'm knitting for Pepper. I-cords and pom poms to go.

These are some of my kitchen garden tomatoes. With ten crates of green tomatoes in the loungeroom and a frost warning overnight, I had to say goodbye to these. I guess the chooks will love them.


It's funny, all week long I've been obsessively considering my every day in May project.

I've thought about walking every day, crocheting a square a day, knitting a square a day, making a pom pom a day, cooking a new recipe a day, reading a chapter a day, writing a blog post a day, naming something I am grateful for each day, doing something different with apples every day, taking a bag to the op-shop a day or doing some sort of photo challenge each day.

But late this afternoon, waaaaaay into the first day of May, I admitted defeat. For some reason I am just too crazy busy this May. Between the book stuff and the preserving stuff and the home stuff and the mothering stuff, there is just no room to take on another project. I have no idea how it is possible that with three at school this year I am still busier than last year, but I am. Either that or just more realistic.

I adored last year's motif a day in May and the May two years before that. I loved choosing the pattern, finding the cotton, hooking each square and watching the pile of finished motifs grow.

Hopefully I'll be back on board next year.

Hopefully I'll stick to this decision and not freak out and rush off to make a square as soon as I've pressed publish on this post. Hopefully.

So what are you up to over there?
Are you busier this year than last?
Are you making every day in May?
Or are you too tired by the end of the day?
Oh and if I disable anonymous comments is that going to worry you?

Bye!

A lot of littles.

Right now, this very second, Miss Jazzy is in the bath, Miss Pepper is making some cardboard bracelets and Miss Indi is being met at school by my folks and then taken out for an ice cream. I love missing the school pick up. It's the best. Right now farmer Bren is giving a talk about organic farming to a bus load of people and right now I am writing this. But before I took and loaded these pics, I tidied up some of my yarn stash thinking and planning for a test knit I am about to cast on and then I got distracted and hooked up two grannies.

I am loving the thought of making something small every day in May. A lot of littles will surely end up in something pretty big. A lot of crocheted motifs will end up in a rug or a display or a pile of motifs. And I'm planning on using up lots of scraps of yarn which is another win.

And I am loving the way other people are taking this project and running with it in their own way...a quilt block a day...a photo a day...learning to crochet by the end of May...a bit of a cardi each day...squats...pelvic floor exercises...three chapters of a book...ten spelling words...a day in May.

How about you?
What are you and your crew up to right now, this very second?
And are you doing something everyday this May?
Let us know if you blog about it and we'll come and visit.

Our friend Chandor just delivered 80kg of certified organic potatoes, so I'm off to turn some of them into dinner. Yum! Any favourite potato recipes will be gratefully received.

See ya later-hot potata!!

Oh and remember to be nice.
If you've got nothing nice to say...