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”

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Courtesy Peonia@morgueFile free photos

Australia is indeed a spacious land. A safe Haven mainly, where we can explore and wander and discover, if we are so inclined.

Courtesy pshubert@morgue file free photos

In the 1950′s Australia was billed as a Land of Milk and Honey to migrants. A land of untapped wealth and needing workers. So they came, to help build the infrastructure and to discover. In a way they were pioneers with sight, prepared to make a better life, learn and work hard in a strange land. They were from all walks of life and prepared to take any work.

Courtesy taliesin@morgueFile free photos

Look at a few of these examples. Migrant City folk who had to learn about the land, agriculture, livestock, farming, animal husbandry. Or farming folk, homesteaders in their own country having to adapt to an extremely different climate. Australia being a land of flood AND drought. A vast land. Then the labourers, brick layers, hardy men on their own hoping to bring family to this new country and working hard to save.

Old Photo courtesy BThomas

Old Photo courtesy BThomas

We were privileged because our family was befriended by kind and generous Australians who taught my parents about the new country. My mother was a city girl and my father knew or had learnt tool making. Both longed for a new safe place to call home, raise a family and were prepared to work for it. So thanks to the family of Mr Malthouse a hard working farmer near Bradbury, South Australia our family started their life in a new country. I feel sad though because as happens in life we lost contact, and this is my mother’s constant regret in her age where she has time to reflect.

I was a child in a strange land and it was only later as adults did we truly realise the blessings we had and have around us. The abundance, even when making do. We knew no different. There was freedom of space to discover and learn.

Courtesy stweedlie@morgueFile free photos

We also learnt that if it rained and we missed the bus to school we had to walk in the rain. There was no car! Instead, with raincoats and gum boots on we set off remembering to beware one particular bend on that narrow road near a Beech Forest in Stirling. A dip in the road where a monstrously long puddle formed next to the footpath. You see we had to strategically plan this stretch because if we didn’t take it at a run from one end to the next we were bound to get drenched. I know I got soaked at least once when I didn’t see a truck approaching the bends. A snaking road past ancient, dark and looming trees on a huge property. Huge and menacing to a child and it hasn’t really changed much now.

Courtesy gracey@ morgueFile free photos

So now a few generations on as my little grandson and I take a walk…

I have learnt how to go walking with toddlers
I have learnt how a grandmother can alleviate cabin fever
I have discovered exercise can be fun

…to be continued in Part 2

Joining in with Our World Tuesdays

morgueFilefree photos

My gratitude for today was being able to go out with all of my grandchildren ages 16 to 3, just me and them. Grandpa has another week of work till his temp work is finished.

Off to the park we went with all the requirements to keep little ones fed and watered and older ones occupied.

Like a long string of colourful beads we wound our way along the footpath. Two scooters and correctly garbed excited little boys. Colourful Bicycle helmets atop sun hats. Cool dark sunglasses on and exposed tender skin slathered with sunscreen for the adventure. Big lads with their scooter and bike in the lead for safety followed by one little scooter after another. Then grandma and sixteen year old granddaughter following each other and running to keep up with the fast fun happening ahead. We are pushing prams for the homeward journey when little scootered out legs are tired!

Scootering is serious business for little boys. Full throttle and whizzing down hills and across a causeway over the creek.

One little boy remembers to stop and listen out for the frogs he heard the other day near the creek. It’s a little bit hard to put your hand behind your ear to listen when you have a sun hat and a bike helmet on. There are no frogs today.

Courtesy binks@morgueFile free photos

Along the track we whizz, one on this side of a split track and me on the other as I try to take short cuts to keep up.

It’s fun. Then there are the many exercise stations dotted around this park where all the boys have to take a turn to try out. Scooters and bikes on the grounds in lazy abandon. The biggest one can manage a high chin up because he has the height of a man but the others still want a go. Little boys are lifted up so they can feel that they are “big” too.

Trying out

Did I say it’s fun?

Now the playground and lunch and playground again and then to watch the eels. Those ugly things living in the lake along with various ducks, moorhens and lone pelican. I wonder where the swan was that lives there? Maybe it was nesting time somewhere in the reeds as it is spring here in Australia. Saw a family of ducks and their brood of ducklings sticking close together ….they weren’t on the agenda for the little boys today. It was a boys, cousins action day of fast fun time.

From here the older boys went home with friends to ride some more bikes at a pace more fitting older lads!

For the little boys then time to head home with grubby little faces and hands that had been washed numerous times already with wipes. They scootered for a while but then into the prams they gladly hopped for their chariot rides home in style. Scooters were slung over the top of prams, helmets on laps and cold bag from the lunch was slung over grandmas shoulder. Along we walked, my granddaughter and I, pushing those prams homeward bound and to brave the territory of that swooping bird again protecting its young…. It was my turn to be bombarded and swooped upon this time. Luckily I had my hat on and only felt its wings crash into me!

I did say it was fun didn’t I! On top of that it keeps me young and moving…although I do admit that I flaked out afterwards at home:)

But most importantly I am ever so grateful to have had the privilege of time to spend with family.

Do you have a small yard for the children?
Do you feel cooped in?
Do make time to find ways to get out in the fresh air and get those legs working. Those lungs pumping and those eyes finding new sights. Discover new horizons, they may be just around a few corners. Listen to the laughter and the yelling. True joy!

Make the time
Take the time
To connect
Have gratitude for today

Courtesy of B Thomas our brother in law. Circa 1955

Courtesy B Thomas our Brother in law. Circa 1955.
Time to connect

This link has some interesting thoughts. I found it when Googling for another meaning of gratitude.

Joining in for a Thankful Thursday

Joining in a bit late for IBOT with Essentially Jess

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

If you allow yourself to open up to others, it becomes a gift – it is a gift to yourself and to others.

A friend is a gift to yourself.

This ancient tree….

I wonder how many people have walked under or by this spreading tree, or observed it from afar wishing they could enjoy its cooling shade on a hot day.

How many scenes, dramas and stories have played out under its canopy. Picnic gathering with a couple or a tribe. Hurried bustle, gentle stroll, children of all ages clambering over those gigantic roots, friendships made and friendships lost or friendships even strengthened.

Being a friend requires a listening ear, which is THE hardest thing to do. We so often cannot wait to offer opinions rather than just listening with that hearing ear. It takes no monetary effort but our conscious effort.

So give that gift to another….because there will come a time when we need a friend in our life.

Now as we know there are different depths of friends as there are different types of people and all have various needs. This one fills a need for succour, another the need of companionship, that one supports us when we are weary, these ones help when we need to bounce some ideas around.

Young and old, we weave a tapestry together to create a strong unit and as the saying is “it takes a village to raise a child”

So let’s all try to succour each other, observe and seek out whom we may help.

Even the smallest deed from a helping hand can have great reach.

Or knowing of a need in someone yet unable personally to provide it. …by having succoured friendships we know who can provide that strength. That helping hand. That friendship circle….and you know that in life generally we probably already do that without conscious thought.

Also on another tangent, who hasn’t in conversation mentioned like I did some years ago, or observed “Oh how I miss being able to help my ageing mother who lives interstate” yet standing right next to me is a recent older widow. There’s many opportunities right under our own nose….people from other places with no familiar people for them, be a support for them or lead them to the right contacts for them.

So let us be a generous and awesome friend today. Are we up to the challenge?

From Alexa

Photos and content by Alexa

http://www.Alexa-asimplelife.com

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