'Belle'

Here is a little peek at how sweet baby Belle is progressing. She is a gorgeous girl with a lovely nature and we all delight in her company. She is growing apace and is active and alert, sleeps all day and plays all night.

Being a social creature she wants others to share in her nocturnal activity.

Dear daughter experienced her own days of late nights and early mornings but they were just a passing teenage phase, and I guess a dim memory now, but she is adjusting well and is a marvellous mother - it's just little Belle's colic really isn't much fun.

"Collection"

Now I’m not really a collector, an accumulator yes, but a collector?
I pondered this latest challenge for the “Cabinet of Natural Curiosities” wondering if I had a collection of anything. Stamps maybe? Coins? No, I didn’t have a traditional collection but it occurred to me that I have been gathering together my favourite childhood books. Some are my copies I have kept down through the years, others I have bought to replace those I had originally borrowed or those precious ones that been lost in time. My Collection!


Since collections are kept in an orderly manner, my page needed to reflect this. I thought of my favourite books – Peg’s Fairy Book, Milly-Molly-Mandy, The Boy Next Door and Jack and Jill magazines – and chose illustrations and signatures from some of these. Except for Walter Hottle Bottle, the copies on my page are from my own childhood books, including my artistic colouring in of “the Nice White Cottage with the Thatched Roof …”


During this process a special memory returned.
As a child I lived in the country where the nearest town was 16 miles away along a dirt road. Only a few hundred people lived there and it didn’t have a library but fortunately the school had a small room (a large cupboard really when I think of it) which was ‘The School Library’. As an avid reader, I loved this place and spent every spare minute there, when I wasn’t playing hop-scotch or jacks.

Often I would holiday with my grandmother who lived in Sydney and knowing my love of books, she always let me delve into her huge old trunk which was full of her own, and her five children’s favourites. (I have since searched for some of these titles – to no avail). Best of all though, when it was my birthday Nanna would ask me if I would like a book and if so, which one?

In the centre of Sydney was an old, old bookshop which in my child’s mind stocked every book ever printed. It was a magical place. So Nanna would ask, I would reply, she would catch the bus, then the ferry into the city centre and purchase my gift and over the years every title I had dreamed of arrived in the mail.

I had to incorporate this precious memory as part of my page, so have it as my cabinet piece. I copied her inscription from “Anne of Ingleside” by L.M. Montgomery, labelled it 'memories', and happily include it with a full and thankful heart.
How wonderful life is.

Busy, busy

Now that term 1 is underway I sometimes feel I am being swept along by the timetable tide. Instead of having complete days available to fill, or not fill, as the fancy takes me, I am committed at particular times most days of the week. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing as often I am much more productive if a ‘framework’ is already in place and I slot in other activities, but the downside is I can become so busy I am not fully aware of life as it rushes by. This is what concerns me most. I thoroughly enjoy my life and I don’t want it to pass by without my complete attention. I want to be fully aware of the moment.

This week has been full of family and friends and I have loved every minute. Overnight stays, shared meals, quick visits. I want all these wonderful activities to pass at a slower pace – but maybe instead of a change of pace, I need a change of attitude … one of thankfulness!

Rather than being full of dismay that it all passes so quickly, I need to look at it all with a heart of gratitude, appreciative of every precious moment – no matter how fleeting!

Thou has given me so much...
Give me one thing more, a grateful heart.
George Herbert

"Inspiration"

I find inspiration strikes unexpectedly. I can be involved in reading a passage, looking at fabric, visiting a friend ... and suddenly I am inspired! It is almost like being "surprised by joy" (C.S. Lewis), then I become focused and passionate about pursuing this sudden inspiration.

When preparing my 'inspiration' page I kept imagining being in a hedge maze and coming across unexpected inspiration 'en route'. I included some of the things that inspire me along the path but being in a maze means that I really don't know what I will find, when it will happen or where the inspiration will take me. As my attention can be solely directed on my inspired project and I admit before having a family I could forgo all other activity, including eating, for hours on end. I put 'passion' as my cabinet piece with a picture of pins in a pincushion as I love stitching.

I found this page to be a fun challenge, and each of these prompts has made me think. I am also appreciating the creativity involved and how my book is coming together. A couple of friends (in Melbourne) have said they would love to see the actual book and that is exactly how I feel when I view the other participants pages. Wouldn't it be great if we could all get together one evening for "show and tell"!

An abundance of yoghurt

Life is returning to some sort of routine after the excitement of the last week or so. Dear daughter and her prince are adjusting to life with a little one who loves to sleep all day and party all night!

Term 1 is underway so that always keeps us in a routine. Teaching is very rewarding, and my darling and I both enjoy our 'work'. Being part-time, I try to keep a balance in life, not only for me but for our family.

The weather is stunning at the moment - mild and sunny, and we have some frangipani blossoms in the garden (as you can see above). We planted a cutting in September and so, far so good. The winter months will be the testing time though.

Something else I have been doing of late is making yoghurt. Our household consumes copious quantities of this health food - with fruit and muesli at breakfast, with desserts at night and for snacks during the day. I use it in baking instead of milk, we eat it to settle a tummy and add it to fruit smoothies. We were eating a bio-dynamic variety but recently our doctor told my darling he had to have 'unhomogenised' yoghurt (don't ask me why, obviously it is better for you for some reason). Now yoghurt of this type is very hard to come by and I actually haven't noticed it for sale so I decided to make my own.

After investigating commercial yoghurt makers and keeping in mind 'celebrating a year of abundance', I had a brainwave - why not try our crock pot (slow cooker) and use my abundance of fruit bottling jars? The photo above shows some early attempts which were a little like 'curds and whey', but still delicious, I have refined the process now to produce a delicate, natural, yummy, set yoghurt which we far prefer to commercial varieties. Here's how:

Heat 2 litres of unhomogenised, organic or bio-dynamic whole milk until bubbles start to appear. Turn off heat and leave for 45 minutes.
Mix in 5 tablespoons of natural yoghurt and pour into jars. Seal.
Place in crockpot which is about half full of lukewarm water. Put lid on.
Turn onto LOW and leave until it reaches about 40 degrees (feels warm/hot and takes about 45 minutes).
Turn off and cover the crockpot with a folded towel to keep the heat in.
The yoghurt takes about 5 hours in total in the crockpot - remove and refrigerate.

Easy and delicious!

"Wonder"

This past week's challenge was to 'scrapjack' or copy someone else's style. I chose a design that was quite mono-chromatic blue/grey with a contrast of red, colours I tend not to use. As it turned out my finished design is only vaguely similar to it but the idea was to 'make it my own'.

The theme was "wonder" and as it has been a week full of wonder ... the wonder and absolute miracle of birth, I had to incorporate something of this into my page so put in the cabinet piece, labelled "life", at the top left.

Day-to-day, the starry heavens always fill me with a sense of wonder and I can imagine previous generations also standing in awe at such a spectacle. Down through the centuries, the night sky is one of unchanged vistas that I'm sure has filled all those who gaze at it with wonder.

I placed a photo of myself as a child on the page to show that a sense of wonder can last a lifetime and chose the quote with not only myself, but the new babe in mind so changed the gender, it says:

"If a child is to keep alive her inborn sense of wonder, she needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with her the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in".

Once again, I enjoyed this prompt. It was pushing me out of the familiar, but isn't it interesting that even when you are to imitate someone else's style, your own always seems to step in? As it was getting dark, I had to use a flash so there is a bit of reflection on the page, but you can get an idea of how it looks. I knew I wouldn't get it finished in time (sorry) so was pleased to find the challenges are now once a week - more time for cuddles!

Thanks for all your lovely comments and notes of congratulations. It is such a special time.

A quick note

Over the last two days I have been a little 'distracted' by the special company of a sweet baby girl - she and her Mum and Dad are doing well.

I haven't forgotten my Cabinet, and I know what I want to do, it is just, well, doing it when I'd rather be gazing at this delightful child!

After 6 or 7 weeks of holiday this is my first week back to work so I'm a little out of routine (to say the least) but the weekend is coming up and maybe I'll catch up then ...

Regarding Celebrating a Year of Abundance ... Our cup runneth over with love, joy, thankfulness and gratitude!