every day in may

Hello honey bunches,

How's your week been?

I'm happy to report that after our bumpy homecoming, things here have been really good. It helps that the sun finally came out. And although it's still much too cold for my liking, we've had some bright, still, autumn days that have made my heart sing and my body happy to be outside and moving.

Last Monday morning I drove through the forest on the way home from taking Indi and Jarrah to school. The girls had been gorgeous in the car, I knew that Bren and Jobbo were meeting at home to plan the rebuild of the hot-house, the sunlight was streaming through the trees and I felt overcome with the feeling that my week ahead was rich with time and possibilities. It's the best feeling. I wanted to grab onto it and really feel it and take it home and make stuff happen.

At the same time I was listening to Sara Tasker's podcast interview with Xanthe Berkeley about the power of creative projects when it occurred to me that a creative project is just what I need. And with the start of May, the month that sort of rhymes with 'every day', the timing felt perfect. So I started auditioning projects in my head: a crocheted granny square a day, a water colour painting a day, one of those blankets people knit where each row is a reflection of the weather or the mood of the day, a blog post a day, a short film clip a day, a hundred words in a diary every day, a hexagon quilt project, an embroidery stitch a day, a hand written letter, a new recipe, an instagram post a day, a charcoal drawing...the possibilities felt endless and endlessly exciting.

In 2012 and 2014 I crocheted a different motif every day in May and loved it.

Then I arrived home, listened to the plans the boys had made, drank coffee, cleaned up the breakfast dishes, took some laundry off the line put it away and hung out some more, went to gym for an hour, came home and pulled the last of the irrigation lines out of a bottom paddock, checked on the olives, picked some flowers, brought in a load of wood, got Pepper from school and took her to her singing lesson, picked her up from her singing lesson and brought her home, took Jazzy to her dancing class and then came home to find Bren and Pepper making pasta for dinner.

The entire time I'd been wondering about my personal creative project: what form it would take, what skills I could hone or learn, and what materials I would need. Late in the day it occurred to me that the real question was when would I fit it in?

My project had to add creativity but not stress to my life.

As I watched them break the eggs and mix them into flour I decided on a capture project rather than a create project. As I watched them stir the two ingredients into a dough I chose my big camera over my phone. And as they rolled the dough out into long sheets and then skinny noodles I decided that I would document one moment of every day. One moment with a few photos.

Not the most special moments, not the most photogenic moments, not even the moments that have stories that I would usually blog, just the small moments that make up our days this May.

Ideally I'd like to push myself out of my comfort zone and take more photos indoors, I'd like to capture some tiny unposed moments, I'd like to be brave and play around with composition and settings, and I'd really love to trust myself more and not have to take 20 photos just in case the first 19 don't work.

I plan to publish them here on my blog with a short explanation or story. I thought about posting them every day but I don't want to break with this Friday thing that is working so well. And even though this might not feel any different to you than my usual style of blogging, it does for me - in its everydayness, it's making me see my world a bit differently, and its encouragement of risk.

I hope you like it - here goes.

On - May first - Bren and Pepper made made spaghetti for our dinner. Most afternoons I drive out to pick the big girls up from school and those two spend the time playing and making dinner for us. It works really well for them to make and bake and hang out, and then it works really well for us as a family to come together at the end of the day, to share a meal and catch up with each other's news.

On - May second  - we picked the last of the outside tomatoes and cabbages and basil before the predicted frosts arrived the next morning. This year we harvested, cooked, preserved and ate so many fewer tomatoes than in any other year I can remember, but still I'm happy to see the end of them. The last ones of the season always smell too strong and are too floury for my liking. This crate we picked on Tuesday is still sitting by the front door; there's a chance I'll cook them all up over the weekend, but it's more than likely they'll get fed to the chooks.

On - May third - we finally lit a great big fire and burnt all the heads of the trees that we cut down for firewood late last year. I know that my farmer boy mourns the carbon and would much rather mulch them and feed the land, but burning sh#@ is one of my favourite parts of autumn farming and happy wife - happy life, hey.

On - May fourth - we suited up and visited our bees. All of our hives seemed madly busy stockpiling for winter as the season is so obviously changing. And because our bees had a rough winter last year we were really careful and only took a few honey frames here and there and only where it looked like they had plenty. Taking honey from the bees always seems like such a gamble at this time of the year, but then the thought of that spoonful of honey in our porridge and in our tea makes it too hard to resist.

On - May fifth - literally five minutes ago, we picked some beetroot to go with our veggie burgers for dinner tonight. As I type this they're cooking on the stove. I think we'll make a rocket, feta and beetroot salad with lemon juice with some of it and slice the rest.

And that's my May so far.
How about yours? How's it going?
Do you have a creative project on the go?
Are you looking for one? Do you want to join me?
Do you do something everyday already?
Do you have something fun planned for the weekend? I hope so.

Oh and thank you so much for your feedback on my coping with winter post. I guess my every day project and the way it'll hopefully help me look for the photographable moments is part of the way I hope to deal with it a little better this year. That and a bunch of other things I've written down from all of your suggestions.

See you in a week my friends.

Love Kate xx

Snapshots again

Hello lovely online friends. How are you? How was your weekend? Have you got anything exciting planned for this coming week? Are you feeling grounded or a bit aflutter?

I'm good. A little bit unsettled with all that I have to do and all that I want to do rushing around my head and making me feel a little bit out of breath. But I feel like my life is busy with good things at the moment and that makes me feel grateful.

But it also makes me feel like I don't know where to start this blog today. Which stories to tell? Which bits to share? And which to let go never to be heard from again?

Sometimes my blog speaks to me in such a clear bossy voice, while at other times I need a formula to get going. Today is definitely the latter so I've decided to go back to a post I wrote back about six weeks ago and do the same thing all over again. Eight photos that represent a bit of a snapshot of my life at the moment (minus the girls of course because they are at school) and a sentence or two as a description of each.

PICKING 

Beetroot. I feel like beetroot kind of fills the void of tomatoes when they are out of season. The flavours are completely different, but they both add something special to the salad, the roast veggies and the sandwiches that nothing else does.

I pickle my beetroot using this recipe. Yum!


KNITTING 

Another cabled beanie for my farmer boy from this pattern.

Last year two photographers came to our house to shoot us for a fancy country magazine. After we had done our polite introductions they asked us if it were at all possible for Farmer Bren to go beanie-less for the shoot. Although it was the middle of winter, the magazine would come out in summer and they wanted it to look warm.  Apparently the order had come from the top so who was he to disagree. I think those few hours were the only few hours I have ever seen him without a beanie on our farm in autumn, winter or spring since we've been here.

I like how happy a new beanie makes him and I like the charcoal instead of his usual brown.


READING

Gone Girl. My littlest sister Abby was so surprised to hear I hadn't read it that she ordered it and had it delivered to me by post. And she's right, I'm loving it. Even though I only have time for a chapter or two each night, I'm still reading it far too quickly and will be sorry when it's done.


FEEDING

The fire. Always. Collecting kindling, filling the firewood trailer, splitting logs, bringing loads inside and keeping the fire going. Sometimes I dream of push button central heating, so clean, so quick and so easy, but the fire is the heart of the home and I'd probably miss it if it were gone.


DECIDING

Whether or not to knit the pair to my first ever sock. The length is right, the height is right, the heel makes me happier and prouder than I ever thought a heel could, but it is baggy under the instep and uncomfortable to wear. Shame.


TRYING AGAIN

Toe up this time instead of cuff down. And with much smaller needles. Wish me luck, I don't know if I'll have the heart to try a third sock if this one doesn't fit right.


ADMIRING

Backyard Bees a gorgeous new book by Doug Purdie published by Murdoch books. So much important beekeeping info, such great photos by Cath Muscat, lots of delicious looking recipes, it really is a fabulous book.

And look, there's us all dressed in our bee keeping best!!

SQUISHING

The wool that came with some other cute treasures in the last instalment of the Jellywares winter yarn club. Mmmmmmmm delicious. Jodie plans to run a spring wool club starting next month too, so keep an eye on her Facebook page for sign ups. It's been such fun to get my box in the post each month.

And that's that. How about you, what are you picking, reading, feeding, deciding, trying again, admiring and squishing?

I'll be back tomorrow with the next instalment of the granny-hottie-a-long. Have you made your 24?

Happy new week friends. May your news be fabulous.

xx

home is where our kitchen garden grows....x

We've been away for three weeks.

And now we are home.

All morning we've been weeding, thinning, planning, planting, harvesting and breathing it all in.

Our hands are dirty, our hearts are full.

There's an Indi and Bren baked carrot cake in the oven and some carrot juice on the cards.

Holidays are ace but coming home is best.

Home is where our kitchen garden grows.

xx

How to make your own pickled beetroot

This beetroot pickle is so yummy and such a fave in our house that we try to have a jar in the fridge at all times.

We planted this bunch of beetroot way back in February. The ground is so cold at the moment that it acts a type of fridge, stopping it from growing but keeping it fresh for us to pick as we need.

Gather

1 biggish jar, sterilised 

7 fresh medium beetroots

1 and 1/2 (375ml) vinegar (we use apple cider vinegar)

1 and 1/4 tablespoons dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

Cook

1. Wash the beetroot and place them in a saucepan. Add enough cold water to cover the beetroot. Bring to the boil and cook until the beetroot are tender.

2. Drain beetroot reserving 1 and 1/4 cups (300ml) of the cooking liquid.

3. Once the beetroot are cool, cut off the tops and bottoms and peel.

4. Slice the beetroot and set aside.

5. Mix together the reserved cooking liquid and the vinegar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

6. Add the mustard, salt and sugar to the saucepan. Stir occasionally and bring to the boil again. Remove from the heat.

7. Place beetroot slices in your jar and pour hot vinegar mixture over the top.

8. Screw on lid and refrigerate for a few days before use.

Eat!

Will last for a while after opened if refrigerated.


Tell me peeps, are you a fan of the beet?
What's your fave way to partake?

Happy new week!
Happy canned beets!

xx

the whole farm tour

Miss Pepper met Immy for the first time two weeks before she was born.

I was standing next to her Mum at the chai tent at the Sunday market and being equally enormously pregnant, we got chatting. We spoke of due dates and baby names and cravings and how over it we both were. And we spoke of how our babies would be friends and grow up together and have lots of adventures.

And over their five years on earth, they have.

As little babies, as little dancers, sometimes at bush kinder and this year at school.

Today Immy came over to our house and as she walked in she exclaimed that she wanted to go on an adventure and see Pepper's whole farm.

So they set off.

Miss Pepper started the tour at the site of all the rooster blood from yesterday. She explained the entire process to Immy. Immy said she knew you had to say 'thank you for your life' to the rooster but then she would have to look away. Miss Pepper said she loved eating roosters and thinking about it was making her feel hungry. Immy said her too.

And then they walked through the forest along the dry creek bed. I thought it looked terribly enchanted. They thought it was terribly prickly.

They climbed under branches, over logs, around thistle bushes and screamed abracka-zizzle-pops to make magic doors open.

They told secret stories about fairies and moss,

 about the chicken the fox got,

and about all the crunchy leaves.

And then they scrambled through the prickly hawthorn bushes and into the open air.

They stopped to pull the thorns out of their leggings and shoes and to examine their scratches and then made their way to the farmer boys who were harvesting beetroot.

They helped out for a while, pulling big purple bulbs out of the ground.

And then they came across a beetroot that was so massively gigantic that it needed three people to pull and pull and pull...

Hooray!!

But the fun didn't stop there.

After the gigantic beetroot came the enormous carrot babies.

And the huge carrot noses.

But after all that adventuring they were so tired they could barely walk and needed to hitch a ride up to the house on the tractor.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with bunnies and baskets.

Oh to be a five year old adventurer. Such uncomplicated fun. Such a big wide world to explore. So many gigantic adventurous opportunities.



xx