fabric + eucalyptus leaves

more hocus pocus going on in my kitchen. the next brew will have to be outside i think. i have not much idea about what im doing, but i was excited today when in my big aluminium pot, bright green colours appeared....and then later those cooked gum leaves started dripping red dye everywhere. so exciting! i have absolutely no patience and have already unwrapped two bundles. there was no amazing pattern- which is giving me more patience for the next bundles. there was dyed cloth though. i giggled at myself yesterday as i rummaged around in muzz's shed looking for rusty bits. there is a whole world of rust on our farm waiting to be wrapped up in fabric and boiled.

flower power

red gum flowers

red gum petals on eucalyptus dyed fabric. nasturtium print.

violas ? and wattle

flowers and leaves found in my garden.

im listening to Seeker Lover Keeper ...you should go listen too.....beautiful girls and my favourite, Sarah Blasko's lovely voice. Her music holds lots of memories in my heart. . over at Triple J...you can listen to the the album now, ..to be released soon.

i found my camera card. it was jammed into a DS ? how i found it i do not know. and i found my ipod too, under a pile of books. happy me.

today

i have to write this so i remember it one day in the future. sindri makes me smile , like this did, most days. i boiled a pot full of eucalyptus leaves and then dunked some pieces of fabric in it, hoping for some magic. the kids didnt like the smell so much, i wondered at times whether i was poisoning us all, ....then tonight sindri comes to see whats happening in the pot as i stirred and poked it. i picked up a brownish piece of fabric from the eucalyptus soup with some tongs. sindri says..."do you like that colour? it looks like coke a cola. thats a shame after all your hard work. you dont even like coke a cola. " maybe overnight some more magic will happen and in the morning i will find a more interesting colour in my pot than coke a cola.

ive spent the day trying to find my camera memory card and i still cant find it and its a pain. so i resorted to taking photos with my ipod. but i cant find it either.- amelie usually hijacks it. but its missing too. and so i cant show you the fun ive been having with a hammer, flowers and fabric. so much fun. sindri said " its good you found a new hobby" . you know when kids have a fever or are really sick,.. when they get better they seem like they have changed in some way? well thats what we have noticed. well something has shifted in sindri. he seems to be shining through a little clearer/brighter. maybe the fever unblocked something in him? maybe im overanalysing or have a big imagination that im not using enough.. no but really...i think its true.
anyway. see you tomorrow, hopefully with some photos.
x

t e n.

today our middle loveheart Sindri is TEN! unfortunately he's still sick...or sick again... and is in bed building lego. i wish i could make him well again. i wish he didnt get sick on his birthdays...often. we are saving the birthday celebrating for another day. his skate ramp, a big fire, yummy food, his best friend, and everyone who loves him will all wait until he's better again.

when he spoke on the phone to his pa today, he told him he got star wars lego and mini skateboards and his happy family for his birthday. gosh i couldnt love him more.

nearly ten and home again

in two more sleeps Sindri will be ten years old. double digits. a light saber and a perfect circle. thats his cake. maybe a big donut and a light saber for my star wars / lego loving boy. its a very strange thing that last friday he woke up so very sick and ended up in hospital that night. we then spent the weekend in there. listening to machines beeping. nurses scuffling in and out and around the place. and watching fluids drip into Sindri hoping he was going to get well quickly so he could get out of that place quickly. he said the drip machine sounded like his cat coco purring...thats how he managed to sleep with it beside him the whole time i think.

i had a lot of time to think. whilst watching my boy sleep :: i really admire nurses. i love night time and being awake at night. i think i would like a night shift job. i actually like hospitals for some reason i havent gotten to yet... because really, that doesnt make sense. i was a little frustrated that i couldnt feed him some proper food, although that frustration continued at home when he kept squinching up his nose at my attempts at a half healthy soup. brat. i had to strain it and he drank the liquid. i like to believe that soup holds the essence of what was cooking in there.

and so now we are home. its truely autumn, almost winter. my house smells so eucalyptussy its delicious. Sindri has kindly passed the bug onto Amelie. Hes feeling much better and Amelie is feeling a little worse but shes fighting it. Ive woken with a blocked nose, and Veda...shes the biggest and strongest of us all. Alot like her Dad...in so many different ways.

I have no idea where the card is out of my camera. It was on the couch before i went to hospital....and now its gone. A kitten may have eaten it. who knows. speaking of the furry creatures. I really need to get at least two of them out of my house this week. they are insane. and insanity is contagious.

today im going to try to empty sindris room and do the makeover i often do when its their birthdays. he and amelie can lay like broccoli on the couch...or maybe i will lay with them.

.............

jammin...

me in my new ugg boots that are luxurious compared to my old ones... and my hiding honeybunch boy at the market

raspberry jam mmmmm

beautiful coloured quince jelly

im not sure what has happened to me, but i find myself cooking all sorts of things i have never cooked or made. and not only that, but i get really excited about it. it started with quince jelly , then i managed to find a cup and a half of raspberries on the bushes that we hadnt eaten, so i googled a jam recipe...and about ten minutes later i had the most delicious jar of raspberry jam. i was so excited i rang my mum. then on the weekend i went and picked three lemons and made a lemon tart. it wasnt the most perfect lemon tart ive ever tasted....but still yum. and then i had frozen strawberries from summer in the freezer so i made some strawberry icecream! i dont get excited about cooking dinner because my three kids all have different tastes and two are fussssy...and by dinner time i cant be bothered.....

so this kind of cooking is fun cooking....and picking food out of the garden and then making something delicious, oh its a cool thing.

mothers day was a beautiful autumn day spent at the local farmers market with my sisters and mum and kids and my farmer boy. that was nice. i have a new appreciation for the jam makers there and i have a little dream in my head about doubling my raspberry crop next summer and making lots of jam and having a cute little stall. that would be fun. i have lots of dreams though.

today i planted lots of garlic and the kids stayed home from school so that we could have a long weekend because two days just isnt long enough.

i have piles of fabric ready to make a quilt for my bed and we have lots of trees ready to plant on the farm and im getting excited about the fruit trees we will plant when its time. today i considered buying a pine nut tree so i can make pesto all summer with my basil. oh yum. and pine nuts are so craazy expensive.

i wish i was rich enough to solar power our whole farm right now. but thats something thats going to have to wait. call me crazy but im thinking we need a big greenhouse so that nasty things like pesticides from surrounding farms and who knows...one day it could be radiation, falling on on our vegies. ive been reading a whole lot of scary stuff....

..and now i must go attempt to feed the kids some delicious lentils. what is their problem, or more to the point, what have i created.

.and then i will try to relax in front of the warm fire whilst 5 kittens prance around the place like its their palace. they are very entertaining but are getting bigger and more at home each day. i really didnt want 5 more cats!