seeking solitude

I decided to come home a couple of days early on our recent trip away. In this season of my life, two days alone with long stretches of quiet is what I yearn for now and again. 

It doesn't happen often. I cherish it when it does. 

I walked through my daily tasks; simple meals, mostly salads (appreciating the lack of dishes salads produce), washing, stretching, tidying after myself - the pace of my days was deeply nourishing.

The mornings were frosty but by midday the sun was high enough to reach the garden and I was ready to venture outside.
I spent drifts of sweet uninterrupted time in the garden - such rewarding and deeply satisfying work.
Spreading compost and weeding, clearing ground and shifting dirt, all the time happily surprised at the abundance of life in the garden in the midst of winter. This discovery of life led to creating the terrerium a few days later with the girls.
Later in the day I let the chickens out of their run for an hour or two - an experiment I wanted to try considering the barren state of their run at this time of year. They enjoyed the freedom, the foraging and the dry dusty earth under the pittosporums.
I enjoyed their companionship.

In those couple of days I also did some geeking out on mathematics. That's the truth of it - this is how I chose to spend my time. I have been seeking a deeper understanding of the language of maths for a while now and exploring new ways to engage with it. I have written about this before here. I'm enjoying my discoveries and realise it is another one of those topics that is a post in itself.  For now though, let me just point you to the inspiring TED talk below to whet your appetite. Who would have thought crocheting held part of the solution to a deep mathematical mystery - not me nor my grandma that's for sure.

bee rescue.

While the girls found some sun and decided to have a picnic for breakfast, I thought I would whiz through a few household tasks and check on the bees through the viewing window (as seen here).
The southern side of the roof of the hive was still in the shade and wet with the dew from the cool night time temperatures. There were 6 bees on their backs, arms folded, lifeless.
Or so I thought.
Expecting to see a bit of die-off in the hive as Winter approaches, I matter-of-factly picked each one up by the legs and placed them in a shell - the nearest thing to a vessel I could find close by. I have been inspired by my recent discovery of this blog and thought the girls and I could examine the bodies under a magnifying glass and microscope. Two of them had heavy sacs of pollen on their back legs and the long glossa (or tongue) was clearly visible.
It seemed the perfect opportunity to get to know our friends a little better.

But the moment I put their shell down on the sunny deck, their abdomens began to pulsate and their legs began to move - it was clear I had got myself involved in an unintentional bee rescue.

A mad dash into the house for a touch of honey and my camera, a drop of honey in the shell and the recovery was well underway. They drank the honey, spent a lot of time cleaning themselves, then cleaned each other a bit and slowly flew off back to the hive.

Watching the bees was a highlight of my day although a bit of a mixed blessing. By the looks of them the bees probably don't have much life left in them and my rescue may have just prolonged their suffering.

Argh. I hope not.

a few things

We made playdough last weekend.Joy.

Playdough is still something we regularly come back to in our home.

The girls have loved it since they were really wee and I'm sure these memories are half of the attraction still now; it's fun to play with but it also allows them to feel embraced by these warm, loving memories of their younger years.

It's apparently great source of vibrant language development; a friend who was completing her PHD in child verbal language development a while back, used playdough tables as a highly effective strategy to encourage verbal language usage and experimentation.

Let me just make it clear, this is not our reason for loving playdough - no need for encouraging verbal language around this house. Ask Gunter.

With all the cooking of beetroot going on in the past few weeks, we had some spare beetroot water to add as dye and added a few drops of lavendar essential oil just because it's our favourite.

The girls usually make it these days. We make the cooked version because there is nothing better than kneading a fresh batch of warm playdough.

Magic Places Playdough

(I still hold my copy of "Magic Places" dearly. The author, Penni Brownee, continues to do fabulous work for littlies. )

Mix together in a pot:

1 cup four

half a cup of salt

1 cup cold water

1 Tbsp cooking oil

2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp colouring

Stir all ingredients over a med-hot heat until the mixture gathers together in a glob.

Knead Immediately.

Store in an air-tight container.

We have a stash of clay waiting in the wings as well. The girls keep dabbling: they love it, but have got to the point of really wanting to get their work fired. I'm slowing working on it: trying to find someone in the community who has a kiln and also figuring how to build our own little DIY homemade model. Sounds fun don't you think?

Any links or ideas?

We also caught the ferry across the Harbour this weekend.

A favourite while waiting at the wharf is to check out the undersides of the buoys - always a disappointment when they have been cleaned but pure delight when we find a thriving ecosystem to marvel at.

Marvelling: a bit of time and a bit of quiet and such a rich quality of feeling and deep connection.

In the between spaces I also wrote a new local food post over at lyttel-town. No, not pansies, they are just pretty and there to welcome us every time we go outside right now. Rather chickweed - the wonder green that is found everywhere alot of the time.

the bees

We have bees.

This is our first season and we got them fairly late in the season.

We wanted to catch a swarm in the Spring.

When I say that it sounds like we know what we are doing. We don't.

We had read about it and watched a bit of footage. We felt that if we were to keep bees, catching a swarm was the right place to start.

We put notices through our local networks and on local noticeboards.

No calls came except the day before we were leaving on a 3 week holiday in the Summer. We had to say no.

We were about to give up on the idea but then got a call from a friend who was splitting her hive.

She was willing to share her bees.

Bless her.

Gunter built a hive (plans here) for us last Winter.

He's a good man for getting on and building it because a year ago he wasn't at all convinced that keeping bees was a good idea.

It was really showing him this DVD that changed his mind - a step-by-step, how-to DVD on keeping bees in a topbar hive and an introduction to bee guardianship.

He was encouraged by the respectful and gentle approach of the beekeepers.

We liked the concept of natural beekeeping

I too am a total newbie but bees have been on my mind for a few years now. How can they not be? Anyone who works at all with plants have noticed their rapid decline. All I needed was a bit of encouragement and so I organised a weekend workshop at the our community garden.

If you need a taster, make sure to watch this film. If you need convincing watch this film.

Our hive sits right next to the deck in a warm and fairly sheltered spot.

We see them every day.

We still don't know much but we are learning step by step.

Like the first child, the next step unfolds before you and you step into that space.

We watch the hive entrance - it has become our favoured cuppa spot.

It is the place I go when things begin to unravel just on dinner time.

Just for a moment I sit with the bees.

Their gentleness astounds.

I leave calm and quiet.

using what we have

For a while now Willow, the chicken, has preferred to sit somewhere quieter and altogether far more difficult for any human-sized creature to get to.

When we finally found her eggs, there was quite a stash.

So last week we went crazy with quiche.

Usually I collect the shells under the bench and once I have a few, I lightly bake them and crush them into some leftover porridge to feed to the girls (that's the hens not Ruby and Sky).

But this time I googled "eggshell mosaic" and got inspired by this blog post. The next day we rummaged around for any random dye we had in the house and immersed the shells.

We learnt a bit about egg anatomy and the effectiveness of the different dyes but mostly we had fun gluing and sticking and watching an image of sorts appear.

The dye that remained still seemed perfectly.....colourful and so we dyed some wool for a scarf for Charlotte.

The photo below is the wool looking it's best.

The colours ended up running into a single yellowy green: more opportunities for learning about possible unpredictable outcomes when experimenting.

new babies.

Annie, the hen, has been such a dedicated mum.

For 3 weeks we haven't seen her off her eggs although there were a couple of signs that she had indeed arisen.

Late last week we found a wee chick's head poking out from Annie's feathers.

Within 24 hours another 2 chicks hatched.

3 eggs remained.

For the first couple of days we didn't really see our new babies but we left the mum and the babies alone. Annie obviously knew what she was doing and we tend to be a no intervention kind of family when all is looking good.

Thankfully for us they are venturing out more now.
Ruby has hardly left the coop today. Quietly chatting to the babies, waiting with her camera poised and filing and refilling the water.

As is often the case, Sky has mostly processed the magic on paper.

The tangi for the 3 chicks that never hatched will be happening early tomorrow before Gunter heads off for work.

Just a small ritual to mark the cycle of life and death.

discovering pleasure in work.

Who would have believed a girl could love her morning chores so much.

For the girl who has been the style consultant in the family for the last couple of years, she is happy to have a wider range of roles to play. We all are.
In fact she loves any work that takes her outside at the moment.
After the initial set up, working on spreading the drive was her chosen activity this morning.


Happiness and fulfillment in life's small tasks: a worthy lesson for the morning.

hormones and mothering skills

A dozen fertilised eggs arrived by van in the middle of last week.
Six Barnevelder. Six Wellsummer.
We had our neighbour's clucky silky all lined up - or so we thought.
Gunter finished the chicken coop the night they arrived and we headed over the fence to collect the silky once the darkness arrived.
She was very flighty. She didn't seem convinced.
The next morning she flew out of the coop as I put in food and water. I hardly opened it. Honestly.
Of course Gunter was just off to work and was caught up in redirecting the disturbed chook back to her sisters over the fence. It took a while.
So we were back to square 1 : a dozen eggs and no chicken.
We spent the next day tracking down another clucky hen and F and I thought we'd split our chances.
So now we have 6 eggs with a settled hen on them and F has 6.
These chicken dramas led to a lot of facinating discussion around hormones, mating and what it takes to be a good mama (both human and chicken).
We now wait in anticipation, quietly checking on her daily and hoping there are baby chicks keeping warm and growing well in that clutch of eggs outside our door.

Small pleasures

We feel full of small pleasures here at the moment.

Sleeping in the shed with the goats. Sky abandoned the idea once the shadows on the walls and the night noises began but Ruby and D. stuck at it, even with Gigi and Dawa scuffling around their heads all night.
At last a teapot of tea to share with friends, picked up for a song.
It's the shape I love.


Sowing seeds with my girls in their sweet clay pots.

Oh Spring, let me count the ways I love thee.

Gigi and Dawa

Since a phone call midmorning yesterday, we have been fairly busy.
Setting up a warm, safe home.
Finding feed bottles.
And a whole lot of playing, watching and falling in love.

We have two new arrivals in our family, and yes, in our hearts aswell.
Gigi and Dawa.
Toggenburg kids.


The gem in the crown of this story is that we are sharing the love and care of these goats with our lovely friends and neighbours around the corner.
F has the land to graze them and has the knowledge and experience. We have none of that but we do have a perfect shed, enthusiasm, a lifestyle that has room for the extra responsibility and wide, open hearts.
I needed a mentor in animal husbandry and she wanted a helping hand. A perfect match.

For a while now, Gunter and I had been wanting to find a way to nurture ours and the girls' relationship with animals. We wanted the animals we chose to be part of our whole garden/food producing design. We get excited not just by the possibilities of milk, cheese and eggs but also by manure. We are also excited by all the sensory magic and hands-on skills we will learn along the way.
Right now, we are just excited by this new relationship, seeing them throughout the day, taking good care of them and getting to know each of their personalities.

As you can see from the load of books I got on a recent trip to the library, there is a lot of animal talk in general this Spring.
Gunter is half way through building the chicken tractor and we are waiting patiently for one of F's chickens to get broody.

The Top bar Bee Hive is also just about done and then we will take our next step towards keeping some bees.
And there are always other possibilities.
But for now I need to put my jacket on, grab my torch and the prepared milk and do the late night feed for the kids in the shed.