You may have noticed that my blogging is more sporadic these days, not as regular as it once was. It's been interesting, this past year or so, to discover that many changes which were once just ideas invited into my mind to ponder, are now becoming tangible, practiced habits...so living this rather ordinary yet satisfying life, much more than reading about it, or writing about it, is becoming my normal.
In fact, I don't walk around with my camera just an arm's length away any more either. There are moments every single day where I would like to capture a scene, to share it with you - but then I soon move on from that moment to another, and find my body and mind absorbed in a new task.
The burn...
About ten days ago I accidentally poured boiling water over my left hand, a distracted painful mistake which caused a different kind of slower life as my hand needed to rest and heal. Everything I did was carefully considered, my left hand protected, and with each passing day thoughts of 'living' an even slower life by choice (rather than injury) continued to grow in my mind.
I pottered around the garden, watering things, tending to the roses and vegetables, before sitting in my chair under the large Poinciana tree with a book and a cuppa, the birdsongs above me becoming a chorus to serenade my quiet hour.
Meals were simpler, and I was grateful for all those which I'd made up and frozen in the weeks and months earlier. One night my dear husband picked up some Chinese take-out for a change, but overall we have managed on what was already prepared, or things I could make without overusing my injured hand.
Sewing...
Two days after the accident I returned to (gently) hand stitching a project I'd begun the week before. How wonderful that my right hand was not the burned one.
The Wildflowers quilt top (wall quilt) had been patiently waiting to be sandwiched and hand quilted, and finally a few days ago I got to work preparing it.
Normally I use spray baste and a few basting pins, but the can was empty so I used a lot more pins this time.
I'm hand quilting with DMC Perle 12 thread. The centre and outer border are crosshatched, whilst I've just quilted in the ditch around the applique blocks.
Later today I'll be able to complete quilting the outer border, and tonight I may sew down the binding. It's the first day of winter on Thursday and I'd like to hang it in our living room then as this was the main purpose behind choosing such a wintery palette.
Reading...
I've done more reading than usual lately, especially the informative kind. I enjoy learning more about gardening, homemaking, natural remedies, sour dough, baking, sewing techniques, and extra Bible study...but now that my hand is healing nicely (the thumb and ring finger still have a little ways to go) it's time to put in to practice what I've learned, rather than read about or 'watching' others doing it on Youtube.
These are two books I bought recently at KMart, and I have to say they are great for teaching more about the things which matter to me around home- Costa's World (an Aussie gardener who writes about everything connected with home gardens) and The Wellness Cabinet.
The other book is one that Blossom surprised me with from the library, a novel I'd mentioned to her might be a nice historical read - though I rarely read fiction anymore, unless it's listening to an Agatha Christie audio book while I cook or clean in the kitchen. All will be enjoyed during my cuppa time in the garden.
The cold...
The weather here cooled suddenly and we found ourselves wrapped in blankets one morning during our Bible study, our socks and slippers no longer enough to keep warm. Of course this seems funny to my husband because I still swim my laps in our pool at 6am each day, and the water is freezing...then I come inside and say "I'm so cold". ;-)
Anyhow, I brought out our few winter items yesterday and washed them all. I also added a second quilt to the bed, bought a nice soft mattress topper, and cooked a nourishing beef and vegetable stew for dinner. The temperature this morning was 11c (52f) and we're aiming for a high of 25c (77f) today. Might be time to buy some long sleeve tops as my two cardigans are quite thin. I also need closed in shoes as I only have sandals. Crazy stuff when you live in the hot humid tropics and then it gets cold. Ha ha! But I do hope we get a nice cool winter...it's good for the body and soul after an eight month summer.
During those first two days after the accident, I decided to research things which were listed in a "discover more about" notebook. Keeping my mind off the pain and immobilising the two fingers which had taken the brunt of the burn (thank the Lord we have more than twenty aloe vera plants in the garden as it was wonderful for soothing and healing) meant being distracting with things that grabbed my interest.
I've got Emmer flour to use in breadmaking and wondered how it would go as a sour-dough starter, and how well it would bake in a sour dough loaf, as every grain responds differently when used for bread. Anyhow, I came across two very interesting bakers and I learned a lot.
Firstly, there's this wonderful woman in Germany, named Eva, who bakes SO many different types of bread that you will never run out of ideas. She does sour doughs, gluten free, all grains, flour free...honestly, she's marvellous. Her instructions are very easy to follow and are shown simply. There are subtitles in other languages if you don't speak German - thankfully. :-)
This is her way of creating a sour dough starter and I've decided to give it a go as I have those same Weck jars and prefer this method to the ones where you end up with a large jar of starter that always needs to be discarded or used in discard recipes.
As the weather here is cold (we think it's cold, though you may not) my starter may take a bit of time to ferment well before I can use it...
....but that's fine as after a month or so of pondering and praying, I decided to buy a new breadmaker, one that can be used for sour dough, cake baking, and many other things. It should arrive around the time my sourdough starter is ready to be used.
I chose this particular Panasonic breadmaker after first reading about it in Chloe's post on Annabel's blog (here) and then researching many reviews. What's wonderful is that Chloe has patiently tried and tested the best way to bake her sourdough loaves in this particular machine with constant success, and I'm so grateful she shared her method with Annabel's readers because it's like being given the answer without having to work out the problem.
The other bread baker I discovered is Elly from my own state, Queensland, and she was using the Emmer flour I was researching for her loaf of sourdough. Through her I discovered that Emmer grain is actually grown here in our state as well! She also uses the same Mockmill grain mill as I do, but purchased the Emmer already ground. If you don't know about Emmer it is one of the ancient wheat grains which has never been altered. The video below was the one I watched...
So that's what has been happening here, apart from -
Blossom's joyous 29th birthday last Friday and the baking of a dozen cinnamon scrolls because they are her preferred birthday sweet each year; a 750 km round-trip drive to Cairns on Sunday with hubby, where we escaped garden chores for a whole day and reminded ourselves how much we love long road trips with stunning scenery; and hubby's continued excellent healing of the broken bone in his foot.
In closing...
This morning I read Grandma Donna's latest blog post, always they lift my spirits and draw my heart ever closer to the simpler, humbler life. What surprised me was how eloquently she described exactly the thoughts of my own mind these past couple of weeks...
"I knew that I was feeling pressures from electronics but did not realize how consuming electronics have become and how they have slowed down getting things done in my home and robbed me of mental clarity.
I feel that the internet has cause many of us to be addicted and that is what the electronic industry wants us to be. We need to relearn how to be present.
When we do find something of interest on the internet, read it like a book when there is time "after" chores and meals are done.
Stepping away from the computer and phone is like getting off of a drug and then it feels like going back home to a much better time.
Making a batter feels right and purposeful. It is doing instead of learning to do and the best way to learn is by doing."
Let me encourage you to visit her blog and read THIS post yourself...there's wisdom there to ponder.
I'll be back with the next Virtuous Wife block on Thursday for you to download, and will share some thoughts about it then as well. Having extra time to sit and study the Word these past couple of weeks is like topping up the fertiliser on my tomato plants. They're doing wonderfully in the prepared soil, but every so often they need a bit of extra fertiliser so they stay strong and healthy, and stand up against some of the bugs which will want to attack as they bear fruit.
We are like that tomato plant. For those of us who love the Lord, study His Word, pray, choose to walk in His ways and turn from worldly influences - there will come seasons when we must immerse ourselves even deeper in our Bible study, examining our heart/choices/attitudes/actions/relationships, so God can uproot those worldly weeds which hinder our spiritual growth and nourish us with the life-giving watering of the Word instead.
God bless you dear ones,
hugs,
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My new garden commonplace book cover is complete, and after a slightly challenging week I have prepared the pattern for you.
The pattern is for the applique/stitchery design on the cover, not how to make a cover. I have done a few tutorials on making journal covers, but there are also many online.
This cover is very straightforward, with the outside and lining measuring 3/4" longer than the height of the book used, and around 6" longer than the width of the book when measured all the way around from cover edge to cover edge.
Once the stitchery is completed (be sure to position it so that it is centred on the cover) you can lay the outer cover and the lining right sides facing and sew around the outer edges with a 1/4" seam, leaving a 3" opening along one narrow end for turning out. Turn the cover right side out, press, and slip stitch the opening closed. Then wrap the cover around the book, fold the edges inside the cover and slip stitch them along the bottom and top so that the book will be secured inside.
On the pattern sheet I've included the design two ways - right side facing for needleturn applique, and reverse for blanket stitch or wool applique.
Little extras added to a basic applique pattern are really simple and quite lovely. For this pattern, after needleturning the oval edge to the cover fabric, a line of chain stitch was sewn all around...
Inside the flower petals I added a few straight stitches, the centre stitch slightly longer than the stitches either side.
A cluster of French knots were sewn into the centre of the middle flower, and also just above the outer flowers. A simple curved line of backstitch completed the leaves.
I really enjoyed making this! Delving into my old Tilda scraps for the bee background fabric was the springboard for choosing thread colours and applique prints. The teal flower centres and the leaves are from the same piece of fabric (another old Tilda print), as I find it lots of fun to fussy cut very different pieces like this from just the one scrap of fabric.
Applique is a marvellous way to use those fabric scraps we all have!
The rest of the fabrics used were scraps from other projects I have worked on in the past or am working on right now.
I used Gutermann thread for the needleturn applique, and two strands of DMC embroidery cotton for the backstitch. Both of these are my favourites, but use what you already have - I always recommend that you continue to use the crafting and sewing items which already work for you.
If you find something isn't working, that's when you try something new.
I picked flowers and herbs from the garden for this little photo shoot, and once done all I could think of was how much I wanted a nice hot herbal tea.
When I make herbal teas it is always in a French press, one which is purposed for this task alone and has never even seen a coffee bean (though we are growing coffee beans right now!) so I picked some fresh mint and added some of our homegrown and dehydrated ginger to the French press as well.
Once brewed it was an even greater delight to write this blog post and prepare the pattern for you.
Aah, the pattern! If you'd like to make it, just click on the download link below...
Another successful swap has concluded for this year, and I wanted to show you the gorgeous tea towel that Bev made for me. When it arrived in the post I was quite excited, and there was a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing when the package was opened. Look at that cute little bird (you know I love birds!) and those prairie points! One thing made me laugh though, in a very good way. Bev and I had both used white flour sack tea towels in our swap.
In the swap, all participants were to decorate one tea towel for their partner, and include another 'pretty' tea towel bought just as it is. Bev sent me a lovely peach stripe towel, and I'm pretty happy about this because it's not east to find a basic striped towel that you may one day want to embroider on. So I was double happy with her gifts. Thank you dear Bev!
The following day Bev emailed to say my parcel to her had arrived, and she loved the tea towel I made for her just as much as I love the one she made me.
Bev had told me the colour scheme of her kitchen was red and white country style and the curtains had red apples on them. Immediately I thought of my old "Honey Apple" stitchery pattern and went looking for fabric to stitch it on. Well, I always look within my vintage linens first, and this crochet embellished napkin caught my eye, so I stitched the red honey apple to one side.
Most embellished tea towels are for decoration you see, and I thought Bev would agree, so this became the feature on a white flour sack towel.
My 'pretty' extra tea towel was a William Morris linen reproduction. It's gorgeous, and with those pops of red strawberries it will blend in with Bev's kitchen.
I have received a few photos of participants swap tea towels, but would love some more so I can do a show and tell post next week. I've also got some other show and tell pics for you. If you were a part of this swap and would like to email me a photo, please do. I'm sure everyone would love to see what you made and received.
Well, that's it for today. I'm going to do a tidy up, then get ready for an afternoon with Rafaella's class. It's an Under 8's day and the children have been encouraged to bring their parents, family or carers to school for activities within the classroom. Blossom will be going in to Cully May's classroom, and I will go into Rafaella's. I think one of the activities is rock painting which will be a lot of fun.
God bless you, keep you, lift you, provide for you, comfort, heal and sustain you...for there is no greater Father than He, who loves us beyond comprehension, and is always, always, always, seeking to draw us closer to His heart.
hugs
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Every year Blossom and I get together with the children and have our very own pre-Mothers Day morning tea on Friday. We find it far more relaxing than having the men around - mostly because they don't enjoy the feminine table setting, the vintage cups, and our 'girly' chatter. And you know what? They are rather relieved not to be invited.
On the actual Mothers Day (today!) Blossom is free to be spoiled and loved on by her hubby and children, and likewise I am spoiled by her daddy - my precious Mr E.
What Blossom and I have discovered over the years is just how important it is to celebrate special occasions in a way that works for your own family dynamics. There's no comparison to another's way of doing things, or guilt because we didn't do enough...we choose to immerse ourselves in what is calm, beautiful, relaxed, and especially overflowing with love and gratitude for each other. I do hope you are having a wonderful Mothers Day, celebrating in a way that brings all those things in abundance.
I baked one of Blossom's absolute favourite treats for our Friday morning tea - Honey Cakes! I used to bake them in patty cases but switched to Madeleine pans last year and oh my, they look so fancy now...
Some berries scattered around, a bowl of raspberries close by, and a dusting of icing sugar...beautiful on the eyes, and delicious to eat.
The table was set with special tea cups...
A setting for four this year as Rafaella chose to stay in school that day because her class had prepared a special Mother-child afternoon tea, and Blossom would be heading there after leaving my house. She had a wonderful day!
As an extra treat for Cully May and Charlie David I set out play dough on the plastic lined coffee table, and Blossom had a play too. She taught Cully May how to make a face with play dough...
Charlie decided to mix colours, much to Cully May's horror, so she did her best to separate his from hers. Ha ha!! He did play with the colours separately at first, but his mischievous mind thought what fun to mix them all together. You have to love the mind of 2yo...
If you'd like to make those little honey cakes I have a recipe card for you! I have an idea to make up a whole series of them with family favourites, and hopefully I shall follow through on that.
You can download the recipe HERE. There's two recipe cards in the file, one for you and one to give to a friend (or post off in a card?). In fact, print the recipe up on cardstock and perhaps cover with some clear contact.
Included in the file are some quantity replacements as mine are Australian measures, and the US have different measures. If you're in the US or use US measurements in your recipes, be sure to use the replacement quantities in your recipe PDF.
Yesterday I spent five hours in the garden, from 8am to 1pm, fertilising, pruning, spraying, mulching, planting, repotting and watering. I added more flowers around the place, as well as a different type of cucumber and some rhubarb. I also unearthed a very old swan planter pot and sat it next to the Sub-Pod in our newest raised bed (outside the laundry door) with a pretty pink dianthus inside.
I also cleaned up some other garden ornaments and scattered them around to cheer the space while everything begins to grow. The lovely bucket I hung last week from the elder tree with a tiny sweet pea growing inside will be beautiful cascading over the sides of the bucket when it gets going. Do you get creative in your garden?
The lemon and lime trees fruit all year round but I always prune in late autumn. It's also time to fertilise them and replace the mulch, and yesterday I thought to add some flowers near them as well to bring in the bees and good insects - two dahlias, a chrysanthemum and a pot of geraniums.
When I went up the back for a swim after all my hard work I noticed shiny green balls all through the large syzgium hedge...passionfruit! I remembered back when we had the chickens in that spot and grew the old passionfruit vine that one of the fruit dropped to the ground and began to rot so I simply threw it under the syzgium bushes, and now almost two years later there's a very productive passionfruit vine growing all through them. How wonderful to have a volunteer passionfruit!
With so many different growing areas in our quarter acre, and so many different vegetables, fruit trees and plants scattered throughout, I decided to make a garden commonplace book to sketch where everything is, take notes on all the plantings, jot down ideas, and any other garden type information which will be good to look back on for each year's subsequent plantings.
I bought a lovely hardcover journal with blank pages from Officeworks, so during my afternoon 'rest' after all that gardening, I sketched up a little flower pot design to make into a cover for my garden diary.
It's all needleturn and this photo was taken before I sat down and put my feet up to begin. I chose an old piece of Tilda fabric from the Bumblebee set of years ago as the background because it is perfect for a garden book. I may embroidery some tiny bees around the applique flowers before I finish. We shall both find out when it's completed.
If you'd be interested in the pattern as a free gift next week let me know.
I'll leave you today with a lovely quote about female friendships which I came across on Alena's blog, and a photo of my apricot rose which is back in bloom. Happy and blessed Mothers Day!
"The older I get, the more I’m realising that nurturing friendships with women with the same values is incredibly important to me, I wasted too much time diminishing and hiding my own values in order to “fit in”, and I’m glad I no longer have to do that. Growing older, and more importantly wiser is such a blessing. Especially concerning your cultivation of friends." Alena Perritt
Hugs,
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I had intended doing a post last week about the garden progress, but to be truthful, I didn't make the extra time. In fact, over the past twelve months I have been less able to blog because this life is full, and as the days or weeks pass I'm not sure what to share with you for time seems to overflow with happenings in and around home or within the family and wondering which bit to capture and share eludes me. There's always something to plant, tend, bake, sew, read...and there's often a loved one or a good friend to spend time with. You know...these are the important things, the ordinary things, which make up the foundation of a simple life well-lived.
BIRDS
It's usual to write a "catch up" post after an absence, but I think today I'd just like to tell you, and show you, the things which have brought me joy lately...like the birds who visit every day, the birds who have very little fear of me and if I just walk slowly by them, they stay right where they are, doing what they're doing. I have been especially cheered to have a new visitor each day, this handsome Kookaburra - and if you know anything about me, you know they are my favourite bird and feature on our front door and in a painting near our entranceway...
Then there are the regulars, like Cockatoos, who mostly visit in the morning...
...and the family of Myna birds who have made their home (and had their babies) just under our carport roof. They strut around the yard all day long, walking beside me as I tend to the garden, and know when I say "get off" that I am telling them to either get off the new raised bed or off the ceiling fans in our undercover area (they LOVE the ceiling fans!), and they promptly obey. Blossom laughs when she hears me talking to them as I don't have to raise my voice, just use a stern tone. ;-)
And of course, the rainbow lorikeets, who gather with all their clan around 4pm every single afternoon. There can be ten or twenty birds at the feeder all at once, and more on the clothesline or in one of our trees waiting their turn. And my oh my, the noise! Yet, it all brings me joy.
There's also a pair of Catbirds (a variety of bowerbird), Sparrows, Honeyeaters, and a few Ibis which visit through the day. No matter what time I go outdoors, there will be feathered friends to chat with, and they always cause me to thank God for His gracious gift of birdlife in our quarter acre.
SEWING
I am still enjoying a couple of hours sewing each afternoon; sometimes a bit of mending (I have a pile of hems to take up later today), sometimes some machine piecing for the quilts I am working on, sometimes preparing applique for the next block of a quilt, and sometimes quiet hand sewing as I listen to an audio book or watch an old episode of Marple or Poirot.
When each block is completed I hang it over a rail in the sewing room. The blocks hanging at the moment are for two different quilts.
GARDEN
Well, there's so much growing in the garden now that I need to draw myself a map/layout of all four sections across the quarter acre so I can remember it all! It's still only late autumn (our best growing season in the tropics is winter) and nearly everything is still at the seedling or just sprouting stage, but there's so much promise in this and I get incredibly excited when my seedlings begin to take off, or a tray of seeds have sprouted. The flowers are bright joys sprinkled among everything, too.
Here's just a little of what is planted so far. In the front yard - my 50-year old ironing board died recently, but we're so sentimentally attached to it that it's been repurposed as a growing frame for a pot of winged beans. Either side of this are raised beds which have snow peas, cucamelons, beetroot, capsicum, rockmelon, and a variety of flowers for the good bugs to visit and the bees to enjoy. I'm also very attached to our ancient Garden Gnome which has travelled all across Australia with us when we moved here and there whilst the kids were growing up (homeschooling all the way).
Down the side of the carport we have seedlings of lettuce, a fresh growth of ginger, curled parsley, sage, and more flowers.
Just outside the back door area is a very large raised bed which is still being filled...
...and near it is a smaller bed with broccoli, rocket, thyme, rosemary, and flowers. Beside it are pots of spring onions (green onions), calendula, and baby beets just sprouting.
Further along the back of the house is the garden where our bird feeder is. Hubby cleared this and fertilised it after Christmas and then erected two wire screens so that we can grow tomatoes and blackberries across them.
The wire screen below is home to the blackberry bush in the centre, which is flanked by gro-bags of zucchini, rocket seedlings, radish seedlings, coriander (cilantro) seedlings, nasturtium and other flowers. Since I took this photo another gro-bag has been placed between the two wire screens, filled with lovely basil.
The other screen has three varieties of small tomatoes on one side, with marigolds between them. On the other side there's more marigolds and chrysanthemums.
We have plenty of sweet potato growing in three different areas of the garden, as well as French carrots (which must be thinned out today), herbs and flowers.
Right up the back near the pool and behind the shed we have more sweet potatoes, sweetcorn (almost ready to harvest), lettuce, cucumbers, native culinary plants, and two varieties of blueberry.
I've scattered flowers all over the place and even have some pots hanging in trees which have been planted with sweet pea seeds. If there's one thing we know, it's how integral bees and friendly insects are to keeping the garden healthy, as well as keeping the pests to a minimum.
Flowers are so lovely and I'm very excited to see my roses blooming again (recently pruned) along with the asters, dahlias, and geraniums...plus the cosmos, marigolds, zinnias, angelonias and sweet peas!!
Thrilled that the Dendrobium which Rosie gifted me is flowering for the second year! Oh, it's beautiful.
FAMILY
A new photo of Blossom's precious trio to share with you...
Thank you for all those wonderful prayers for my husband's ankle. Turns out when he fell the tendon stretched so hard that it broke off a piece of bone from his foot, not the ankle. He did not need a cast or the moonboot after all, but continues to have it strapped whilst attending physio. Another three weeks of light duties at work and all going well he should be almost back to normal again. Bless your kind messages and prayers. xx
AUTUMN
Autumn finally arrived in the tropics yesterday morning! It was a cool and inviting 16C (60F) when we awoke and for a couple of hours I got to wear my pretty purple slippers. It was cool again this morning, but apparently our overnight temperature will return to 20C (68F) tonight, and daytime temps a comfortable 29C (84F).
GIFT
I have had a number of ladies email recently, asking where they can buy my old "Eye on the Sparrow" pattern. It was never for sale, always a freebie, but when Craftsy closed all their makers shops (mine included) it disappeared. You can't list free patterns on Etsy, but I did share it once when I had it on Google. Then Google updated our drives and many old files were removed from public view, so once again you've not been able to find it.
I emailed the pattern to those ladies who asked about it, but as that's time consuming, I'm sharing it with all of you again today.
Use the link below to download this FREE pattern -
I often find myself singing this song as I walk the garden or hang the washing, with all my feathered friends around. I marvel at God's hand upon my little life, especially at His kindness in the small things which you'd imagine unimportant in the big scheme of life. Yet, He is God, and there is nothing too small about our lives for Him to care about...it's all important, because we are His children, and we love Him.
God bless you dear ones!!
Till next time...
hugs
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Subscribe to my blog posts HERE and receive them direct to your email inbox.
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