Christmas

Home made apricot jam on sourdough toast for breakfast. VERY nice. We only used half the recommended amount of sugar so the flavour whilst still sweet, is heavy on fruit and slightly tart. There's more on the stove today. 10 kg in all. From 1 small tree. How happy we are to be peasants in Little Calabria.

I got through my audition! I sang like a strangled bird (I thought) due to nerves but obviously it wasn't that bad! Going back to school. Music school. Quietly excited I am. It scares the shit out of me but I can't imagine doing anything else. Except run a goat farm. Which isn't going to happen right now but might someday be funded by a late but brilliant musical career. Spoken like a true Sagittarius.

Martin finished his business course, and has a blog now too; The Urban Hive.

We went to see The King's Speech last night. Great film - wonderfully restrained acting with appropriately restrained humour. Then we bought a bottle of wine and came home and got tipsy and listened to the best of Bowie. After we gushed over how unbelievably cool a song Sorrow is, we laughed about what our children might think of it some day. Will they think Bowie completely naff?....Surely not....it's BOWIE man!!! The fact that Bantam Boy digs Dylan, gives me great hope Dette.

Time to stir the jam, plant a baby Jesus in the Nativity manger and think about Christmas Stockings...

WITH YOUR LONG BLONDE HAIR.... I COULDN'T SLEEP LAST NIGHT.......

trees and jam

Our apricots got a bit water logged so we picked them this morning - around 8 kilos. They actually taste great despite not having the chance to ripen on the tree.



Martin improvised scales - rustica genius.

Fruit now on the stove becoming jam.

December

I turned this much. There was champagne, ginger beer and strawberries, words of love and appreciation, and verily the cake was good.


The Christmas Fairy made herself known. She shall be known as Trixie. And she shall NOT forget to visit.







Our garden is going berserk thanks be to the tropical weather and the tender loving care largely bestowed upon it by He Who Mows Without Complaint.




The Good Stuff from aforementioned garden. You cannot imagine the flavour of the warm honey until you too get down on hands and knees and lick it off the concrete.


Our dear friends are getting married - and we have been sewing bunting.


My little guy will finish kinder and move onward to school...he cruised through orientation along with the other 18 siblings in his prep class, like nothing could be more normal. May it be that way when he realises he'll be there 5 days a week....May I be so relaxed about it too for that matter.

And I have an audition next week - for music school. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH. I'm quietly freaking out. Last time I auditioned for anything I was young free and single. I had nothing to do but prepare, focus, dream and feel that I could just folk rock the house down. I'm counting on Life Experience, Annie Lennox and a bit of a 'trumpet solo' to get me through. And I'm hoping that the shiner I am currently sporting from having collided with the back of my child's head on the weekend, will be gone by Thursday.

November

October

Elias's (neighbour) tomato gifts - 'These are good. Yours - no good. Get rid of them. Plant these!" We have landed in old Europe here. It's fantastic - the neighbours grow things too, they keep animals, they make wine, they wander up and down the street visiting and sharing stories and cuttings and produce, our lovely Calabrian landlord has 20 sheep out of town. Martin has requested to join him at shearing time. These things make us very, very happy.



Our chickies got et by a fox. It was a little devastating for the wee ones to find them decapitated come egg collection time. A maximum security chook house is now under construction.




Martino and I drove to Adelaide sans enfants. We pitched tent in Dimboola along the way. We did not argue during pitching of tent. Apparently it is customary for couples to encounter some degree of conflict during such an activity. I regard this as porTENTous of camping bliss for years to come. In freshly and amicably erected tent we drank a shot of brandy and listened to the rain, and passed out. What can I say. We like to party.

In Adelaide we visited family and friends. I received official approval from the Inner Circle. To be sure now it couldn't be otherwise given that we all have ancestors from County Antrim.
We went for a walk at Morialta. Glorious.

Listened to Clancy Brothers and Dubliners on the road.

Martin's beautiful hand crafted top bar bee hives.


A visit to the old ranch.



Seed sowing for the vege patch.


(Almost)Blue sky and blossoms at last.

Listening to: Bawdy Irish songs

things about the house

An afternoon to ponder, potter, peruse and paint a wee bit. Contemplating what I might do next year while Beau is at school - my own business and/or some study. right now I work two days a week at the store and I love it. We have a lovely warm, light work room here. I like being in it, having all the necessary 'tools' at hand.
Martin has been working on the garden of some friends, a lovely job for lovely people, building an enclosure for chickens and espaliering fruit trees...
Our life is busy in the way that a family is naturally busy, but simple and in a good rhythm more and more. We are a resourceful pair and our aesthetic and work ethic reflects all these things.


Listening to The Highland Sessions on Youtube

This is what the sky gave us last week. According to my friend in Byron Bay, this kind of cloud 'conceals motherships observing life on earth'....


Misa's belly being blessed/anointed/gazed upon and filled with treats..







Mostly it's all about the garden,planting fruit trees - apple, apricot and plum and herbs and relishing the sunshine.
On Sunday night at 11.30pm I witnessed the beautiful birth of our friends' (Misa and Maurice) daughter Evalina, at their home outside the city. Such a precious thing to be present to, so powerful and fragile and miraculously ordinary...

Listening to Led Zeppelin "Going to California" live from 1977, on youtube

digging in

We've been here for two weeks and already we have made our mark on the plot. Like good peasants we are making sure the animals are happy and productive and that there will be ample food in the ground. This bed is for perennials, herbs, flowers and a fruit tree on either end - apricot and apple. Down in the chook run there are chestnut, pear and olive trees and a fig hanging over from the neighbour's side. We will put in a big vege patch in front of the chooks and grow along the fence line too. There's lots of space. Martin co established the bio dynamic farm and tended the animals at Ceres some years ago so our garden is in very good hands.

We are finding our rhythm together as a blended family. It's challenging but worth it to have our relationships develop and to feel the strength of commitment and the pleasure to be had for us all. Life seems to be a constant practice in letting go - in even just understanding what needs to be let go of!

Contemplating the need for some more work and possibly some study next year. Can't garden and paint the days away just yet.....