The weekend started with an early morning trip to collect wood. The crisp air of Autumn is making for some cool evenings in front of the fire. It was time start the firewood stockpile again, now that most of the snakes have (hopefully) migrated! It was very satisfying to see it all split and stacked.
We spent some time all together in the garden, planting out autumn and winter crops - broccoli, lettuce, spinach and cauliflower. We harvested some of our lovely beetroot to make a lovely, healthy (and interesting looking!) cake from this book and also baked some of our no knead bread.
I also spent some time sewing - a skirt for Ava which unfortunately turned out to be too big! and started cutting out a dress from a pattern that I picked up from the op shop for 50 cents!
It was a lovely family weekend at home - restful, quality time together.
It's been a while since my last post. I seem to have lost my blogging mojo of late. Perhaps it's due to the pace that summer harvest has reached in our garden. That, combined with sewing last minute pirate costumes for birthday parties, and trips to Melbourne to see family. I was thinking that perhaps the blog is all too much and I don't need to put any more pressure on myself to make sure I am posting regularly. So we shall see. I do like to write about our life on the farm and our journey towards the 'holy grail' of self-sufficiency. I do enjoy being part of the blogging community and find inspiration in reading blogs written by others. Perhaps I am a better reader than writer? But when things are so busy here, sometimes the life we have chosen seems all too much - like when a sheep dies, or the garden looks more like a jungle than a productive veggie patch, when the chickens dig up our favourite strawberries and those gorgeous rosella's get more of our fruit harvest than we do. This is when I find myself wondering, is it all too hard? Should we live closer to the city? Find a smaller block? Not have the gut wrenching decisions that go with livestock welfare? I'm still not sure, but for now, in these last few days, it's seemed a little easier, more relaxed and worth the effort. So for your interest and viewing, here are some photo's of our garden haul today - and of course Ava in the pirate outfit!
The frenetic pace of Christmas has arrived! I have been so busy that writing my blog has been put aside. I do love Christmas time and the festive season, but the rush to get things done can be overwhelming at times especially when the social agenda ramps up as well! Catching up with friends is also what makes it so special, but I wish it wasn't concentrated into the three weeks prior to Christmas Day!
Nevertheless, we have found some quiet time at home for making christmas cards, sewing placemats as christmas presents, baking cakes for social afternoon teas(!), catching up on some reading and viewing from the library, making bread, preparing the garden for summer harvest by planting out more vegies as well as spreading crushed rock around the garden beds. Our corn looks like a bumper harvest this year and our Lollo Rosso Lettuces are ready to pick. These days are busy!
Today, Ava was at kinder and Phil at work, so I had the house to myself for a little while which is rare.
As my holidays are drawing to a close, I want to make the most of these last few days and having only myself to please, I enjoyed some morning yoga, followed by picking flowers from the garden (which was quite an adventure today as there's a swooping magpie nesting near the house!)
Then, some sewing. I'm making a quilt for Ava for Christmas. I've had this material cut into squares for a while and thought it's high time I got my act together and started sewing!
I've also let the Spring Cleaning slide a little, so figured I'd better get back on track, and polished the dressing table and chest of drawers in our bedroom as well as clearing out lots of old clothes to take to the salvos.
It's been a good day at home. We are in front of the fire now after watching the Gourmet Farmer, and waiting for part two of The Slap to start.
I'm on holidays - YAY!!. What a luxury it is to be at home! I'm making the most of it and today I took a break from the Spring Cleaning for a spot of cooking and sewing.
I'm loving my new River Cottage Veg book and decided to give the lentil and spinach soup a test run. I replaced the spinach with our homegrown silver beet. It was delicious for lunch with some homemade bread.
Ava's little friends (who are sisters) were celebrating their 2nd and 4th birthdays with a mid week party. I haven't had the chance to sew for a while so I took the opportunity to get out the machine and make each of the girls a skirt so they can be match matchy!
The sewing machine is now out on the table for the duration of my holidays and I intend to spend some creative time sewing up a storm!
