Oods turns 7

  Please remind me, the next time I decide to make something completely new for a birthday that is fast approaching, that it is a bad idea. This bloody doll took so many hours, and so many hours more than expected. Definitely more hours than the book made out, and by the time I was half-done I was regretting my decision not to make a Waldorf doll (only made because the floods came, and I didn’t know whether the stuff I needed to buy online would arrive in time). 

  So, hello Blossom, as she was christened by her young friend. I made her using the patterns in The Complete Pattern Book of Soft Dolls, and The Fairytale Doll Book, both by Valerie Janitch. I used one dolls head on anothers body. She is about half hand sewn, which I totally suck at, and couldn’t predict from the patterns and instructions-one reason I got so grumpy at them. She was meant to be more of a Feral Sheryl type doll, but on the birthday eve i’d had enough of wrestling with the slippery stuff needed for her fairy outfit so went with the safe cotton option of a pioneer type dress. Doesn’t really match the rainbow dreadlocks, but oh well.

  Luckily she was well-received, she’s carried around a lot and gets taken to bed each night. Oods is not as keen to make her clothes as I thought she would be-she’s having a break in enthusiasm for sewing right now, and has only made her one ribbon skirt.

  She was not as well-received as her other present, however.

An umbrella.

  Yes, an umbrella. Something she had been coveting for months-so much in fact, that when we ran into Santa while out, an umbrella was her request. (Along with a rocking horse and a new workbook from the other two girls-yep, my kids are deadset weirdos. So pleased).

A marble cake, with requested icing writing (also not my forte) was the cake of choice. Yes, we really do call her Oods all the time.

  A trip to the rockpools rounded out the day, with much chasing and capturing the local wildlife, but of course leaving them unscathed (except maybe mentally). This guy was so angry!

Gardening, rental style.

We have really moved in here. To the point where the first question neighbours have been asking is whether we’ve bought it. We’ve been so transient for so long, but my spirit of adventure has been thoroughly beaten from me. I don’t want to travel, or go on any holidays longer than three days that take more than four hours to get to. I’d rather lounge around at home-trust me, it’s a massive step for me.

Food gardens are a must-have now, they’ve gone beyond a hobby to something I need to have. They’re in the same league to me as televisions are to most people-I cannot imagine life without food growing around me. Plus pottering around checking out new growth and paying close attention to what’s happening is immensely relaxing and a great way to slow down and defrag my head when i’m feeling frantic.

Which is why within a week we had transformed this ratty front garden of weeds and ugly plants into something productive. We did cheat a bit-we pulled up a lot of seedlings from the property and transplanted them. Insta-garden! There’s many mature edible trees here, a macadamia, lychee, guava, lemon and an overhanging mango tree, plus our rear neighbour keeps giving us bags of mandarines. I do love old suburbs for their productive trees, mock oranges and other crap featured in designer gardens that has been developed specifically NOT to feed us, as if fresh fruit is a problem, does my head in.

In the back corner of the yard was accumulated years of garden crap-as well as three trailerloads to the tip I also found a garden bed which i’ve green manured ready for a pumpkin patch, a rampant Monstera Deliciosa of which the base has been found and potted up (never eaten it but there’s one in town i’m planning to raid when it’s mature), piles of compost and leaf mould and some fantastic concrete garden edging. The latter three, along with newspaper to smother the grass, food scraps and straw have made this bed.

The leaf mould also held less wanted prizes, like four of these strange little burrowing snakes. Four! Anyone know more about them? They’re about 30cm long, with no discernable neck and a blunted tail, and were living under the dirt.

This one tied itself into a knot.

OK, since I started posting this i’ve quizzed the neighbour, who told us they’re legless lizards. They actually have tiny little useless legs a bit behind their head, but as these can’t be seen unless you’re really close, we didn’t see them. And their tails fall off.

But now we know, we can play with them. It’s still rather disconcerting to have your child run upstairs with what looks very much like a snake in her hands. But still much preferred to the giant centipedes we got at the property-I found this pic of one that made it’s way into our tent when it was airing after camping. Seriously, these were about 30cm long. They freak me out.

OK, I wandered off there for a little bit-but the gardens have begun!

Today.

  Mother's Day. Last year, it did not happen. We'd just moved here, we were putting in huge days trying to settle in and fix everything and it all seemed too hard. So we just ignored it. The kids are rather confused, because they know there should have been another one, but they haven't yet twigged on to the fact that we just skipped it last year.

 

And for them, every occasion is an excuse to craft. Stuff the cards this year, they decided a banner would be better. Each letter is decorated with something different from the property, from bark to fluffy grass seeds to garlic chives. It's so gorgeous. It's hanging in the lounge room. I also got the requisite brekky in bed, now they're older i've been upgraded from burnt toast with massive wodges of unspread butter to quite passable scrambled eggs-the first one I haven't had to choke down with the husband sniggering at me in sadistic pleasure.

 

 My posy of flowers, grown by them in their very own fairy garden.

It was also an excuse to get some gardening done-well, I pottered around doing not much but the husband was busy. I did totally reorganise the seed collection, which is shamefully huge. We can't stop buying them-the potential! Now just to grow a reasonable number of them..............

 We also broke our record for frogs found in the trees' watering pipes, nine swam to the top in this one next to the lilly pilly

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And while there was a craft day had by all the children (is there any other sort of day to be had?) G outdid herself with her fairy tipi. I love older kids. She spent over an hour on this, working out how to assemble it and putting it all together. I'm going to have to point her in the direction of fairy furniture making materials and ideas tomorrow. Note the fluffy grass seeds on the ground.

The sign she created for it-it's hung on the top using some knotted grass. 

I also altered some boring jeans for myself to make them super-funky, but i'd lost the camera by that stage so they'll have to wait to be shown off. I'm getting my groove back now I know i'm not going to be changing sizes every week!

Hope everyone had a day as fantastic, idyllic and full of love as I did.

Native Bees and other ramblings.

Native bees were always something we wanted to get, and luckily for us when we bought this place there was already a hive here-I think they're trigonia carbonaria. You don't get any honey from these little guys (well, you can, but it's in very small amounts and quite difficult to get, but apparently the taste is fantastic) but they are absolutely fantastic pollinators. And they don't sting, but do bite, as the husband discovered when he went to have a poke around in their hive, and got a headful of them in his very thick, very black hair.

They spend much of their time on the perennial basil, but as you can see above they're also partial to the kids portaluca. For those who know the plant yes the bees are tiny compared to honeybees, and miniscule compared to bumblebees-about 4mm long.

AussieBee are a great resource and also sell hives.

AND..........i've just stumbled across what looks to be an good homeschooling blog, Camp Creek Blog.  I've been mostly devouring Montessori resources lately so this is refreshing, and still my style.

It also seems i'm not the only one having a busyness hissy fit, it's a common theme-check out here and here. I'm feeling much better already, and think I understand deschooling perfectly now. I'm deworking myself. I've found myself slobbing around reading chicklit and lots of otherwise aimless stuff, but my mojo is beginning to show signs of reappearing. I have strictly shut myself up whenever i've started to berate myself for not jumping straight into all the personal projects I wanted to do, and just done whatever i've felt like. It's working!

But I did make this

A crocheted headband to celebrate getting my old 'do back again.

And I really need to stop rambling now-this was only supposed to be about the bees!

December

And what a hectic month it was-first up there was lots and lots of work to do, hence the totally shameful table.

But I managed to squeeze in finalising the OSFM swim nappy pattern, in amongst the market busyness and custom orders-now just to make some for the site!

 

We had our Land for Wildlife assessment and got our really cool sign, woohoo! Lots of lantana clearing and reading has been a result, with our planning visit due in a few days time.

A goat appeared one day, it's not every day i'm sitting there feeding Frosty and look out the window to see one of them ambling past. He was duly returned to his home a few properties down after overnighting here on a run, luckily before he reached the food forest. Or he would have been chevon.

 We had a broody chook comedy occur (more about that later) and have nine chicks as a result. So cute!

Which necessitated the building of a mini chook dome, much more successful result than the Linda Woodrow one (more about that later too).

 Bella and Daisy the geese joined the family.

The food forest area has been pimped and is loving the rain that finally arrived-the resident brush turkey is a fan of the renos too.

The fairy garden was also pimped after the chooks turned it into a wasteland-it is now fenced as we try to come up with the final housing solution for them. The solar lanterns automatically turn on at dusk, which has been taken as concrete proof that fairies are there.

Christmas crafts and baking, with much camera slackery.

 

 

And sewing presents-five stocking to replace their ratty old bought things they had.

 

A Chickummyjig for F, which he ignores and the other kids adore.

 

Plus aprons and a pair of shorts each for the older four, more camera slackery.

Lots of playing with presents, but I only do it because the kids love it. You wouldn't catch my by myself. Never. *snort*

 

My babe turned one, and i'm still thinking it's all up from here :P

 Plus a few trips to the beach, a pile of tie-dyeing, renovating the kids room and half the kitchen and lots more gardening and general tidying of the property, it's finally starting to look like a home.

And this is why the blogging is sloooow-looking at the above i'm surprised at how much we've managed to cram into one short month!

More of our new friend.

Amazing how much better a real camera does than a phone.

 

It's about a metre from the front door in the first pic, right outside its front door. It's sort of like a pet now, obviously not a sleep on your bed type pet, but I admit I may talk to it...................

The new neighbour.

Yellow spotted monitor (i'm pretty sure, anyway). A rather young one, based on how much bigger the adults we've seen around are. It's taken to living under the concrete and chasing the chooks.