sixth

On the sixth day of the new year I have six random photos for you.

The first - is a photo I took six days ago when we were spending all our days in the apple orchards, brush cutting and netting most rows and trees. At night we'd come in and collapse and I'd knit stripes on my socks. Since this photo was taken I have knitted the feet, turned the heels and now I'm knitting up the legs.

This Trailing Clouds yarn is the best fun ever. There was a stage when I had considered only knitting with Australian or naturally dyed yarn this year, but after buying this stuff in a Facebook destash a few weeks ago, I left that resolution way behind.



The second - is a photo I took this afternoon while we were spinning six frames of honey we took from our bees yesterday.

I only took one photo of the bee visit itself on my phone, because as I took off my glove to snap it I was stung. Although it's probably been 20 years or more since my last sting, the second it happened I recognised that burning feeling and knew what it was. And although I felt awful for the loss of the little bee's life, I felt glad of the reminder to slow down, respect and remember who the real bosses are. Sorry bee. x



The third - is a cute little enamel egg cup my Mum bought for me recently for no other reason than she thought I'd like it. And I love it. So much so that as soon as I got it into my kitchen I gathered some old scrunched up brown paper and a dozen eggs and had a little photo shoot. So much fun - do you do that too?



The fourth - is a photo of the book I'm reading but not loving. I'm not really sure what to do about it either. I am such a loyal and monogamous reader that the thought of not finishing this book has hardly crossed my mind even though I am 200 plus pages into it and not loving it at all. What if something big is about to happen and I miss it? What if the whole first 200 pages are a set up for what happens next? And what did happen to Robyn anyway? But on the other hand what if nothing much ever happens?

I loved The Goldfinch so I feel like I need to give this one as good a go as I can. And there's a chance that I'm only not loving it because no book can ever come after The Poisonwood Bible. But what book should I read after this? Maybe I'll just read a bit more tonight before I decide for sure....



The fifth - is when Indi came home!! Yay!! Five days away and we missed her like crazy.



The sixth - was tonight's sunset. A beautiful end to a beautiful day (except that part where it took me AGES to work out what was wrong with the brush cutter only to find a mud wasp's nest in the exhaust).

Go gently my friends.
I'm off to make a pavlova and wrap my farmer boy's birthday prezzies.

Lovelovelove x

This weekend you might like to…...

READ - issue 39 of Dumbo Feather. There's a story about an organic farmer/blogger in there you just might recognise. Eeeeep!!


MAKE - my toffee apples while it's still apple season.



LISTEN - to Emily Ulman's beautiful new song Light On and while you're at it like her facebook page too - she's ace.


PLANT - your garlic. We got a bit of ours in yesterday and hope to get the rest in tomorrow.


PULL OUT - the last of the outside tomatoes. Ours were hit by our first frost on Wednesday night and will make a delicious feast for the chooks and compost pile.


SUPPORT - our gorgeous friend and organic egg farmer Madelaine and her pozible campaign to buy an egg washing/sorting/grading machine.


CLICK - over to Wholehearted Journal to read an interview with me.




MEDITATE  - by taking a little time out for yourself each day in May to crochet a motif. Take a picture, upload it to Facebook or instagram and tag it with #motifdaymay.

And have a gorgeous weekend. Of course. We've got loads of farming stuff going on and we're hoping to get out to Clunes Booktown at some stage too.

How about YOU?

Bye! x

sunshine & sisters

And then the sun came out from behind the clouds and changed everything.

For the first time in weeks we left the house without a gazillion layers of clothing. For the first time in weeks all three girls came with us to collect the eggs. And for the first time in weeks, with no real threat of rain, I took the real camera out with us.

The light was so bright, the colours were so clear and we all just stood there in a pocket of sunshine for a while soaking it in. Feeling it on our skin. Feeling happy.

The girls played and laughed and sang and wrestled. Their joy was contagious.

Even the wood piles looked pretty and decorative, rather than the usual desperately necessary.

And we realised that there's only one more week until spring. Thank goodness.

And even though we didn't get to see our feature in today's Herald Sun magazine because it doesn't come to the country, we received loads of gorgeous messages and we feel very full and grateful and lucky. Thank you!!

I hope your day was filled with sunshine and happiness.
Did you get up to anything special?
Did you see our feature? Did you run? Did you take photos? Did you play fight with your sister?

Loads of love to you peeps.
The countdown to spring is on.

xx

Love Kate x

Dear chickens,

Thank you for fertilising our soil, for eating the bugs, for scratching and weeding and for giving us eggs to eat and to sell. We are so grateful.

Dear Melbourne farmer's marketers,

Thank you for a wonderful market day.
Thank you for coming out and supporting us farmers, for buying our produce, for choosing quality over cheap and nasty, for asking questions about our farming methods and for caring.

Thank you for introducing yourselves and for telling me you read my blog. It was wonderful to meet you and to prove to farmer Bren that you are real and not at all my imaginary friends.

Dear Indi, Jazzy and Pepper,

Thank you for sharing our organic farming dream. Thank you for letting us get you out of bed at 5.30am on a Saturday morning to drive down to Melbourne and thank you for being such wonderful farmer's marketers. We love your guts.

And dear everyone who stood behind our stall and helped us and hung out with us. You are all super stars. Thank you. xx

Dear doctors, nurses, homeopaths, friends and family,

THANK YOU for reassuring us and comforting us and checking in on us and looking after us since Miss Pepper has been sick. We are so super grateful to you all.

Dear knitting, thank you for giving me something to do with my hands, for the therapy and meditation. I cannot imagine how I would have survived this stressful situation without you.

Today it looks like Miss Pepper has finally turned a corner and we can finally exhale. Phew.

xxxxx

Dear kitchen garden,

We are constantly in awe and grateful for the bounty you supply us with. Those teeny seeds that we plant, water and weed that then grow up to be delicious leaves and roots. Driving back from the city yesterday, we all agreed (even the pre-teen) that we would much rather have a kitchen garden out the front of the house, than a supermarket up the street. YUM!

And dearest, darling farmer boy of mine,

Thank you for knowing what I need better than I do.
Thank you for inspiring me and encouraging me to be me.
Thank you for reminding me to exhale.

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love...

And lovely readers,

Thank you for being awesome.
For writing gorgeous comments, for sharing your stories, for sharing our story, for caring.
You(se) are ace and I hope your week is wonderful.

Would you like to write a little dear.... message?
I'd so love to read it.

Bye!

xxxxx

Eight is enough.

 Hello! How are you? I have a few things to tell you. Eight I think...

The first is that after counting down the months and weeks and days and sleeps, the peonies blossomed and my Jazzy bear turned nine.

NINE!!!!! How does that happen?

We celebrated with pancakes and prezzies and a tea party dinner. The real party is coming soon tho, the new countdown is on.

The second is that I finally worked out how to knit an attached icord and then I cast off this baby.

Do you think wanting to have another baby just so I can cover it in hand knits is a legitimate reason?? The farmer boy doesn't. I think I'm going to have to take a break from new born knits for a while....

This bonnet is for the Chooky soon-to-be baby and is ravelled here.

The third is how grateful I am for all of your kind apple wishes on my last post. So far so good, but we have some nasty weather forecast for the next few days and it would be wonderful if the trees can hold off blossoming until next week.

The fourth is that Rita Hodge is the winner of my Suzy Hausfrau giveaway!!!!!
Hooray for Rita!!!!
Email me your postal details and we'll get that gorgeous wool to you asap.
Hugest thank you to Renae for the generous and gorgeous prize. xx

Watch this space because I have another woolly giveaway coming up very soon.

The fifth is that my Swans Island wool is still sitting next to my computer, still wrapped in its skeins. And I have spent waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time over the past few days stroking it, admiring it and searching ravelry queuing possible projects for it. I'm thinking cardigan tonight. Possibly a bit lacy. I'm hoping to get on with it this weekend.

The sixth is that Joel Salatin, that lunatic farmer himself, is coming back to Melbourne.

One of the highlights of this trip will be Joel's conversation with our buddy Rohan Anderson. According to the website - The pair will discuss Joel's radical farming methods - which have revolutionised the way thousands think about animals, produce and life. 

I'm certain it's going to be an unbelievably interesting and incredibly inspiring evening.

If you are around Melbourne on the 23rd of this month. If you are interested in where and how your food is grown. If you want to know more about what's going on in the big wide world of food production and politics, then this one's for you. Book it in, the details are here.

The photos above are from when Joel visited our farm a few years ago to have a look around and a chat with us about what we're doing here. Joel was an enormous inspiration for us starting this farm all those years ago. He and his books gave us permission to break the traditional farming rules and farm in a way that made a lot more sense to us. I have to say, that visit was definitely a highlight of our Daylesford Organics journey.

The seventh is that I wrote a guest post over at JustB called Bloom Where You are Planted.

And the eighth is that after a very long break, we will be back at a farmer's market this weekend. Yep, Daylesford Organics will be selling certified organic - free range eggs, at the Collingwood Children's Farm this Saturday. Yay!!

We are super excited to be back in town. 

If you are in Melbourne, why don't you come down and say hi, pick up some of the best and freshest produce around and make a lovely morning of it. We'd love to see you.

So that about wraps it up for me.

How about you?

Do you have anything to tell me?

Come on, I bet you do.

I can't wait to hear.

Bye! xx

Springy!

Oh springtime, I have fallen head over heels in love with you all over again.

The smell of your sweet pollen filled air, the way you make the farm chores fun, the smiley, playful Maremmas, the fields of daisies, the busy buzzy bees, the shoes instead of gumboots and the tights instead of leggings.

Oh springtime, I love the warmth of your sun on our backs as we fill the wheel-barrow with weeds and cut back the green manure crops and fertilise and plant out the spring vegies in the kitchen garden. There is nothing quite like the planning for the abundant seasons to come after the hungry winter.

I love the way the quantity of eggs we collect seem to multiply by the day in spring and I adore watching our feathered friends find little pockets of sunlight to dust bathe and gossip with their hen friends.

I love watching Jo-Jo run and climb and play without the constant worry about his muddy locks. And that blue, blue sky...swoon.

And I love only keeping one fire going. I am a bit over the constant shlepping and splitting of the wood, I am.

I feel excited beyond words at the discovery of spring's first asparagus spear and I am still loving finding new and exciting ways to eat the very last of the broccoli.

And eating outside, and having the windows open, and the brightness and lightness, and sharing a cold beer between dirty farmer's hands at the end of the day. Love!

But I think my very favourite part of spring is that feeling of the world opening up again. There are endless possibilities and choices and ways. Like a spontaneous icy-pole and walk around the lake after school. Holding hands and telling stories and joking and laughing. And smelling the sweetest, yellowest wattle and bumping into friends and being in love.

I'm happy.

I hope you are too and that you've had the most bright sunshiney start to your week.
Do you love springtime?
Or is autumn where you're at?
Have you got anything exciting planned for the next few days?
Do tell.

Bye!

Easter Sunday.

As a family we don't celebrate Easter. But there is a tradition around here, that every Easter Sunday all the neighbours and friends gather at Annabel's house for an egg decorate/roll/hunt followed by a feast.

We donated 30 dozen too dirty to sell eggs.

That were then painted.

The decorating of the eggs is always very serious business with discussions about aerodynamics and weather or not the colour red will make an egg roll faster.

Then we all gather at the top of the hill and roll/whack/kick those eggs all the way to the bottom. Anyone who gets their egg to the bottom in one piece feels pretty proud of themselves.

After that the kids run wild,

and the rest of us eat the feast.

Its always such a great day.

I hope you are having a great weekend too. XX