Hello happy & beautiful (almost) winter list

It's freeeeeezing cold here. Today was dark and grey and stormy and wet. Winter feels like it has well and truly settled in two weeks early. Although this weather feels like it could drag me under, this year I am determined not to let it. I'm determined to stay on top of it all. And what better way than by noticing and remembering and appreciating and being grateful for the good in my life. The great in my life. The beautiful in my life.

So here we go, here's my HELLO HAPPY and BEAUTIFUL (almost) WINTER list.

I love watching my little girls and their dogs. It reminds me of what we wanted, what we dreamed of, when we decided to move to the country to bring up our family. Jazzy and Willow.

I love the bits of bright colour in our garden. We're pretty good at growing the edible and the functional, but we often forget about the purely decorative. The decorative serves a pretty important function too, so I am learning.

I'm so happy that the kitchen garden is looking almost ready to take on the winter months. Kale and lettuce and rocket and herbs and garlic and broccoli and carrots and beetroots. I've got a bundle of seeds to plant in the hot house next time I get a chance too.

Pom pom parties!

We bought a Clover pom pom maker last weekend and it is rocking our world. It is quick and fun to use and makes the best, fluffiest pom poms around.

It may be freeeeeeeeezing, but Daylesford does autumn beautifully. This tree up near the poly tunnels seems to change colour and glow as the day goes on.

A sneaky, mid-week, wintery getaway with my farmer boy. We had the caravan park and the beach to ourselves and spent a whole luxurious two days alone. (Thanks heaps M and D xx)

The very last of autumn's colourful bounty. Yesterday I spent a bit of a disgusting few hours poking through the sloppy, mouldy vines in the poly tunnels for the final time of the season. Tomorrow the chooks will go in and clean them up. It's been a wonderful season but the time has come to say farewell.

A sunny Sunday's work in the kitchen garden resulted in a ute load of garden scraps for the compost. Out with the old and in with the new. Hooray!!

I've been catching glimpses of the cubby-house in different lights, from different angles and falling in love over and over again. 

Keeping the home fires burning. Cooking our food and warming our home. Late in the evenings we like to pull chairs up to her and open an oven for extra warmth. Then my farmer boy reads some Michael Pollan out loud and I knit. It's cozy. And MP is a great writer. And my farmer boy is a great reader and he took that photo and he's a bit cute too.

Ahhhhh, I feel better already. I think I might have to make this a regular thing.

Do you want to play too? Here in the comments or on your blog?
What are some of the little things making you feel up and happy at the moment?
What's chasing your grey away?

Big love peeps.
Be good. xx

Knit three

 ONE!

 TWO!

 THREE!

I had a crisis of knitting confidence a few days ago.

It's happened to me before. In fact I've probably even blogged about it here, but still...

I was sitting in a cafe in Daylesford near a woman wearing the most gorgeous wrap around shawl thing I had ever seen. It was chunky, big stitched, emerald green, it looked super soft and squishy warm and the pattern was just beautiful.

The whole time I was drinking my coffee, I was mentally going through the wool I have at home searching for the perfect yarn for project shawl. And trying to work out if I have big enough needles to get that chunky loose look. And of course I was also counting stitches. Or trying not to be too obvious while I was counting how many stitches in the width of the shawl.

As we got up to leave I couldn't help myself and asked her if she could take off her shawl so I could have a look at the shape and the the dimensions. I told her how much I adored it.

She held it up and it was a big chunky loop. About a meter and a half in length and half a meter in width, with a gorgeous cable detail running around it. When she put it back on she wound it around her neck twice and then sort of pulled it down her shoulders. She looked gorgeous.

And then I asked her if she'd made it, secretly hoping for some details and maybe even a pattern link. But she hadn't. She had in fact bought it in a shop in town.

So we walked down the hill to visit that shop. I don't know why, but we did.

And we found that very same shawl in a rainbow of colour options. They were acrylic and they were made in China and they cost twenty dollars each.

As we walked back to the car I felt really sad. Why would I bother knitting that shawl, if I could buy it so cheap? That much good quality, organic wool would probably cost me between sixty and eighty dollars and the time it would take me to knit it would be at least a few weeks.

I have that same discussion in my head about lots of the things we do on our farm and in our home. Why do we spend so much time and energy growing things from seed when we can buy them so cheap at the fruit shop? Why do we spend so much time preserving produce when it is available at a fraction of the cost, all year round, in tins and jars from the super market? Why do we bake our own bread, make our own clothes, gather our own honey, chop and split our own wood, repair things when they break, if there is an option to buy for a fraction of the price?

All these things take up so much time and sometimes don't save any money at all.

But the satisfaction that comes from doing them is priceless.

And although I probably wont end up knitting myself that particular shawl, it might feel a bit like trying to replicate a Big Mac from homegrown, organic ingredients, I know why I knit. I adore to knit. And I know that this winter I'll be sending my girls out into the icy cold world in beanies made especially for them with all my love. You can't buy that in a chain store.

Ravelry details here, here, and here. 

Thanks for the pattern link Christy xx

OK, three winter beanies done, it's time to wind some wool for my farmer boy. He thinks stripes for a change. Maybe.

So how about you?
Do you choose the slow even though the fast is cheaper?
Does the fast tempt you or discourage you? Or neither?
Are you knitting beanies too?

Big love and a happy and wonderful week for you my friends.

seasonal - sustainable - wonderful

At the start of the cycle, last spring, we planted tomato seeds in trays in the hot house. We nurtured the seeds and watched them grow. When they were large enough to cope, we moved them outside or into the poly tunnels to give them space. We tried to provide ideal growing conditions by planting according to the moon's phases, weeding out some of the competition, feeding and irrigating and staking. And then over the last few months we enjoyed the harvest.

We had a wonderful, bountiful tomato season this year.

We picked colanders and baskets and buckets and crates full.

We ate them straight off the bush and in salads and sandwiches and cooked them in absolutely everything. And we preserved enough sauce and semi drieds to hopefully last us through out the year.

And then along came the first frost of the season. Just like that the outside tomato season was over. The frost burnt the foliage and damaged the remaining, as yet unripe fruit.

Following the first frost the chooks went in to clean up. They gobbled up the fleshy fruit, they ate the bugs and scratched up the dirt. And they pooed. Our chooks are really the hardest workers on our farm.

In the next few days, after they are done, my farmer boy will plow the tomato scraps and the chook poo into the soil adding much needed organic matter and fertiliser to the land that has grown our beautiful and delicious fruit.

After the plowing up we'll probably plant a winter pea crop or a broad bean crop to add nitrogen. We have to do everything we can to look after the health and balance of our hardworking soil. Everything that comes out with the growing, needs to go back in and more.

The tomato journey comes to an end.

And then next spring we'll start all over again.

As much as I dislike the cold and wet and grey, I love the seasons. I love that everything has it's time.

My farmer boy asked me the other day if I could commit to seasonal eating completely this year and cut out fresh tomatoes until they grow here again next summer. That is a big one for this thinly sliced tomato with salt on crackers loving girl. It even makes me panic a bit. But I think I'm going to try. It makes sense I think.

I'll be enjoying every single precious tomato I pick in the poly tunnels for the next week or so, that's for sure.

Are you a seasonal eater?
Could you do without?
Thinking about how far away the tomatoes are grown and how they travel to get to me over the depths of winter certainly helps.

Happy week my friends.
Keep cozy.

xx

the patch work cubby

The story of this cubby started about ten and a half years ago.

I know!!

Ten and a half years ago I told my farmer boy that I was going to buy Miss Indi a cubby house for her second birthday. You know, one of those cubbies made from reddish wood with a pitched roof, a little door, square windows, some window boxes to pop some flowers in and some floral curtains.

But my farmer boy said no.

At first he said no because of all the nasty, treated wood they were making cubbies out of back then. And then when I found an alternative, safer version, he said no because he wanted to build her one himself.

But soon after that our business took off, we had more little girls and the cubby house just never did happen.

Until a couple of months ago, after a boy's pool night out, my farmer boy showed me a photo on his phone of a cubby a friend of ours, Jobbo, had built for his girls. It was the cutest little cubby house I had ever seen. And what's more, Jobbo was thinking about making those cubbies as a little business.

I knew straight away that our cubby time had come.

So we got Jobbo over. And we spoke about what we wanted in a cubby - somewhere the little girls could play but also a space for Miss Indi to hang out with her friends. We spoke about size - small enough to feel like a teeny cubby but big enough for grown ups not to feel claustrophobic when invited in for a cuppa. And we spoke about materials - where available all from our farm (ie. farm junk).

And then Jobbo and his apprentice, builder Bren, got to work.

And over the next few Thursdays there was plenty of sawing and sanding and scavenging and deciding and designing and admiring and cutting and nailing.

And then last Thursday the front door was bolted on and our cubby was finished.

The girls swept it out and picked some roses from the garden and we lit a bon fire to celebrate.

Every time I look out the window and see it sitting there I can't help but smile.

I think it is the most beautiful patch work cubby house I have ever seen.

After ten and a half years I'm happy to be writing a The End at the end of this cubby-house story, even though I know it's really just the beginning.

You can find Jobbo on instagram  @TheBuilderRecycles.


I hope you have the happiest week peeps.
Me and my farmer boy are heading off on a little adventure tomorrow and I'm so excited I might not get to sleep tonight.

Bye! xx

Monday early in the afternoon

Eight shots from our weekend;

(1-3) One of the best parts of autumn is the bonfires.

(4) Visiting the Holy Goat girls and meeting Giselle the goat who will soon be coming to live with us and have kids and provide us with milk.

 (5) Still preserving.

(6) His beloved compost steaming.

 (7) Knitting a red beanie for Miss Jazzy.


(8) The kitchen garden at dusk.


Monday early in the afternoon.

So far today: we got the girls up and off to school, had a quick coffee in town with my parents and then I did a pilates class. Pilates is ace for me. Farming and mothering are hard on my body and pilates feels a bit like a weekly tune up. It slows me down and helps me to remember to breathe, keep my shoulders down and do things properly. I've been doing pilates for nine years!!

And now I'm home sitting on the couch with a blankie on my knees answering emails about my book, filling in an author's survey and finding some photos of our family and farm for the publicity.

I still feel very self conscious when I'm referred to as the author.

There is clean washing in the machine to hang out, there is tonight's dinner to think about (onion soup?), I can see my farmer boy out the window filling up the vegie beds with compost, there's a zillion unanswered emails in my inbox and a house full of the weekend's mess to deal with, there are seeds to plant, apples to dehydrate and some phone calls to return.

But all I really feel like doing is having a long hot bath and listening to a podcast or hopping back into bed with my knitting.

I never ever do things like that. Especially not on a Monday when the to-do list is so high it's threatening to topple over. When the rest of my week is looking so crazy busy that now might be my only chance. But the pull of the cozy over the constructive is huge and strong.

Maybe I'll make the soup base and a bread dough and see.

Maybe I'll answer four emails for every four knitting rows.

Maybe I'll have lunch and then decide.

Maybe...

I hope your week is super lovely friends.
Have you got anything fun planned?

Bye bye. xx

every day in may - or not

This is the bunting I made and the stamp I cut to stamp the bunting I made.

When my book comes out in August, hopefully some book shops will hang this stamped bunting in their windows as a display.

My book!! Oh my gosh! Did you see I put a little pic of the cover over there on my side bar. Eeeeeep!!

This is the wool I was lucky enough to win in Little Woollie Jules's giveaway to celebrate the opening of her online store. Thanks Jules!! 

Delicious and soft and squishy and waiting patiently for the perfect project. Six 50gm balls, any suggestions?

This is the show-off autumn kissed grapevine on the front side of our house. The back-side (ha!) grapevine gets less sun and is yellow. 

This is about 30 or 40 rows of this brilliant idea I had that is never going to happen. Such a shame. A wide, loooooooong, grey scarf would be so useful and snuggly and cute. But realistically, 120 stitch rows of plain knit and plain purl are not so much fun. Unravel.

This is the state of our cubby so far. 

There'll be more tomorrow. @thebuilderrecycles (on instagram) is coming at 8am.

This was my attempt at a wintery colour palette blanket.

It hurts my eyes. Unravel.

These are the potatoes we picked last Friday.

This is the beanie I'm knitting for Pepper. I-cords and pom poms to go.

These are some of my kitchen garden tomatoes. With ten crates of green tomatoes in the loungeroom and a frost warning overnight, I had to say goodbye to these. I guess the chooks will love them.


It's funny, all week long I've been obsessively considering my every day in May project.

I've thought about walking every day, crocheting a square a day, knitting a square a day, making a pom pom a day, cooking a new recipe a day, reading a chapter a day, writing a blog post a day, naming something I am grateful for each day, doing something different with apples every day, taking a bag to the op-shop a day or doing some sort of photo challenge each day.

But late this afternoon, waaaaaay into the first day of May, I admitted defeat. For some reason I am just too crazy busy this May. Between the book stuff and the preserving stuff and the home stuff and the mothering stuff, there is just no room to take on another project. I have no idea how it is possible that with three at school this year I am still busier than last year, but I am. Either that or just more realistic.

I adored last year's motif a day in May and the May two years before that. I loved choosing the pattern, finding the cotton, hooking each square and watching the pile of finished motifs grow.

Hopefully I'll be back on board next year.

Hopefully I'll stick to this decision and not freak out and rush off to make a square as soon as I've pressed publish on this post. Hopefully.

So what are you up to over there?
Are you busier this year than last?
Are you making every day in May?
Or are you too tired by the end of the day?
Oh and if I disable anonymous comments is that going to worry you?

Bye!