sunny sunday

Me "Smalls are quiet"
Him "Mmmmmmm"

Me and Him wander over to see 2 sorta nudey smalls 'painting' selves with a bucket of water (and dirt). They sat there for an hour, painting, singing, warming their backs in the sun.

Me and Him kept planting and mulching. Get your tomatoes in, folks! Before Cup Day to guarantee good harvest (so they say).

good things come...

I have a column over there (see right) entitled 'were I buying it, it would be this...' where I list a few of the things that I come across that take my fancy but are just too far (okay, some of them are really, really far) from being essential that I may never own them for myself. If you've just read my last post about non-attachment, you can consider this list as one of my many efforts towards aparigraha. What I love most about the practice of non-attachment is that sometimes really really good people do really really good things and you end up with really really nice things in your hand, for your own, just like that. Let it go and it will come. The universe will provide and all that.

Like Frankie. He comes along this week, containing a free wrapping paper book which makes me happy. Then I see it has a piece of my folk lover joy within. Free for me. So I can enjoy my folk lover papercuts in the flesh after all. Sorta. Kinda.

Then there is my friend's ma, who recently sent me a heap of fabric she no longer used. Hey. Thanks! Sure it was kinda floral and bright, but it's perfect for perfecting the pretty knickers I'm currently working on for the little 'un. She will only wear 'pretty' knickers, and not the ones that no longer fit the big 'un. Fair enough. And whatever gets her to the potty, I say! I'm going freehand, no pattern, and really no idea. I'm trying for this kind of thing. Anyone have any pretty knicker tips?

'sup, scarecrow?

Haven't been here in blogland much lately. Things a-plenty happening but just not a whole lot to say about them. I've been enjoying things as they rise and letting them go when they fall, happy again as another appears and happy, too, when they disappear. Aparigraha. The Sanksrit term for non-attachment. My absence from blogging is a manifestation of this. These ordinary minds of ours are constantly building more and more solid images of how things are and how others behave as a way of generating confidence and security. We build these self-images and then we defend them by bending every situation to reinforce our certainty. Were life an homogenous event, this would be fine. But she ain't, is she? Life demands we adapt and change with her. And so this is what I do. In the practice of aparigraha, begin first by consciously withdrawing your hand from reaching for external things. Ultimately the need to reach outward for anything will diminish and you are left with knowing that all you need you have. All that is essential is at hand. Enjoy what you have around you today. For me? Let's just say there's some scarecrow making in the making out back.....

sleepy wombats

We were well on our way to Wombat Bend this morning, the 'cool park' as it's fondly known round here, when I hear a whole lot of nothing from behind me. Odd, what with 2 small folk in the back and all. Turned around to see 2 sleepy wombats. No Wombat Bend for us today. Seems our car journey was a not-so-carbon-friendly lullaby. Upon return home, unloaded smalls and associated paraphenalia, and now this - random alone time. Life so good....

potager and potaging and potatoes

Ahh, that fuzzy line between winter and spring.

Winter means rain and cold winds....but prolific, well watered veggies out back. I like pottering in the potager patches.

Spring means the ladies are laying. Especially that Brownie, as she has been named by the smalls. We open the coup each morning to see 4 eggs. Beautifully and silently appearing from a perfectly rounded pea straw nests.

Food miles. What's it all about? I like the 100 mile limit where you only eat food grown from within 100 miles of your home. We live out in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges so will mostly be eating potatoes, strawberries and apples....and eggs...

What's growing in your garden?

baby born story

I'm heading to another blog love fest in October. Thanks for the invite, girls. First thing I do when invited to these things is check out the other invitees' blogs. Which makes me think they might do same. Which made me think I should write something. Which makes me think I should. Write. Something.

Anything??



Nope. Nothing coming.

Then, Leslie to the rescue. She has just given birth to Mae and graciously shared her story with all of us. She has also asked that we graciously do same.

Yay. Truly a joy for me to share.

Our youngest was born during a summer sunset. By the time you'd finished your dinner that evening, she had arrived. I was right up for a new years eve birth (her due date), so when I had some tweaking labor pangs, rather than pains, in my parent's pool a few days later I was happy. Lovely lover and I headed home, leaving our eldest out back wacking golf balls with poppy. We had a beautiful birthing celebration a few days before and I went about our home, lighting the candles we'd been given, adorning the beaded necklace my special lady friends had made for me, lighting the oil burner....it's all so lovely at that point, isn't it???....Within an hour we were in the car heading to the birthing centre. We got to the birthing centre, contraction in the reception area and another in the lift, walked (waddled) into the birthing room, headed straight for the bath, stepped in, squatted down and she was born into the warm waters 4 pushes later. I remember the wild pink of the sky as we headed down the mountain road to the birthing centre, and the look of innocent shock on the 12 year old boys' face who witnessed my fine self experiencing a full on 'my baby's coming!!' contraction in the reception area as we walked in. Poor kid.

Hey, that was fun. Thanks, Leslie.

planning a party

The boy is 3.

Location sorted - not our house, which means we can go away weekends for the next few weeks instead of running about planting a birch tree forest playground with mushroom settee for the smalls

Invites sorted - Boy has been on paper cutting frenzy lately so we used his cutting pile and ta-da turned it back into home made paper sheets

My intent is to make some goodies for the small folk to take home. But should that go awry, etsy offers me:

spaceman crayons by gaddy nipper crayons


French vintage ephemera by surrender dorothy


june bug soap by anniepoo


and wristlets by jc casa


I love parties.