Lotsa stuff.

Hello! How are you?

I'm good. Very excited that it's almost the weekend and although my house is a bit of a mess, I feel like I've got lots of little projects bubbling away that are keeping me excited. Lots to share and some to keep secret for a little while longer. Eeeeep!

So I cast off my latest knit, Tikki's latest test pattern, Griffin. It is cute! A little sleeveless vest with a hood and a kangaroo pocket. Miss Pepper is busting to carry a baby chicken around in that pocket. Maybe I'll have to line it.

I'll show you some more pics once I've blocked it.
I've raveled it here.

Nextly (?), I wrote a post for Just B about home and my reflections about going away for six months and then coming home. You can read it over here if you like.

One of our farmer boys, Pierre, just returned from a month in France with his family. When he got back he bought each of us a knife. How gorgeous is that! I've never had my own knife before.

I posted a photo of them on instagram yesterday and people left me the most wonderful comments. It seems so many people have an Opinel and an Opinel story in their lives. Do you?

I had to answer an interview question the other day about children who grow up on farms. I've been looking at my three with a bit more interest and wonder since then. 

I got a copy of Ro's new book in the mail the other day and he got the beanie he's been asking for for the last few months. Its a really gorgeous book. Beautifully photographed and designed filled with heaps of interesting info too. I'm certain our copy will become very well thumbed, very often referred to, very quickly.

The WholeLarderLove beanie is raveled here.

A lovely blog reader wrote to me a few months ago asking my permission to paint Miss Pepper. I said yes and she did, and then this week I received a copy of her painting in the mail.

Wow Coral!! Its amazing. And thanks so much for the copy.

The original photo is here if you want to compare.

Even though its icy outside, the garden and the foods we've stored, are showing us that the season's are changing. So we're cleaning out our stores and our garden beds to make room for what comes next.

We've been eating just starting to sprout potatoes, spinach, broccoli, rocket and leafy greens. And planting onions and peas and beans and tomatoes and herbs so far.

I'm starting to get excited about this exhibitions of local Daylesford Instgrammers. Its on from the 20th October until the 20th November at St Mel's cyclery and cafe. I so hope you can come. I think there will even be an opening soiree. I'll let you know.

And finally, I'm off to my first craft camp tonight. I'm super excited and a bit stressed about leaving farmer Bren with the farm and the girls and all their activities too. And what to take?? Oh my goodness, what to take?

So that's me, this Friday afternoon.
How are things with you?
Have you got exciting plans for the weekend?
Did you click on any of my many links?
Are you reading a good book?

Ciao Ciao. xx

The Sunshine dress.

We have no idea when this yellow fabric was made, nor where it came from. But we do know that for the past 20 years it has hung as curtains in an apartment in Melbourne city and for the past four years that apartment has belonged to my sister Emily.

Until two weeks ago when the curtains came down and we inherited them.

I thought we might use them on our bare bedroom windows but the farmer boy said they wouldn't fit. So they've sat in a heap in the corner of our room ever since. And I've worried about what to do with them. And I didn't let the photographer into our bedroom on her shoot because they embarrassed me. But still they sat in their heap.

And finally this morning I was all geared up to take them to the community op shop, when Miss Pepper decided she needed a yellow, sunshiney dress. I guess it makes sense with all the spring-time wattles and daffodils about.

So I tore a bit off. And I cut out the pieces. And I sewed it all back together again. So very Sound of Music don't you think? Head scarves next?

I know the back needs a press and that she does look a bit brides-maidy, but we are thinking a pocket or two will make all the difference. She wants to choose the fabric.

She lights up my life that one.

And I've only got about ten metres of yellow fabric left in the pile.

Any ideas?

Happy, sunny days peeps. 

Happy making.

xx

Spring-time surprise.

And you know what? In the end I don't think we did anything on my yesterday's weekend list.

In the end we had an unexpected guest.

Spring came.

Instead we spent the day picking daffodils, weeding and making space in the garden beds.

Collecting eggs and wood. Making a bonfire and jacket potatoes and witches stew.

 LOVING the warmth of the sun on our backs.

And making plans for new garden beds. Our poly tunnels were washed down the creek in the flood last year but we still have some hoops so we're thinking about domes.

And you know what the best thing about early springtime is? It gets cool and dark early, so there's still time for baking and a bit of making.

We're having rocket pesto pasta and lemon tart for dinner. YUM!

PLEASE stay spring. We ❤ you!

How about you?
What are you having for dinner?
Have you had a lovely weekend?
Did you have any surprise guests?
Have you got any fun plans for the week to come?
I hope yours is wonderful and maybe a little surprising too.

Bye! x

Handmade homegrown weekend.

I have big plans for this weekend. It may be crappy outside, but its warm and cozy inside. Perfect for what I have in mind.

I plan to spend some time at the Daylesford Craft Experience this afternoon, chatting about crochet and maybe hooking up a square or four.

I plan to rush out between rain showers to collect greens from the garden to cook up into frittatas and soup and salads and maybe some green garden bread.

I still have half a crate of lemons to bake and preserve.

Indi has found a lemon cardamon cupcake recipe she is desperate to try.

I'd love to get a chance to tidy up and declutter a bit. The inside world seems so much more exciting and inspiring when it is clean and fresh don't you think?

If the sun comes out at all it would be great to get some summer seeds planted and if not I'm sure there's masses of garden inspiration between the pages of our new Elliot Coleman book.

See that little pink ball of wool on the right? That's all the wool I have to finish my test knit. So I'll be knitting and stressing and hoping that it will go the distance.

 We'll be baking for sure. This sour dough was just a bit too sour for my liking.

Hopefully I'll finish the sewing I started the other day.

And I'll be hanging with my crew. Doing the farm chores. Watching a DVD or two. Keeping the fires HOT. And trying to prepare for a few exciting projects we have going on next week.

So how about you?
Are your skies blue?
Will you be cooking and knitting and gardening too?

Or are your skies grey?
And inside you'll play?
Until the wind blows those pesky grey rain clouds away.

(To be read in your best poetry voice of course.)

Bye!
xx

Everything but the list.

I'm procrastinating. 

Its raining and blowing a gale outside, so we've come in to get some inside jobs done. 

I have articles to write, questions to answer, laundry to hang out, meals to cook, a house to clean, photos to choose, lemons to process, a pattern to write, a test to knit and some emails to return. But instead I am doing the tech version of what my Dad calls 'sharpening pencils'. I am writing this blog.

If I had to write this blog I probably wouldn't. But I don't, so I'm completely distracted by my photos from the egg run this morning. By the realisation that my photos are much better in crappy, grey weather. By the wish that my baby would agree to let me home school her next year. By dreams of learning photoshop. And by anything else that is not on my list to be done today.

Its funny isn't it that something you love to do can become something you procrastinate about as soon as it gets onto the to-do list. That it somehow changes it. That have to means don't want to.

Most of it will get done in the end I'm sure. Closer to the dead line.

I found this on pinterest (the greatest procrastination tool of all) this morning. It's true, yeah?

Oh and look at that, its lunch time. I'd better go and feed the fire to warm up the soup and put some toast on. Maybe I'll tick some stuff off after we eat. But then maybe it'll be time to pick up the girls. Maybe.

Do you do this too?
Are you doing it now?
Should you be doing something else instead of reading my blog?
Eeeeeeeeeep!!

Bye now. x

Like old times.

For the whole of this week farmer Liam is away at chook school in Queensland and farmer Pierre is still in France with his family and me and my farmer boy are here running the show.

It's been reminding me a lot of life twelve years ago when we first moved here. Except back then we only had one little girly and Daylesford Organics was more about self sufficiency than the business of feeding lots of people.

Back then we did everything ourselves and we took little Indigo along with us everywhere we went. The three of us worked together all day every day. We were in our work clothes and boots waaaaaaay more than our town clothes. We worked on and lived and discussed and planned this farm. It was all there was.

But then over the past few years as one girl became three and the business grew and grew, I have left most of the hard yakka stuff to the farmer boys while I've done the girls and the house. It's worked well for us. It's mostly felt well balanced.

But this week with the farmer boys away, I've been farmer Kate again. We've been feeding out, collecting the eggs, moving the chook houses and fences, running the egg machine, organising, invoicing and packing the orders, looking after the chicks, working in the garden and solving all the problems that arise during a normal farm day.

And then we've come in and cooked and cleaned and fed and looked after.

There's so much dirt under my finger nails and I have cuts and bruises up and down my arms and legs. But its kinda nice to be all achy and tired at the end of the day from physical work. I've missed it. I love it. Especially in the glorious springtime sunshine. And especially with my gorgeous farmer boy.

I'm really remembering what we saw when we moved here. I think I know what I want to be when I grow up...or when Miss Pepper goes to school next year anyway. Its been great.

How are you going?
Are you having a wonderful week?
Are you getting outside?
Are you who you want to be when you grow up?

See ya!

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!