apple blossom

Hello honey bunches,

It's so lovely to see you again here this week.

It's Thursday night here and I just realised that tomorrow we'll be away all day so I'd better get onto this now, tonight. 

Right now Bren's out spraying the orchards against the mildew and black spot that the humid weather we've been having over the past few days tends to bring with it. Jazzy and my dad are sitting opposite me doing revision for a maths test, Indi and my mum are in the other room going over Indi's Philosophy essay and Miss Pepper is sitting at the coffee table eating her dinner. I'm sitting here, just home from the gym, alternating eating spoonfuls of soup and writing words and sentences here. The Banjo frogs are singing ridiculously loudly on the house dam on my left, my arms are aching from lifting weights and I still have to go and check the leaves in the garden for slugs, so I'm going to make it a quick one this week.

We've had such a lovely week here. We spent a day cleaning and preparing all the bee hive frames and boxes and then caught two swarms of bees in the orchard the very next day. 

With daylight savings the girls have been getting home from school in the light with just enough time for a walk through the blossoming trees to smell the flowers, check the fruit buds and watch the pollen heavy bees flying back to their hives.

One day Indi got stung by a bee on her ankle and her foot swelled up so large that she couldn't put her shoe on. The next day I got stung on my face and dreaded it swelling up like her foot but thankfully it didn't.

On another day Indi went for her driver's learner's permit and passed with flying colours. Even though she's a year late, I still can't believe I have a child whose old enough to legally drive on the road.

Miss Pepper starts every day with the announcement that today is her very last Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday.... in single figures as a nine year old, because next Tuesday she'll be 10!! My baby. When I first started writing this blog in 2009 she turned two.

Miss Jazzy is obsessed with drawing and specifically calligraphy. This part of her reminds me so much of me as a teenager. We gave her a big box of colourful art pens for her birthday and watching her carefully decide on and then place them in colour order, I could almost feel my own hands doing the same thing all those years ago.

Jazzy and her friend have written me a long shopping list of things to buy for the slime party they are organising for Pepper this weekend, I can't wait!

Bren and Jobbo have been building onto the the green-house extension on the side of our house and it's looking so good. I've been sharing little snippets in my instagram stories but hopefully I'll get some proper photos soon. The other day I got home from the school drop off and almost wept when I saw what they had done while I'd been gone, I can't believe our old home is becoming so beautiful.

And me? I've been LOVING  the past few days and nights that have been warm enough to not light a fire and dry enough to hang the washing outside.

A few nights ago, while I was in bed in the middle of the night, I felt someone scratch down the length of my foot. I jumped up in fright and couldn't see anyone. The door was closed so it wasn't one of the girls and Bren was fast asleep. To this day it still haunts me when I think of it.

I've just finished reading Wellmania which I really liked a lot, and I then I started reading Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage in the middle of the night last night when I couldn't sleep. I think it'll be great but I'm only on page 29 so it's probably too soon to tell.

I've just listened to the six Dirty John podcast episodes and loved them. After I had finished my Mum sent me this article with photos of all the major players from the podcast and I was surprised at how much they all look like Hollywood actors.

I've been planting so many vegetable and flower seeds and am watching them with much excitement as they stick their little green leaves up out of the soil and reach for the sun.

I still haven't started on my macrame hanging baskets.

I'm still knitting down the sleeves of the blue cardigan.

So I guess it's time for me to swap my gym gear for my work overalls, pop my head torch on, grab a bottle from the recycling and a podcast for my ears and go outside, into the dark garden, and pluck every slug from the leaves. Sometimes I see my life from the outside and I laugh. What must I even look like!

I hope you have a beautiful Friday my friends and then a wonderful weekend.

So how about you?
What have you been up to?
Do you sometimes get a glimpse of your life and laugh?
Tell me a little story from your week just been, I'd love to hear it.

See you next Friday.

Love Kate x