May

For some reason I haven't been able to upload photos for a couple of weeks. I suspect my dinosaur of a computer is to blame. Oh well. Here are some photos of May bits and pieces. What a lovely May you have been. All that unexpected warmth and sun. So busy I have been that to just catch your rays on bicycle trips from A to B has been a daily treat. I have lots of teaching work! Music, music, music; singing, piano, guitar, ukulele. Lots of fun. Lots of planning. Good for me. Very Grown Up.

I have been knitting a good deal, late at night, with a cup of tea, when I'm not reading (right now - The Twelve, by Justin Cronin, sequel to The Passage; apocalyptic, virus mutates humans into Zombie-Vampires , Brave New World Order stuff - not my usual choice but so compelling, my word!. Knitting socks for Abuelo - my first attempt, fun and frustrating.And a beret for me that turned out too small but fits Bella perfectly. So just an excuse to knit another, in gorgeous smooshy Malabrigo Worsted. 

We went for a long Sunday drive. To get out of the city. To see some trees, something green all over, space, horizon, baby lambs, eagles. Abuelo drove us all the way out to the Strathbogie Ranges. I'd never been out there before. It's so beautiful. I felt completely smoothed out by it, even if initially slightly overcome. The hills and valleys laid out in the sun, winding white gravel roads, everything soft and peaceful, bucolic. I stood on a hill over-looking glorious farmland and day-dreamed us running down to such a river with the kids, with buckets and wild herbs...One day I hope we can live that big little dream. The kids won't be kids by then. But they might still frolic a bit for the sake of it, with their own kids perhaps!

 

Despite it becoming very wild during our busy May, the garden is offering produce; our first lemons and oranges, garlic, nettles (which in the past we have removed but I now plan to harvest because they make you live forever don't you know!), broccoli, leeks, lettuce and the gift that keeps on giving - Cavelo Nero, which we eat by the kilo daily. I would like there to be more time for digging and weeding and planting. It will come. Winter will arrive. June will slip on over in her dark dress with her icey fingers, and send us inside for days of drawing and knitting and board games but she will let us out now and then to dig around, make a fire...

What are you knitting, planting, adventuring out to?

Autumn knitting

and boating....y'all.....

April

April you absolute winner with your rain and your holidays and chocolate everything.....

I've just read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. I consumed it in a record two sittings/ reclinings (a couple of nights I couldn't sleep so I thought what the heck let's go for broke). It contains most of the elements of what I consider a perfect read; 

• Intelligent, well researched and lyrical prose.
• Glorious descriptions of nature.
• Self-sufficient, rural life, wherein things are made with reverence and skill (and lots of mention of knitting..)
• Wonderful characters preferably belonging to days of yore...(unless they are featuring in a Tim Winton novel)
• Unpredictable dialogue.
• Enough tension and unraveling of narrative but not so as to be a full-blown mystery novel.
• Spiritual/philosophical contemplation.
• Horses.
• Journeys - physical and/or internal.
• And yeah, a bit of lovin'/romance/sexual-emotional tension but not the Rip, Tear, Fondle, Fondle/Barbara Cartland type...

  I'd add dry wit too, if this were a general list.  I've been trawling Literary Award websites for reading inspiration. I always feel a sense of woe at the end of a really good book, in case I won't find another as riveting. I've borrowed so many books from the library that haven't caught me by the first chapter. Word of mouth always works best.

Tell me your top 10 (or more!?) favourite books in the comment section below (so other people can see too). Mine are listed in the page tabs above, and more recent ones to the right here. 

Apart from reading and building a music teaching business, and gazingly longingly at yarn colourways online, April has unfolded something like this -

Bit of tidying up, preparing and planting for winter.

Bit of dyeing for Class 3 - chair bags in fiery (or fruity) hues.

Bit of knitting - not as much as I would like! but fun winter garment making. Camp Out Fingerless Mittens raveled here, and throwing the Dovetail Cowl in the cotton dye bath to see what would happen. Kinda nice, but i think I'll go again with wool dye for a stronger shade.

Oh and you know, a bit of baking because it's raining, and tea, cake and rain go so nicely together. Pear cake. 220g butter. Yep. As my brother maintains (and probably every single French person on the planet) - nothing delicious was ever made without butter.....   What are you planting, knitting, cooking, reading, listening too?                

                            

 

Dear Cedar

The ladies and I were joined by Steph O'Hara (the Blue Grassy Knoll) at CERES last week. Visit Jo for a post of the morning, and check out our Dear Cedar website and blog.

 

March

March goodness;

• Knitting project almost done - another Griffin vest, this time for Bella, ravelled here.
• The last of the summer garden goodies and preparation for winter planting.
• A visit to our friends in the Barmah Forest - fireside cooking, riverside sleeping, bee whispering,  music and yarning (of both kinds...)
• A fabulous kitchen find at a peninsula garage sale.
• The musical undertakings of our chilluns. That family band I dreamed about is just around the corner....

Autumn how I love thee!!!!

I look forward to the change of the season when I get to wipe the blackboard and start afresh; to collect ideas for images and find verses.The kids still refer to my last spring chalkboard as "not your best work...".