Vegetable Time

Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. ~Marcelene Cox

We enjoyed some sunshine on the weekend by being in the garden.

I would love to have planted green beans this season but feel that the space I have in the sunshine with good soil is too limited. Perhaps I'll give it a go in future years. This year we have...

...tomatoes!!

It is tomato planting time. I have found a tumbling variety which needs no staking and produces lovely little cherry tomatoes. This will meet our needs of limited space as I hang these in baskets and hope they trail over the edge for us to pick and enjoy in a few months time.

A few more lettuces have gone in to meet our needs for greens over the coming weeks before it gets too hot to keep them any longer. I pick leaves from these lettuces each lunch time and they have contined to grow steadily during winter.

Ess and I also planted a few organic radish seeds around the place in whatever holes we could find. Oh how we long for that vege garden. Growing in pots is getting frustrating and I am running out of pots!!! :)

Baby Cloth Book

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends;

they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors,

and the most patient of teachers.

~Charles W. Eliot

I recently found How to Make Books: Fold, Cut & Stitch Your Way to a One-Of-A-Kind Book. A fabulous book which has inspired me along many lines. I have always loved book-making and have really enjoyed everything I have produced for Ess since she was born.

Now it is Eee's turn. So inspired by this Stab-Stitched Cloth Book in How to Make Books, I have made her a cloth book to flip and finger and flick through to her heart's content.

I think I like mine more than my inspiration. Isn't that what personal satisfaction in creativity is all about? Have a flip through yourself here.

One is never too young to enjoy reading a book. This cloth book allows independence for my baby in book reading.

I hope this will be a companion for my little lady as she grows, teaching her the joy of reading. The joy of language as we speak about the pictures with her. The joy of reading as she learns to understand that stories are associated with books.

The joy of creation of something which is your own design made with love for another to grow with. The joy of reading together as we snuggle and form bonds as a mother and daughter, also as a larger family as we read together making those ever so important emotional connections.

These little owls have found yet another use in this little book.

These little flowers and butterflies have also featured before on Ess's library bag seen in the abovementioned post.

My darling little Eee absolutely loves it. She sits with it, flicking through, pressing the flower centre buttons and making her "reading book" vocalisations which are so adorable. Kind of like "brrrrrbrrrbrrrbrrrrrrrbrrr" with her lips moving from side to side. Almost like a very light "raspberry" but so very hard to explain in words.

This is my final page. My dedication to my little baby and all my love from her Mummy.

The Commitment to Walk

We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down

~ Robert Sweetgall

Our walking path from home.

A couple of years ago now I make the decision to commit to walking as much as possible. This involved walking my daughter to Playgroup once a week, walking to the hairdresser, the doctor, the Post Office and later to Pre-Entry Kindy. These were occasional walks which we all enjoyed and were somewhat dependent on the weather and my ability to walk in later stages of my second pregnancy.

This year however our walking has taken on new meaning as I walk Ess to Kindy for her four mornings each week. Twice per morning I walk the paths with my baby in her stroller enjoying the outdoors. I have found that I have become somewhat of a local icon. A can't count the number of people who have spoken to me at Kindy and commented on something about my walk: "Wow you must be fit!", "I couldn't do it, I'm too lazy. I work an afternoon shift, mornings are terrible for me." Some look longingly at me and say, "I wish I lived close enough to be able to walk." Some admire my tenacity to walk rain, hail or shine. Honestly, I didn't know how I would go through winter as I am truly a cold frog but I find that we got used to it as the seasons changed. We rugged up in coats, gloves and scarves, put a cover on the stroller and we were set. We have walked every day - that shows how much rain we still need here in South Australia. A few showers were not enough to stop our morning walks - although I remember one day running the last few metres before a downpour set in.

Now it is Spring and I am still walking. I am joined however by others who have looked at me and watched me walk rain, hail or shine, deciding to join me now in the sunshine and warmer weather. I am heartened that my decision and commitment to walk, to live simply, to exercise, to avoid fuel consumption and fumes has inspired others.

Today another Kindy Mum said to me while we walked by each other, "I look at you walking and I think "I can do that!"" That's right, she can and she did. I encouraged her to continue walking - the first week is hard, you become tired - tireder than you usually are with a house of little ones. However in a little while, as my Generous Gentleman said to me "You get used to it!" You realise the benefits of it and you don't want to go back.

The benefits to me are numerous:

• It gives me exercise.
• It gives me the opportunity to talk with Ess face to face as we walk together rather than talking in the car for the 3 min drive.
• It gives me space after a busy morning of rushing around preparing to leave.
• We notice the seasons change as our path is very well planted with deciduous trees.
• It teaches Ess that exercise is important and we need to commit to it rather than only do it when we feel like it. Even when she feels pooped, she walks home from Kindy.
• It enables me to pack the stroller whenever I like and only once to get ready to leave, even in preparation on the night before. I then walk straight out our front door and straight into Kindy without having to get both girls (and their gear) in and out of the car.
• It allows me to avoid the congestion of cars scrambling for car parks and dropping children off at school. Do you know, it takes me the same time from door to door whether I walk or drive due to this congestion!

A final benefit and delight to me is that I have inspired others. Who'd have thought that my choice to simply walk would change a little of this world, even if only in my small school community. I'm delighted!

Blooming Bulbs!

And Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

On the last day of Winter a beautiful bud appeared.

On the day before Spring we looked, waited and wondered in anticipation.

The bud was perfect, still formed, petals curled around each other, ready to burst.

Then...

At 9:15am on the first day of Spring the blossom emerged.



Later...

At 1:45pm on the first day of Spring, we saw the most beautiful blossom we have ever imagined.

Beauty in all its perfection. Beautiful because it is ours. Beautiful because it is a result of our planting and nurturing. Yet when spring arrives, it is more like the gardener is an instrument rather than the composer. God shows his nature in his nature.

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.

~ Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

Spring has sprung with the arrival of our first freesia! Isn’t it beautiful!

We have waited and waited in anticipation for this beautiful bloom, made all the more beautiful by the fact it is our first blooming bulb and also because it is the first day of Spring!

We put our Bulbs In! in mid-May. We then saw them start to bud in early August. Now we are delighted to see our first blossom on the first day of Spring. Isn't it amazing how the garden knows it is spring. Sometimes before the rest of us do - but we were waiting!

It is still absolutely freezing however. The wind is blowing with a very cold chill factor and I have dressed more warmly today than I did last week when we experienced many days with a hint of spring. It was lovely to be able to dry our washing on the line last week rather than the clothes airer. Today I am back to drying inside. Thank goodness my Generous Gentleman is still away because I don’t think we’d have room for him at the moment in our Chinese Laundry!

Spring fills me with expectations of newness. New blossoms, new colours, new life. A reminder of the new life we welcomed into our family around this time last year - our baby! Also for us this Spring will bring home our beloved after we sadly farewell Granny. There is much anticipation in the air at the moment. It goes with the season.