Busy....

Parenthood and paid work = busy  :-) I know there are a lot of people who partake in a this type of lifestyle and I can't help but want to ask how and why we have gotten to this point that we are existing like this.  Choosing and conditioning ourselves to this prescription of life ? It is a question that many ask themselves daily, I'm sure? Ah existential battles....

Since returning to work things have been up in the air and I am looking forward to establishing stability.
Currently our house is experiencing a bout of the Chicken Pox which has been relatively mild.  Little Evie is covered in spots and is so brave, trying her hardest not to scratch.  We have used Calamine Lotion topically when she experiences itchy times.  Eliza hasn't shown any symptoms as yet however it is likely that she will experience them in the week to come.  I've recently started the girls on a daily dose of Olive Leaf Extract with hopes this would boost their immunity during the impending Winter Season.  Last year was a shocker for viruses and cooties all 'round....  Here's to Health!!!!!  Clink!!! 

Marilyn, our Silkie x Frizzle girl hatched 2 chicks, 6/05/2011.  They are adorable and she is a nurturing, sweet mamma hen.  Here's hoping they are hens!! Pics soon :-) 

Our vegetable garden is beginning to produce also... Broccoli! Kale! Parsley! Cucumber! Woohoo!!!  I planted a heap of seedlings just before Easter however the chickens had a party while we were away and scratched the majority of them  out.  Hello scissors!!!  Chicken had their wings clipped and the garden remained in tact.  A couple of weeks later I discovered the herbs were being eaten to the ground...What a huge grub!!  That's what I thought, then one Saturday morning I caught 3 guinea pigs red toothed...munching!!!!!  Ah chickens, now guinea pigs!!!! I watched them and encouraged them to exit...Who knows how long they'd been feasting ???  I taught them.  I blocked their stealth entry ways.



Peace

xo

Pumpkins. Playtime. Projects.

There has been a lot going on in our household of late.  I have wanted to post more frequently and more consistently however I have either not made the time or made posting a priority.  This will change as there is much to share.

First of all, our pumpkins

These lovely plants popped up out of the scraps that we feed our chickens.  These are by far the most lush plants we've grown this summer.  We've put their good health down to the decomposing scraps in the yard that we feed the chickens.  Oh everything is a part of a cycle :-)  Everything else except the zucchinis seemed to just rot away. 

Since the rain has subsided the plants have produced copious female flowers.  Some have been pollinated nature's way whilst others have had some assistance from myself.  What a wonderful job!!! It's a beautiful feeling, being out in the brisk morning air assisting my pumpkins.  The flowers are gorgeous.  We have 5 fruit left blossoming on the vine and I have picked two ripe ones this weekend.

One of our beautiful pumpkins and our little friend Wilbur

We've been having plenty of playtime with  visitors which is just so refreshing.  I love having visitors.  I love that people want to visit and I love being able to work on my homemaking skills in the process.  I try my hardest to prepare something edible and tasty even- Aunty Tash and Pete joined us for dinner a couple of weekends ago.  That was a hoot of a night.  Our neighbours Stacey and Sienna came over last Saturday for a play.  This was an eventful afternoon as there waas an accident in our street.  Thank goodness it wasn't too serious.  It was a spectacle.  The street was lined with people peering from behind their fences catching a glimpse.  We speculated about what had just happened with our other neighbour, Rosemary.  In no time it was all cleaned up and our street returned to it's usual sleepy state.  Evie was invited to her school friend, Aida's house to play.  Aida and her family  live about 15 minutes away up the mountain.  What a beautiful location!! Dru and I held back our gasps of excitement and awe about their residence.  It was superb.  We have also enjoyed the company of Stacey and her lovely little men, Wren and Harmon here at our place.  Evie and Wren love playing dress ups.  Wren and Evie chose one another and their friendship is something so very pure.  One day in the Springtime of 2009 we were at Bunnings doing whatever it is we do there...???  Spend money :-) This time when visiting the playgound we met a little boy named Wren and I didn't get Stacey's name at this point.  Wren and Evie played and played together.  It was time to go and wells that was that.  Then in our daily movements about the local area we kept on crossing paths.  We would say 'Hi' and keep going about our business.  After the Eliza was born our old neighbour, now friend, Alison, who has 2 little men named Luka and Felix (Evie LOVES these fellas) invited us to join them local playgroup and who should be at Alison's place this day, Stacey, Wren and Harmon.  As they say, the rest is history....

 

Evie reaching for the sky

We've recently also taken a trip up the Sunshine Coast and visited Eumundi, Noosa and Coolum Beach.  It was a relaxing and refreshing day.  We love to take long drives and go exploring.  We had hoped that the markets would be on at Eumundi but we missed them by a day, Saturday not Sunday!!!  The girls just love the beach.  The girls and Dru took a dip at Coolum Beach.  Eliza did not shy away from the water at all.  She kept going back for more.  Evie spent her time in the water jumping over the breakers and digging in the sand.  It was a glorious day.

This photo says so much- I love it

There is a frenzy happening in this house at present.  Does this happen in everybody's household???  Sewing projects, gardening projects, lists, decluttering and spring cleaning. I am a woman possessed. Stay tuned...  

8th April 2011

Birthday gifts and artwork that I was greeted with on my birthday morning

Dru collected these flowers from several local neighbours gardens and arranged them

My birthday is the 8th April.  On this day, this year I turned 26.  My birthday morning was one of the most memorable days of my life so far and will remain one of the most memorable in my life to come. 

Dru proposed to me.  We were in our pyjamas with our girls close by.  I said 'Yes' and cried tears of joy and excitement. 

He gave me beautiful opal ring.  It fits perfectly and I love it so much.  The colour of the opal is the colour of the sky and the ocean mixed together.  It's so special :-)  I love this man, always. 

Silkie Success

Meet Marilyn

This lovely lady is a Silkie X Frizzle hen.  She is 6 months old and commenced laying last Monday.  She is especially pretty and so tiny compared to the other ladies in our coop. 

Meet Johnny

This strapping gentleman is our Silkie X Frizzle rooster.  He is 6 months old also and is the "Man of the Coop". 

Yes, we did get these two lovely birds at the same time and we bought them with hopes of them both being hens.  We'd been talking about adding to the flock for sometime when our neighbour told us about the cute little chicks at our local produce barn.  So off we went, to the produce barn with absolute intention of bringing home some new babies.  We chose these two as they were the largest and most ganged up on in their enclosures.  Upon coming home they bonded and they have barely ever left one another's side since.     As I said, we had hoped for 2 hens but it was somewhat exciting when Johnny started making strange noises which we suspected were the beginning of him becoming a 'man'.  We contemplated returning him to exchange for another but after talking to our neighbour and learning more about a rooster's role in a flock, we were in it for keeps.  He is such a lovely little fella, when he isn't crowing repetatively at 1p.m. ???  (I still don't understand what that is about)  I have learnt from these two that all chickens are not destructive and compulsive scratchers, digging holes in the yard and plants out of the garden :-) Quite frankly, thank goodness.  I have also learnt that just because they are small does not mean that they are easy to catch :-)  All I can say is that I would have loved to have been one of our neighbours watching us try to round them up on the occassions when Marilyn and Johnny have been less than co operative.     

We have hopes that this lovely couple will parent some chicks before the cold sets in.  Marilyn eggs are fertile and well I have been seeing their antics in the coop so I am sure motherhood is not far away for Marilyn. 

Like porcelin

Eliza dress

I found this pattern in an op shop in a little town about 400km north of here.  From memory I think it cost 50 cents.  It was love at first sight.  I loved the pleats.  I loved the rouched sleeves and well....  here it is.  I made this little number from a skirt that I no longer wear.  It's a gorgeous vintage gauze fabric.  I am unsure of the actual type of material but it reminds me of gauze so we'll just say, gauze type fabric!!!  This pattern has a variation of long sleeve which I will be trying also.  Winter is just around the corner!!! A girl can never have too many dresses. 

It's been a little while a coming, this dress.  I have been trying to find time to begin sewing again, which has been incredibly difficult as there is always something, should I say, sensible to do about the house, such as chores.  In recent times I have developed a routine which has been such a great move.  For some, this may be an obvious move but for me, I was of the belief that a routine was just too restrictive and suffocating. 
Routine = sewing time :-)  I like it a lot.  Yes, I will be hand sewing a hook and eye as the final closure for this frock!!!

P.s this is the first photo I have published.  It was a much easier venture than I had imagined :-) 

Inspired

So, I am more than aware that I am not the first woman to partake in blogging- there are plenty of females blogging around the world.  This week I have spent most of my time, in the evenings, reading blogs written by women.  I am inspired.  I am in awe and also mindboggled as to where these women find the time to blog and share.  I would like to say a huge, 'thank you' to these women for their sharing and the inspiration they provide.  Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by life in it's presentation and quite frankly, organisation is definitly not a strength I posess, it's difficult to comprehend the thought of being able to keep an account of the shinanigans that go on.  Once again,  thank you ladies. Xo     

So,how about this weather we've been having lately???

OOOh I am back.  It has taken a while, I know.  Currently the weather is cool and to tell you the truth I am incredibly excited about the weather in general.  I know that it can be perceived by some to be the most boring, painstakingly lame subject to talk about but in our house we love talking about the weather.  Since childhood I have loved the feeling I have upon waking, thinking about what I will be greeted with when I walk outside of the four walls that we humans call a house.  Looking at an early morning sky interpreting what the day will bring, I feel a connection with myself and what it means to be human.  I remember my mum and my Nan saying a rhyme about the colour of the sky 'Red morn sailors be warn, Red night sailors delight'.  I hear this in my mind when I look at a morning or night sky.  I don't know whether there is a relationship between the colour of the sky and boating conditions, though I do enjoy the rhyme.  As a young girl I remember the time when seeing different formations and textures of clouds led me to hurrying inside to look in my '1001 facts about the Earth' book my mother gave me, to identify what my fact hungry eyes were seeing in the sky.  Having sponged up all of these facts as a young girl I now seem to have lost them to my subconscious.  In my opinion, puberty and high school plus that Rite of Passage from the age of 18-20 which for me involved a lot of heavy drinking and partying are the cause for the loss of this information.  The reason why I have become aware of such a loss is our dear little Evie's curiosity about the world around her.   So rather than struggling to remember or using the family computer to 'look it up' I went to the spare room and opened the box containing all of the books that I have kept from my childhood and there it was, '1001 facts about the Earth'.  Some of the pages were stuck together and missing pieces of their paragraphs but it was still as exciting as ever turning to the 'cloud' page.  Knowing that Evie has a keen enthusiasm for the weather and the world around her brings out the warmest of feelings in me.