meet Grover the Elder and Weebit

I have to direct you here for a moment of breathtaking beauty and astonishing wonder, as well as a bit of a giggle at some of it. Hoorah for slow and methodical process, I say. Puts my 'I'll whip up a coupla gnomes for a gift' to shame.

Is someone able to convince me that this little guy above and his beautiful weebit on back are 'essential'? Please.

Selling this:



To buy one of these:



It's the biggest purchase I've made in some time. Makes me nervous. What also makes me nervous is the reality of towing 2 small folk round behind me with nothing but my legs to get us there. If you're interested in the Mountain Buggy, go bid on it why don't cha?

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?