the sea is calling
a time to slow down
reconnect
dig holes with our toes in the sand
and dream a little
there will be long overdue conversations
probably over coffee…and toy cars
maybe even a biscuit or three
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I”m unplugging for the rest of the year. Hoping you all have a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
Sunny Greetings
Brydie
xxx
I’m trying to remember to do quite a few things at the moment. Lists are being made, crossed off, lost, restarted, and scribbled upon. The end of the year where everything comes to a halt. Classes are finishing, teachers are changing, christmas decorations have been hung and there is a buzz in the air that is beginning to mount. But not before I go through my multiple lists.
Thank you biscuits for the dance teachers.
Thank you biscuits for the soccer teacher.
Thank you biscuits for the school teacher.
Goodbye biscuits for the school class.
Christmas biscuits for the neighbours and friends.
Now if only I could remember to take them when I go and see them.
This year we’ve done the festive bundle of sticks again. It feels right. Fifteen minutes of collecting fallen sticks from outside, held together by a ribbon and then decorated by the boys. Simple, environmentally friendly, space saving, and most importantly….I can put it up high. If I didn’t, little fingers would be breaking off everything she could and jamming it into her mouth for a little stick flavoured snack.
How about you?
Working your way through any lists? Anyone else doing Christmas sticks this year?…and sunflowers, aren’t they beautiful.
There is something about seeing them that just puts a smile to the face and a little dance in the toes. Seeing them in unlikely places, like a city side street… just makes them even sweeter.
dragon tail
I think a dragon lives at flat number four
sometimes I hear her singing through the door.
I’m sure she sings all through the night,
keeping her voice low, so as not to fright.
Sitting out at the window looking up at the moon,
she lowers her lashes and feels the tune.
Starting down at her tail and rising up from within,
her song takes her over, causing quite a din.
At day break she stops and gets ready for bed,
cleans her many teeth, and tucking in little Ted.
While she sleeps through the day letting her vocal chords rest,
I know for tonight she will be singing her best.
So when the moon rises and your head hits the pillow,
outside the leaves stir and the wind blows the willow.
Listen carefully for the dragon singing her tune,
when you’re all wrapped up, like a cocoon.
That song you hear now could be dad having a snore,
or it could be the singing dragon at flat number four.
******
for my little people
spelt sourdough baby dragon tail
“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE
A run of reading some wonderful books, life is too short to waste time reading a bad book. There are so many great ones to be had. This particular one, has had me laughing out loud and quietly sobbing.
Hand made dresses that have been waiting to fit.
Finally getting organised to start sewing my advent calendar. Cut, cut, sew, sew… It’s an ambitious colour palate, but I’m fingers and toes crossed hopeful.
Enjoying a coffee with Mr Chocolate in my new adored birthday cups.
Taste testing strawberry blueberry jam. It’s been so long since I made any jam. It was lovely being beside the pot, wielding my berry stained wooden spoon, testing as I went along.
If anyone else would like to do a ‘loving this week’ post, (or simply write something in the comments). Please let me know, link back to this post and I’ll do a link up. I would love to know about those little moments in your week that have tickled your heart.
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Visit Kari @Bite Sized Thoughts for some moments that have tickled her heart this week.
This week I turned 35 and with it I thought I would write down 35 thoughts that have flitted by.
1/ Spending a weekend with loved family members that you don’t often see is a pretty wonderful way to kick start a birthday.
2/ Never underestimate the soul filling value of spending hours and hours talking to your brother in a busy cafe.
3/Coffee tastes better with great conversation.
4/ Actually, everything tastes better with great conversation.
5/ Nothing wrong what so ever in decorating your own dining area in a celebratory birthday kind of fashion the night before.
6/ Decorating said area, ensures that come birthday morning when there are school lunches to be made, washing to be put out and and nappies to be changed that this will not be just another ordinary day.
7/ Forget that, I don’t think there are any ordinary days…ever.
8/ Bunting really is well worth the effort.
9/ You don’t have to be a kid to get squealy happy, hand clapping on opening a birthday box.
10/ Husbands need big thank you kisses for giving squealy happy hand clapping birthday boxes.
11/ There is a lot of joy in seeing your eldest child finally shake off a hideous virus, just in time to eat a man size slice of blue cherry meringue tart.
12/ In following days, there is also a lot of joy in left over blue cherry meringue tart with a quiet coffee, a great book and a little quiet time.
13/ Said quiet time is brief these days, VERY brief.
14/ Italian meringue I never knew you were so good! I really didn’t. I scoffed at the seemingly kitchen faffing that you needed in order to get done- The faffing is so worth it though, and I will never do meringue the regular way again…promise.
15/ A good book…is truly wonderful.
16/ A good chiropractor is also wonderful.
17/ Jumping into the world of lenses, aperture, ISO, and bokeh are ridiculously exciting.
18/ Waking up and thinking about lenses as your first thought of the day… does that warrant geek status?
19/ …hopefully.
20/ Asparagus season, I do love you.
21/ Cherry season, I think I love you even more.
22/ Getting a book like Mend it Better is not a whim action, it’s an investment. Little Monkey wears out knees like…well, like a lot.
23/ This time of year makes me think of my grandfather a lot.
24/ It looks like I’m starting a meringue tradition for my birthday, Berry Meringue Tart and A Rather Tall Birthday Cake in the last two years before…I can deal with that. Especially as now I know about Italian Meringue.
25/ I really do like grey overcast days.
26/ I also really like the idea of owning an organic olive farm.
27/ I could sit on my verandah watching the sun set over my olive trees. Dusk cockatoos would fly over head, screeching to each other as they went to seek food elsewhere. (My trees would be carefully netted against said cockatoos- who said day dreams couldn’t be detailed.)
28/ I wasn’t sure how 35 would feel.
29/ Turns out it’s fine and feels remarkably like 34.
30/ Eating homemade sourdough for breakfast never gets old.
31/ The breakfast idea that is not the sourdough. Sourdough does get old and stale eventually, then it’s perfect for making bread crumbs. Supermarket bread goes mouldy, home-made bread just gets turned into something else (pangritata being my favourite at the moment.)
32/ Being able to read is truly a joyful experience, escaping into a book. A story that transports you…
33/ Or just reading about lenses…again.
34/ There are so many wonderful things to do in this world. Learn about, read up on, discover and enjoy. Precious moments that will never, ever be repeated again…
35/ In my 35th year, I’m not going waste one little one of them.
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Blueberry Cherry Meringue Tart is adapted from this recipe. All I did was change the fruit around from Rhubarb and Raspberry, and made up the mixture in a pot rather than oven baked. After six months of planning to make it, and two days of putting it together, (instalments was easier) was it worth it?
Oh my sweet goodness, yes! Recipe here.
Nourish- My little kitchen has been churning out quite a lot at the moment. Including the ever reliable Anzac Biscuits for when things are called for at a last minutes notice. Make these and I know I won’t turn up somewhere empty handed. Rhubarb recipes have been enjoyed, the ever present sourdough and I’m still playing with cardamom buns. So many doughy variations to play with!
Grow- My mint was finally looking reasonable once more. I had conquered it. I would now have a steady supply of delicious mint infused meals. Then, I didn’t look at it for several days… a big mistake. Someone else had also decided it quite fancied some delicious mint infused meals.
I found the culprit, a big dirty caterpillar, then I found another, and another. Needless to say, those minty meals will have to wait…again.
Create- I’m happy to say there has been quite a bit of creating action going on round here lately. My Wednesday group’s blanket is growing, and things are slowly getting stitched together. Bunting had been planned for far too long, and finally I decided enough was enough and I just had to do it. A fine example of some shonky sewing, but I did it and I’m happy about that. Advent calendar plans are still being mused over. I wanted to do one last year, hell I think even the year before as well and I still haven’t started. Time is tick tocking, but I’m still hoping to get it together… hopefully.
Discover- I was very happy to see that my local library had ordered in Whole Larder Love. Such a wonderful book and stunning photography by the very talented Rohan.
Prepare- Eeek! Not a lot happening here. I can’t think of anything I have done to preserve this last month. I’m actually having jamming withdrawals at the moment so, I suspect some preserving is just around the corner. Stone fruits are slowly trickling in too, just the thing for a little jamming action.
Enhance/Connect- Beautiful little Tasmanian wooden buttons sent to me from the lovely Mel @ Coal Valley View. Now what shall I make with them?
A gathering yesterday that was so much fun, I just wanted to rewind the whole thing and press repeat- Food, lots of people big and small, all in an open green space.
I also swapped some sourdough starter and some bread to another mama from school. She in turn gave me some kimchi. So much nicer than what I had bought recently, absolutely delicious. As for the starter, I love thinking about how many kitchens those little tubs of starter have travelled to.
Enjoy- the year is galloping along, and this time of year finds a whole heap of enjoyable things happening round these parts….and that is a whole bunch of happy.
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For more slow living action, pop over to the lovely Christine @Slow Living Essentials.
“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE
Getting to take photos at a friends small people party. I get such an enjoyment from taking pictures, the camera is a wonderful thing. Willing friends that let me practise on them, love that.
Making bunting. I had a gentle reminder of why the sewing machine hasn’t been dragged out much lately. My baby helper lay over my foot on the machines pedal, tugged on the bias ending as I sewed it on through, got stuck weaving herself through the chair legs, and taste tested every triangle I sewed. The sewing is definitely a little shonky, but jeez, I’m loving that I did it.
Hula Hoop workshop. Cirque du Soleil performer I am certainly not, but it was fun.
Getting to enjoy the company of my grandparents visiting, obviously I had to make a cake for the occasion.
Co sleeping and breastfeeding, it makes my life so much easier. She loves it, and is happy…which makes me happy. Love that.
A pot of chai to start the day with.
Watching these two love each others company while Monkey Boy is at school. That just makes my heart feel big in so many ways.
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If anyone else would like to do a ‘loving this week’ post, (or simply write something in the comments). Please let me know, link back to this post and I’ll do a link up. I would love to know about those little moments in your week that have tickled your heart.
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Have a look at Kari’s “loving this week” post on Rottnest Island– beautiful!
I think I’ve lost my voice.
Not my speaking voice, but my writing voice. I’m not the first, and certainly not the last… but I think I’ve lost it non the less.
When I first started this blog it had a purpose, a reason. Time ticked on and the blog slowly changed and I along with it. Or is that, I changed and the blog along with me? Not huge changes, but subtle changes. I discovered the love of sourdough. I snuck in to a wonderful blog community, I started washing my hair with bicarb, I discovered new and beautiful souls, that if I didn’t live half a world away I would really, really like to invite them over for an afternoon coffee. I kept visiting farmers markets and dreaming of living a life that involved being more self sufficient. I had a baby here at home, our third baby, but first at home. The sweetest little baby that makes your heart thump with joy on seeing her wake in the morning.
I baked, I cooked, we planned and did a really small amount of planting.
Time slowly felt shorter and shorter. Time to think and write got pushed back…and back again. Words were rolling around my head, but seemingly sticking to the sides and not flowing out like they used to.
I still felt the same. Maybe even more so. I still hated shopping at the supermarket. I adored baking and cooking for our family. Eating seasonally, talking with local farmers at various markets on how they do things. I still planted ambitiously in my sad looking pot plants. I embraced things that were handmade, creative and different. Upcycled, recycled, locally made… I love it all. So why could I not write about it?
How has cityhippyfarmgirl managed to lose her blog voice; considering all the things I hold dear are more important than they have ever been?
Do I need to fit in to a blog niche? Is that so important? I thought it was at one stage, but maybe that just isn’t me. Was I a green blog, a food blog or a mama blog? I wasn’t sure, and maybe that’s ok…
Maybe it’s ok to be the hack baker, wannabe crafter, farmers market advocate, passionate natural birther, city flat living, second hand retro lover, mama to three, wife to one, taker of pictures, thinker of too much, hula hooping*, scatty brained, decaf coffee drinking- blogger.
Maybe it’s ok to just really enjoy the blog for what it is. A place to put my recipes, words and pictures. Connect with an amazing social media community that never ceases to amaze me. Sink back into the chair a little, except that time is moving really quickly around me and there is no point what so ever in trying to produce something that simply isn’t there.
After that complete purge of words… I think I may have found my voice again.
Maybe I just needed to get it off my chest, take a deep breath and type…
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Do you have anything on your chest that may feel a whole lot better if written out?
*hulahooping, yes it’s true.
this week it’s been made abundantly clear to me
that the mundane, the every day is not so ordinary
I always try to not take those every day moments for granted. Posts like these ones, focus on my love of those little moments… I know that, I really do.
But hearing what is going on in some other peoples lives at the moment and I’m left speechless…
This weekend, I’m celebrating my everyday.
In my kitchen sat my absolute favourite pie in whole wide universe…. lemon meringue. It had been a while since I had made it and Monkey Boy asked ever so nicely if I would. I didn’t want to disappoint, so made it, gave him a small slice, and packed him off to bed. This left me to admire a rather large slice of my own. Lemon meringue pie is one of those lick the bowl when your done kind of moments. Yep, it really is.
And I would have been crazy not to make one, as I had these fat gifted backyard lemons sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be loved.
A trial of a Pear and Ginger Slice. Amazingly enough I actually followed a recipe this time. It wasn’t bad, I would tweak it a little to cater more to my taste buds. But definitely not bad.
The last of my dad’s pumpkins. The orange of the flesh in these pumpkins has been amazing. Nothing like a super market bought one what so ever. I’m still thinking about my pumpkiny options.
My new mixer love arrived. Oh my sweet, sweet goodness how I love it! (Very, very nerdy post to come soon.)
In my kitchen, there has been quite a lot of my staple salad. I very rarely tire of eating kale… which is lucky, as there is quite a bit around at the moment.
and lastly, in my kitchen sits two new pans. I’m not usually one to buy new kitchen gadgets just for the sake of it, (despite desperately needing a new cooking pot- as I had burnt the crap out of one of my usuals.) Mr Chocolate wanted these, and if it had just been me, there is no way I would have got them. Thankfully I did though, as I am hooked. Cooked on low to medium, ceramic coating, no oil used, heats up really quickly, (and makes a perfect pancake!)
What’s been happening in your kitchen?
linking up with the ever lovely Celia@Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE
loving this week
some seasonal strawberries still trickling through
regifted wool stashes, not by one but two people this week
meeting up with my Wednesday group mama’s
feeling incredibly lucky as a blog reader sent me a picture of her precious, precious newborn
reading about my very own newborn- our homebirth story in a magazine
eating seasonal food that feels good for the soul
listening to Little Monkey enthusiastically sing a Spice Girls song walking down the street (where did he get THAT from? said Mr Chocolate…ahem, no idea.)
spending the whole afternoon taking funny pictures with our little family
experimenting with a quinoa and rhubarb pudding and liking the results
starting the school holidays with popcorn, smiles and a deep exhalation
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If anyone else would like to do a ‘loving this week’ post, (or simply write something in the comments). Please let me know, link back to this post and I’ll do a link up. I would love to know about those little moments in your week that have tickled your heart.
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It looks like we are springing in to spring round these parts. The light is different, days longer, clothing layers are slowly being peeled off and jasmine…
Beautiful jasmine is flowering on local suburban fences, where I’ll quite often smell it before I see it. A gorgeous soft delicate smell that I’m sure to my end of days will always remind me of my mother. It’s such a favourite flower with her. A tiny sprig is just enough to scent the air, enough to turn heads that say “Ooooh, what’s that lovely smell?
Blue sunny skies and cold seas are enticing little feet in. Sand is being strewn, holes are being dug and shivery skinny bodies are being dried off. Part of me wants to listen to the sea’s siren song and go swimming. The other part of me says, oh hell no, it’s still way too cold in there. Maybe in a few months…
I’m still crocheting too. I keep getting side tracked with different projects though, which is making it tricky to finish anything. A little bit here and a little bit there. Stolen moments that slowly add stitches while creations grow. I’m not sure what is more appealing at the moment, the prospect of making something and fueling that creative drive or the calming meditative effect repetitive stitches has on me. Either way, it’s working.
Goodbye to winter which I always adore. Winter and all she has to offer. The warming foods, seasonal vegetables, looped scarves, and a cooler time to stop, think and plan. With spring now here though, there is a new vibrancy. A new sense of growth and energy, both internally and around me… an energy that I’m sure will put just a little spring in my step.
What’s happening with you and your change of seasons?
cityhippyfarmgirl 