Just playing around...

I got my new-to-me camera on Saturday, so have been having a wee play with that too. I haven't used a manual camera before, so it's been quite a learning experience. Thought I'd capture a bit of the action and colour going on in my garden at the moment, while learning something new.

Yay! All 3 chickens are now laying.

Loving the aperture setting, just need to figure it all out now!

Books, books, books...

I'd love to say that I've been on a spending spree, but no, we just visited the library this afternoon.

~ I've been looking out for a 2nd hand version of this Ukulele book, but pleased to get to try-before-I-buy. I spent a bit of time yesterday studying up on music theory (a mix of internet and this book). I have never in my life learnt anything musical (although I'm sure I briefly learnt the recorder and ukulele when I was in primary school), so this is all new and quite interesting to me.

~ I grabbed the first book I found on SLR cameras - my mum is giving me her 8yr old camera, so I need to now learn how to use it!

~ I picked out a variety of drawing and painting books to carry on with once I'm done with my course.

~ I saw Dorothy Hall's herbal book on display, so added that to my pile even though I've had it out before.

~ I also saw on the returned shelf this cute book with some neat little crochet projects. The author uses a variety of materials including: jute twine, wool, and leather cord. I don't currently own a book on crochet (I have only self-taught myself off Youtube tutorials), but this one has made it onto my wants list. I've got my eye on these projects...

But first, I've had a job come in that will consume my weekend. I'd love to go on a book buying spree with the $$ from that, but I think getting a plumber in is a bit higher up the list of priorities!

Icy outside, but tucked up inside

That's all the snow that remains on the hills.
They were completely covered in white.

Well, the snow seems to have gone, but the icy weather continues.

The sum total of snow that settled at our house on Tuesday night!
And it was slushy due to all the rain.

Yesterday I was tucked up inside again and decided I needed to do a bit more practicing ... first the ukulele (I've been trying to master strumming along with changing chords) and then some drumming.

Drawing - I really need to make this a bit more regular, but I felt inspired by looking at an aloe vera plant I'd recently moved and realised that I was visualising the negative space within what I saw and that I was mentally drawing it - so out came the sketch book and pencil and off I went.

I've been rearranging! Although our lounge is quite large, we're quite restricted on how to place the furniture. So after a bit of mental planning, I decided at 11.30pm Tuesday night that it *had* to be done right there and then lol. I don't usually like to cover over the window with the couches, but I find that the lounge doesn't seem cosy, or warm enough for my liking because it's so spacious and so much window (there is the same amount of windows/doors right next to this lot). So this way, it creates another area that we can now use as a comfy floor spot.

Kid decluttering - yep, while rearranging furniture I managed to find another bag of games and puzzles that are no longer used.

Crafting - I have been wanting to make one of these recycled woollen blanket buntings for a while now, but didn't have a suitable blanket, and hadn't gone looking for one. I did recall I had a very thin piece of woollen fabric though (apparently it was a very old-skool nappy-wrap back in the day and came from my nana...). Same red pin-stripe down one side and same size as a flannel nappy. So I made this up yesterday afternoon. I'm quite pleased with the results!

The day it snowed...

As the polar blast heads over the country, we were very fortunate to get more than a sprinkle of snow too! This is a rarity - a once in 50yrs event!

At school the kids went out to play when the snow came, and they were fortunate that the last 20mins of school-time a heavy dumping came down. Simon arrived to pick them up to see the whole school running around crazy enjoying it.

Once home, we decided to head up to the hills (a 10 min drive) and find some real snow! The rain that was coming down quickly turned to snow, and it was quite magical driving into the hills. There were a lot of people coming and going, and we finally found a place to stop. Terrible photos since I didn't have my flash on, and the light was getting pretty low.

The kids collected snow to take home...

Unloading their snow to continue the fun in the front yard.

Full moon

On Saturday night I went to a local art gallery with a couple of friends, for the opening night of an exhibition featuring local artists and craft makers. Amongst many beautiful works, I noticed a display of ceramic pendants for sale - made by the same woman who is making my pendant for me (she is apparently doing a firing this coming week, so not long to wait now!).
On our way home from the exhibition in search of a cafe, we had a delicious view of the almost-full moon.

Tonight our women's group intended on a casual get-together for the full moon, but with some nasty weather due to come through we weren't sure on what to do. In the end just four of us got together in someone's cosy lounge room with the woodfire burning and chit-chatted about all things wild woman lol. We did manage to spot the moon as we were leaving though so had a little chuckle as we howled at her haha.

Another week...

Garden: Yay, I got into the garden earlier on in the week! I dug in my blue lupens, sprinkled wood ash over them, added more chicken poop and lightly dug it all through. Not too happy about the HUGE blister I got of my hand though - didn't even notice it chaffing over a sticky-outie bit on the spade until it popped. Got me out of doing dishes for a night anyway ;)

Chickens: All three chickens now have bright red, plump combs, so I know that we'll shortly have 3 eggs a day - can't wait! As it is I've already stopped buying eggs with just one egg a day.

Drawing: Yesterday the weather turned cold and miserable. Perfect drawing weather! Just what I needed to get stuck back into my course. So with the fire roaring, and my cup of tea beside me, I started by brushing up of my skills. I continued on with another portrait before moving onto the next chapter on shading.

Tattoo: For a while now I've been wanting to get another tattoo (I got my 2nd back in January), so spent a bit of time online finding inspiration for designing my own. I've finalised what I want, and have it all booked for in 3wks time! It involves a lotus, a bird, spirals/korus, and the elements of nature - and it's pretty!

Ukulele: Went to my 2nd ukulele class today. I have been practicing my chords all week, as well as trying to get the strumming down pat. I tend to have a problem with getting my fingers stuck between the strings and pinging them. So, I've spent a lot of time researching the problem, and finding ways to overcome it. It just all seemed to click for me yesterday, and I found the perfect place for *my* fingers and thumb to be when strumming. Then I moved onto learning some different strum patterns. Number 10 of this tutorial is my favourite so far.

Illness: Ick, poor Simon seems to have come down the flu. He's been in bed since yesterday morning and his symptoms so far seem so similar what I had a few months back (sleeping all day, fevering, sore throat, headache...). I'm really hoping that his one is the same variety as the one I had - I really don't want to get another flu!

The week

The kids have been making board games!

With the lighter evenings, they've been spending some time before dinner outside in the sandpit and working on constructing a "shop". Nathan intends on stocking his shop with swords and bows and arrows.

I went to my ukulele group this morning. Had a great time! I had self-taught myself three chords before going along (and then when booking, the teacher asked if I could learn another three so I was up to speed with the rest of the group) since they have all been going for a couple of months already.

Spring cleaning - I probably blog about it whenever I do more than the basics on housework lol! Well, with all this gorgeous spring-like weather I have been torn on where to spend my time. So yesterday I made my way through the kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms, as well as checking and sorting my stock in my herbal cupboard. Not a lot to toss out, a little rearranging, but mostly deep-cleaning.

The garden has also been calling me - with the herb garden all busy doing its thing, now is the time to start planning the Spring/Summer vegetable garden. I have most seeds I need (I do need to get some carrot seeds though), so it's just a case of planning my timing and placement. I do need to also get down into the lower garden again and clean out the chicken coop to fertilize the beds, dig in the lupen, and weed around my garlic and onions. I have a few buckets of wood ash to dig in too, to raise the pH and alkalinise the soil - I have an abundance of dock and creeping buttercup still down there, which are strong indicators for acid soil conditions. When using wood ash instead of lime, the recommended is to use about twice the amount - I don't really know how much I need, but am going to give a liberal dose to help things along. And strange for this time of the year, but the garden is looking like it might need some water!
I haven't done anymore on the drawing course. I really feel with this lovely weather, that I'd rather be physically doing other things and enjoying the sun - make hay while the sun shines and all that. I'll save the rest of it for a cold, rainy day (I'm sure there will be more of those to come).

Imbolc

On Tuesday we observed and celebrated Imbolc here in the Southern Hemisphere. According to my moon calendar it was the 2nd August, but it seems there is a lot of information that states it's either the 1st or 2nd or both!

So anyway, Spring is on the way! The earth is waking up, the days are continuing to get longer (and at a faster pace now), and I see signs of spring everywhere I go.

I've been walking the kids to and from school this week and it's been so nice to go at that slow pace and take it all in. I've seen a lot of Jasmine vines all coming into flower, as well as daffodils and many other plants that have been in hibernation over winter. My own plum tree is now in full blossom.

Photo taken this morning before the
 sky completely clouded over.

Over dinner on Tuesday night, the kids and I chatted about the things we all each look forward to over the coming year. We had a meal based on the colours white, yellow, and orange to represent the return of the light - a chicken and chickpea curry served on rice!

After dinner I headed off for an Imbolc celebration with my women's group. We gathered outside and were able to be at a venue with a lovely firepit to sit around and discuss what things we'd like to let go of over the next year, and what things we'd like to work on creating. We then shared a delicious hot cup of chai tea! It was pretty cold out there in the beautiful, crisp, clear night, but nice and toasty by the fire.

More natural healing

This winter has really taken its toll on us. We're all good at the moment, but it seems that we have a week of nothing and then one or other of us comes down with something new. I can't blame it on stress or being unhappy - we're all in a really good space and enjoying life.
I think this is a combo of several things:
~ First, we are being exposed to more than any other winter with the kids now at school (we're not actually getting any more sick than any of the other school families though, and not getting sick with the same thing even). It just seems more than it is, we've each only been sick with about two things each, but spread that out amongst four of us and not at the same time, it has felt constant!

~ Lack of Vitamin D! I really think this is one of the biggest changes. When we homeschooled I was able to get us out for regular sunshine at the middle of day during winter on sunny days - not possible at school! At school, lunchtime only starts at 1pm, past the best time to make Vitamin D during winter.

~ No vitamins or supplements. For some reason I had fallen off the wagon with supplementing this year (and one less meal to include a wider range of veges and nutrients ie. school lunches mainly comprise of a simple sandwich along with fruit and popcorn, not the cooked up meal that I was used to making them). I've now started them on vitamins again (a kids multi as well as a fish oil with added Bs and iodine), so we'll see how we go as we head into Spring.

Both kids have had an ear infection this year. Ear infections are not something that they generally suffer from, and usually the ear pain doesn't last longer than a few hours when I get onto it right away (usually a combination of either colloidal silver, garlic oil, vitamin C, and homeopathics). Last time though, Danielle had had some strange viral thing that led to a ear infection that became a bit prolonged and required antibiotics (our doctor doesn't usually prescribe them as a standard treatment). Saturday night she said her other ear was aching (4 weeks since the last one), and I got onto it right away. I came across a timely post on Watching Kereru's blog and tried out her onion wrap when Danielle went to bed (I used a woollen sock of Simon's, one of my cotton knit headbands, and Simon's head wrap he uses when he rides to hold it all together). No lingering pain in the morning (I removed the wrap after about 30mins), although there was a small amount later on towards bedtime (so I repeated it).

I have also been suffering from a lingering cough, which started after my flu and then I got a second cough a few weeks later (my cough had progressed to many uses of my asthma inhaler, which usually only gets used a few times a year normally!). Over the weekend I chanced upon some reading on fenugreek that reminded me of the benefits, so started right away drinking 2-3 cups of tea a day (I had a jar of the seeds in my herbal cupboard). Some of  Fenugreek's benefits are that it relieves congestion, reduces inflammation and helps fight infection. It also has expectorant properties that are good for helping with sinus and lung congestion, and loosens and removes excess mucous. Sounds good to me! It's pretty tasty too. Just a warning though ... if like me your body needs a bit of a detox, then this will also produce sweat (and all over the skin in fact) that smells very fenugreeky/curryish - this only last 3-4 days though. Oh, and I haven't used my inhaler since!

Sunday

Well, the school holidays are over and we had a really nice, relaxing time.

I was talking with the kids how Imbolc will be on Tuesday, and what we'd like to do to celebrate it. Imbolc symbolises The First Light - the start of the return of spring and new growth. The kids really look forward to a family meal (although Simon won't be here for this one), a story about the seasonal changes, and a few decorations that help us tune into nature and the seasons. I'll be heading off for a meet up with my women's group.

All that talk inspired Danielle to pull our our Earthwise activities book, find the winter activities and browse for something to make. She settled on these little paper decorations (although they are for valentine's cards and the wrong season for that ... as well as the fact we don't do anything for valentine's anyway lol).

Simon arrived home with another trailer-load of sand from a Freecycle offer. The base for our garden shed is almost ready lol. The chickens thought it was great having us all down in the garden - especially since there were bugs on offer! The kids spent ages sifting through the sand to find tasty treats for them to snaffle.

And there was plenty of sand left over to refill the sandpit! Enjoying a little play until they were shooed inside to get warm!

I'm now onto the fourth Earth's Children book - The Plains of Passage. I zoomed through The Mammoth Hunters last week while on holiday (and no computer in the evenings...). I realised while reading The Mammoth Hunters that I hadn't read this far into the series before.

I'm going to get back into my drawing this week and hopefully finish off the course.