sewing, cooking and gardening

Not a great photograph, but last night I finally finished the last bit of stitchery on my quilt. I hope to find the time soon to actually piece the three layers together and start the hand quilting!
I wish we could view this in Australia, but small youtube clips will have to do. I have Sophie Dahl's cookbook - and I do actually use it. I love the kitchen used here...


BBC also recently aired a series called 'The Edible Garden' with Alys Fowler. Can't view it here in Australia either. :(


Now I'm off, racing to get the bus to work.

passing time

How did I slip so easily back into late, late nights? Over the long weekend I was going to bed at 10pm - a miracle for me. The house is now quiet, I have been looking at inspiring photographs on flickr (I haven't really done this before - I think it might be addictive!) David has been watching an episode of Cheese Slices I taped for him. We are enjoying the "down time".
Yesterday Nicholas wanted to make gingerbread men. Admittedly, they aren't my favourite thing to make, but he loves it. I even gave the kids free reign on decorating!
Nicholas is more methodical...

...than Audrey! We had the carpets in our lounge room cleaned the other day. They are still damp. I think I want to keep it empty! It looks so clean. I thought half the stains on our carpet were there when we moved in, so was content that until the children get older we would make do. Now they look like they will be perfectly acceptable for another couple of years.

I bought a cardigan for myself today. I think I need new clothes for winter as desperately as my children do! And Audrey is loving her new gumboots. I wish I had these clothes for Autumn/Winter: * I am looking forward to Nicholas having his cast taken off on 6 May. It has felt like he has had it on his leg forever.
* I am looking forward to buying some new children's books for him to take to the hospital. David has found reading with Nicholas the perfect way to pass the time in the waiting room.
* I am going to make Nicholas a surprise cake while they are gone, and cover it with sprinkles. Only seven days to go.
* I look forward to being able to go for a walk with him, to the park and the nature reserve near our home.

Actually, I'd love to spend a couple of nights with David and the kids at Wee Jasper. Walking during the day, looking at stars in the night. Drinking a hot cup of tea, eating this apple and rhubarb pie (Donna Hay) and listening to Bon Iver.

Shop Around the Corner

I mentioned a couple of days ago that mum had bought me The Shop Around the Corner on dvd. It is just gorgeous - and I love how closely You've Got Mail stuck to the story, just in a modern context.

I was hoping to find the cafe scenes in both movies to play here as an example, and was pleased to find someone else had done the work for me! Unfortunately the embedding has been disabled, so click here to view it. You won't regret it, it really is lovely.

I am grateful I grew up with an exposure to James Stewart, Gregory Peck, even Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple (my youngest brother was in love with her!), Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergmann, Gregory Peck, William Holden, Fred Astair and of course both Audrey and Katharine Hepburn.
My sister has always fancied having an outdoors movie night in Summer. With a sheet strung for the screen and a projector. Sounds like fun...

can you make a dancing face?

loving singing....

and a new haircut!

We Will Remember Them

good things

To show that things haven't been all doom and gloom around here, I'm posting a few random pictures from the weekend.

I came across my two angels sitting together on the deck, chatting away pleasantly. Nothing makes a mum's heart more glad.

I made this granola. Yum! It tastes SO good and it smells divine. David has always made his own yoghurt - they are a perfect match. So are we. ;-) I think I have been eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Audrey helped me to water the garden on Saturday. Each week and I look at her and notice little changes. She is growing up so fast.

I bought the last lot of fabric (the wrapped parcel) and the batting to finish my quilt. I'm really excited about this last step! I also bought fabric to make this for Audrey. Thank you mum, dad, David and Melanie for my wonderful birthday gift vouchers!! They were like treasure in my pocket.

I finished listening to The Forgotten Garden on audio. It was really relaxing, listening to an audio book. I listened to it on the bus to work, I listened to it while I ironed and did other housework. it was a fun story about the sort of adventure I'd like to have. I used to spend a lot of time researching family history.

Now I am reading a Barbara Kingsolver novel when travelling on the bus to work and during my lunchtime. Jane Eyre is my before bed book, the one beside my bed that I pick up before sleep comes. So all in all, things are good.

rollercoasters

I have changed my blog settings so I can see the whole frame in youtube clips. Perhaps I worry too much. I just like everything in its place.
The past week was a rollercoaster ride. When I thought I was despairing of any hope, I read this post. I am surprised the way Ann often posts something that speaks right to where I am in my life. Without all the horrible details of the cranky mum I have been, I stop to think about how much what I am feeling shows on my face in the day. How much my frustration can easily escape my lips. Again i endeavour to do better, be better. i'll am grateful for her post as it enabled me to step back and take a moment to breathe. Even today, when i check, she continues to speak my heart here.
In the days when things were less rocky I escaped a little with Jane Eyre - a 2006 adaptation that mum lent me. As I discovered earlier this year with Wuthering Heights, finally there is an adaptation worthy. Because youtube can now be seen properly, here is the end scene.



I am now under pressure to finish the book before Bronte-along begins Wuthering Heights, which will be fun as it is a book that made a big impression on me. Mum has spoilt me over the past couple of weeks with the Orsen Wells adaptation of Jane Eyre, and the Shop Around the Corner (the movie 'You've Got Mail' was based on) so I have enjoyed 1930's-40's cinema. :)
Tonight I am going to be productive and get my ironing done, while listening to the last hour of an audio book. Then I am ready to start a new week, fresh of mistakes.

i miss Silent Witness!!

(and i wish i knew how to change the margins in blogger so it stops cutting youtube clips in half!)

you can't have too much fun

yesterday David took Nicholas and Audrey to the circus. i spoke to them on the phone after and i don't think i have ever heard Nicholas speak so quickly or excitedly. they loved it - the lions, the clowns, the trapeze... and Audrey, who is a fussy little eater, ate a whole dagwood dog! now we know what will work, deepfried food and tomato sauce! :)

museums

today was an unusual one. various activities took the family apart from each other for a few hours this morning. Nicholas had a friends birthday party. at the dinosaur museum, so he was very excited. David took him along, but he preferred to wheel himself around, which is quite cute. it inspired him to turn the family room into his own dinosaur museum, and i had to go on a tour, so took my camera. :) i had registered to attend the 30th anniversary of interpretation at Lanyon Homestead. mum and dad looked after Audrey for me, so she was able to spend a bit of time helping her grandparents in the garden.
i think i have mentioned Lanyon a few times in this blog. i really should have started using tags earlier... i first volunteered as a guide at Lanyon Homestead when i was 15. i did a year 10 school assignment on Lanyon, and later in university wrote a conservation plan on the family cemetery. i was interested to learn today that the historic houses trust has funding to do some work on the cemetery, which is located on the working property, surrounding the homestead. there were three speakers on the topic of local history in a national context, a presentation on the restoration work undertaken at lanyon and from a much loved former curator, a talk on 30 years of the house museum. - she was very supprotive of my interests in history, curatorship and museum management when i was younger. while i was at university i worked with her (this time paid work) in various historic house museums. it was nice that she remembered me today - even though it was (gulp) over 20 years since we firat met. when i first arrived we had a cup of tea and a danish. the perfect setting, and a blissful couple of hours on my own - even if it was listening to lectures. i even had some time to read a book. see how easy i am to please?!
as David had the camera, pictures can be seen on the Lanyon website.

finding joy

Nicholas had his x-ray today and his femur is moving back into place, so he won't need surgery ~ a relief for me. his dinosaur books are keeping him occupied today.while we were home waiting, Audrey collected some eggs. she also picked a "flower". even though she still had bed hair, i thought she looked cute.

we watered our small vegetable garden. i planted the cabbage, spinach, beetroot and broccoli on the last weekend before it is apparently "too late". my fingers are crossed.

yesterday i made a cross between SouleMama's gratitude journal, and the drawing wallet that i made for the kids. now i will have something to keep cards, notes and stamps in. so i won't have an excuse whenever i think "i should send a card!"

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last week i happened upon an entry in a blog, which was just lovely. it was about gardening. it was about a simpler approach to life. all that appeals to me. i was enjoying reading random entries, looking at pictures when i came to the last entry, from the author’s husband:

It is with the deepest sadness that I must tell you that my beautiful and beloved wife Elspeth died on Thursday 25th March aged 48.
She brought her family and friends so much happiness during her short life and she loved to share some of the things that brought her happiness through her writing. She was loving, warm, wonderful and generous and she will be missed by many.

i wondered what had happened to her, and clicked on the link to her obituary. it told of an enchanted life - writing, travel, gardens and love. then i read the last sentence:

She always counted herself lucky to have been able to make a career from writing about what she loved. In recent weeks, however, she had been suffering from an extreme depression; she took her own life last Thursday.
She is survived by her husband and their young daughter, Mary.

i was shocked. i went back and read the last entry she wrote, and her last column. this has lingered in my mind over the past few days. i wonder how someone can feel so low, so discouraged, so despondent and hopeless that they could take their own life? when i saw that she left a husband and a 5 year old daughter i found it even more difficult to comprehend. such a tragedy. reading her past articles in the London Times, even after only a few days of coming across her writings, i find it hard to believe that someone was here one moment and now although i read their words, they are gone.
last night our bible study was on joy. it saddens me that there are people who know no joy. i am grateful that i have a hope, and that even in times when i have been low, i have my faith and a husband and children who inspire me and whom I love dearly.

He is Risen

it didn't quite feel like Easter this year... we had a long long weekend. it was an enjoyable one, but a busy one. David's mum had her 60th birthday on Saturday night, which David and his cousin catered for. that meant David was out of the picture for Friday and Saturday. on Sunday there was an early lunch with relatives who had travelled some distance to be here, which meant we didn't attend a service on Easter Sunday. and another lunch was held yesterday to welcome a cousin from overseas, who is visiting briefly. Dave's uncle from the farm invited us to visit any time. i am hoping as soon as the semester is over we can get away for a long weekend. then we will return at shearing time, in September.

in the morning Nicholas asked to have an Easter egg hunt, with the chocolate they had received from friends and family. we now have a cupboard full of chocolate, as my kids love receiving eggs, and especially enjoy finding them, but don't seem interested in eating them!

tomorrow will be back to work - i can't imagine what has built up over the past few days, and with three staff currently overseas i dread what might be waiting for me!

what's a girl to do?

this morning we sat outside in the glorious sunshine. Nicholas wanted to take some photos with my camera. he randomly pointed the camera in all directions and kept clicking away... i was quite impressed. here are some of his shots:

~ his foot

~ his dad

~a butterfly on his teacup ~the kids cubby house

~me reading

we have a busy weekend ahead of us - David's mum is having her 60th birthday party this weekend, so there are lots of family members coming into town. before all the activity begins though we thought we'd take the kids for a walk around the local lake. it was wonderful just to take a bit of time out to be together.Audrey really wanted to give her big brother a push! i've really noticed she seems to have "grown up" just a bit more in the past week. she has taken to putting all of her soft toys in her little pram and pushing them around the house. she talks to them as she sits them down on chairs, or makes them tea. i have to admit it is cute seeing her do those little "girl things".

she is still a scally wag though - she loves collecting the eggs while Nicholas is indisposed. i can see i'm going to have to have a roster for the chore when he is better!

the other day i was taking pictures and asked her to smile for me. she came and sat in front of me and did her first official "pose"

she loves twisting the swing until she is dizzy.