wildflowerdancing

Winter genes

2011-06-21T21:40:00.005+10:00

Well well. It seems I'm being a bit of a fan of winter hibernation.

Funnily enough, I do this every year, and every year it takes me by surprise... Gradually, slowly, I'm coming to accept that in winter, I don't like going out. Others like gathering for parties, going to the local lantern parade, and things like that, but really, all I want to do is sit at home, staring into the flames of our warming fire, and feed it logs when it needs them. Perhaps a little knitting in there, to change it up a bit too.

My excuse? I'm sure it all comes down to genes. Both my parents are Russian, and I'm certain that my genes are telling me that there's 11 foot of snow out there, and going out is a serious mistake!! Add to that the memory of being quite ill the last wintertime, and I really don't mind myself staying home, right where I want to be.

Given that I feel tantrums of the ugly, flailing, snot crying sort building inside me when I go against my strong inner urges like this one, it's really in everyone's best interests that I stay right here!

Craters and Tarps

2011-04-17T16:17:00.011+10:00

Hello. This report is being filed from the pit of renovation hell. Last Monday we had part of our roof removed, it being old, full of holes and cracks, with rat condominiums riddled through it. Yuk! From Monday night onwards it RAINED. And rained some more. Then, just when we thought it was over, it did it all over again. There are tarps up over the roof, and they are actually doing a better job of keeping the rain out than the roof was doing, so that's one upside. Hopefully roof replacement will happen in the next 2 days before rain is forecast again! There is also a large hole under our house. This is the Hole. Of. Which. We. Do. Not. Speak. It is the hole that was dug by Himself instead of taking the family camping over the summer holidays. It is the hole that he has paid people to dig since January. It is now mid-April, and the hole has progressed through a one-man phase, to a 2 blokes with shovels affair, through the, "We'd better hire a digger to get this done quicker" idea, into the oh-shit-oh-shit my wife's getting snarky downward spiral and into the Ok, Now We Need a Builder moneysink. The hole was originally in aid of just leveling the ground under the house, between the stumps, to make headroom so that when we wanted to stow junk under there, there was less swearing about hitting our heads on the crossbeams. So a large amount of dirt removal later, he had his hole. Then, our part of the world got much rain. Biblical amounts of rain - we didn't flood; we're on a hill, so technically can't - but the subsoil washed out from UNDERNEATH the stumps. The foundations of half our house were hanging in mid-air! This is what precipitated (!pun nowhere near intended!) the need for building props, a detailed plan for a retaining wall, and a whacking great slab to be poured under there. Oh, and did i forget to mention that the house stumps were then all deemed in need of replacing? Oh Yes! All of them! So that got done, too. Many gazillions of $$$$ later, we are in proud possession of a house that only has half a roof, and a crater under it. That we were possibly thinking of selling sometime soon. If I wasn't so sure that nothing else could render this more spectacular, I'd be crying...!

Crafting world unite...show some love for Japan.

2011-03-22T11:53:00.003+11:00

Follow this link for a roundup of many creative and useful ways to help out our Japanes neighbours. And flood survivors in Australia, and the Christchurch earthquake survivors too!

Share the love!

Inspiration Monday

2011-03-21T21:54:00.010+11:00

Oh boy, I've been pootling round the internets like there's no tomorrow... nothing like procrastinating on a Very Long To Do List to ramp up the browsing!!

But the upside is that I have some great things to share:

I can feel some sewing coming on, but this may just get in the way!

A nice list of fonts, both of the free and not so free kind here.

And oh! For the love of Ikea...and what we can do with it.

Also, even though it is hard to be far away and only be able to throw money at a problem to show you care...watch this. Then give. If you want.

Hmm....'Aunty'...I like it!

2011-03-21T18:04:00.002+11:00

Oo er. I'm an Aunty!

Congratulations to my brother and his wife on their terribly cute little girl, born on Wed 16th March. May she live long and prosper...

We all know Breast is Best!

2011-03-03T21:21:00.002+11:00

Oh, don't we all love a bit of scare-mongering? Especially when it's both scandalising and titillating at the same time.

I am still hyperventilating at the supposedly unbiased reporting in this little article, which manages to seem both very rational, calm and fact-stating at the same time as being scandal-spreading and furore-stoking.

My problems with the article - and the related issues - are many, but the largest are these:

Breastmilk is designed to be drunk and ingested by humans. Baby humans, it's true, but since when does big people drinking breastmilk suddenly gross us out more than big people drinking something that comes out of the underside of a cow and is meant for baby cows?
If the article is read carefully, it can be deduced that the breastmilk was pasteruised before it was used, and was screened in accordance with blood donor screening tests before that. This gives it a pretty good chance that it won't have anything to 'pass on' as has been so subtly suggested.
Cow milk is no dirtier or cleaner. In fact, I have friends who will not now drink cow's milk, having grown up on dairy farms and having experienced for themselves how cows - and their milk - are treated.
Just because two puritanical, purse-lipped disapprovers complained, an interesting product that managed to be not only a dessert, but also a political statement, lifestyle statement (feminism, animal rights, the technologising of food, our squeamishness about our place in the animal kingdom - take your pick) and general shiner-of-light onto the dark corners of our ideas about ourselves has been taken off the market to be investigated.

I just hope that none of the disapproving nanny-state supporters have realised that any publicity is good publicity, and that all that they are achieving here is giving the icecreamists a goodly dose of airtime. (That's good for nipples too, you know.)

And now some knitting...

2011-02-28T22:17:00.006+11:00

Seeing as we're having such a cold end to summer (what summer?!) here, I thought some knitting content would be appropriate:

I knitted this lovely little vest for Poppy's Class 1 teacher who left at the end of last year to have a baby, due any time now. It's the Pebble vest, from the free pattern at the Thrifty Knitter.

It was such a lovely little vest to knit up; I admit I got discouraged partway through, because I thought that it was taking a long time, but then I realised that as the back and front are knitted up at the same time, it really wasn't that long at all until I was dividing for the shoulders, and shaping the necklines. I have knitted two of these so far, and plan to knit as many as the mamas of new babies I know will allow me to give them - they are just lovely and too, too cute on small fry!!

I'm told they are also super-practical, because they totally unbutton to lie flat, so there's no wrestling them over a baby's head to get them on. And let's face it: the less wrestling one has to do of babies, the better.

Ramekins, a new obsession

2011-02-27T20:42:00.006+11:00

Sunday nights are Dessert Night at our house. We instituted a weekly evening for this as I was getting sick of being asked, "Can we have dessert tonight?!" EVERY night, and also because if I wasn't asked, I tended to forget for weeks on end to actually make dessert...

So! Dessert night was the solution, and one that all of us look forward to. Even those of us who have to make the said dessert every week. To combat the onset of the same-old, same-olds I have acquired some oh-so-wonderful pottery to keep me interested: Martin Boyd ramekins!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE these! They come in such beautiful colours, and are different on the inside from the outside, and all of us have our favourite combinations.

I first came upon these lovelies via Loobylou, who used them for shepherd's pie. Then I spent two years (yes! two years!) stalking them on ebay... and procrastinating about buying myself some. THEN, I had a feeling my grandmother would give me some money for this Christmas just past, so I went ahead and bought some. The ones I got even had 'rare side plates' that are unsigned, but have the same distinctive yummy colours of the ramekins. Yay!

Now we use them (carefully!) for a few things, not least of which is apple crumble, my dessert night fallback position. Sometimes I get them out just to play with the pretty colours...

Inspiration Monday

2011-02-21T20:24:00.004+11:00

Ah, achievement! Posting on the day I've aimed for. Small victories; small victories. So, to my current inspirations:

This is going on my wishlist...for one day, maybe.

Some of these toothbrushes will go a long way to easing my landfill-creation related guilt.

...and one of these for a bit of Pride and Prejudice every day.

Simple Solutions...

2011-02-17T22:32:00.003+11:00

Sometimes a solution to a problem is so simple that you feel a bit silly after you've worked it out.

I figured out the other day why our current collection of very yummy cheeses is sitting in the fridge uneaten. I diagnosed a lack of decent crackers to eat it with, remedied the situation, and now I have yummy snacks of cheese & crackers at the ready whenever the mood strikes!
Cheese and crackers FTW!

Inspiration Monday

2011-02-07T09:45:00.003+11:00

Ok, so I can have 2 *inspiration monday* posts in a week. Can't I?

Stumbling around the internet is an interesting thing. I find myself going in circles, reading the same blogs every day, and I could be in danger of thinking that the internet is made up of yummy food blogs, crafting mamas and crazy knitters with database building skilz. (Hello, Ravelry!)
So I decided to see what else was out there.

These women have chutzpah in spades. And some good advice, too!
Dmitry Orlov, the man who predicted the GFC
and
This, for my friends who keep bees.

Inspiration Monday....I guess I got distracted!

2011-02-03T18:50:00.007+11:00

Good intentions to play along on Inspiration Mondays, but...

Poppy started back to school this week, and Leo had some kinder starting preparatory meetings to get through, so we did that at the start of the week, then the weather began to ask politely for our attention.

Well, to distract myself from worrying about family who are now out of mobile phone battery power, and who I can't bother every so often for updates on their safety in the face of this, I think some inspiring links might be in order.

Getting great mileage from the constant updates on twitter here.

Thinking of using this great idea for taking the perfectionism out of journaling.

Amazing aerial shots of the world here, via Walk Slowly, Live Wildly.

And I'm grateful to have found these errata before setting out to cut into some fabric!

Hopefully we can make contact with family over the next few days, and I'll actually have inspiration on monday next week... or not. It all depends.

Liking...

2010-11-26T13:22:00.003+11:00

I'm especially liking the following at the moment:

these biscuits

this site

these ideas

these ornaments

just one of these

What treasures have you found?

Daddy Lost His Head

2010-10-26T15:12:00.006+11:00

Behold a children's book I borrowed for my kids at the library: 'Daddy Lost His Head' by Quentin Blake and Andre Bouchard.

I feel a bit strange about it, because to start with I really really enjoyed it, and laughed myself silly at the Daddy in the book, who'd left his brain at work because he needed it for a really big Ultrasupertopimportant project. The hijinks his family get up to when Daddy is effectively not there are, predictably enough with Quentin Blake's terriffic illustrations, quirky and very very funny.

But then after a few days, and a few re-reads, I began to feel uncomfortable in my skin when I thought of or read the book to my kids.

And now I think that there are some problems with it, and not small ones, either.

The Daddy in the book is behaves in a totally absent and preoccupied manner because he either brings work home with him, or cannot seperate his work and home lives. He is distracted and literally headless, so lacks presence completely when relating to his family.

The Mummy in the book firstly enjoys him not having a brain, as she can direct him to do anything she wants...the cooking, cleaning and other housework all feature. Then she gets Daddy to dance with her, which he does with a little too much zeal. So, Mummy also has an absent partner, who unthinkingly does things that should please her, but leave her essentially feeling unfulfilled. The children make a papier mache head for their Daddy to wear, and get up to all sorts of hijinks with him, including running up huge credit card debts in a toy department. Buying affection, anyone?

My discomfort stems from wondering why Daddy gets excused from looking to his relationships with his partner and children when something big at work is taking up his time, and why it is left up to women and children to look after the emotional terrain while the man is thus absent. Not to mention looking after his body while his head is absent, too! Cooking, cleaning and ironing notwithstanding.

Feminism is about more than how we divide the housework, money earning and childcare. How we split the emotional load-bearing is also an issue. If one parent's attention is elsewhere for some reason, then surely a balanced acknowledgement and discussion of all that this entails is in order? And possibly some commitment to creating time to spend with family members to redress the balance...

The fact that there is a book about this psychological absence normalises this for children, and conditions them to accept absent parents, fathers in particular. I find it particularly distressing that the mother in the book puts up with/makes do with an absent partner. I guess the scope of a children's book is too brief to go into whether this is an explicit agreement that they have or not; why do I get the feeling that this would definitely not be the case?

And here we are again...

2010-10-25T14:35:00.004+11:00

How does one start posting again after such a long break?

With a deep breath, a tiny thought of apology for not being a regular blogger, and then hopefully a nice, relaxed pace.

So, it feels like there's nothing new to report, but surely something has happened since the last post!

Poppy is 7, and Leo is 4 - and I know that I am not alone in being sensitive to the fact that children really do highlight the passage of time. It feels like just yesterday that it was impossible to have a shower without someone needing something, but now I just shout to the house in general that I'm going for a shower, and they look after themselves. Amazing.

Generally, we're living well and playing well; Leo is over his horrendous eczema, and though he's developed asthma now, it somehow seems less tortuous than the itches. He's going to kinder next year, to be a big boy! Poppy is in Class 1 at the local Steiner (Waldorf) school, and is enjoying it immensely. She is still very into drawing, and says she will be an artist when she grows up. She has also just learned the freedom and speed that come with learning to ride a bike - there's no stopping her now...

...and as for Ian and I, we're good. Very good. There's something about making it past 10 years with a person that is kind of relaxing. We're known quantities now, though I am aware that you can't ever know a person totally! Comforting. That's the word I'm after.

Here's a pic of us all, taken by my lovely sister-in-law, Ulya. She's a great photographer:

New Love

2008-05-09T11:13:00.006+10:00

Sometimes I read something that is just so right, so much a fit with the nebulous thoughts about life, politics, and hope in the face of the unravelling state of the world that my breath catches and I have to remind myself to breathe whilst revelling in the wonder of someone articulating just exactly what I've had in my mind.

And the rejoicing that someone, and an author no less, has thought these things, and thinks that it's worth putting them out there. That a voice is worth having, that no matter how small that voice seems, it is worth hearing. Especially when the things written have excited 'mainstream' accusations of treason and un-patriotic sentiment in the author's home country.

Who has excited me to this point of adulation and bluster? My newfound love, Barbara Kingsolver (author of The Poisonwood Bible) and a collection of her writings, Small Wonder: Essays.

Published in 2002, it contains some considered responses to the events of September 11, 2001. These are notable for their poetic calls for a common sense and heart-centered reaction to the attacks on America. But the collection is so much more than just that. Barbara, (I just can't bring myself to come over all undergrad and call her Kingsolver) by including a selection of essays that covers life's topics in all their breadth, puts the war in Iraq into an everyday context; reminding us that while lives are expended in a faraway land in the name of a vengeful justice, we still grow our children up, wash dishes, worry about species extinction and genetic engineering, work out our relationships with our mothers, and embarrass ourselves occasionally. She calls us to remember that the 'news' of the day on the box or in the newspaper may not be our news of the day, or what we want to know about what happened today.

In a world where we're expected to be up-to-the-minute informed about the latest whatever, Barbara Kingsolver stands up and asks, "Says WHO?" She advocates for a thoughtful approach to what you let into your mind and life, and ask everything to prove it's usefulness to you. This is not to say that she shies away from the difficult topics. The very opposite is true: careful reading and research go into her essays, and, one gets the impression, into her life. I was inspired by her courage to write words like these:

Political urgencies come and go, but it's a fair enough vocation to strike one match after another against the dark isolation, when spectacular arrogance rules the day and tries to force hope into hiding. It seems to me that there is still so much to say that I had better raise up a yell across the fence. I have stories of things I believe in: a persistent river, a forest on the edge of night, the religion inside a seed, the startle of wingbeats when a spark of red life flies against all reason out of the darkness...I'd like to speak of small wonders, and the possibility of taking heart.

Indeed.

bits and pieces

2008-05-04T22:04:00.003+10:00

A weekend filled with a miscellany of activities and observations...

I'm cross at the blackbirds. They have rooted out all but 2 sprouting sugar snap peas, and played havoc with the broad beans in the vegie patch
Dearest ran in the Great Puffing Billy Train Race. It's a 13.6km run from Belgrave to Emerald, mostly alongside the track that Puffing Billy, our local steam train runs on. He managed to beat the second train of the morning, called the 'girls train' (grrr...?) because it's the one the women have to try to beat to win the race. As he didn't beat that one last year, very pleased with himself he was too. And now is sore, tired and on the couch with a Scotch.
Re-learning that spending a day lying on the couch with a good book is actually a feasible thing to do on a weekend.
Delighting in playing games with my kids. You know, the simple ones: catching/rolling/throwing a ball. Puzzles. Bikes. Reading a little story.
Excitement at plans to turn half of our driveway into a vegie garden!

and

Beginning birthday planning for Poppy. Five feels so BIG!

Q: When is your dog not your dog?

2008-04-09T21:48:00.008+10:00

A: When you've bought a microchip instead.

Hello.

I'm afraid that our modern life has led me to begin sounding like a bad first-year philosophy tutorial, but: we recently had to fill out a change of ownership form for our dog. Our dog that we have owned since he was legally saleable. He came fully microchipped, you see, and we were given all the papers, food, certificates etc etc etc ad nauseum that one could want to collect with a 9 week old puppy.

Fast forward a year, and...we decided to register him with the National Pet Register, just to ensure that if he did wander, he would have every chance of getting delivered back to us. That was when we made The Discovery: our doggie's microchip number is different to the one on his paperwork. The vet confirmed which chip number was right, by scanning the pooch. Then came the rigmarole of calling the National Pet Register to correct the problem.

Which can only be corrected by filling out a change of ownership form.

Am I the only one who thinks this is seriously out of kilter? I bought a dog, not a microchip. I was against the chip anyway - unnatural, controlling, etc etc - but went along with it because of various regulations and flat out 'no, you may not buy this puppy without a microchip' -type statements. And now I find that I really did buy a microchip, and that the outer casing of furry dogginess and slobbery, enthusiastic goodness doesn't actually rate a mention in this whole debate.

*Sigh*

What a strange world.

Lucky it's got things like dogs in it.

Savings

2008-04-07T15:08:00.009+10:00

Leo single-handedly harvested our dried beans we'd saved for seed the other evening. With intent concentration in every line of his little body (oh those capable little baby boy fingers!), he tried out different ways of opening the pods, plucking beans and dropping them into his bowl. Then we had belly laughs when we blew away the chaff.

From. Our. Own. Patch.

2008-04-07T14:41:00.005+10:00

We are so excited!

We have harvested the very first potatoes that we grew our very own selves!!

They are a variety called pink fir apples, and are best when boiled or steamed. Yummy, knobbly, slightly pink, and best of all: the kids ate loads and asked for more!

We are grateful to have a harvest at all. At first, it seemed that our spuds were not going to work out. We tried growing them in tyres, starting out with one soil-filled tyre, and adding more tyres full of soil/mulch as the plants grew, as suggested in various permaculture/organic gardening books we know and love...but they didn't work so well. The potato plants died off before they could flower, and seemed to rot, stem and all. I did some web research to see if we were having our very own Irish Potato Famine, but no, something went inexplicably wrong with our spuds.

So, we decided to just dismantle the tyre towers and grub through to see whether there was anything in there. And lo! We found some spuds! There wasn't the bumper crop that the tyre-growing potato contingent had spruiked, but there was a modest bucketful. Enough to get us and the kids excited, anyway.

Tangling, with yarn.

2008-04-07T14:31:00.004+10:00

Why does wool do that?!

Wind it into a lovely, big, hand-dyed, unbroken hank, tie it in three places, leave it alone in a bag for 2 years...

...and spend 3 evenings, with several hours on a weekend included, untangling and weighing this:

I suspect that the wool has been talking to the electrical cables that tangle themselves behind the computer when we're not looking.

Heat-enforced end to blogging break...

2008-03-17T22:07:00.004+11:00

Hi. I just had to come out of blogging seclusion to say:

Where is Autumn? It is way too hot for mid-March. We got up to 39.7 degrees (celcius) here today. That's just crazy-talk. Our garden is dying a slow death. When people ask what is in the veggie patch, I say, "Crisps."

Also, did I mention that there has been no rain? We are on tank water only in our area, so can water our garden at whim, but: last week our tank ran dry. It was a really primally scary thing to run out of water. Yes, we called a tanker and had some water delivered, but still. We. Ran. Out. Of. Water. The long-threatened event that is in the back of our collective minds had a preview at our house! And let me tell you it was not fun. Not in the middle of a heat wave, anyway.

We're meant to be heading for more moderate temperatures in the next few days. Wish us luck.

Crafting roundup

2007-09-29T21:16:00.000+10:00

Despite all appearances of inactivity, there has been a slow trickle of crafting over here in the last few months...

Winter knitting, with first a hat for Poppy, who chose the wool herself. A little persuading out of a very fluorescent shade of pink took place, I must confess. I'm not confident that I could knit whilst trying not to catch sight of bright salmon pink wool. Fuschia was much more bearable:

Then a pair of wristwarmers for me. These had the virtue of being finished in time for winter wearing, and also featured my first attempts at cabling! I was very pleased to actually finish a project for myself in the actual season I began it in...and the best thing about these? The wool was such a bargain at our lovely local op shop. And I still have 3 balls of it left!

Then I was at a friend's house for a fortnightly craft group and made this:

Everyone was a little nonplussed. Myself included - I'd meant to try making these a long time ago, after seeing them here. I think it's been about 2 years since I first learnt of them, and how to make them, and now I discover that they are called Penny wheels or yo-yos, and also that they are springing up all over the East coast and North of Australia. Who knew?

Not quite beach weather

2007-09-03T21:01:00.000+10:00

Today we visited my cousin's grandmother, known to us as Baba Luba. She lives in a place called Black Rock, in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne, which turned out to be only about 45 minutes by car from our house.

Poppy was very excited to learn that Baba Luba lived very near the beach. Delighted, she proclaimed that she was going to bring her bathers...but we ended up having to wear this kind of thing instead:

Such is Spring in our part of the world.

Much fun was had at the beach, though. We found shells, glass worn smooth on the edges by the waves, seaweed to take home to feed the garden with, and Poppy's new favourite thing: rockpools!

All in all, a successful foray into beach territory, but a little more warmth, a little less wind (and rain on the way home) and a little more opportunity for actually getting wet, with actual seawater, is being looked forward to with great anticipation at our house.

Note: being responsible citizens and all, we did not souvenir seaweed from the beach for feeding the garden. We did not brandish great bunches of it whilst walking, and festoon a certain neice's pram with the stuff on the way back from the beach. I did not stuff it into a garbage bag to take home and then almost lose the lot to the dog before I got to soaking the salt out of it. That would be plain rude, and, I'm led to believe, illegal. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Sprung!

2007-08-29T22:47:00.000+10:00

Hi there.

So we were minding our own business, being chilly, wiping winter lurgy drips from our noses, complaining about the weather and how dark it was in the morning/evening/anytime, envying overseas friends who are in the throes of summer; also known as wishing our lives away.

Then one day, it wasn't. Chilly, that is. I actually had to take off the scarf that I think was starting to somehow become part of my neck, and lo! We looked out the window, to find that Spring had Sprung!

The evidence is everywhere: The blossom is out next to the woodpile.

The broad beans in our vegie patch have suddenly started to grow before our eyes, and turn to follow the sun each day.

The bare-rooted strawberries have only been in the ground 4 days, and yet! Leaves!

They even beat the raspberries that we put in a week ago:

We're hoping the kale is too small to attract the notice of possums, though some snails and slugs have already succumbed to a beery trap:

All this greenness and new shoot-ness has inspired MrWildflower to use his holidays to create another vegie patch. Just because. (and also, I am not busy enough while he's at work. I need another thing that needs looking after. I do, I tell you. Be quiet, of course I'm grateful.)

Aerial view of said vegie patch construction. Particulars: no-dig, terraced as we're on a hill, whacking great stump in the middle for...trellis attachment? seating? sacrifices to the vegie gods? who knows! Note also that all paths planned for ease of working in the vegie patch have been forgotten in the excitement of construction. Much scratching of heads ensued.

The dog is now worn out from all the attention and outdoor plays the good weather has afforded him.

...and then there were two

2007-08-17T18:59:00.000+10:00

...pets, that is.

First in our home was Gilbert Lightfoot, a scrawny stray who fell over my back fence when I lived in the inner city, and didn't have the strength to leap back out again.

I think he might possibly have some other reason for not being able to jump over a fence now. That is 7 kilos of premium cat you are looking at there.

Second is our recently acquired pup, Sharik. Chaos on four legs, but so cute! And so willing to please for any form of cheese, it's almost unbearable.

Gratuitous cute cat shot to close:

Uh...hi!

2007-08-06T22:35:00.000+10:00

Hello. It seems that I've been on a rather extended blog break.

Not wanting to bore anyone with details, May and June were a morass of birthdays and winter setting in, a visit from my mother-in-law, debate about where best to site the vegie patch in Spring, fending off winter lurgies, and acquiring a puppy.

yes, a puppy. Stay tuned for photos. Technology is not my friend tonight.

And just to keep you amused while you wait for pictures of the unbearable cuteness, some books that have been read around here lately:

*The Ubiquitious: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All in the household have now read it, all are now officially in mourning for the series' end. Very satisfying, and far pacier and tighter than the last few in the series, imo. Daughter #1, 4yrs old, is totally confused about what a Snape is. She had a nightmare about it last night.
*The PoMo yet readable (oh ack, can't believe I said that!) : The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. I know, I know. I'm so behind the times. This is the Eastern Regional library we're talking about. We take our time out here. Interesting, got me in, lots to recommend it, but still a book about a book club. Lovely characterisations.
*The Unmentionable addiction: like hot chocolate with marshmallows, sticky sweet and ultimately drinkable, The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey. Love me an author called Mercedes. It's gotta be a pen name. Me? Trying to replace books about a boy wizard? Is denial a river in Egypt? Forgettable fluff, great when you've got a cold and a baby who has a cold and a 4 year old with a cold. Did I mention we had colds?

And that's it for August so far.

that's a lot of tree...

2007-05-16T20:05:00.000+10:00

...in our backyard.

We recently found out that a venerable old gum tree, growing right next to the house, was full of dry rot. Before we knew what was happening, it was time to say goodbye. Then, there was this:

And a lot more sun.

The kookaburras had a feast of witchetty grubs and then hung around the garden like beady-eyed sentinels, hoping for more. We climbed around and over the logs, marvelling at the spongy soft bits threaded right through, then chopped most of them for the upcoming winter's firewood. And we saved some larger ones for cameo roles in the mystery children's playspace we're planning soon.

the beginning

2007-03-18T11:11:00.000+11:00

Poppy started 'little kinder' at the local Steiner school this year.

She is only going to two sessions a week, but it feels like the beginning of a big big thing. The start of all of those years of school, the terms, the holidays, friendships, animosities, learning, joy, heartache. And at the end of it all, she'll be grown. It is going to be quick! I want to hold it in my hands, feel the time trickle through - not let it happen without noticing.

First day went off without a hitch - I left within 20 minutes of arriving, she was fine! I shed a quick tear in the carpark, and at playgroup when I got there with Leo. Arrived to pick her up a little early, so waited in the car...good mum, not too eager. And went in: she was awash, crying on her teacher's lap. Apparently they had finished early. And I was not the first mum in when the door opened. Suddenly she missed me very very much and thought I wasn't coming.

So, a penance applies: I am to arrive 15 minutes early every time, and listen to the story in circle time, so that she knows I'm there. I'm sure that this will wear off. And I happen to like a story as much as anyone.

Anyway, I made her a bag to take, as prescribed: drawstring, big enough for a change of clothes, hat, coat, slippers. And assorted friends who are under strict instructions to stay in the bag (blue bunny; that means you!).

found!

2007-03-12T15:55:00.000+11:00

Blue bunny has been found!! (oh joy, oh relief. Bedtime will be so much easier.)

After a day of retracing our steps, ringing offices, searching, lecturing.
Found: on the floor, under the doona, between it and the mattress...

...he is under strict instructions not to go adventuring again.

detectoring

2007-03-07T02:48:00.000+11:00

Tomorrow we are going to play at being detectives.

Poppy's beloved Blue Bunny has gone adventuring, and we must find said bunny before another bedtime of tears. (3 hours of tears...)
Blue Bunny is in danger of garnering a reputation for being a free spirit, not to be tied down, wary of the commitment involved in being a Blue Bunny of distinction, especially when that distinction entails necessary confinement to the grasp and bed of a 3 year old.

Blue Bunny has made it back by post once already...
Hopefully Blue Bunny is just hiding, laughing at us running about with torches, looking in cars, under beds. Hopefully we haven't left Blue Bunny somewhere in our travels. Please, no.

FF#2

2007-02-08T19:16:00.000+11:00

Too hot for anything but this:

And this:

February Funk #1

2007-02-07T21:03:00.000+11:00

Sitting, waiting while wildpapa went on a reconnaisance to find friends, who were sitting and looking at this:

I find that even though it is Summer here, it still takes me a lot of effort to leave the house and go somewhere. Anywhere. So this time I've taken pictures so that I remember just how good it was, and how much fun was had by many certain someones in the water and sand. And all just 10 minutes away!

peg out

2007-02-04T15:11:00.000+11:00

Why is it that whenever a new member is added to a family no-one ever tells you to buy more pegs? It's just a small thing, but oh-so-significant when the nappies hit the line, not to mention the tiny clothes.

Our newest little person (Leo, 7 months) more than doubles the peg numbers needed, yet I persist in believing that because the clothes are so small, they don't really count in terms of clothes-line and laundry real-estate. How can this be? I have often remarked that the amount of washing has expanded exponentially, yet I do not expect peg numbers to have to increase. In fact, I resent running out of them, and go to outlandish lengths not to have to augment their numbers...but I may be a little strange about my washing.

As you can see, pegs are preferably wooden, and I use Wildpapa's patented diagonal hanging clothes method to conserve line space. And lovely colour arrangement doesn't hurt, either.

...for the rest of this month, I'm playing February Funk, as started by Soulemama. And perhaps I'll post a bit, too. We'll see.

art love

2007-01-31T20:47:00.000+11:00

What better way to start a blog than with some kid art?

An angel with yellow wings, a butterfly, a fly and a 'nippy ant'. At the seaside, with waves and a large shell. I love kids' artwork.

This old purple square has lived on our wall since we felt kind of rakish one weekend and went crazy with the sample pots from the local hardware shop. It has been there for about, oh, 9 or 10 months ( we like to take our time with decisions....and now we don't like the colour for this room anyway...) and suddenly we had the great idea of getting Poppy (our daughter, 3 1/2) to draw a picture on it. Instant art!

The photos can't do it justice - this room doesn't get enough natural light. We are sooo not painting this room purple; in winter it would just gloom at us. All our votes are cast for a light, warming, buttery yellow at present, but I can see this purple square staying with us for quite some time. Possibly even when we paint the rest of the walls yellow.