the Wise Robin

felting for math

 

 

 

There's nothing like making learning a creative process I say.

So in the name of learning, creating and having fun, Zahra and I got busy last weekend and made some felt. While I still roll with the tried and tested sushi mat, fly screen and bubble wrap method (with a little help from my sweet gal so I can snap away) Zahra prefers the grab a handful of roving, stack of soap and some bathroom sink time method for felting her fibres. Either either works and I'm quite Mama proud of her for devising her own determined way of handling a creative process. There are already plans in the pipeline for a Spring Fair stall containing her little felt creations. Quite the entrepreneur this one.

The results were left to dry in the last of February's heat, while I was left sorting out the colour balance on this new camera. Check out that blue.

Once dry and an evening of stitching and gluing later Plus, Minus, Multiply and Divide joined us.

We used Merino roving from here. I discovered this treasure of a place eighteen months ago when I did a beginners spinner's course. They have a beautiful array of fibres for sale and an amazing store where you can purchase handmades from Guild members. It is also where I fell in love with Sickinger spinning wheels. Ahhh, true love. I have fleeces waiting in the garage for the day when I find my very own wheel. But I digress, all this talk of wool and wheels is making my head a little dreamy. The wooden gnome bases came from here, another favourite for crafting supplies.

Zahra is chuffed with her gnomes. She has decided that Divide is her favourite because he shares out all his jewels equally... and maybe just a little because he is her favourite colour. One thing I've realised about this one is she's eager to learn when there's a little bit of making and good story to be told. And this Mama is more than happy to oblige.

~

Happy Crafting

warmly

Cxo

 

 

vanilla and rain clouds

 

There's nothing more perfect than a rainy Sunday

Vanilla cake in the oven, grinning dog by my side, climbing the misty, rain shrouded hill behind our place

Threading my way up,the town falling away, replaced by a quieter mind with each step

Weebills and Thornbills chattering to each other through the rhythm of raindrops hitting the leaves

An earthy sweetness that only rain can bring

Tiny streams picking their way down the track

Ants moving to and fro

Branches laden with dripping jewels 

Glaucous, heart shaped buds of Red Box sprouting by the wayside

A red capped robin, accompanied by his lady friends

We stood watching each other for some time

Returning soggy and smiling

Treasures for the table

The fresh scent of the bush

~

Happy Sunday to you

Cxo

 

 

 

 

light and colour

Things have been a little slow in this space over the past few weeks. Along with the day to day of study, leaping into homeschooling and the studio, my trusty and much loved D80 decided to take an early retirement. After going a little stir crazy without a camera in my hands I began hatching plans of bringing one of my film cameras out of retirement and returning to film. I become a bit nostalgic when I think of film, darkrooms, test strips, metal bodies without expansive menus and the need to 'plug in'. Simple and beautiful with the added element of delayed gratification.When I get down to the nitty gritty of what I love about creating images I realise that I'm old school through and through. And then the nostalgia faded just a little when I was incredibly blessed to be gifted a D90. The generosity of people never ceases to humble and amaze me. So here I am again dear friends. It feels good to be back.

 

My camera and I have slowly been getting acquainted.Capturing the light and colour of the past few days I couldn't help but notice the softening of the sun and the turning of leaves. It fills me with comfort to feel the Earth turning. Turning toward Autumn, my favourite time of year with its earthy hues and that sense of drawing inward. A time of reflection, renewal and cosying up together. My mind is already swelling with knitting projects, soup recipes and flanelette sheets. But for now I must try and contain my excitement and enjoy the last of Summer's long evenings, bare feet and cricket chorus.

Happy last days of Summer

warmly

Cxo

 

harvest

 

 

This week saw the last of our sunflowers harvested for the season.

It was truly lovely watching their beauty transform from that of golden, smiling faces to whirls of tightly packed, stripey, diamonds.

There have been many quiet moments of marvelling at the perfection and beauty in natures patterns. They blow me away most days.

 

While some of the earliest ripe seeds were harvested by locals ( who, along with the coddling moth enjoyed our apples...there's always nets and next year, no?), I managed to bag up the Mammoth Russian flower heads, once they were pollinated, with some homemade fly wire exclusion bags ( much like these from Green Harvest). Once ripe we simply gloved up (they're a little spiky) and spent an afternoon harvesting the seeds.

Beautiful stripey pillows.

They take me back to when I was little and we were allowed sweets on Saturdays. I  always chose the Darrell Lea Bo Peep candies for the little bottle filled with stripey, miniature rainbow sweets.

We also planted another smaller variety with clusters of flowers and jet black seeds. These simply nodded their heads and drowsily, drooped toward the ground within reach of our foraging girls.

With a few chook yoga moves they simply helped themselves.

Looking at the stalks left in the garden I am wondering if I might try some sunflower fibre paper.

Happy Harvest

~

Cxo

 

 

 

from the pantry

 

Ok, I thought it was about that time. I've been promising a few people our wheat and dairy free chocolate cake/muffin recipe for a while now. We've been wheat and dairy free for almost four months...ahem, if you don't count that little lapse over Christmas, and while in the beginning it was a challenge to find meals and snacks that we could all enjoy it has turned out rather simple. My biggest challenge was finding baking recipes of the sweet variety of course, that didn't involve buying a multitude of things not already in my pantry. I do love being able to cook from the pantry, a visit to the store is enough to put me off from the tastiest treat any day, and I do looove baking. I bake when I feel out of sorts, I bake when I'm procrastinating, I bake when my old sweet tooth asks me very nicely and I bake just because it feels good. It's kind of like darkroom photography for me, the surprise and anticipation of watching a print come to life or in this case watching through the oven door. It is always different. You never just quite know what you will get. Then voila!

FROM THE PANTRY WHEAT/DAIRY FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

120g of your choice of flour (or 200g if not using almond meal)

(We use this but we have also used barley flour (not gluten free) and rice flour)

80 g almond meal

160g sugar or equivalent sweetener such as maple syrup, honey or rice syrup

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

200g of a butter alternative

 (Right now we've been using Nuttlelex, but coconut oil does beautifully too)

40g of the best cocoa you can get your hands on

(We've been using an organic Dutch cocoa from our local wholefoods store)

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract/paste

100ml of a dairy free milk of your choice

(We use oat milk or almond milk)

50ml of sunflower oil

Cake tin or muffin pans

 

THE DOING

Preheat oven 180^oC

Grease cake tine or muffin pans

Mix flour, almond meal, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a large bowl

Add the butter replacement and mix in. You can use your muscles or use an electric mixer for this

Add the eggs, vanilla, cocoa, milk and oil

Beat until nice and smooth

Pour into the cake tin/muffin pan ( don't forget to lick the bowl) and bake... 30 minutes for the cake and 12-15 minutes for the muffins, or until done.

Test with a skewer. We like to take ours out when it is still a tiny bit mushy in the very centre. As it cools it cooks a little more and leaves a beautiful chocolate brownie like consistency.

Cool in the tin then turn onto a cooling rack

Yummy on its own or even more delicious with raspberries and a cuppa.

~

warmly Cxo

 

 

thoughts

My tummy has been filling and multiplying with butterflies of stress over the last few days and today they came tumbling out as tears. Tears put everything into perspective and make it easy to let the small things fly away with those butterflies.

Feeling that life is so incredibly short and just wanting to slow down the days.

I have a new pair of walking sandals. They are pink but perfect.

Zahra has renamed all of our chooks...Lilac, Superb Fairy Wren, Pigeon, Dove, Chitter Chatter and Lovey-kins.

I went out last night with some beautiful women, for dinner and drinks, without my little, for the first time since I can't remember.

We snuggled up in bed for lunch and ate leftover Thai green curry.

Watching Zahra discover the movie function on her camera.

Seeing the leaves on our apple tree beginning to turn

Feeling excited about the new season on its way...my favourite time of year...and the woollens, rain, colours, light and cosying up this brings

Watching storm clouds pass over with the hint of a violet sunset

Thinking about unravelling that bamboo, silk hat I cast on for last week to make something small for a friend's early babe

About to embark on a very busy week of driving, study and exams. Wondering if I actually want to finish this thing.

Attempted to offer over the phone IT advice to my Mum. Hmmm.

Feeling blessed to receive a beautiful artwork by the generous and talented Leslie Labram

Saddened with the goodbyes of my studio neighbour, but over the moon that she is on her way to something new and exciting. It won't be the same without you Rosie Pip.

Marvelling at the lingering intensity of last week's market flowers. Market day again tomorrow.

Filled with gratitude for the helping hands of beautiful friends this week

Feeling incredibly loved and nurtured by my peeps.

 ~

warmly C xo

 

 

 

 

goodbyes

 

There was a touch of sadness about the weekend just gone as we fare-welled three of our 'chicks'. Out of the seven eggs that arrived on our doorstep last Spring we decided to keep four. At just over three months old our one and only cockerel (fingers crossed) had begun to crow. A young and gentle, unbroken  kind of a crow, but a crow nonetheless... that was heard progressively earlier each morning. And so with last cuddles cuddled, young Jo Jo and two hens were plucked from the apple tree in the dead of night by a tree climbing, tag team of three. It's as if they knew something was in the pipeline and had roosted a good few feet higher than usual. With mozzies feasting on our legs we settled them down for their last night in the neglected chook tractor until morning.

 

 

Then, with chooks cosy in a box, we headed out of town to the place where they originally came from.

 

 

While they've been earmarked for the dinner table, right now they're finding their place in the pecking order and settling into their new chook dome home alongside the goats, dogs and appleyards.

There were extra cuddles for Matilda, Anouk, Stripey and the one un-named one ( we're watching those tail feathers) when we returned home.

 

~

Wishing you a Happy Midweek

Cxo

 

Summer heat

 

It's this time of year, every year, holed up inside, living in a cave, curtains drawn and windows shut to drive away the heat, that I seriously daydream about living somewhere else. Perusing Northern Hemisphere blog land with images of freshly fallen, crisp, cool snow just adds fuel to my daydream fire. To snap me back to the here and now I look for the good things, however small, to remind myself of what it is that I do like about the rising temperatures of Summer...

the cool of the river on our toes 

 watching Kaya snorkel for rocks

gardening in the early morning

eating al fresco

any breeze, any air movement that brushes against sweaty skin and lifts see through curtains

summer ripening

the ruffled whites, pinks and purples of crepe myrtle blossoms

rising with the sun...some mornings, and the calming solitude this brings

iridescent Christmas beetles

crispy, dry washing in less than an hour

thunderstorms that break the stretch of hot, dry days

the first hint of chill in the air and the promise of a new season

~

What do you love about your seasonal here and now?