On the first day of August
Which now seems light years away

It being the last month of official Winter in Australia.

I was wishfully speeding the approaching Spring on
to valiantly burst out of Winter’s very tight coat

Apple blossom finally bursting from its tight winter coat now in October

So,

I took a stroll with one of the grandsons
A quick walk before the early winter darkness encroached
Because little boys need to wind down for sleep soon

Hand in hand for a run up the winding path to our little park

Quickly a swing, a slide and another swing

See the street lights are flickering on
Time to run back

But wait, what a find

Usually all finds end up in little hands

Look at this leaf

It is mine

I carefully hold it by the stalk
and selfishly do not give it to my little companion

It is mine

Much too precious to share
Brim full of the essence of life

Then that very night
Photographed under mean kitchen lights
A fluke of a picture

The rivers of life
Days and nights of weather encapsulated in one single leaf
Alone on the path

Leaf

“I study the leaf veins
they are little streams of life
yearning for the sun
static trees stand sentinel
watching our brief lives go by ” A Poem by Andy Brookes

I sit here now enjoying the afternoon sunshine after this mornings grey gloominess.

The Simple Life.
So easy to find.

May your week be Blessed

#messageinaleaf #momentintime #whatdoyousee #considerthelilly

Preparing for evening

Today the sun does shine beautifully here in Sydney.
Contrast to yesterday when the same sun was out but the wind nearly blew one over. Even sitting here in the kitchen I could hear the wind gusts roaring through some tall gum trees at a park over the road.

I know in some parts of Australia we are expected to receive some bad weather today with flooding that has already been going on for days with its associated heartache.

Considering the wind yesterday we caught a brief lull and managed a quick game of “Rugby” in the back yard with young grandsons. Let’s tackle grandma was the call to which I replied and acted, let’s TICKLE you!

Lucky that they are still only five and under. There will come a time when it’s time to stand at the sidelines and direct!

The sun with its awakening rays bring weeds and flowers alive together in abundance.

Joy for the soul at the mass of riotous colour from easy to grow Nasturtiums, hardy Calendulas, bright Geraniums and tough Heartsease.

Raised Garden

Easy to grow but patience required during the long dark days of winter with Roses in hibernation.
Note to self – plant some of the above earlier and and do an extra later planting too. I’ve had to prune some of the nasturtiums back a bit today….no pain no gain

As we have only been in this house for three seasons next year I will know how this garden grows and flowers. I am really hoping the Figaro Dahlias come back again from their corms as they were brilliant last year. I was able to cut them back twice and got Dahlias on Steroids as my daughter called them

Calendula and Heartsease

Heartsease thriftily divided , one nice plant into four and then again as they grew
Calendulas price slashed and nursed along from sad straggly seedlings. These are tough. It’s the first time that I have grown these.
Nasturtiums were grown from seeds
Geraniums from cuttings. As they grow I take more cuttings from the “Mother Bush”.
“Big Red” a much appreciated gorgeous potted geranium left behind by the previous owner. Fabulous for colour in the drab of Winter

Hedge Trimmer at work

The warmth brings the hedges out of their slow and dormant growth. Time for a green haircut by my man and his garden toys.

So too does the warmth bring out our little grandsons when visiting. They love to poke, prod, dig, cut and chop in the garden all under the supervision of either myself or grandpa dear.

We did miss them though with their chatter when we attended to some gardening chores last weekend.

“Chicken Heads”

The easiest of craft activities if little hands become tired of wearing disposable gloves just like Grandma for digging.
Fill them with soil instead and get Grandma to tie a knot. Instant chickens that do not need feeding.

Now the afternoon sun causes the kitchen to glow as it illuminates and makes the yellow Nasturtiums appear translucent in their vase on the window ledge. These are complimented beyond the window by the golden hedge on our boundary and a golden tree in its Spring coat.

Did I say that I love Spring!

Hope you all have a good day.
Find something to lift your spirit even if only briefly.
Pause a while.

Sun soaked Orange Blossom’s sweet perfume

Glamping. A child’s perspective …

We have fun glamping

We have the glamping tents up lots
It’s real cool

Raining or sunny

They are so much fun

A place to chill

Or pretend,

‘specially us boy cousins

That’s the very “bestest fun”

All you need are sheets and cushions

LOTS

Grandma always has heaps for us to play with
They are her old sheets for fun stuff

Maybe even Grandma’s patchwork quilt if we can get it before she looks

We can make a BIG tent with LoTS of sheets for us ALL
We can make LITTLE tents for one person

We use Grandma’s laundry Airer and lots of pegs
You have to fix the sheets to stay there
Grandma pegs the sheets to lots of things
Like the door handles and hooks on the wall and clips it in the windows

It’s funny when Grandma has to crawl in the tent ’cause she is big

We go Glamping on grandma’s back verandah.

No pause button here. Beautiful endless youthful energy. Precious.

Because “us” boys have discovered that with a click we have our own “house” When the adults were talking we giggled and locked our door
“Hmmm…unlock the door please” they said

But that’s no fun!

We can make a HUGE tent outside too in a tree that has pink flowers in the hot sun. It has a funny name. Grandma knows what sort it is.

Really fun this sort of Glamping

We just have to get to Grandpa and Grandma’s house….

“Please can we go mum”

Find me also on Facebook

Winter is on its way

Wishing with all my heart that I could paint…
Longing to paint and capture that emotion

Holding our youngest grandson recently

At one with the calm Australian bush scene before me

Quietly standing sheltered from the rain
Under the pattering metal roofed verandah

Falling big plops of rain
Dripping from the corrugated iron roof edge
Splashing on the bottom step
One footstep away

Little fingers outstretched and reaching
Little brain processing that new-found sensation
Cold rain in an endless stream of splashing
Splashing on a tiny hand

Watching
Escapee hens enjoying new-found freedom
Speckled, black, white
Iridescent red with browns
Leading endlessly long charmed lives
For now
No fox getting near enough for a taste

Escapee Long Legs

In the rain
Sparkling orbs of reflected light
Rain drops on lush green grass

Clucking hens pecking merrily away
Beady eyes endlessly searching
Then darting for that perfect morsel
Around and under and over
an abandoned for now toy car
Brightest of primary hues
Yellow, red and blue,
Little Tykes, a pedal powered car

Like a artists paint palette before us
Those vibrant and clashing hues
Eye popping in the ozone charged air

Nature versus man-made
It’s own tapestry creating

My arms were full of a sweet munchy little boy
…so precious

With no room for camera
…so sad

No candid shots today

Memory snap shots will have to suffice
So too that all surrounding Earthy, clean washed and lingering remembered scent

No “wow” for all the world to exclaim over

But

A simple still moment

Try it

Savour it

Food for the soul

Balm

Savour that moment today because these ever rolling years have wings and stop for none…they run without a pause button

Time is like a child, it runs

Indeed wings as I found.
This draft was prepared near a year ago and only published now

It was a time of rain

As the Flower of the field, it toils not nor spins…

Cherish each day

A last burst of summer sunshine to gladden the heart

Embrace the seasons and stages of life
Finding joy and beauty where you may

#savour-the-moment

Such has been life….

Moving into another house. Loving it here. A snip of a Rose here, finding a home for this. Food for a group , or just for one. Trying out this magic Thermal cooking machine the Bellini Intelli and Skinnymixers recipes or filing these papers(sigh).

Oh the garden is calling me again.

Sad to see the roses slowly finishing their season in the sun

Thinking of dear ones who are not with us any more, or ageing mother far away.

Time marching on.

Are we really that old?
I am young inside.
Yet today I seem to creak.

Fun visiting the farm

Were we ever that young?

But go it has!

I was reading through some old diary notes and this one struck a chord. March 2015. Fourteen long months ago.

Utter joy

U.N.F.O.R.G.E.T.A.B.L.E

Fast forward to yesterday morning.
Walking in the Botanic Gardens.

Two older preschool cousins and little Austin walking across rustic stepping-stones. Perfectly placed for little boys.

Us Singing songs, counting steps, pretending being on a bridge in a creek. I say “Can you hear the water?”
But children have such imagination with no prompting needed from adults!
I turn around and see…
Boys lying on stones , pretending to be on the deck of a boat.
Toes to head, head to toes.
Three little bodies all in a row

Repeat again and again.

Singing the ABC song as the stones were stepped upon.

Following the leader and singing the song. Little Austin chiming in and singing too….Bailey stopping mid stride and looking at me as if to say “how can little Austin know this song” ….

In all seriousness he wisely said “I learned him the song”

Infinitely P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S.

Just an ordinary day sharing morning tea.
Definitely not ordinary.

Finding a thing of beauty through the eyes of a child.

Budding artist and his abstract number flowers

Courtesy Pennywise@morgueFile free photos

My kitchen table
Bare feet
Perfect for sitting and thinking
Door open to the back garden
Slight breeze from outside
Slow whirling fan on the other side

How blessed

Washing on line showing off its drying flip flying dance

Courtesy SavaMatkovitch@morguFile free photos

I can just sit and ponder
At nature, even in a small suburban back yard
Dreaming of the country

There is nothing earth shattering here
Just peace and contentment
Clean and fresh scented sheets for this evening

Now a battered straw hat by my feet
A garden inspected and watered
New growth shooting forth from recently planted hedging

Mud dauber wasps with their dangling long legs
Searching for that perfect bit of mud and soil
Ponderously flying like a water laden fire fighting plane
In orange and black hues
Beware they say to me

Thinking back

Where have the years gone
Our very first experience of grandparent hood
Joy and adventure
Seventeen years and a few days
The birth of our first granchild, Renee

Courtesy GaborfromHungary@morgueFile free photos

A new era
Precious
All of them
Family

My five minutes of contentment on this day
Enjoyed doubly by writing
Hoping you too found a moment to pause.

Joining With some Grace
For Flog Yo Blog on Fridays

We wouldn’t have it any other way
Wonderfully blessed
Making memories

AUSTRALIA DAY AT HOME
Jan 26 2015

A hard day here
Sitting on the back verandah on this Australia Day

Australia a land of contrasts indeed…
Deep fried in the intense heat yesterday
Grey, cool and overcast today
Wishing it was a trifle warmer with the sun showing its face
( we are never ever satisfied are we! )

Egg and bacon breakfast cooked by husband dear
Minding two grandies in their parents home
Children happy and content
Grandparents enjoying the luxury of a Verandah

Savouring the view over green lawn to surrounding bush
The old lush mulberry tree
Listening to the birds and their different melodies trying to out sing each other
Hearing the old hens give their distinct call

You know this is a home to a busy family
Basketball on the lawn
Tractor truck on the verandah
Bags of potting mix next to plants waiting to be potted

Long strips of curled up bark from the gum tree lying on the veranda from a made up and now discarded game of hop scotch (grandma did not want to be the first to draw with chalk on newly re painted decking)

Little boy calling out, grandma, I’m hungry

Joys of being a grandparent in this little corner of Australia

Our laid back Australia Day

Duck eggs by taliesin @ morgueFile free photos. With thanks

Duck eggs and Memories.

Duck eggs are fantastic for Gluten free baking according to a friend because the eggs are so rich!

Google “duck eggs” and you will find that there is an abundance of information from how to keep and raise ducks to cooking with duck eggs and Gluten free cooking.

Jamie Oliver the down to earth very popular cook gives a lot of cooking information. My mother too used them and a favourite of mine was her tray of Streusel cake which was a layer of plain cake topped with a thick layer of lumpy delectable streusel. Mother used the duck eggs for general baking because they were so large and given to us for free. I don’t think we ever ate them as scrambled or such, yet some people do like them.

A glance at a photograph of Duck Eggs sent to me some time ago on Facebook set off an avalanche of MEMORIES from my primary school years during the 60′s.

Photo by phaewilk@morgueFile free photos. With thanks

Living at “Bradley House” in Stirling in the beautiful Adelaide Hills.
Our old landlord Mr Voden. A Scotsman with a rumbling burr, his accent hard to understand at times.

He lived next door on a long property with the house near the top of the hill. There was a very narrow twin track drive way of white crushed limestone going from Mt. Barker Road all the way up to their house. Then a small narrow bridge linked the two properties near the main road. This is where my father would enter to park his motor bike (brought with us from Germany when we migrated). That narrow plank bridge went over a tiny creek which was an overflow from a spring.

In winter dad would have to be careful pushing his bike across as the wood became slick with frost….starting that bike six mornings a week was the local alarm clock for 7am . It was also our family’s mode of transport when dad put the sidecar on.

These were the days before town water was connected for the house and garden. We depended on rain water tanks which in summer sometimes needed to be filled by the fire Brigade with water from elsewhere. Also two wells, one of which ran dry in summer. All watering was done by hand with a watering can. Mr Voden I seem to recall had a small dam with some sort of small generator pump.

Thinking back now and wishing that I could wander along with Mr Voden because he had the most amazing array of fruit and vegetables. Also bees, chicken, Bantams, ducks and geese, and possibly pigeons. It was like a huge market garden and he was always out there with his battered hat on his head…I suppose like a Highland Crofter in his home country….and he always brought us something. In retrospect, none of the above I really appreciated as a child.

Red currants, black currants, goose berries, blackberries, apples, quince, rhubarb, spinach,salads. We even ate the darker green leaves of the lettuce; good for iron our mother said as we dutifully swallowed it

Photo courtesy morgueFile free photo by Marcin-Modestowicz

But the most memorable were the RASPBERRIES. Fresh, plump, sweet and soft. Bejewelled Red fruit in a glazed bowl. A bowl that us three girls shared oh so carefully.

The red currants were nice with sugar, but black currants…none of us girls really liked them! Though now I know they are very healthy and I suppose we got our dose of Vitamins. The motto was waste not, and when, as now, families have a lean purse all good foods are used thankfully.

So, back to the present again and an observation.

Homesteading, growing Organic Foods, Sustainable Living, back to basics. These are the modern names given. But for us as children it was a way of life and we knew no different. It was a great way to raise children. There was that sense of adventure, fresh air, open space, simple rural living…then we grew up, moved to the city and life carried on. Nevertheless the love of gardening was entrenched….and I have my tiny patch of herbs and such to give me joy.

Now over to you dear readers. What memories have you recently been taken back to.

Till next time, and to be continued…
Alexa

Joining in with Essentially Jess for IBOT

Thanks to Self Sufficient Home Acre for this link providing some interesting reading about duck eggs and much more…happy reading
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/10/how-to-use-duck-eggs.html

Courtesy anitapeppers@morgueFile free photos

Thoughts from this day
Yesterday the shortest day for us Down Under
Today a grey and dismal dawning
Yet…Later graced by sun to warm and skies of blue

Hearing of dear old friend passing
Yet…Remembering about his many deeds and kindnesses
Realizing that the years roll on for all, young and old alike
One moment we are young and rushing yet in a flash we are old

Courtesy click@ morgueFile free photos

A motivational quote I read this week…

“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to respond…”

Then at Worship being reminded to bear one another. Be kind, be useful, sympathetic, to listen and be patient. These too being the building blocks of family life.

Then being cheered by memories of little children, their laughter, their chatter and exuberance of a life . Their innate inquisitiveness….being brave when a jumpy cricket appears dead…touching it …but it gave a little hop…startled little chappy then bounding in one leap with both feet into my lap and us just about ending in a pile on the floor in laughter. Acrobatic little boy on scooter showing how it’s done with ease.

Run with me, read me a story, stand THERE and throw the Frisbee, kick the ball, watch me, see me, catch me, hello, I’m here, you’re back! Can I come in YOUR car, I want MY bed, where’s MY pillow, I can do it!

Family is precious. Embrace them and keep them close….
Yes?

Courtesy hotblack@morgueFile free photos

Impressions…
Winter fruits in a bowl
Bringing cheer

A cold South wind
Bringing Snow on the Alps
Silently falling on some high flung Snow Fields
For skiing enthusiasts
For me though, I must find that oh so lightweight merino wool wrap cardigan from Aldi purchased for a song
Ah, yes, it’s lovely and warm to take with me to Worship

Later observing other peoples impressions as I drive home

Find and soak up that spot of sunshine sheltered from the wind
Watching young children run round and playing
Young hot blooded fun in sports attire
With hair blowing and streaming behind
Yelling and laughter
Whilst us oldies watch pulling collars up round our ears
Indeed also tightly wrapping jackets closer and wishing for that hot coffee

Courtesy pippalou@morgueFile free photos

Seasons of the year and cycles of life, constantly changing
One moment young and in a blink it seems we are old

Greyest of lowering skies at the start of day
Ending with teasing hues of vermillion and orange sunset

Courtesy hotblack@morgueFile free photos

To the blackness of night on a Sunday in winter

Courtesy hotblack@morgueFile free photos

To rest and peace, preparing for a new week inside homes we are blessed to be able to warm.

By Alexa

Awesome photos by hotblack & pippalou of morgueFile free photos