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

may be

Hello my friends,

How are you feeling?

I haven't had a great week. The sleep thing really got to me and on Monday when I couldn't handle it any more and went to see a doctor and she asked me how I was feeling, I told her I felt broken. My body wasn't doing what it was meant to do, my brain felt full of mush, my emotions were turned all the way up to 11, and I didn't trust my responses, I couldn't remember words, I felt off balance and teary and cold.

I didn't cry to the doctor which surprised me, we chatted for a while, we made a plan for the next few weeks and I left with a prescription for melatonin that I promised to persevere with for at least a week.

For the first three nights nothing changed. I lay in bed all night in a tangle of bed sheets, headphone cords, podcasts and meditations and tried not to let thoughts of all that I wanted to accomplish the next day sit in my stomach. I lay there. And lay there. And lay there. Staring out into the darkness listening to the sounds of the forest at night.

Late yesterday my friend Kate suggested I mix drops of frankincense and lavender essential oils with some fractionated coconut oil in a roll-on bottle and before bed apply some to the back of my neck and the soles of my feet. Just before bedtime last night I made up my potion and remembered how Tara Westover in her book Educated described passing her mother's homeopathic remedies through a circle she made with her thumb and forefinger 100 times to activate their healing potentials. So just for fun I did the same. Then I visited each of the four members of my family in their beds and applied it to their feet and necks and then I did my own. (Actually that's not quite true - one member wouldn't let me near her with the oil despite my pleading).

Last night I fell asleep at midnight and this morning I woke up at 6am!! That's the longest I've slept for all in one go for months. Today I feel relieved and happy and a little bit giggly. The sun is shining and the world feels full of possibilities. Obviously I'm not confident that one good night's sleep is the end to my problems, but at least I do know that it's possible. And who knows why last night was finally the night, all I can tell you is I'll be applying my magic oil again at bedtime tonight, that's for sure.

Let's get back to the photo-a-day, okay.

may nineteen

Last Saturday we fired up the splitter and made a huge pile of firewood. At this stage we still haven't decided where to stack it neatly to cure for the next few years, but I'm tempted to borrow Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way by Lars Mytting from the library again and to learn how to make some fancy stacks.

may 20

On Sunday, feeling particularly awful, I went for a long walk around the farm in the rain trying to find the beauty. These echinacea that I planted from seed so many months ago are only just starting to flower now despite the low temperatures and lack of sunlight. They feel particularly precious blossoming long after almost everything else has finished.

may twenty first

I feel like I take a lot of photos from inside looking out. Here are some out looking in. Stripey tee-shirts, chrysanthemums, potted colour.

may twenty second

The very last of our dahlias. 

And the coriander that I am desperate to pull out so I can replant the bed but I'll need to collect the seed before I do, so I haven't.

may twenty third

On Wednesday the ceiling went up in my studio and the boys made a start on the roof. I hid inside only popping out at the end to admire their work and take photos. Watching them with their power-tools up those ladders was a bit much for me. But how pretty does it look up on the bank, nestled in amongst the trees.

may twenty fourth

Bren's sitting next to me as I type this explaining the process they went through yesterday to finish the roof. He's using words like rafters, ceiling, battens, insulation, sisalation, roofing and ridge capping. I feel grateful that he's fascinated by the process and I'm pretty confident that if I took the time and listened then I'd find it interesting too, but it's enough for me that it's pretty, that it'll keep me dry and warm and protected, and that it fits into its surroundings. Late last year we pulled the car-port that sat in front of our house down. I really, really love the fact that they used the rafters, the tin and even the screws from that car-port for my studio roof. That car-port roof travelled 10 meters to the east where it shall sit above and shelter the prettiest little studio for ever more.

Yesterday I pulled the very last of the tomatoes out and planted garlic in behind them.

I love how the view changes seasonally. A whole bed of cherry tomatoes on tall trellises stood in front of the greenhouse for the past six months, it's lovely to be able to see inside again.

may twenty five

I never ever thought I would post photos of a roof to my blog and tell you how much I love it and how happy it's making me, but here you go. Big wide hardwood offcuts that became dark stained ceiling boards. Rafters that came out of a factory in Sydney, went into a building at Docklands studio in Melbourne and now are on their third use in my studio roof.

I imagine I'll spend many an hour gazing upwards, tracing the lines with my eyes, smiling at accidental hand prints and remembering the process it took to design and construct it.

And my Merricks shawl. I think I'm probably two thirds of the way around the edging. Hopefully I'll have some finished photos for you next week.


And that my friends is that. The roller coaster of one week of my life. And that's not even telling the story of the grumpy teenagers and the tears on the way to the compost heap.

I'm grateful for all of the wonderful sleep remedies and suggestions you've been sending me.
I hope you've been sleeping well.
I hope I haven't put you off with the roof photos.
I hope you know how much I appreciate your visits and your comments.
I'm wondering if I should continue this photo diary format for another month.
What do you think?
What have you been up to?
What can you tell me?

Got to go and make soup.

Love y'as!

Kate x